HoBarb news Friday, September 23

Well, there's good news and even a bit more good news.

Barb is continuing to improve as therapy steadily increases her strength and endurance. It's a slow process, but I can see improvement almost daily - certainly every week. She's becoming accustomed to much lower doses of pain medications, particularly the narcotics. Our first visit to the local pain specialist was almost a waste as her other specialists had not FAXed her records as requested. We've rescheduled and will check to make certain the records are there before her next visit.

Most important! Her spirits are still very high. Her faith and all the prayers and encouragements she is getting from so many of you are the chief reasons and are so valuable.

Now, I have some good news. I've had a wart on the end of my right elbow for several years. Recently it began to hurt and bleed while turning white on top with an irregular black ring around the base. It was about the size of a pea and looked very nasty. Dr. Andy carved it out a week ago and sent it off for a biopsy. The report came back negative for cancer so Barb and I cried "hooray!" One more potential worry that turned out to be nothing. I now have a small hole in my elbow, but that is healing and no longer hurts.

After much struggle and a long and interrupted learning curve I finally have our web-site set up and running. Click here! To go to my website.

I’d really like some responses so there is a link for responses on the home page. Click on that link to email your comments and suggestions. Of course, you can also respond to any of our blogs by using the "comment" button on the site.

FLASH! Just received the following from the Kochs:

This is a wonderful picture of our new granddaughter. I call her "Sweet Cheeks". We just hug her and kiss her little cheeks over and over. You can't tell that we are first time grand parents can you.

Enjoy!. Robert and Vickie

What a Grandson!

Here's our grandson Michael Johnson's 7th grade photo just received from his dad. Good looking boy isn't he. Must take after his grandfather!

No new news about Barb except that she went for a drive with me yesterday. We are both very encouraged with her progress. She sees our family doctor today and a pain specialist on Wednesday. Hopefully we will get good reports.

Ho

HoBarb News, Monday, September 13

Hi All:

Tuesday, September 13 - Barb’s doing much better! She returned to Lakeland Monday afternoon after she checked out of Goshen Hospital. It looks more and more as if the narcotics she has been taking for pain are the culprit in those repeated attacks of low blood pressure.

She will soon be seeing a local pain management specialist who will, hopefully, be able to prescribe pain treatment with a much lower dosage of narcotics. This morning she had an evaluation of her progress by her physical therapist and came through with flying colors. Apparently her hospital stay did not set her back any. Tomorrow she has an evaluation by occupational therapy and should get a good report there.

We are both encouraged by her progress and the attention being given to her narcotics problem. If this new doctor can find a workable answer to her pain without narcotics she’ll be well on her way to coming home, and that’s just great with me.

Hope you are all doing well!

Love, Ho

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HoBarb news, Sat Sept 10

Hi All!

It’s 2:00 pm Saturday the 10th and I’ve just returned from being with Barb, She’s feeling a bit better, but she sleeps much of the time so we haven’t talked a lot. They now have her blood pressure stabilized in a normal range, but her hemoglobin is still quite low. According to her nurse, that’s why she is so tired and sleepy. They plan to give her two units of blood this afternoon to bring her hemoglobin up.

This morning they did a colonoscopy looking for possible bleeding there as contributing to her anemia. All the doctor found was some irritation in her rectum. The rest of her colon was clean and healthy - no polyps or anything else. When her internist came in I questioned her about pain management. As a result, she is going to contact a local pain management specialist on Monday. He may be able to prescribe a treatment to find local pain pathways and block them so she doesn’t have to take so many narcotics, It may be that all of these low blood pressure attacks that have put her in the hospital five times now were caused by too much narcotic in her bloodstream. That certainly makes sense to me.

I seem to be getting over my cold. At least, I feel a lot better than I did early in the week. I know I’m feeling better because my appetite has returned . I still stay well away from Barb when I’m visiting. I certainly don’t want her to catch it.

I’d really like to hear how you folks like using the link to this blog where I post my latest info. Just to reply to my email or Click here to email me

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Feedback: So far I’ve gotten just one! Thanks Nancy!


Ho

Family and Friends

Hi All:

Here’s the latest scoop as of 5:00 pm Friday September 9.

Barb’s back in ICU at Goshen Hospital. She had a bout of diarrhea and was sick to her stomach this Thursday early morning. They ran an EKG and didn’t like what they saw so sent her to Goshen ER. They called me when she left and by the time I got there she was considerably better. The doctors couldn’t say definitively what was wrong, but her blood pressure was once more quite low. They’re thinking her pain medication is suppressing her blood pressure and that in turn holds medication in her system - it’s the blood pressure that pushes medication out through kidneys, mostly. She’s really in a bad catch 22 with her pain.

Yesterday they got her blood pressure back to normal and then did an echocardiagram - I watched - and the doctor doesn’t think there is any new heart problem. This afternoon they were going to run several new tests and since her hemoglobin is quite low, she may be bleeding somewhere - they have no idea where! She is not feeling too bad, but since they’ve cut back her pain medication she’s been hurting quite a bit. I just wish they could find something definitive that we can deal with. I’ve been searching the Internet for any clinic or doctor that might be better equipped to handle her problems - so far, no luck.

I personally think her long use of prednisone has done the same kind of damage to her insides as it has to her skin. Her skin, particularly on her arms and legs, is like tissue paper. It’s terribly fragile and tears at almost any kind of slight contact with hard objects. I’ve been searching for anything that might be used in place of prednisone again without success. There’s plenty of stuff about the damge it does, but nothing about alternatives of any kind. Surely someone out there is researching alternatives to prednisone - it’s such a widely used drug and is so damaging with long term use.

To make matters worse, I caught a terrible cold on Sunday, the first I’ve had in several years. My nose ran like a hose for three days, I’ve had a bad cough and just feel like ----! I’ve been doctoring with hot tea laced with lemon, honey and bourbon which seems to help some. I’ve also been sleeping a lot off and on. I haven’t had any appetite until just today, so I haven’t felt much like eating. I think I’m starting to get over it though and had some soup and a chicken sandwich for lunch. I probably lost at least ten pounds so that’s one good thing. Of course, I've kept my distance from Barb. She surely doesn't need another bug!

I’m going to put my family letters on my web log from now on. I’ll be sending out announcing emails with the address as a link so you can go directly to my blog. Let my know if you like this or not and I will act accordingly.

My HJ Family and Friends blog is now active. Since you're reading it obviously you know my web log address is: http://hjfamilyfriends.blogspot.com - If a click on it in my email to you doesn’t take you there, paste it into your URL selection box , the one next to the word “address” at the top of any Internet page. I’ll have links to my other blogs there so you can check those out also.
CLICK here If you’d like to check out the lectures and books I have available - - It’s up and running and I’d really like opinions from any one who will check it out. It only takes a few minutes.

Love and good wishes to you all, Ho