Archie called me out tonight that I have been a little short the past 3 weeks, I can honestly say that I have been frazzled and stressed out. This is the first time that Archie has been in the hospital and had surgery while I have worked full time. Obviously I have not been handling the stress well so if you have had any interaction with me lately and think I have been a little off I apologize.
Sunday we spent the day at my sister's house helping her with projects around the house. Archie was working on A/V stuff while we decorated the house and worked on some pinterest projects.
My mom stayed with Archie Monday during the day. Archie's mom, step dad and niece came into town on Tuesday and Wednesday to spend the day with Archie. They ran errands and kept busy throughout the days. I spent Monday and Tuesday in Fort Worth for work so it was long days and quite a bit of driving.
Today my mom was back on duty for Archie's Infectious Disease doctor appointment. They met me for lunch afterwards at Nick and Sam's Grill since the doctor's appointment was at 11:20 am and the hospital is not too far away from my work. Then they hung out at the house. Tomorrow my mom is back for the day. I am looking forward to the weekend because we don't have much planned and can relax hopefully. I just feel like I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off the past couple of weeks and can hopefully have a low key weekend. TGIF!
Friday and Saturday
Friday I went to work while Archie spent the day with his mom and step dad. Archie ended up sleeping in until 8:30 am which is pretty impressive for him. They had a busy day running errands- they walked Walmart, Hobby Lobby and Costco. I think Archie is wanting to get out of the house since he has been stuck inside so much. His mom and step dad headed back to Wichita Falls after dinner last night.
This morning we slept in until 9 am. Then we went to breakfast and ran a couple more errands. We went home and the Allyson Stewart Lawn Service mowed and cleaned up the yard. After that Archie wanted to get out of the house for a little while so I suggested we pick up my nephews and go on an Adventure. We went to Sealife in Grapevine Mills Mall and it was fantastic. We had a great time! Below are some pictures:
This morning we slept in until 9 am. Then we went to breakfast and ran a couple more errands. We went home and the Allyson Stewart Lawn Service mowed and cleaned up the yard. After that Archie wanted to get out of the house for a little while so I suggested we pick up my nephews and go on an Adventure. We went to Sealife in Grapevine Mills Mall and it was fantastic. We had a great time! Below are some pictures:
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| The boys in the fish tank. |
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| We found Nemo. |
We did a family dinner because my parents brought back lobsters from Cape Cod where they have been for the past week. Yummy!
Free At Last
This morning I got to the hospital around 7 am with a big requested meal from whataburger which was 2 biscuits and gravy plus a taquito. He heard me enter the room and went back to sleep so I headed to work. My sister got to the hospital about 9 am and he still had not eaten anything so he ate a biscuit and gravy and then they went on a walk. Over lunch Archie asked me to stop and get lunch and it was a bad deal because I was trying to keep close to an hour lunch and so I showed up with food and had to leave a few minutes later. They went for another walk after lunch. They then hung out and then found out he was getting released. The neurosurgeon didn't even come by because "we know the drill". Archie got a week's worth of antibiotics, a weekly appointment with the infectious disease doctor and an appointment in a week and a half with the neurosurgeon to remove stitches.
The catheter that was removed from Archie's head was tested and it had staph on it as well. He got some hydrocodon, anti nausea meds and a blood pressure med prescribed to him.
Seriously, It Is Only Wednesday????
This morning I woke up with a start because I had forgotten to set my alarm, a small little detail. Thankfully my internal clock was working and I woke up 3 minutes before my alarm would normally go off. I got to the hospital a few minutes before 7 am. I saw the nurse was doing his vitals so I waited a little while before going in. Meanwhile my mother-in-law called to tell me the power was out at our house and had been since 2 am and the alarm had been beeping that whole time. I suggested that she put in the alarm code to see if that helped, we got a new security system recently so I had not encountered this issue. Thankfully that worked. Then I called to report the outage to Oncor.
Basically Archie's day consisted of sleeping and throwing up. They were giving him anti nausea medicine plus pain meds throughout the day to try to control it but that was not working so well. He got moved out of ICU and into a regular room late in the afternoon. When he moved to the new room he got a "no-nonsense" nurse who wanted to get Archie up into a chair and get something in his stomach. The nurse knows the neurosurgeon and knows that he wants his patients up and moving so now we can tell him tomorrow Archie's accomplishment. I can proudly say that Archie sat in the chair for 30 minutes and ate a frozen fruit cup. Now had there been a choice he would not have done it but I am really thankful for the nurse was "hard headed" and forced him to get up. Afterwards Archie stayed awake for longer than any other time today and he just went to sleep.
Today I went back to work so I was at the hospital before work, over a late lunch and after work so it was a little unsettling trying to work knowing that Archie was not feeling well. Thankfully Archie's mom and step dad were able to be with Archie all day long today and sent me updates. Thanks to Mackey for checking on Archie periodically while he is working at the hospital, I know Archie likes seeing a familiar face plus he can provide a little medical advice.
