Dan scheduled his knee surgery today. June 12th is the magic date. They said he would need somebody with him the 12th and 13th. (That's my job!).

Dan had a job interview today and it looks like he has the job, they are even willing to wait for him to have his surgery. It will probably be about 8,000 dollars a year more than what he was getting at the crappy jewelry store. Plus he will get health, dental and eye insurance . It is an assistant managers position at a place in town---NOT a jewelry store. But, I don't want to get too excited until we know for sure if he has the job.

Dan's back is still acting up but it is slowly improving.

My stomach is still flipping around a little but my blood pressure and heart rate are doing well. Tomorrow is back to exercise class. It is the last class of this session, so I need to sign up again. I think that it is helping along with my knew drug. All I know is that I am definately having more good days than bad days. I am adjusting to the am pill and I am not nearly as drowsy as I once was in the beginning. So, that means it is getting close to increasing the drug again!

Dan's wound on his leg is closed. He's just been wearing a bandaid. The leg itself is still swelling and he is having stabs of pain. Dr. Dowell said if the pain doesn't improve that his regular doctor might consider a CT scan or MRI to check and see if there is any damage to the knee itself.
In the meantime we are going to try and get Dan schedule for his left knee surgery.

Yesterday Dan hurt his back while out in the yard. He bent down to pick up something and bam, he came in all bent over. So, between his knees and his back it is very difficult to watch him walking or moving, he is so miserable.

I had a pretty good week. Wednesday was my only bad day, the rest of the week I was able to work on Thursday and Friday. Saturday I worked in the house and in the yard. Today, not so good. One of my symptoms flared up today and I have no idea why. (My stomach). So, neither one of us made it to church today. I'm still not feeling to hot. But, we are so glad that I am having more good days than bad days. I have had no naps since last Wednesday!!! What a record.

Dan's first day back to work was yesterday. He did pretty good but his dog bite leg swelled up to twice it's size. He came home limping and sore. He is pretty gimped up with the left leg as well. Today he worked a little over 4 hours and his leg swelled again. He has quite a bit of pain with both legs. I feel bad for him.

The good news for today is that when I changed his dressing I didn't need to pack it. It is almost completely filled in, so we will just let it close. We have been monkeying around with dressing tapes he is getting his hide ripped off by some kinds of tape. I switched to another way and whenever he gets hot the tape melts into his skin and rips his hide off too. So, we tried a big over size bandaid, the plastic kind and after two days he has blisters along the edges (you can see it in the above picture.) So, tonight I switched him out to a fabric bandaid and so far it is staying in place and hopefully can manage whatever drainage he might still have.

We had a nice anniversary today (Can you believe 14 years!) One of my students had given me a gift certificate to a spa in town as an end of the skating season gift. So, I schedule my spa day today and had a wonderful facial. It includes not only the face, but an arm and neck massage. It was wonderful and I think I will do it again!

Then, we have aquired quite a few restraunt gift cards. I had received 1 for Old Chicago Pizza and 1 for Applebee's from skating students. For Christmas Dan had received one also for Old Chicago Pizza. So, we went to Old Chicago for our anniversary and it didn't cost us a dime! It was wonderful. We took Ozzie with us, but of course he had to wait in the truck...

Two days in a row I have not even thought about napping. That's the good news, the bad news is the swelling in my legs is getting worse even though I have totally stopped taking the florinef. I hope it's not my new drug. I couldn't bear if I had to stop it. The good news is my blood pressures are outstanding since I stopped the atenolol and substituted the propranolol every morning. I sure wish I would have tried that earlier. Now, I just need to get around to telling Dr. Li what's going on, but I don't want him to stop my aldomet. Dan says I'm laughing more and acting more like my old self.

I will just have to wait and see and trust the Lord with the "big" picture :)

I didn't make it to church on Wednesday, too tired. Thursday I woke up and felt great. I was in town and auditting charts at 11:00 and was able to stay until 5pm!!!! What a record for me. Friday I got up and didn't feel as well, but went into town and was working by 11am again. But, I left at 4:30pm. Still a very good day for me. Saturday, I was up but didn't feel quite as well, I little tired. I did a little planting and weeding and did several loads of laundry. We were invited to a cook out, but by the time evening came around I was pretty tired.

