One Day Forward, Ten Days Back

January 29, 2013

Julie Woody

Yesterday at 10:10 via Mobile · 

• Just said goodbye to Ryan. Hopefully the insurance company gets my nurse here soon so I can come home!

  Like ·  · 

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    Huh? I thought he was staying until you left...

    Yesterday at 12:45 · Like
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    He tried. Work was okay with him staying, but the extra $3K to change his flights wasn't going to be covered so we had to make a decision

    22 hours ago via mobile · Like
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    Fair enough. So have you heard anything more about when you can leave? Can you use Skype?

    22 hours ago · Like

Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 3:09:47 AM
Subject: Fwd: Update 01.30

Just when it sounded like things were going well...I'm now left in India with a carry on bag of clothes and that's it because Ryan took my stuff home assuming I'd be right behind him

Don't panic, I'm trying to figure this out. Basically, the Canadian/American doctors said they do not medically endorse me flying with a chest tube and it has to come out. Shame they couldn't have said that to the Indian doctor before Ryan left this morning...


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: TG STP Medical SP
Date: Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Hello, Julie -

I’m writing to let you know our medical team spoke with Dr. Roy not too long ago. This is the plan they discussed to ensure your safety while traveling home:

A chest x-ray will be done – if all looks well, the remaining chest tube will be removed.  You will be discharged from the hospital 24 hours later and another chest x-ray will take place in 10 days to ensure your lungs are clear. At that time, we will move forward with medically appropriate travel arrangements for your return to Canada.

Please let us know if our assistance is needed with locating a hotel where you can rest and continue recovery until your follow-up chest x-ray.

We will continue to stay in touch with you to ensure we address all of your questions and concerns.

Kind Regards,

Gina DeLisle

Medical Assist Coordinator

13 hours ago via Mobile

Who doesn't love being kicked in the teeth? Ryan left this morning because we thought I'd be leaving tomorrow...so he took everything except my iPad, cellphone and one change of clothes for me to fly in. 60 min ago I get told I can't fly with the second tube in, it's coming out tomorrow and then I'm being discharged 24hrs later and I'm alone in India for the next ten days to make sure everything is okay. Fuck this adventure. My next one involves a beach, sunshine and booze

She might be home this weekend - YIPPEE

Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 6:43 AM


To: Cindy

Subject: Update

The doctors here are good to discharge me on Jan 31, we just seem to be having trouble communicating that to the insurance company from the middle man. Ryan is most likely staying the extra two days, so don't worry about trying to get here. A nurse will also be flying home with me.

Julie



To: Cindy

Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 11:01:46 PM

Subject: Homeward Bound


Sounds like I might be flying out as soon as Thursday. Just waiting for the local travel doc to update the insurance company this afternoon.


Julie

The moving of Satine

Aaron and Maria agreed to keep Julie & Ryan's cat, Satine, until they get back.
She has been spending her time alone in our basement because she doesn't want to come upstairs and take on the dogs. They would like to get to know her but she is not interested.

Andy ended up sleeping downstairs a few nights ago because he felt sorry for her! He said she got on the bed and curled up with him and purred and purred.

You have to admit that she does look quite comfortable in Aaron's lap so I think she will think this is a good move.

And one step back - maybe

From: Julie
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 2:04:22 PM
Subject: Sigh...

So still only have one tube removed. Sounds like insurance is claiming I can fly as early as Feb 4 if they don't remove the second tube...I see the doctor again today to figure out what's going on. Ryan tried calling the insurance yesterday and they said to call back Mon afternoon for more clarity. If I can come home that quickly, Ryan is going to try and stay a few more days and we'll keep the hotel room. 

Will keep you posted this afternoon 

--
Julie

One Step Forward

We talked to Julie last night and she had good news. They are taking out one chest tube on Saturday and one on Sunday. After that, according to the airlines and the insurance company, she has to stay in India an additional 2 weeks before she can travel.