Basically Archie's day consisted of sleeping and throwing up. They were giving him anti nausea medicine plus pain meds throughout the day to try to control it but that was not working so well. He got moved out of ICU and into a regular room late in the afternoon. When he moved to the new room he got a "no-nonsense" nurse who wanted to get Archie up into a chair and get something in his stomach. The nurse knows the neurosurgeon and knows that he wants his patients up and moving so now we can tell him tomorrow Archie's accomplishment. I can proudly say that Archie sat in the chair for 30 minutes and ate a frozen fruit cup. Now had there been a choice he would not have done it but I am really thankful for the nurse was "hard headed" and forced him to get up. Afterwards Archie stayed awake for longer than any other time today and he just went to sleep.
Today I went back to work so I was at the hospital before work, over a late lunch and after work so it was a little unsettling trying to work knowing that Archie was not feeling well. Thankfully Archie's mom and step dad were able to be with Archie all day long today and sent me updates. Thanks to Mackey for checking on Archie periodically while he is working at the hospital, I know Archie likes seeing a familiar face plus he can provide a little medical advice.
Sleepy Surgery Day
Archie is out of surgery and the neurosurgeon was able to remove the catheter. Additionally, where the doctor cut the hole in the skull he was able to put a metal plate (which is good news because otherwise there would be a dent in his head). Archie got out of surgery around 5 pm and he basically slept the night away. He was awake for a few minutes- enough to hear that he would be on a liquid diet for the evening which he was not happy about and to answer the vital questions. I left around 9:15 to head to the house but left him the necessities.
This morning I got there at 7 am because last night Archie talked about me getting there early so we could go on a walk. That is pretty funny because he slept most of the morning away. Aaron and Matt came to visit around 9:30 am and he was awake for a while chatting with them and my sister Jessica came for a couple hours as well. He did fall asleep on them too. He said he was tired and the bed was comfortable so he was going to sleep. My goal for the morning was to get him to shower before surgery since a shower would be several days away, that happened about 12:30 pm. We knew surgery was going to happen sometime "after noon" but we waited and watched the clock for several hours. They finally came to get him around 3:15 and sent us to the waiting room around 3:45 pm. The surgery took at about an hour. He was sent to ICU for the night for monitoring. If everything goes according to plan he will be there for one night and then sent to the floor for a day or two and we will be home by the end of the week. I personally will believe it when I see it since plans within the past year have not gone accordingly.
I am planning to go to work tomorrow but will see how Archie is feeling and if he would rather me be with him. Thankfully my work has been really flexible and patient with my situation.
Thank you for all the prayers that were said for Archie and I. I really appreciate it!
This morning I got there at 7 am because last night Archie talked about me getting there early so we could go on a walk. That is pretty funny because he slept most of the morning away. Aaron and Matt came to visit around 9:30 am and he was awake for a while chatting with them and my sister Jessica came for a couple hours as well. He did fall asleep on them too. He said he was tired and the bed was comfortable so he was going to sleep. My goal for the morning was to get him to shower before surgery since a shower would be several days away, that happened about 12:30 pm. We knew surgery was going to happen sometime "after noon" but we waited and watched the clock for several hours. They finally came to get him around 3:15 and sent us to the waiting room around 3:45 pm. The surgery took at about an hour. He was sent to ICU for the night for monitoring. If everything goes according to plan he will be there for one night and then sent to the floor for a day or two and we will be home by the end of the week. I personally will believe it when I see it since plans within the past year have not gone accordingly.
I am planning to go to work tomorrow but will see how Archie is feeling and if he would rather me be with him. Thankfully my work has been really flexible and patient with my situation.
Thank you for all the prayers that were said for Archie and I. I really appreciate it!
To Work, that is the question... and Surgery Tomorrow
Today I went back to work. I am out of sick time and used quite a bit of vacation time in our visits in June and July to Baylor. This weekend after we found out Archie was going to have another surgery, we had a discussion about whether he wanted me to be with him this week while he was in the hospital or whether he wanted to try to go on a vacation later this year. At this point it has been almost a year since this situation started and we have not been anywhere or had a vacation at any point. So I am going to take tomorrow off for the surgery and recruited Archie's mom and step dad to come spend the days for the rest of the week with Archie so I can work Wednesday-Friday.
Archie said today went by quickly which is always good news. Thank you to Amanda and Brent for coming to visit him, I know that distracted him and made the time go by quickly. Below is a picture gifts Archie received - an autographed baseball and Captain.
Tonight for his last regular meal before surgery was a steak. After 7 am he is not allowed anything to eat which will make the it be a long day for him.