Friday I had a 5 pound weight gain overnight. My ankle bones were gone. My feet were badly swollen, ankles, calves, face and abdomen. I was so miserable. It is from the florinef and/or the aldomet. They both have that side effect. I figure it is the florinef so on Saturday I didn't take and and today I didn't take any. I thought I could just drink a ton more fluids and try to make up the difference to try and keep my bp up.

Today, I got up earlier because the kids wanted us up so I decided to go ahead and take my pill a little after 5am instead of waiting til' 6am. I grabbed the pill and some water and about 1/2 way through swallowing I realized I hadn't cut the pill in 1/2. I accidently took a whole pill!!!!!!!!! By church time I was becoming a zombie. Dan went without me. It is now 2:30pm and I'm still very groggy but I'm upright. I'm going to need to go lay down again shortly. What a dumb mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dan told everbody at church, "Wrong dose, comatose." Sometimes he is too funny for his own good.

We are doing okay. Dan's leg is filling in nicely. I'm barely able to stick in one inch of guaze when I pack his wound. His left leg is really giving him fits. He is gaving great difficulty walking on it. We will be glad when we can schedule his knee surgery.

I'm doing okay. I worked in the flower beds today. Cleaning them out, weeding, turning, etc... That really wears me out, but that is nothing new.

Tomorrow is aquacise class. I hope I feel well enough to go to church tomorrow night it's been so long.

I'm fighting my blood pressure today. I'm not sure if my grogginess is from the medicine or the low blood pressure or both. My blood pressure this morning is 84/50. Needless to say, I didn't make it to either church service today. I'm feeling much better this evening and just noticed I hadn't taken my 6pm dose of the aldomet.

Even though these med increases are really hard for my body to adjust too, we have noticed an overall improvement in my quality of life (that is in-between med increases, Ha, Ha!).
So, all the pain and discomfort is worth it in the long run.

I am still needing propranolol almost daily for weird heart beats that feel like I'm being hit in the chest followed by an elevator dropping sort of feeling. Dr. Li says they are probably PVC's (preventricular contractions-skipped heart beats.) and are either caused by the increased stress that I've been under and/or low blood pressure.

I hope that I can snap out of this soon. I have sooo much to do.

Busy day today. Dan had some friends come in from out of town so we've been busy. I was able to meet them for lunch at noon and then went to Home Depot to buy some plants for the garden. I was starting to get a little tired by the time I fought off the crowds and waited in line.

I came home and organized the greenhouse a little and repotted some of the plants then Dan came home. He kept asking me if he could help me finish up. I thought it a little odd at the time but didn't think much of it. We had dinner plans at 7pm with our friends to say good-bye. They fly out tomorrow.

I did finally find out why Dan kept asking me if I needed help. My blood pressure was dropping and my color had started to change. When I took my blood pressure it was 85/60. Such a bummer. But, we went ahead and went out to dinner and I did pretty good. I didn't have to ask Dan to take me home early. It was so nice to be able to go out to dinner like a "normal person" even after all that I had done today.

Dan had his doctor appointment today. The depth of the wound is decreasing and it now looks like a clean, healing wound. Dr. Dowell said that since I know about wound care he trusted me to let him know if anything changed with Dan's wound. So, he discharged him from services and said we could discontinue home health services as well. He said Dan could go back to work next Wednesday for 1/2 days only for one week and then he can go to full time.

His leg really swells up when he has been on it too long. The other day we measured it and his calf on the right is about 1 inch bigger than the left.

We hope to be done with packing the wound in 10-14 days if all goes well. Then we hope to schedule Dan's knee surgery and get that fixed up. He still is in a lot of pain from the dog bite. When Dan asked him about it Dr. Dowell said, "you have no idea the amount of damage that was done by this bite." So, I guess this will just take time.

Dan was able to drive us into town today for his appointment. I did not feel to well at all. I'm still pretty drowsy from the medicine increase.

Ozzie is always close to Dan. Dan thinks Ozzie is saying, "I'm sorry Dad, but hurry up and get well so we can go play on the mountain."

As you can see Five weeks later, Dan's right calf is still more swollen than his left. But, the thigh's do look better.

