Good afternoon everyone,
We left about 5:30 this morning to come to Chicago. We had no bad weather and sunshine at least half of the way. Sunshine makes everything better, even bitter-cold temperatures. We went to John's appointment with Dr. Akst, the vocal cord doctor. In my opinion, everything looks so much better. I know I'm not a doctor, but it looks and seems so much improved from when we first began this process. His voice is so much stronger and he rarely chokes, which is great. John has also learned what works and what doesn't when he's eating and, sometimes, he just has to quit if it's something too difficult. He has accepted that and goes with it.
We were finished with the doctor at about 12:30 and I convinced him to go back to the 5th floor (Rehab) and see all of the Rehab. people: physical, speech and occupational therapists, nurses, techs, etc. They were glad to see me, but ecstatic to see him and just couldn't get over how good he looks and is doing. He felt like the Mayor of Rehab. again. They were just all so amazed and astounded at how good he was talking, walking and just doing so great, in general. He truly is a miracle of God and, again, we are so blessed. Sometimes we forget how far he has come, but talking to the people at Rehab. today brought it all back home.
Again, we couldn't have gotten through any of this without your prayers and support. We truly appreciate all you have done and continue to do. Thank you again.
I will let you know how the eye doctor's appointment on Monday goes. Thanks for continuing to read.
Gratefully,
John and Cathy
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Thursday, January 28
Hello all,
I haven't blogged in a while because we have pretty much settled back in to our old routine--I go to work and John does what he does. It was difficult getting back into the old routine, but we have managed to get through it. John is great about helping around the house: doing laundry, having supper ready, doing the dishes, fixing coffee. I'm getting a little spoiled and, I must admit, am enjoying it quite a bit.
We are headed back to Chicago tomorrow for a final follow-up visit with Dr. Akst, the vocal cord doctor, before he transfers to John Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Akst told John he was welcome to come to Baltimore to see him. It is so amazing and miraculous that God led John to Loyola. This doctor said he is the only one who can do the vocal cord injection the way he does it. He said the doctors who are replacing him can do it, but they have to do it surgically whereas he is able to do it in his office without putting John under.
We are going to spend Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night with Bucky and Melody and then going on to
John's sisters in Streator on Sunday. We will spend Sunday night with them and leave early Monday morning for St. Louis where he has an appointment with Dr. Gable, the eye doctor. His eye is still giving him quite a bit of trouble. We are hopeful that the surgery scheduled for February 9 will be beneficial and really help. Hopefully, it will at least stop the cornea from getting any worse. John has done research on this procedure and, I believe, feels it is the best thing for him at this time. The procedure will at the very least, treat the eye and not just the symptom. His eye is still partially sewn shut and I know he will be so glad to have it opened again, although we're not sure when that will happen.
For all of you that continue to check, thanks. I haven't been very faithful about blooging, but will let you know as new developments come up. I will try and let you know about tomorrow's doctor's appointment and Monday's as well. Thanks, again, for all of your support.
Love,
John and Cath
I haven't blogged in a while because we have pretty much settled back in to our old routine--I go to work and John does what he does. It was difficult getting back into the old routine, but we have managed to get through it. John is great about helping around the house: doing laundry, having supper ready, doing the dishes, fixing coffee. I'm getting a little spoiled and, I must admit, am enjoying it quite a bit.
We are headed back to Chicago tomorrow for a final follow-up visit with Dr. Akst, the vocal cord doctor, before he transfers to John Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Akst told John he was welcome to come to Baltimore to see him. It is so amazing and miraculous that God led John to Loyola. This doctor said he is the only one who can do the vocal cord injection the way he does it. He said the doctors who are replacing him can do it, but they have to do it surgically whereas he is able to do it in his office without putting John under.
We are going to spend Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night with Bucky and Melody and then going on to
John's sisters in Streator on Sunday. We will spend Sunday night with them and leave early Monday morning for St. Louis where he has an appointment with Dr. Gable, the eye doctor. His eye is still giving him quite a bit of trouble. We are hopeful that the surgery scheduled for February 9 will be beneficial and really help. Hopefully, it will at least stop the cornea from getting any worse. John has done research on this procedure and, I believe, feels it is the best thing for him at this time. The procedure will at the very least, treat the eye and not just the symptom. His eye is still partially sewn shut and I know he will be so glad to have it opened again, although we're not sure when that will happen.
