2010 in the rearview mirror....December!!!

Happy 2011 to all:
I figured I would attempt to go back and look at 2010. It was a year of my life like any other; ups and downs, packing & unpacking,challenges and successes, happiness and sadness, hello's and goodbyes ...well you get it. I hope this will somewhat make-up for not being a faithful blogger :)
 Going backwards from December to January...let's do this thing!

December: The holiday season was here again and once again.. I got off to a late and slow start. I was wrapping all the gifts on Christmas eve, even the ones to be opened in a few short hours. The good was I only went out shopping three times, so except for the reindeer that poops out jellybeans, I didn't not lose any gifts or forget where I hid them. Rodney even remembered the day after Christmas,where he had put the DVD's he had bought for the family..SHREK..yeah! It's how we rock it around here...we just go with it. I actually had a great birthday out and a laid back Christmas.
I received some nice things like my little Shark vaccuum and books! My kids seemed to be appreciative of what they got...which is always nice!
Rodney once again entered treatment on Dec. 28 and will be there for 6 weeks. He seems to be taking everything more seriously and paying attention on coping skills and his triggers. The month of December gave our extended family 2 new baby girls. Rodney's cousin, Anna, had Noelle Ann and my niece Aubrey and her husband Chris, brought my great-niece and the first great-grandchild into the world on Dec. 30th. Harper RaeAnn Davis is the talk of the town and tomorrow I get to go meet her for the first time! I am ubber excited!! Connor and I took a roadtrip to south-east Iowa for New Year's eve to visit my friend Michelle (she is also a wounded vet caregiver) and her family. It was a long trip, but gave Connor and I some one-on-one time...not a bad thing for the mom of a 13 year old. We were each other's captive audience :).  The downside to this December was my Aunt Linda getting seriously sick with liver disease. We thought we were losing her a couple different times, but she is a fighter. Now we are waiting to get her on the liver transplant list. My mom has really stepped up to help get her there as she lives alone and isn't in any shape to being doing that. So like I said ups and downs....but mostly just living life and showing the love by being there for each other.

Trying to Keep Imagining! Tracy

The Georgia Experience Continued...healing,dealing and a new discovery

(Picture of Wound Vac used on wound on Rodney's leg)

For all those patient readers..I am finally back on track with the story after Rodney was wounded (Please look back from the beginning for those new readers!)

Sunday, October 22, 2006- Nothing very eventful but to be honest the days really ran together while Rod was in the hospital. I do know the weekends were much slower paced. Trying to get Rodney more mobile. He has a medical device called a wound vac
helping the large soft tissue wound on his inner right thigh heal. It is an awesome innovation! I can't even begin to explain how it works other than it heals the wound from the inside out (which is what we need to happen) and it the sponge like material inside the wound has silver in it which has healing properties. It seems to be doing its job.The wound originally was about an 1/2 inch deep but as you could have laid a pop can lengthwise in it. It has shrunk some already. The other wound is deeper but smaller around and actually most likely was the more serious of the two probably nicking the femoral artery. He is so lucky to have had the guys around him he did when the mortar attack happened. They kept him from bleeding out and did all the right things. I can never say thank you enough! Rodney is in pretty good spirits with emotional moments to be expected. He has had a lot to deal with.

Monday, October 23, 2006
OK-when I said weekends were slower paced-I wasn't kidding. On my walk over this morning I could tell by the number of cars in the parking lot and the amount of people going in and out of the building-the hop ital was hopping!

I was met in the hallway after walking in the building by one of Rod's medvac case managers. The first thing she said to me was that Rodney needed surgery-heart surgery. I was a little freaked and confused about what had happened. When I got to the room I found out that there was a new issue but surgery wasn't for sure thing.
During a cat scan the doctor's discovered something foreign in the heart-they are speculating at this point and will be running more tests to find out what it is. Very scary stuff. An echo is planned and then most likely a surgery to remove it.
Rodney is adamant that they are not cracking his chest open! I am trying to stay calm and wait to see what the doctors say. I just can't figure out why this wasn't caught before-he has had numerous cat scans in the last week or so???
He is also dealing with more pain today and his white blood cell count is high and has been for a couple days. They say most likely a sign of some sort of infection.
They removed the staples from his abdominal surgery site today and placed surgical strips instead. Rodney and I have had our moments of butting heads today-I think we both are under some STRESS!!! It is hard-I have waited so long to see him and hug him and with his injuries it is hard to even hug him. I want him to know he can talk to me about anything-he seems so closed off. I did get a call from his dr. in my room later. He has been researching what to do about the piece of metal in Rod's heart and from that research and talking to other doc's he feels that we will leave it in unless it is protruding from the muscle into one of the chambers. They have a procedure scheduled on Tuesday to hopefully get a better image. They are thinking it is a small (2cm) piece of jagged, shrapnel. The big question is one we will most likely never know the answer to is how did it get there without killing him? According to the dr's it is a very rare case and something that they can't really explain.
Alot of probably's, and most likely, maybe, we hope etc..not what we want to hear but after all he is alive and shouldn't be but through God's intervention and grace he is...so who can argue with that.

I also started making phone calls today about when Rodney would receive his Purple Heart. They many times give it to the soldiers at bedside but we would like to wait until we get home and all the family can be there. So just trying to figure all that out too as well as what happens when he is released (which after today's news it won't be as soon as we thought)

Enough for today...
Tracy, Superman's wife