Sunny Sunday

Things are looking great! Tom is doing wonderful. The plan is for the plastic surgeon to remove Tom's wound vac tomorrow, make sure the graft "took", and then Tom will go home. That is the plan...Tom is very cautious about getting excited because he said he will be very bummed if he can't leave. So we are hoping but being realistic that things can always change. But, he is feeling well, can get up an out of bed and after a long, irritating day on Friday his pain is well controlled. We are so grateful to all of you who have visited, called, sent texts, sent cards, e-mails, prayers, etc. You truly helped Tom's recovery. Thank you all. I will continue to write and let you know how things continue to progress. All my best to all of you!

post op

Tom came through his surgery great today! His surgery took longer than expected but the result was good. Dr. Le, the plastic surgeon was able to take skin from Tom's right thigh and graft it to the wound under Tom's right arm pit and down his right chest side. He was then able to close the part of the wound that stretched across Tom's back. (I am not exactly sure what he did to close the wound but he said it will result in less scarring in the long run.) Tom was feeling OK after surgery but his back really hurt. He is on a Dilaudid (pain med) PCA (pain controlled analgesia) so that he can give himself pain meds as he needs them. I brought the girls to see Tom this evening and he was very excited to see them. The girls actually behaved better than I would have ever expected. Hannah sat near Tom and read him two books we borrowed from the library. Tom and I are stunned by how far she has come in a year of kindergarten. It's so fun to see her and Caitlyn developing. The girls are very excited to go to CT tomorrow to visit their cousins for the weekend. I will be hanging around with Tom all weekend and getting ready for him to go home. Hopefully, early next week. It was a very long day so I am going to close but I will keep you posted on Tom's progress.

Nip/tuck...plastic surgery for Tom

Tom and I just got back from his pre-op physical at his doctor's office.
The nurse practitioner who initially saw Tom on that horrible Wed a month and
a half ago, did his exam today. Needless to say he is looking much better now
than he was back then. She was happy to see his recovery was going so well.
They did some blood work and an EKG and he is all set for his skin graft surgery on Thurs.
Last week it was decided that Tom would stay at Fairlawn until his surgery since visiting nurses felt his wound was too extensive to be taken care of at home. Tom has been cleared by PT and OT and is an independent man again (well, is any man truly independent? ;-) On Sat the girls, my parents and I took Tom out to lunch and yesterday we headed to his sister's house to celebrate Mother's Day. I am positive that the best gift his mother got this year was having him there!

They are changing his wound dressing right now and his wound looks amazing !!!! Nice and healthy. (I mean it probably looks gross to most people but people with warped minds like me and the nurses here it looks great!) Yeah!!!

So, to give you the outlook of the future happenings...Skin graft surgery will be at some point on Thurs (We won't have a time until Wed afternoon). Surgery will be back at St. Vincent's and he will likely be there for five days post-op. Then if he is strong enough he will go home. If he is a little too weak, he may come back to Fairlawn for a few days. So hopefully, within two weeks he will be home and good to go! We will keep you posted!!!

plastic surgery

I know everyone has been waiting for an update. Tom' s wound looks great and is healing well. The plastic surgeon said he would like to do the skin graft surgery this week or next...we are just waiting for the schedule. Hopefully, we will have the date set tomorrow. Once we know when the surgery will be, we will determine whether he will stay at Fairlawn til the surgery or go home for a little bit until the surgery. After the surgery, Tom will be in the hospital for 5 days and then may go back to rehab for a few days depending on how he is doing. The total healing time for the skin graft if everything goes as planned is about a month. Yipee! Please continue with the prayers and well wishes...he still needs them. Love to all. :-)

Breaking Tom out

Tom made it through the week at Fairlawn. The physical therapist and occupational therapist have cleared Tom to go home. He can walk, eat, and do all his activities of daily living himself. He is staying at Fairlawn at least through Tuesday when we go see the plastic surgeon to see when he will have his skin graft surgery. They are keeping him at the rehab hospital just because his wound is so extensive and changing its dressing is really involved. Tom spirits remain good which is half the battle. He has had a lot of visitors in between his therapies and it makes his days fly by. Yesterday the ladies (Hannah and Caitlyn) and I took Tom "out on pass" for a few hours. We took him to Hannah's soccer game, followed by a trip to Dunkin Donuts for Coolattas. We also stopped at CVS to buy a beard trimmer since Tom is growing out his "playoff beard" since the Sharks are in the AHL playoffs. He looks rather handsome with it :-) I have been crazy since returning back to work so finding time to write has been tough. I will certainly keep you all updated on what the plastic surgeons have to say. Hope everyone is well.

Fairlawn

Tom made the trek to Fairlawn Rehab Hospital on Friday evening and I made my journey back to work the same night. Tom was evaluated on Sat. by physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy (for eating purposes), and dietary (to provide optimal nutrition for healing). At this point they are thinking he will be at Fairlawn for a week to 10 days but maybe longer because he is going to go for his skin graft surgery in the near future. We have to call today to schedule appts with his general surgeon and his plastic surgeon for next week. Hopefully all will look good and the skin graft can be scheduled for early May. Tom had a busy weekend with lots of visitors...one of the most exciting visits was with Trot, our Boston terrier who has been missing his "dad" something terrible. Tom was able to get outside and enjoy some sunshine with good friends which was uplifting after being stuck inside for 3 1/2 weeks. The girls were excited to visit daddy and see him without his "rubber hose up his nose". All in all it was a good weekend...things are definitely looking up!

See Ya St. V's...Thanks for all your help1

Tom passed his swallow study today!!! He is just waiting for the "official" orders so I can go get him something to eat and drink. They will remove his feeding tube from his nose and his PICC line from his arm and he is ready to bust out of St. V's. He will be taking an ambulance ride to Fairlawn Rehab Hospital in Worcester for intense PT/OT for the next month or 2. I will continue the blog but not as frequently since not too much will be changing in the near future. Tom will see his plastic surgeon the week after next to determine a time for doing a skin graft surgery in the near future. I will keep you posted as things progress. Again, I cannot thank you all enough for your love, support, concern, and prayers through this very difficult time. We are blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. God bless you all.