Books on Health

  • Dr. Mom's Healthy Living
  • Transfiguration Diet
  • The School of Natural Healing

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

John just starting out

This is John on the first day of the program. He has in front of him the Slippery Elm Gruel. He wasn't really as "happy" as he looked eating it. He was a good boy and ate it like I asked.

Over the edge

Well, it was too much. Too much liquid, too much heat. Combination did it in for John. Luckily not permanently, but enough to put him into the hospital in the intensive care unit. Tuesday morning was not too bad. He slept in till 10 am. Bowel movements were still frequent, but they were not pure liquid. It has never really been that way. He took his pills with water, then he drank some juice. I then did his massage with Wheat Germ oil. He tolerated the sunbathing for about 21 minutes. Even the cold shower. By the way, he has been walking in grass every time he sunbathes. But throughout the day he just seemed to be getting worse. Usually driving in the car with the air conditioning would help, but this evening it didn't. I gave him some extra heart medication to see if that would help, but it didn't, so that was when I took him in.

He was showing signs of improvement in his sugars and he was continuing to slowly increase his urine output. Mentally, it seemed he was acting more of adult in his speech and his attention span. Just listening to him speak, I could hear differences in how he presented himself. It was really exciting.

He was also continuing to have problems breathing. With the hot weather on Sunday and scorching weather Monday and Tuesday, was just too much. Tuesday night, John was in panic mode as he felt he could not breathe. His oxygen saturation was at 97%, which surprised the admitting nurse. They admitted him with Congested Heart Failure and scheduled him for a dialysis treatment. While he was waiting for that to take place John still had problems breathing even though he was on as much oxygen as possible. He was still panicking. He just couldn't calm down. They gave him morphine and adapan (don't know if I spelled or said it right). It finally started working by 1:30 am when they started his treatment. They pulled off 4 1/2 kilos.

Wednesday, John was out. He slept till about 3:30 pm. He slept through Doctors poking and prodding. He had blood taken, an echo cardiogram and another dialysis treatment which pulled another 4 kilos of liquid off. Amazingly enough his injection fraction of his heart is at almost 40%. That is really good for him having CHF for over 15 years. When he first was diagnosed, his injection fraction was 10%. But the bottom line is that all the fluid he has had took a toll on him. If it wasn't for the heat, he may have been able to pull through it. 8 1/2 Kilos equals to about 17 lbs of liquid.

The downside to him going to the hospital, is that he is eating the foods we have been trying to get away from. So we just have to deal with it and when he comes home tomorrow, we will resume. It was working in so many ways, that it is worth the risk to keep going. Now he will have a little more playing room. His kidneys are starting to get rid of some of the liquid. If we keep going it will only get better.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Is it getting any easier?

I didn't have time to write Sunday. John had a really hard time with the heat and mentally he was still very restless and acting so much like a child. He was up and down so many times he could have wore a path through our carpet if I didn't have extra runners down. He still isn't getting much sleep. I did manage to get away for a little while and that helped me. I didn't get his oil massage in. He was happy.

Sunday night wasn't much different than the last few nights. Up and down and still very restless and heavy breathing. He finally got to sleep around 3. Then we got up late for dialysis. He had diarrhea there so he didn't get a full treatment. He weighed in at 133 kg.

I got him his Wheat germ oil massage around 12:30. It was going to be way too hot to do it any later even though they suggest not sunbathing during that time. He actually sat out there for the longest time yet. He got his shower-even the cold part. Only for 2 seconds. His butt was sore, I didn't put a diaper on so he could get some air. He slept for about an hour. I didn't have to cuddle with him this time.

The rest of the day was a much better day for him.. He dealt with the heat well. I had lots of fans on him. He wasn't restless or up and down. Mentally he was so much better too. It was nice. Even late into the evening as it is, he can't sleep, but he is calm. Breathing well. His urine output is increasing as well. He keeps asking me if I am sure about all this, I keep telling him I am.