For all of you that continue to check, thanks. I haven't been very faithful about blooging, but will let you know as new developments come up. I will try and let you know about tomorrow's doctor's appointment and Monday's as well. Thanks, again, for all of your support.
Love,
John and Cath
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Another Doctor's Visit
Today we went to see an opthalmologist that comes to Mt. Vernon from St. Louis once a month. John has seen Dr. Gable before, but it had been several years ago. He really likes him and he helped clear John's eye up in 2005 so John has a lot of faith in him. He put John on an antibiotic/steroid ointment for his eye in the hopes that it will calm that eye down. He left it sewn shut as much as it is and wants us to follow up with him in St. Louis on February 1 to see if the ointment has helped. He is scheduled for surgery on February 9 on the eye at Crossroads in Mt. Vernon. Dr. Gable will scrape the cornea slightly and then pull the conjunctiva over the cornea as a sort-of permanent contact lens. He then hopes that will help heal it as much as it can. He doesn't really think that John's eye will improve greatly, but his hope is that it can at least become low maintenance. He doesn't think the gold weight in the eyelid is a good option at this point.
Our hearts are heavy this evening for many due to recent deaths and tragedies. We know prayer can change things and our prayers are for strength, guidance, and comfort for those that are hurting.
John and Cathy
Our hearts are heavy this evening for many due to recent deaths and tragedies. We know prayer can change things and our prayers are for strength, guidance, and comfort for those that are hurting.
John and Cathy
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Terrific Thursday
Good snowy morning everyone,
I thought I should blog for you faithful followers and prayer warriors who know that we went to Chicago again yesterday. We so appreciate all of you. I hope you don't get tired of hearing us say that because we never get tired of your loyalty and support of us.
We did indeed go back to Chicago yesterday. John picked me up (yes, he's driving) from work on Tuesday afternoon and we drove to Streator and spent the night with his sister Gaila. His other sister and a couple of nieces came over yesterday morning and spent some time with us before we left for our doctors' visits. It was a nice visit and a good break before going on. We headed to Chicago about 11 for our 1:15 appointment.
We had to wait a short period of time on Dr. Akst, the vocal cord doctor. He did a video test of John's vocal cord and talked to John. He thought he had gotten quite a bit in there, but John thought he could maybe use a little more. The doctor said we could do a touch up and we could either come back at a later date or come back after John's eye appointment and do it yesterday. John decided to go ahead and do it yesterday. We went on to see Dr. Lin to get the stitches taken out of his eye. She decided not to take the stitches out since the eye was partially open. She thought it was better that it was at least a little closed and she said she could see where the corneal abrasion had been, but it didn't look worse. We see the other opthalmologist in Mt. Vernon on Tuesday.
We then went back to Dr. Akst's office and he did an additional "touch-up" to John's vocal cord. John's voice is quite strong now. He said it's a little tight but more than likely it will loosen up. We just hope it continues to help his swallowing, because that's the most important thing. It was about 4:00 when we got out of there and we decided to come on home since Chicago was supposed to get about 12 inches of snow and we were supposed to get a significant amount.
On the way home, Cejae had called and said she stopped by the house and it was 47 degrees in here and she thought we were out of gas. I had asked John to check it on Tuesday, but he forgot. Anyway, being the lovely, thoughtful daughter that she is, she had called the gas man at 6:00 and he was coming out to give us gas, light the furnace, etc. It is wonderful to live in a small town where people care and to have such great people looking after you. When we returned home, everything was in order and warm. Thank you Cejae and Pete Anselment.
I am headed back to work this morning. It has been a little difficult to get back in the swing, but John is doing so well. In fact, he had parked his car down by the road last night in case we couldn't get out and unbeknownst to me this morning has already walked down and moved it up by the house and given me the weather condition report. God has truly blessed us in so many ways! Thank you again for all your prayers and thoughtfulness. We love you and thanks for continuing to read.
