Week at MDA

Flowers : MDA : FLT cleaning his board : FaceTime with the hubs :)

This past Sunday I loaded up my car, kissed my husband goodbye, and headed south to MD Anderson.    My dad, unfortunately had a longer stay in the hospital than any of us expected.  He had to get a feeding tube (J-tube), an NG tube (nasal gastric-tube) to then be replaced with a g-tube (gastric tube).  Yes, apparently they can put a tube anywhere and make it do lots of things to help your body function properly when it's not working on its own.  It was a week full of highs and lows.  We are TEAM TRAYLOR and have to stick together and lean on each other when things get rough.  We are trying to keep spirits high and know we are doing what we have to do.  My poor dad is still fighting and ready to win this battle.  I tried to cheer him up often while in the hospital room by bringing him pretty flowers, putting together a care package from random stuff I bought at Target (rubix cube, paint your own bobble heads, yahtzee, etc :) ), and giving him sweet cards.  When he would perk up, he would do things like walk around the halls and rouse the nurses and anyone else he could find!  Pure entertainment, that's for sure!  One night, he decided he wanted to clean off the dry-erase board in his room b/c it was driving him nuts!  It's the board the nurses use to write goals, and all their names, etc.  So he went to town, redrawing everything and using his hospital gown as the eraser (he didn't wear it anyway!).  Friday I got to head back home.  Adam drove down Saturday morning and then Uncle Jim made it on Sunday.  He will stay through Thursday, which is when I will head back down.  He was released from the hospital on Saturday evening :)  Now they are in an apartment for at least the next 2 weeks so they can stay close to MDA in case something heads south.  My mom is busy learning how to care for him.  Feed him, flush his tubes, pump him full of IV fluids.  It's a lot to learn and remember, but she's getting it down and each day is getting easier :)  I look forward to seeing them again in a few days!  I'm thankful I was able to go to a class with her at MDA last week on how to flush and feed.  Now I can be more helpful to them :)