Update #102 on Kevin

My stomach aches as I write this. No, I haven’t contracted an illness from the hospital, that I know of, but things have continued to swirl violently around us. Things feel like they are caving in around us. We got the heater at the house fixed yesterday, then this morning I find out that several of the outlets in the house have stopped working. This is so far in only two rooms, but one of which is the living room, where we intend to put Kevin when he comes home. We called around and got an electrician company referred to us and they are working on the outlets as I type. While Kevin and my mom are both in the hospital, we found out that someone else close to us may have some medical issues that need to deal with right now. Some discouraging news also came our way this afternoon which continued to push the invisible walls in on us. It doesn’t feel like we can handle everything that is being thrown at us.


I have been calling doctors all throughout the day, looking for a general care physician, internal medicine doctor or physiatrist to follow Kevin once he leaves the hospital. Our goal is for Kevin to progress to the point that he can be accepted into a rehab center after some time at home. The rehab center said they could reevaluate Kevin’s condition after a couple months, it has been a month almost since they evaluated him. Kevin has started following more vocal commands, since then, such as squeezing hands and sticking out his tongue. He doesn’t do it every time, but we don’t know if that is because it is really hard for him to do, or his brain won’t allow him to do it every time or why. We continue to hope and pray for full recovery.

Kevin is actually doing better today than yesterday, which is encouragement to us. His night nurse noted that Kevin would pull his head away when she went to put eye ointment in his right eye. She said that showed signs of perception. I asked her to document that and she said she would. He coughed intermittently last night, but not for very long each time, just enough that it would spook me being gunshy after his 2 ½ hour long coughing episodes yesterday. Today, he did very well, only starting a short coughing bout and so the respiratory therapist gave him a treatment of lidocaine quick enough that it resolved the coughing.

On a lighter note, I don’t actually think that they are trying to get rid of us. At the very least, I will give them the benefit of the doubt. Some of this I know, some is what we have discovered and some is guessing on my part. Apparently, the new occupant of Kevin’s previous room is someone who could be a danger to herself, which makes it imperative to be in the one room that has a window off the nurses’ station. Also, since Kevin is still under isolation because of the MRSA staff infection (which is colonized, but still considered isolation) it makes his options for rooms that much more limited. He had to go into a room that was already under isolation….for what we don’t know though. A new room means new staff. The hospital is staffed in zones, and there were only a few friendly faces throughout the day. Other familiar faces checked in on us throughout. The room is much smaller, but they were still able to get Kevin into his blue neuro chair today.

I just spoke to my mom at St. John’s Hospital. Her leg still hurts. However, they are talking about releasing her tomorrow. Apparently, the biggest thing was to get IV fluid in her. They were giving her antibiotics through her IV, but they have now ordered oral antibiotics so that she can take them upon release.

Our faith, hope and trust is in the Lord. He will make our paths straight. He will care for us in ways that we could never imagine nor hope for.

Thanks for reading and praying,
Matt, Angie and family
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