Rough Weekend

Our Uncle Frank and Denise came down Friday the morning he was moved from OSU. Jon had a good visit with them. Our cousin Dean came down Wednesday and visited with Jon for over 4 hours. Jon seemed to be in good spirits then. As the week went on he started to be more withdrawn. This weekend he kept his eyes closed most of the weekend. When asked if he was tired or bored, he said both. Even Greg and Angelique could not pull him out of it. Angelique said he did laugh a time or two but he was definitely more withdrawn than usual. He is no longer watching or wanting the tv on 24/7 (which is good), as he said "the shows are tending to repeat themselves". I was able to read the first 7 chapters of 90 Minutes in Heaven in which the author died and after 90 minutes of no pulse came back to life and was singing. The story concentrates on his recovery from massive damage as his car had been run over by a semitruck on a narrow bridge. It ends up being an inspiring story. I think it is important for Jon to hear about others that have gone through tough life changing experiences and have managed to live productive and often inspiring lives. Another person is Joni Earkenson Tada who is, like Jon, a partial quadriplegic. She does not have use of her hands either but does her arms, again like Jon. She was in a diving accident in 1967 at the age of 17. She has become an artist, using her mouth to write, draw and paint. She is also known world wide as an advocate for people with disabilities.

To add to Mom's description of the bed, the glass beads are coated with soda lime silicone. The soda lime keeps a ph balance between 9 and 10 which does not kill bacteria but does prevent it from growing and spreading so the bed itself is truly part of the healing process. Another drawback of the bed is that while it does "harden" for patient transfers, it is difficult to get him turned to see if he has had a bowel movement or not. Saturday night I stayed all night and he was clean all night. Last night I stayed all night and he had to be cleaned at every check starting with the 10:00 pm check. Yesterday at 5:40 pm, while Greg and Angelique were still there we discovered that the wound bandage had come off and that there was nothing covering the wound. It was open on the sheets. We don't know at which turn it came off but it was definitely off for 3 hours. He had been checked and cleaned at 2:20 and checked again at 5:00.(He is supposed to be checked every 2 hours). At 5:00 he was checked and was clean so no sheets were removed and the bandage was not on the sheets at 5:40. The aide did not say anything at 5:00 about the bandage being off but a different aide at 5:40 pointed it out. Due to the air circulation of the bed and the silicone pulling out the moisture from the wound, he can not have a moisture barrier between him and the bed. So the "chucks" they use to keep the sheet clean can not be used on Jon. Each time that the sheets are soiled they have to be thrown away. Apparently they can't bleach and sanitize them. This is getting expensive for them. As the turns are hard on Jon he has finally decided to see about having a temporary colostemy. This will help keep the wound area free of contamination and less expensive for the nursing center. The doctor is supposed to be in this morning. When I left at 8:40 this morning I left Dad with specific questions to ask about the procedure, how long he would be out of the nursing center and therefore off the air bed he is on. Hopefully we can get it scheduled soon.

Please keep Jon in your prayers and include his depression. When the social worker saw the amount of depression medication he is on, she asked if he wanted to speak with a counselor or not. He said no but he is going through alot and I think he needs to talk to someone.

Thanks for checking in. Sister Barb