Annie: First, a funny story…on Friday (5/5) late at night the Star Wars movie marathon that Matt had been watching switched over to women’s pro wrestling while he was snoozing. He was on some heavy pain medication for the muscle pain from surgery, which caused significant drowsiness and a bit of disorientation/confusion. He recalled to me the next day (5/6) that he had awoken a little bit and glancing at the TV and seeing the lady wrestlers thought to himself in disappointment, “Oh George (Lucas), what are you doing? I know Episode Two was bad, but why did you tank the franchise with an Alice in Wonderland and lady wrestler section? “
Matt needed pain medication a few times over (5/6) and each time it made him really sleepy and pretty disoriented so that it made it difficult to get out of bed much. Prior to his surgery to put in the PEG (feeding tube) and esophageal stent he had been cleared by physical therapy and occupational therapy to move around with only having standby assistance, but after surgery and a physical therapy reevaluation was put on higher assistance requirements. My thought is that a combination Matt’s surgery pain, the pain medication and Matt’s high-vigilance and caution with his new tube has made him less steady/coordinated and that as the healing takes place, meds are ended and he gets used to his new gadget, he’ll steadily improve. In fact, today (5/7) we’ve seen his alertness and independence improve since he’s been off of pain medication.
Yesterday and today Matt has needed some IV electrolytes to help rebalance his levels as he’s now able to take in significantly more nutrition by mouth as well as tube feed. The doctor said that he is permitted to eat as much as he wants by mouth (still soft foods so that no large pieces of food get lodged in the stent area), and that they’re expecting that we can go home tomorrow as long as his electrolyte level of phosphorous keeps trending upward. A blood test tomorrow morning will be the determiner whether we can go home or whether Matt needs more IV. The doctor also wants Matt to try to get up and walk around more today, so I’m gonna do my best as his spotter, coach and cheerleader!
Although this hospital stay is wearisome, we have had excellent care and have appreciated this extended time to just be together and talk through how things have been going in our lives and how we want them to go in the future and to consider further how God is leading us and drawing us near to Him.
Our specific prayer requests are for Matt’s phosphorous levels to improve, for the targeted treatment for cancer to arrive as quickly as possible and for Matt to be relieved from hiccups when he eats as it causes some additional discomfort around his tube.
Matt & Annie - Journey 