Ryan is due back at work later this week so apparently he will probably be leaving on Wednesday. The plan, at least last night, was that Julie would spend a night or two with Ryan then she will move back to the home of Renu, her housemother. Apparently Renu has staff in her home so there will be someone there is Julie needs any assistance.  

This morning, Ryan posted on Facebook:  Julie would like to inform the world that having a chest tube removed while on mild pain killers would be a good way to torture someone....back on oxygen till the pain subsides

A short while later, Julie posted:  Needs one more lung tube out, then I have to wait 2 weeks to fly home. Hopefully being discharged on Tuesday, have a night in the hotel with Ryan, then wait my two weeks. Sucks he has to be back at work Jan 31

Beware of Crash Ahead

I am so tired – I think I am ready to crash.

It has been a long almost 2 weeks – between 12 medical appointments (only 2 were mine) and the worry about Julie – I am bushed.

I know that I need to speak what I want rather than what I have but right now I lack the energy to think of what I want.

Andy and I both went to Costco yesterday for their free hearing tests (that counts as 2 medical appointments). My hearing is pretty much fine – a bit of age related loss in the very high ranges but Andy has some moderate losses in his left ear. They suggested he think about a hearing aid so now his whole focus is on hearing aids. He wants to make an appointment to go somewhere to look as some others and suggested tomorrow - I said flat out NO. He was interested in the Lyric aid until I was not too enthusiastic about its $1,200/year/ear subscription cost. He doesn’t want anything that might show or interfere when he takes off his glasses a few hundred times a day.

Our chiropractor suggested that QiDong would be able to “cure” Andy’s various diseases including his hearing loss, diabetes and heart issues. He has suggested we go to the home of Spring Forest QiDong in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Apparently they offer 3, 4 and 5 day retreats to learn the proper techniques. The five day retreat is $1,300 for about 11 hours of actual training and healing over the period. I had a look at Google Maps to see just how far it is from home and it is an 18+ hour drive but I would get to go through Minot, North Dakota, where my friend and I drove through a few years ago when we took my mother’s car (because she lost her license) and drove it to Calgary for Julie. There is NO WAY I would consider doing this at this time of year – weather is just too unpredictable. We might talk about it in the summer.

For now, Ellie and I are discussing where we should go for a short vacation – New York is looking good at this time but first I need Julie home before I can relax.

Just writing this all down, I feel better. Maybe I should blog more often!

Bits of Freedom

Julie posted last night:

Obtained some more freedom today! IV is out, off oxygen and catheter is out!! Unfortunately, this means I now have to get up to pee, but at least I have the means to get up! Just need to reduce lung valve leakage to less than 40ml/day before they will discharge me to a CDN hospital to fly home. So incredibly blessed to have Ryan here with me for support and Noosh for bringing me Oreo cookies!!

Blood Donors Needed

After thinking about the fact that because people I will never know have donated blood in another country, my daughter is getting to benefit, I realized I need to get back to making donations while I still can.

For Canadians, you can go here to find a clinic near you:
http://www.blood.ca/centreapps/clinics/InetClinics.nsf/CVSE?OpenForm&CloseMenu

I posted on another site, where yesterday's discussion was about blood donations, about Julie and the fact she had something special about her blood but I didn't know what it was. Another blogger commented:

Cindy writes of her daughter, "She also had/didn't have (I don't remember which) something in her blood so hers could be used for high risk infants."

Probably she doesn't have cytomegalovirus (CMV), a virus that is widespread in the adult population in the US and probably elsewhere. CMV is thought to be mostly harmless in most people, but premature infants, and immuno-suppressed patients, are among the exceptions. 

The estimates I can readily find of the CMV infection rate have a sizable error bar, but even the most optimistic ones are pretty big, like 50% of Americans 40 and older. Some estimates go as high as 80%. Once you get it, you have it, probably asymptomatically, for life. 

Having CMV doesn't exclude you -- it just makes the blood unsuitable for certain patients, so they test the donated blood for it.

