 |
| He called the antibiotics his baby bottle. He had to wear this blue purse pouch (the strap shown) to hold the bottle so it didn't dangle out of his arm. |
Jared received a PICC line to receive his antibiotics for the staph infection. A PICC line is an IV that goes through the vein in your arm all the way up to your arterial line. He had a little bottle of antibiotic medication hooked up to that IV 24 hours a day for 9 weeks. The only time he could unplug it was to shower. When he showered, we had to wrap up his arm really tight with saran wrap and tape to keep it from getting wet. Getting it wet could cause the area to get infected. We had to be really careful with that IV because any contamination would go straight into his blood system. The bottles of antibiotics had to be changed out once a day, and his IV had to be flushed with saline and heparin (to keep it from getting clogged). And you'll never guess who got the job of doing all of this! I felt like a pro by this point managing his meds, but this was something I hated doing! I was worried I wouldn't clip the IVs off tight, that something dirty would touch the end, that I would flush it out to fast or slow, you name it! There's a reason I didn't go into the medical profession like both my sisters! I can't handle this stuff! But I figured if they were trusting me to do it right, it couldn't be too bad.
The infection did a number on Jared. When I say it did a number, that is a GROSS UNDERSTATEMENT! He was so determined to get back to work right away. Because he had had a seizure the night of the 8th of December, he was now unable to drive himself. About 10 days after his second surgery, I dropped him off at work after his treatment. I think we were all keeping our fingers crossed. His brother, Brian, called from Oregon to see if he was holding up okay at work. About an hour later I received a call from him that he was on his way home. He had called his other brother, Neil, to come pick him up.
We decided that he needed to take it easy and just re-assess the situation week by week. The holiday season was definitely a blur. We focused on finishing up the radiation treatments and getting him over the infection.
January was a month we'd also like to forget. Jared felt absolutely horrible from the antibiotics. We continued to drive up to Huntman Cancer Institute every day to finish up his treatments. But there is one day in particular that I will never forget. Jared had an appointment with his Infectious Disease doctor. It was up at University Hospital early in the morning. We got the older kids off to school and drove up for the appointment. The infection had set his rehab back quite a bit, so we valeted the car, got the two little kids out (at this point Drew was 2 and Averie was 8 months), I put Averie in the stroller, and Jared had to be pushed in a wheelchair. But I couldn't push both the stroller and the wheelchair! I will never forget pushing Jared while my two-year-old pushed the stroller that he couldn't see over! I think it took us 20 minutes to walk the short distance to the office. It was a disaster!!!
One of the reasons for the wheelchair was that Jared had started to have extreme pain in his right leg. He bruised so easily from his blood thinners that he thought he had a deep thigh bruise. But the pain was getting so bad that he could no longer walk on it. One day while he was at his radiation appointment, he decided to have an ultrasound on his leg to make sure it wasn't anything else. They found that he had a solid blood clot from his groin to his ankle. I didn't even know that was possible! He spent three solid weeks on his back because it was too painful to walk. They had even given him morphine at the clinic and it didn't touch the pain. He finally figured out that when he walked, it was pinching his sciatic nerve. The pain was so bad that he didn't drink anything because he didn't want to have to go to the bathroom. So when I say he spent three weeks on his back, I'm not exaggerating!
The three weeks on his back definitely took a toll on Jared emotionally. I could tell he was starting to get depressed, and there were a couple days where he broke down. In our ten years of marriage, I've never seen him break down. Once the treatments finished, he didn't leave the house much, and he felt like he was missing out on everything. One night in particular I came home from a "Meet the Jazz player" night with Jace for Junior Jazz. This was something that Jared had always done with him. I got home and he was so frustrated that he was missing out on everything. And he wasn't working at all, he felt horrible, and he just felt really useless. There was another incident where I was exhausted and Jared said he had to get out of the house right away. He didn't care what we did, he just needed to get out. So we basically went and drove around for a couple hours.
January seemed to be my rough month as well. I was mentally and physically exhausted, Averie was STILL waking up at night, so I wasn't sleeping well at night, and I remember feeling like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. There were days where I was literally findng it hard to catch my breath. And I tried not to think about much because I knew it would push me over the edge.
 |
| The I.M. doctor sent us to get Jared's arterial flow in his leg checked. These are the cute little numbers they had him wear. |
