These pictures were taken on Tuesday before we left to come home. The picture of Roger's belly shows the different bandages. The one in the center of his chest covers an incision about 7 inches long. The bandages on his sides cover chest tubes and the feeding tube. All the black and blue bruises on his stomach are from heparin shots he had to have twice a day in his belly to thin his blood to help prevent blood clots. Between those shots and the blood sugar tests twice a day, Roger was starting to feel like a pin cushion. Its a good thing that we escaped the hospital when we did!

As you can see from the pictures, Roger has lost a lot of weight. In person, you can really see the weight loss in his face and his upper body. His poor skinny bird legs are even skinnier. Its going to be a slow process getting him back to square one especially since getting him to eat more than a bite or two is challenging.

I was able to hook Roger up to the feeding tube pump with no mishaps (HUGE considering our bad luck!). Its quiet the event as you have to clean and flush the tube sticking out of his belly, then hook up the bag with the feeding substance, prime the tubing and then hook to Roger, and turn on the machine. Meanwhile hoping to not spill a dip of this smelly stuff on Roger or on any of the furniture. And it is really smelly stuff.

This morning we had to go to the infectious disease clinic to get an IV-antibiotic treatment, pick up our home supplies, and for me to learn from the nurse how to hook up the antibiotics to Roger's semi-permanent IV picc line. Talk about intimidating....several steps to remember with cleanliness/hygiene being of greatest importance because these lines go straight into Roger's blood stream. We have a week's worth of antibiotics - heavy duty high-powered stuff. The antibiotics are to continue to fight any infection from the stomach bile and to prevent any future infection.

I never would have imagined that we would have been through as much as we have. Likewise, I never would have imagined that I would be hooking Roger up to feeding tubes, IVs, etc. Life takes you in interesting directions.

Last night was a night of broken sleep in increments of a couple hours at a time. Lots of arranging and rearranging of pillows and bedding. I anticipate there will be more of that tonight. Roger is very uncomfortable and spends a good portion of his time awake trying to find the magic, ever illusive "comfortable position". Hopefully with each passing day, some of the discomfort will abate.

The newness of being home should wear off by tomorrow. I hope that a little bit of a "normal" routine will settle in... I hope that the unsettled feeling goes away.

~ Angie