Hi everyone! Mike's first weekend home was a little rocky. It started off really good and he was feeling great. However, we had a few setbacks...

First thing was that Mike's colostomy bag leaked into his wound. We had to call the home nurse to come and clean his wound and reattach his colostomy bag. The nurse that came was extremely nice and very knowledgeable. He told us that his wife actually went through a very similar thing and she was also left with a colostomy bag. The nurse taught me how to do everything step by step which was extremely helpful.

Second setback was a slight fever and an elevated heart rate. Mike has had a fever of around 100 every now and then. We have been keeping up with tylenol which has helped the fever a bit. His heart rate has been elevated since he got home.

Lastly, our big setback... Listen to this... Mike's nephrostomy tube was leaking out of the hole in his back. He noticed that his shirt was soaked so Tricia went to peel the bandage and found a leak. Tricia and Brady took Mike to the ER at Memorial in Chattanooga, TN. They thought they would try a different hospital since the other one had such bad memories. They got there and the doctors weren't sure what it was or what to do. They did a CT scan and found that the tube was still in the right place. The doctors said they weren't convinced that it was urine leaking? They sent him home. The leak slowed down until Sunday evening. It had leaked through his shirt again. UGH! Tricia called his original surgeon and the original urologist and had to leave a message. The urologist called back and told us not to worry about the leak and that they would get him in Monday (4/8). Tricia brought him to the appointment and they did another CT scan. They found that his tube was cracked inside of his back. The urologist thinks the tube has been cracked all along, from the moment they placed it 20 days ago. If you go back to previous updates, you will read that 24 hours after they placed the nephrostomy tube, it leaked that night. Basically, he has been leaking urine this entire time. We are not doctors but maybe that's what they saw on the CT scan when they noticed the hematoma? Maybe it is just a pocket of urine... So, the urologist decided the tube needed to be replaced. They took Mike back and tried to lightly sedate him for this procedure since he is still so weak. Unfortunately, being a redhead (we require more anesthesia and more pain meds) he was fully awake the entire time and felt everything. They took the cracked tube out and replaced it with a new tube that was even bigger than the last one. Hopefully, this will fix the issue.

Mike's still having a hard time breathing but his pain has subsided quite a bit (until yesterday). I guess we will keep playing the waiting game. He has an appointment tomorrow to check up on everything. Hopefully we get good news back from that. I have been playing nurse and have been cleaning and changing his wound bandages daily. I also have been giving his medication for his sepsis through his PICC line daily.

We are still so grateful for everyone's prayers and support. We love you all so very much! Please reach out to Mike since he gets a bit bored at home and would love to chat or text! Thank you thank you thank you!