A Million Thank You’s

I am just returning from vacation. My mom/dad and doctors convinced us to go as Andy was doing quite “well” (such a relative term, isn’t it…) before we left. Also, as a mother of 4 it was good to reconnect with my family after a month spent at the hospital.

First of all, I want to start out by sending a HEARTFELT thank you to each and every one of you that offered words of advice, kind thoughts, prayers, and shared your stories with me. It literally brought tears to my eyes to see the outpouring of care and concern from people who do not even know my brother. Again, I can’t tell you how much it means and how important you all are to me and to my family. God bless all of you!

Good news: Andy is doing well! He has been transferred from the ICU to a community hospital and has just had the trach removed earlier this week. He has no IV’s at this time but still has the feeding tube. However, he was given a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup for lunch yesterday that he managed just fine with (insert wild applause here!!) He’s very happy to eat/taste real food again. It was quite a shock – both good and bad – to see him after a week of worrying incessantly about him while on vacation. The good was just to see him using his wrists to bring a cup with a straw to his mouth and to hear his voice again. His face is still pins and needles and it seems like his lower lip is a bit frozen so speech is a tad bit slurred but beautiful to hear. He’s very happy to no longer have the catheter, not sure if he’s regulated his bowels yet or not as I didn’t get time to hang out with him 1:1 dut to lots of visitors. The bad shock was to see how much weight he has lost. They said he has lost 45 pounds so far but hopefully now that he is able to eat some real food he’ll gain a little back. Also, I know that some of the loss is due to muscle mass loss so hopefully with his PT and OT he’ll be gaining more muscle mass each day.

To answer a prior post, he did two rounds of the IVIG treatment. The neurologists’ at the previous hospital he was located really did not want to do plasmapheresis and said it would be a last resort only as it would undo all the “good” the IVIG’s were doing. They were consulting with a GBS expert in Hershey, PA who concurred so we were cautiously optimistic that it was a good decision for Andy. Now that he has had some recovery we are happy with the decision.

He has developed severe pain in his feet so that is the next big obstacle (one at a time, right?) to work on. More good news is that the motorcycle club he belongs to is having a benefit in his honor this Saturday. It has been good for me to help out and get involved and we are all really looking forward to this Saturday!

Lastly, I’d like to post a picture of him pre-GBS and post-GBS with his permission and if it’s ok with those on the board so that you can have a face to go with his name.

Have I mentioned how helpful you have all been? 🙂 Seriously…thank you.

Season (Andy’s sister)