So, for a high risk infant, you can multiply a modest sized number (the percentage of CMV negative population) by another (the percentage of people with the requisite blood type and Rh) and get a small number. 

And then the number gets even smaller. It is now estimated that perhaps 38% of Americans are eligible to donate (within the
age limits, healthy enough, and able to make it through the ever
longer list of risk criteria). This is a big restatement,
downward, of the longstanding assumption:
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500368_162-3124486.html

But wait, there's less! It is estimated that on a nationwide average, only 5% of the eligible population gives blood at least once a year.

So even somebody like me, a ketchup-common O-positive and, since they never mentioned it, pesumably a CMV carrier, is doing something for the public good by giving blood. If you have a rare blood type AND are free of CMV, you can go ahead and visualize a premature baby somewhere who is alive because of you, which is a warm fuzzy even warmier and fuzzier than other blood donors get. 

Eleven Fractured Ribs!

Well, I do feel better now. We had a good long talk with Julie this morning – almost 45 minutes before the connection broke down.

She has been up walking a bit but the physiotherapist says she has 11 broken ribs – 6 on one side and 5 on the other. And apparently she has 2 lung punctures and they are not healing as quickly as the hospital would like. She still has her chest drainage tubes and they will have to stay in place until her punctures heal. She also has a lot of internal bruising – apparently Ryan said her back is all black and blue. I suggested that he get photos in case they later need to prove some of her injuries.

We had thought she might be discharged to the hotel for a few days but apparently she will only be discharged to a hospital so Ryan has to contact the insurance company who will have to arrange for a medical person to escort her home. Ryan’s mother is a nurse but apparently the medical person cannot be related to Julie. She has been told that she will probably have to be in quarantine for 2-4 days upon arrival back in Calgary. She did receive blood so there is a concern for HIV and other diseases.

Julie says she does not remember anything about the accident and no one is allowed to tell her about it. The last thing she remembers is being in the parking lot and getting ready to get into a car to go back to their residence after their dinner outing.

 

She says she is not hungry but that is in part because the food is not what she wants. She said the toast is like Texas toast – very thick and about the size of her IPad. Two slices of that for a sandwich are somewhat overwhelming. She asked for baked chicken and they brought her a boiled chicken leg. She asked for steamed vegetables and she got vegetables that has been steamed then fried. Not big things when you are feeling fine but hard to deal with when you don’t feel well to begin with. She said the hospital is trying hard to find something she will eat but it just hasn’t happened yet. She said she is really thirsty but that is because her body is trying to replace the blood she has lost.

Her other big complaint is that the hospital clothes don’t fit. The pants aren’t the right size and to put on the tops backward for modesty, they just about choke her. Because she has been bedridden, she has been wearing adult diapers but they too don’t fit properly so she can’t move around without fear of displacing them.  

Ryan has been invited to a wedding this evening so Julie is a bit miffed that she can’t go too. They had to take Ryan out and get him some Indian clothing. Julie says he bought a Canadian hoodie before he left Vancouver and he has been wearing it ever since he arrived – apparently he gets better service with it on. Julie also said that he is attracting attention wherever he goes because he is about 6’2” tall and most Indians are 5’10” or less so he does stand out in a crowd.

News via Noosh

I talked for a few minutes to Noosh this evening (tomorrow morning!). She is taking one of the other girls to the hospital to get her stitches removed.

Apparently their housemother is back. Her teeth have been moved back into place and she has bandages on her nose but she is back to work.

Noosh heard that Julie has been up walking and that she will probably be discharged in 4 or 5 days then she will have to stay in the hotel for a while.

I asked Noosh to give Ryan a nudge (although I think I said kick!) to get us hooked up again so we can talk to her. She laughed and said she would.

I have also heard from a co-worker of a co-worker who has family in Faradibad. He said he would find out if there is anything they can do to help – the outpouring of help and prayers has been fantastic and I am so very thankful.