Archie's surgery is tomorrow in the afternoon but we do not have a time yet, sometime after the neurosurgeon finishes his first surgery of the day. The doctor will cut a half dollar size hole in Archie's skull to remove the catheter. The procedure should be about an hour and he will microscopically remove the catheter.
I forgot to tell everyone that Archie ended up not having meningitis. They could never get it to grow. He had elevated white blood cell levels, his protein and glucose were out of whack, his headache and neck ache were the indicators. So they took him off the antibiotics for the meningitis yesterday and switched him back to oxacillin. The other news is that once Archie gets released from the hospital we get to restart the 6 weeks of oxacillin again. GRRR! Not what I wanted to hear but hey, I am getting good at it plus if anyone ever needs help Archie or I can give you a hand.
Please say prayers for him tomorrow. Thank you in advance.
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| Autographed baseball by Brent Craig - hilarious! |
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| He is so nice to humor me with this picture. |
Archie's surgery is tomorrow in the afternoon but we do not have a time yet, sometime after the neurosurgeon finishes his first surgery of the day. The doctor will cut a half dollar size hole in Archie's skull to remove the catheter. The procedure should be about an hour and he will microscopically remove the catheter.
I forgot to tell everyone that Archie ended up not having meningitis. They could never get it to grow. He had elevated white blood cell levels, his protein and glucose were out of whack, his headache and neck ache were the indicators. So they took him off the antibiotics for the meningitis yesterday and switched him back to oxacillin. The other news is that once Archie gets released from the hospital we get to restart the 6 weeks of oxacillin again. GRRR! Not what I wanted to hear but hey, I am getting good at it plus if anyone ever needs help Archie or I can give you a hand.
Please say prayers for him tomorrow. Thank you in advance.
Donuts Anyone?
This morning I slept in until 7:15 because I a certain destination in mind for breakfast that didn't open until 8 am. This morning I stopped at Hypnotic Donuts (http://www.hypnoticdonuts.com) for some breakfast, they are known for their creative donuts. I got a chicken sandwich and some donuts see below:
So I headed to the hospital with a delicious breakfast. We spent the morning hanging out and went for a long walk. My sister came up and brought Lennys for lunch, an old favorite. Then I ran to the store when they were playing Skip Bo. Derek came to visit Archie while I was gone. We then headed downstairs to mass in the chapel. Afterwards, we headed upstairs to play some more Skip Bo. Then we left to make some returns and pick up dinner. Then after dinner we went for another walk and Kevin came to visit Archie. I wanted to share a picture of what Archie's penthouse suite at the hospital looks like, the best view we have had while he was in the hospital. Please ignore the blinds in the picture, they are permanent and you cannnot do anything besides close they and open them.
So I headed to the hospital with a delicious breakfast. We spent the morning hanging out and went for a long walk. My sister came up and brought Lennys for lunch, an old favorite. Then I ran to the store when they were playing Skip Bo. Derek came to visit Archie while I was gone. We then headed downstairs to mass in the chapel. Afterwards, we headed upstairs to play some more Skip Bo. Then we left to make some returns and pick up dinner. Then after dinner we went for another walk and Kevin came to visit Archie. I wanted to share a picture of what Archie's penthouse suite at the hospital looks like, the best view we have had while he was in the hospital. Please ignore the blinds in the picture, they are permanent and you cannnot do anything besides close they and open them.
Moving Day
I brought breakfast early because my sister was moving today. When I got to the hospital, Archie was trying to sleep because he was up for an hour and a half due to a beeping IV bag. He called the nurses twice and the tech showed up, who had to get the nurse. Needless to say, it was an ordeal. I went back to my sister's to help her move the big furniture. We went from Dallas to Frisco for a couch and to Plano to her new house. Thankfully she had moved most of her stuff but it was a busy morning. After that I ran home to grab a few things I forgot before I headed to the hospital. I got there around 2ish. Later Joshua Ward came to visit with Archie and Archie even got to show him the Baylor hands display, Archie will gladly give you a tour. It is a bunch of bronzed hands of. Adios famous people. Then my sister came up for a visit. We grabbed dinner and had a romantic dinner in the hospital. We visited for a little while and left around 8ish so we could go get a desk from her friend's house. I can say that I am done with the moving business for a while. Archie is doing pretty good overall. He has headaches but nothing like Thursday plus they are giving him drugs for the pain.
Just When You Think Everything is Going Good...
That is the story of the Stewarts' lives. Just when I was telling everyone who asked that Archie is doing good, working , life is getting back to normal. The wheels fly off.
Thursday morning Archie developed a headache and it got increasing worse throughout the day so about 3 pm he sent me a text that he had a headache and was heading home. I told him to try to take a nap and take some Tylenol. Well when I got home from work he was in intense pain with no relief so he called the Infectious Disease doctor to find out his thoughts on the situation. We ate dinner and started packing for the hospital and after a little while the doctor called back and told us to head to Baylor. Archie told him he had a huge headache and neck pain and the doctor told him to get a lumbar puncture because he might have meningitis.