I was so out of it on Monday I didn't get any pictures of Dan's leg to mark 5 weeks. So I took pictures today and even Dan took some pictures of me dressing his wound (yes those are my hands...)

Even though several of the scabs from the tooth marks have fallen off, they have still left bruises underneath. So, you can still see most of the bite marks.

I felt awful this morning and at the last minute Dan had to take me in to town for my water class. He ran errands while I took my class. I'm fighting that grogginess from the aldomet. My mind feels so foggy.

I slept hard after Dan brought me back home. It will just take me a couple of weeks to adjust. Time, time, time :) :)

It was snowy and rainy today. Doesn't little Ozzie look so cute all snuggied up on his futon?

I had my doctor appointment today. Dan couldn't go with me as the home health nurse was coming out to check him out and change his bandage.

My blood pressure was very low while I was at the doctor's office. He was having a bad day and I had to wait for 2 hours. My blood pressure was 85/60. So, now I have to increase my florinef to daily instead of every other day.

By the time I got home I was soooooo tired.

Hmm, I think I've been in a fog for a few days. Dan is feeling better now that he doesn't have to be on the antibiotics. I'm still packing his wound, not his favorite thing. It seems I enjoyed doing wound care a whole lot more when it wasn't my husband's leg that I wasn't packing and dressing!

Thursday I played telephone tag with my doctor's office. Now that I wasn't needed to be the primary driver for the family it was time to get back to increasing my new heart meds. So, starting Friday AM I increased my aldomet dose to 1/2 tab in the mornings. I am currently taking a whole tab at night. The big deal about this is that it makes me really, really drowsy.

Friday morning I took my 1/2 pill and woke up at 4pm! I had no idea I would me sooooo sleepy. I had things to do, errands to run and work to do. The good news is I was wide awake from 5-9pm. By then the evening dose of that drug was working and I went to bed for the night.

Saturday morning I took the pill earlier (6am) and only slept to 1pm. I'm not saying I was totally alert and oriented, but I was upright. :)

Today, Sunday I got woozy from 10-12 and then crashed hard from 2-4pm. Dan woke me up to change his dressing :) He wanted to make sure that I was awake before I started poking him with a stick in his dog bite...

I feel like my blood pressure is dropping, which is what this drug was made to do, but I'm taking it for another reason.

I'm going to try and go to church with Dan tonight. He went to church this morning all by himself. Everyone was so glad to see him and he even received the gift of a shirt! It is really cool, it has sail boats all over it.

Yesterday Dan ventured out by himself to do some grocery shopping. He was exhausted just picking up my meds for me. He hadn't even made it to Walmart or Sam's yet. Poor guy. When he got home he could hardly walk. Both his knees really hurt and he was waddling. He wasn't moving much better this morning either and didn't know if he would make it to church, but he did.

Time to go. I'm so groggy and I need to get ready for church.

Dan had his doctor appt. today at 3pm. He doesn't need to by on anymore antibiotics, no IV and no oral. They pulled his picc line too. His dog bite is still draining bloody drainage and the cavity that they cut into and drained is still pretty deep, slow in healing but no infection present.

So, I'll still need to to pack it daily and we go back to Dr. Dowell next Friday. He will also need to have labs drawn again next week.

So, things are looking better.

I over did it today in my water class, really wore me out for the rest of the day.

I was able to go to my aquacise class today. We had quite a workout, arms, abs and legs. Before I went to my class I called the doctor's office to see about changing out Dan's antibiotic meds to something that wouldn't make him so sick. They called back while I was gone and said they would like to try him on oral antibiotics for the next three days and then at his appointment on Wednesday they would decide if he needs anymore IV antibiotics. So, he still has to keep his picc line in and it needs flushed once a day, but no more drugs through it for now.

Lana came out and changed Dan's dressing and flushed his picc line this afternoon. He did take a pain pill before she got here. He is happy to not have to take the nausea pills anymore.

He sees Dr. Dowell on Wednesday. So, Lana will be out Wednesday morning to draw blood for his lab work.

His leg looks better, except for the hole in it of course. ONE MONTH as of today!!! Hard to believe we have been monkeying around with this for that long.