I (Ron) am writing tonight in place of Laurie. She is doing an incredible job of serving John and I by sleeping with John in his hospital room tonight.
We checked into the hospital around 10 a.m. this morning. Registration took about an hour to complete. John and I played in the lobby, along with Grandma "M" while Laurie filled out the mountain of paperwork. John was checked into his room around 11:30 a.m.
For the next hour or two he was greeted by a myriad of hospital personnel asking medical questions, and giving us information on how to navigate our next 7 - 10 days in the hospital. John was finally able to eat around 1:30 p.m. and was ravenously hungry. He ate very well.
The GI doctor wants to monitor John's calorie count over the next 24 hours to determine how much he can be helped by a feeding tube. So there will be no nasal feeding tube the first night of his stay.
We were told that John couldn't go outside to play for at least a week, which made us very disappointed. We have no idea how walking the floor, playing in his room, and playing in the play room is going to satisfy John for the duration of his hospital stay...needless to say, we may all be climbing the walls after a few days.
After a long first day, all of us are already exhausted.
Tonight, the night nurse came in and told us her routine for John. She will be coming in at 11 a.m., midnight, and 4 a.m. to monitor John's vital signs. She will come in at 5 a.m. to apply a numbing agent to John's elbow and wrist areas to get him prepared for bloodwork. Needless to say, both Laurie and John will probably get very little sleep tonight.
At 6 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday morning), the nurses will come in to take John to a medical procedure room and do a large blood draw. This will help them determine organ function, etc. to help them in John's upcoming surgery. John becomes very angry when someone pokes him with a needle for bloodwork. This makes the procedure that much more difficult since when he's angry, very little blood comes out of his arm, prolonging the procedure.
The GI doctor wants to have the nurses insert John's nasal feeding tube Tuesday afternoon/evening. This is one of the events we are dreading since it can be a painful and very uncomfortable process.
The idea is that the GI doctor wants to monitor how much weight John can gain by having his diet supplemented by nutrients fed by the nasal feeding tube. If he gains weight under this scenario, then there is a good possibility that he will gain weight by using a stomach feeding tube.
Laurie and I have our doubts that John will let the feeding tube stay in his nose. We believe he will get upset and just pull it out.
As a part of this, we want to hold a contest. The goal of the contest is for you to guess how long John allows the nasal feeding tube to stay in. Please provide us with your estimate by 4 p.m. Mountain time on Tuesday.
The person guessing the closest day and time, wins several fabulous prizes. First prize is an all-expense paid trip to Darwin, a veritable metropolis in Central Minnesota (approximately 60 miles west of the Twin Cities on Hwy 12). It is only seven miles east of Litchfield, the true Lake Wobegon of fictional lore....but that's another story for another time.
While in Darwin, the lucky winner will receive a personalized tour of the largest twine ball in the world at the Twine Ball Museum.
He/she will also receive an all-you-can-eat lutefisk dinner at one of Litchfield's Norwegian Lutheran churches during the Christmas season. You may even be a guest of honor at the head table, if the Lutheran's feel like calling attention to themselves...which historically has never been the case.
So please make your predictions as early as possible. And by the way, there is no second or third prize.
Offer Terms and Conditions:
You must be present to win. No animals will be harmed in the making of the contest offer. All lutefisk ingredients are guaranteed fresh. There are no hormones or antibiotics in any of the food ingredients. Offer not valid to friends and relatives of the founder of the Twin Ball Museum. Check with the state in which you reside for any additional terms and conditions. No disrespect is intended toward the Twine Ball Museum, Lutherans or Norwegians, and toward the (few) lovers of lutefisk.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray that the insertion of the nasal feeding tube goes smoothly and that John tolerates the feeding tube well. Please also pray that John does not get angry at the nurses, and at us.
Please pray that John doesn't pull out either feeding tube, the nasal tube and the stomach tube.
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