On the way to the hospital on the tollway I was driving when I saw people ahead of me start slamming on their brakes. I slammed on my brakes and thought I was going to rear end the car in front of me by was able to find an opening between cars to give me space to stop. Thankfully we were fine but as we started driving and on our right in the median it looked like a car had flipped a couple of times because there was debris in the right lane, the windshield was destroyed and the side airbags were deployed. Archie tried to call 911 but was put on hold while he had to wait for an operator. I could not stop my heart from pounding because I thought we were going to be part of the accident. I am thankful we were fine and pray that no one was hurt.
When we got to the ER we had to wait in the waiting room for an hour, you would think we would have some type of platinum status at Baylor by now where we could skip the line but no such luck. Archie started feeling pretty bad in the waiting room. We spent the night in the ER and he had all sorts of testing, lumbar punctures, the works I tell you. I didn't go to the house to sleep because he started randomly throwing up. They did give him a "cocktail" to help with the pain which was morphine, Benadryl and anti-nausea which made him act drunk because he was slurring his words, talking the nurses ears off and then after a while knocked him out so he got quite a bit of sleep this
morning. They did diagnose him with meningitis,we are still waiting to find out if it was viral or
bacterial. He got admitted and is now on the floor. The neurosurgeon came by and we discussed his
concerns which were the catheter in his brain and the need for another shunt. In his judgement he
thinks we should surgically remove the catheter since Archie's body seems to not like foreign objects
in it which cause infections. So most likely Tuesday Archie will have a craniotomy and
microscopically remove the catheter. In regards to the shunt we will wait and see.
So please pray for Archie on Tuesday that the surgery goes well and that he has a speedy recovery.
He will most likely be in the hospital until surgery day because the infectious disease doctor will
want to keep an eye on him. We should know more tomorrow when we see him.
Thank you to Sloan for letting me stay with her throughout the many hospital trips, it saves me so much time and gas money to be able to stay in Dallas. The 45 minute drive one way would have killed me if I had to do that daily. I told her that I am the annoying roommate who you just can't get rid of.
Thursday morning Archie developed a headache and it got increasing worse throughout the day so about 3 pm he sent me a text that he had a headache and was heading home. I told him to try to take a nap and take some Tylenol. Well when I got home from work he was in intense pain with no relief so he called the Infectious Disease doctor to find out his thoughts on the situation. We ate dinner and started packing for the hospital and after a little while the doctor called back and told us to head to Baylor. Archie told him he had a huge headache and neck pain and the doctor told him to get a lumbar puncture because he might have meningitis.
On the way to the hospital on the tollway I was driving when I saw people ahead of me start slamming on their brakes. I slammed on my brakes and thought I was going to rear end the car in front of me by was able to find an opening between cars to give me space to stop. Thankfully we were fine but as we started driving and on our right in the median it looked like a car had flipped a couple of times because there was debris in the right lane, the windshield was destroyed and the side airbags were deployed. Archie tried to call 911 but was put on hold while he had to wait for an operator. I could not stop my heart from pounding because I thought we were going to be part of the accident. I am thankful we were fine and pray that no one was hurt.
When we got to the ER we had to wait in the waiting room for an hour, you would think we would have some type of platinum status at Baylor by now where we could skip the line but no such luck. Archie started feeling pretty bad in the waiting room. We spent the night in the ER and he had all sorts of testing, lumbar punctures, the works I tell you. I didn't go to the house to sleep because he started randomly throwing up. They did give him a "cocktail" to help with the pain which was morphine, Benadryl and anti-nausea which made him act drunk because he was slurring his words, talking the nurses ears off and then after a while knocked him out so he got quite a bit of sleep this
morning. They did diagnose him with meningitis,we are still waiting to find out if it was viral or
bacterial. He got admitted and is now on the floor. The neurosurgeon came by and we discussed his
concerns which were the catheter in his brain and the need for another shunt. In his judgement he
thinks we should surgically remove the catheter since Archie's body seems to not like foreign objects
in it which cause infections. So most likely Tuesday Archie will have a craniotomy and
microscopically remove the catheter. In regards to the shunt we will wait and see.
So please pray for Archie on Tuesday that the surgery goes well and that he has a speedy recovery.
He will most likely be in the hospital until surgery day because the infectious disease doctor will
want to keep an eye on him. We should know more tomorrow when we see him.
Thank you to Sloan for letting me stay with her throughout the many hospital trips, it saves me so much time and gas money to be able to stay in Dallas. The 45 minute drive one way would have killed me if I had to do that daily. I told her that I am the annoying roommate who you just can't get rid of.
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