John and Cathy
I thought I should blog for you faithful followers and prayer warriors who know that we went to Chicago again yesterday. We so appreciate all of you. I hope you don't get tired of hearing us say that because we never get tired of your loyalty and support of us.
We did indeed go back to Chicago yesterday. John picked me up (yes, he's driving) from work on Tuesday afternoon and we drove to Streator and spent the night with his sister Gaila. His other sister and a couple of nieces came over yesterday morning and spent some time with us before we left for our doctors' visits. It was a nice visit and a good break before going on. We headed to Chicago about 11 for our 1:15 appointment.
We had to wait a short period of time on Dr. Akst, the vocal cord doctor. He did a video test of John's vocal cord and talked to John. He thought he had gotten quite a bit in there, but John thought he could maybe use a little more. The doctor said we could do a touch up and we could either come back at a later date or come back after John's eye appointment and do it yesterday. John decided to go ahead and do it yesterday. We went on to see Dr. Lin to get the stitches taken out of his eye. She decided not to take the stitches out since the eye was partially open. She thought it was better that it was at least a little closed and she said she could see where the corneal abrasion had been, but it didn't look worse. We see the other opthalmologist in Mt. Vernon on Tuesday.
We then went back to Dr. Akst's office and he did an additional "touch-up" to John's vocal cord. John's voice is quite strong now. He said it's a little tight but more than likely it will loosen up. We just hope it continues to help his swallowing, because that's the most important thing. It was about 4:00 when we got out of there and we decided to come on home since Chicago was supposed to get about 12 inches of snow and we were supposed to get a significant amount.
On the way home, Cejae had called and said she stopped by the house and it was 47 degrees in here and she thought we were out of gas. I had asked John to check it on Tuesday, but he forgot. Anyway, being the lovely, thoughtful daughter that she is, she had called the gas man at 6:00 and he was coming out to give us gas, light the furnace, etc. It is wonderful to live in a small town where people care and to have such great people looking after you. When we returned home, everything was in order and warm. Thank you Cejae and Pete Anselment.
I am headed back to work this morning. It has been a little difficult to get back in the swing, but John is doing so well. In fact, he had parked his car down by the road last night in case we couldn't get out and unbeknownst to me this morning has already walked down and moved it up by the house and given me the weather condition report. God has truly blessed us in so many ways! Thank you again for all your prayers and thoughtfulness. We love you and thanks for continuing to read.
John and Cathy
Monday, January 4, 2010
Merry Monday Morning!
Good morning,
Praise God! John's fever left last night before we went to bed and has not yet come back. Let's just hope and pray it was some random fever that was short-lived. Thanks to all who prayed; we so appreciate each and everyone of you. Again, we are so blessed by God and all of you. Have a great day!
Love,
John and Cathy
Praise God! John's fever left last night before we went to bed and has not yet come back. Let's just hope and pray it was some random fever that was short-lived. Thanks to all who prayed; we so appreciate each and everyone of you. Again, we are so blessed by God and all of you. Have a great day!
Love,
John and Cathy
Sunday, January 3, 2010
The Latest
Hello everyone,
Hope this finds all of you having a great day. We went to church this morning, but tonight John is running a fever--101.1. He feels sort of bad, but not really coughing. He said he has a slight headache, but we really don't know why he has the fever. It's the first one he's had since he's been home. We are supposed to go to Chicago again Wednesday for some follow-up visits, but I'm not sure we will be able to go if he continues to run a fever. We just hope and pray it doesn't go into something worse. Tomorrow is my first day back to work in almost three months so I can't really stay home. Thank you again for your concern and continued prayers.
Love,
Cathy
Hope this finds all of you having a great day. We went to church this morning, but tonight John is running a fever--101.1. He feels sort of bad, but not really coughing. He said he has a slight headache, but we really don't know why he has the fever. It's the first one he's had since he's been home. We are supposed to go to Chicago again Wednesday for some follow-up visits, but I'm not sure we will be able to go if he continues to run a fever. We just hope and pray it doesn't go into something worse. Tomorrow is my first day back to work in almost three months so I can't really stay home. Thank you again for your concern and continued prayers.
Love,
Cathy
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