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.
What have we been up to?
We have been getting back into our normal routine. Archie is doing good. He is settling into life with an antibiotic buddy. He has only snagged the IV line once on a door handle but otherwise he has done well be conscious about where it is. Most of the time his antibiotic travels in his shorts pocket. We are settling into a life where we are trying to get home by 8 pm so he can shower and then swap out the antibiotic. I am back to work full-time this week which I am happy about, I am tired of using vacation and sick time. But I definitely would not miss being at the hospital or his doctors' appointments. Archie has been removed from his blood pressure medicine since he has been released. The doctors are thinking that maybe the shunt/infection was making his blood pressure be elevated. He is working some but with the limitation of how much he can lift his job responsibilities has been limited to mostly computer work. Thank goodness Matt and Chris are able to do all the lifting and labor aspect of jobs. This weekend Archie got a haircut to even up his hair since they buzzed the area where they cut in to remove the shunt.
Tuesday and my Birthday
Tuesday morning I went to work for half of a day while Archie went to a training in the morning. That afternoon we went to the infectious disease office to get the dressing changed, blood drawn and 7 days worth of antibiotics. Thank goodness they changed the dressing because the tape was peeling off and barely on his arm. He got home and proceeded to take a 2 hour nap. That night I babysat and got to spend the evening with Patrick and Aubree while the Craigs went to a training. It was a good night and Archie hungout at the house. I rushed home afterwards to take care of Archie's lines.
Wednesday was my birthday! I had a wonderful day, I started it opening presents from Archie. Below is a picture of my new purse and perfume.
Wednesday was my birthday! I had a wonderful day, I started it opening presents from Archie. Below is a picture of my new purse and perfume.
My co-worker, Ros made sausage ball for breakfast. Then for lunch we went to the Porch for a delicious lunch and then for dessert Lindsey made a peach crisp. It was a great birthday celebration at work.
Archie made a visit to a client's house this morning. He met his friend Joshua for lunch and then took a nap this afternoon. He is working half or partial days for now. He is limited with his lifting since he has the PICC line and is only able to lift a gallon of milk with his right arm. So his work options are not as busy and mostly limited to computer work. This evening Archie met me at Perry for dinner. It was amazing and very tasty. I would definitely recommend it. What a fabulous birthday!
Weekend and Monday
Archie is feeling good. He is not having any issues or pain to deal with. This weekend we worked around the house (yes, Archie should not be but he doesn't always listen to me). We went to the Boyte's house for Kevin's birthday celebration but had to bail out early because we had to head home for an antibiotic swtich. Sunday we did some more work around the house, Archie was working on the water hose attached to the house and after many trips to Lowes it was fixed. I mowed, trimmed trees and painted the window. Sunday night we went to dinner at the Oceannaire with my family to celebrate birthday week for the Gruninger girls (my sisters and I all celebrate our within a week).
Monday morning we got up and ate breakfast and then headed to Baylor to see Archie's neurosurgeon to get the stitches removed and break up with the neurosurgeon again. He told us he hopes to not see us again but if there are issues in the future to call him. We grabbed some lunch and then we headed to work. Tomorrow we go to the infectious disease doctor in the afternoon to get a week of antibiotics, get some blood pulled, clean the PICC line area and see the doctor. Below is a picture of Archie's head tonight after the stitches were removed:
Monday morning we got up and ate breakfast and then headed to Baylor to see Archie's neurosurgeon to get the stitches removed and break up with the neurosurgeon again. He told us he hopes to not see us again but if there are issues in the future to call him. We grabbed some lunch and then we headed to work. Tomorrow we go to the infectious disease doctor in the afternoon to get a week of antibiotics, get some blood pulled, clean the PICC line area and see the doctor. Below is a picture of Archie's head tonight after the stitches were removed:
It's Friday
Today we got up early because we had an A/C company coming to replace our current A/C. Our current unit was the small "builder" unit that was put in when the house was built and just isn't big enough to keep our house cool in the summer. Since Archie was going to home all day long he took advantage of the situation. So Archie stayed at the house with the guys while they replaced the unit. This afternoon I went to work for another half day. My sister Jessica come over with my nephew Colter to keep Archie company after Colter woke up from a nap this afternoon. It was a pretty low key, hot day for Archie. Monday morning Archie is going to get his stitches removed from his head at an appointment with his neurosurgeon. I think he is going to work part time next week before he jumps back into work full-time. With the PICC line in his right arm he is limited in how much he lifts, he cannot lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk so he will be doing more computer work than manual labor.
Thursday
This morning we woke up early and I made breakfast. After breakfast we to Lowes for a few odds and ends and then headed to Addison to visit a distributor that was having a grand opening sale. I saw my dad's college buddy who is a rep so we were able to chat while Archie was shopping. We headed home to meet an A/C guy to look at our house because it is nice and toasty in our house. My sister Emily came over around 11 am so we could get lunch before I went to work. We ate lunch and then I left Archie and Emily for the afternoon. They ran some errands, hungout at the house and even went for a walk in the heat. He took a little rest while I was on the way home. I came home for dinner and that is all there is on the schedule tonight besides my first unsupervised antibiotic swap. Of course Archie will be watching my every move so I guess I should have said my mom won't be supervising me tonight. It was a pretty busy day for Archie so he is pretty tired but overall a good day.
Below is a picture of Archie's antibiotic and the pouch that he travels with 24 hours a day. It is just like a baby bottle essentially. There is a balloon of drug that deflates throughout the day. The one in the picture is a brand new bottle. My mom is trying to get him to name the antibiotic and pouch since it will be with us for several more weeks. If you have any suggestions let me know... just kidding!
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Below is a picture of Archie's antibiotic and the pouch that he travels with 24 hours a day. It is just like a baby bottle essentially. There is a balloon of drug that deflates throughout the day. The one in the picture is a brand new bottle. My mom is trying to get him to name the antibiotic and pouch since it will be with us for several more weeks. If you have any suggestions let me know... just kidding!
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