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Death Panels

I have been anxiously watching the healthcare debate in hopes that both sides will give a little and we can get a compromise between all private and government run health care. This week this issue of "Death Panels" came out of nowhere and seems to be occupying the debate. While I don't believe that anything in this debate where there is SO much money on the line happens by chance, it is at least worth talking about.

Doctors do not like to talk about end of life care. We spend so much time trying to keep people alive with one more procedure or one more test in hopes of finding the magic bullet. It feels like the enemy lurking at the end every hallway.

I saw this week a sad example of waiting too long to have an honest discussion about end of life care. I "met" an elderly man who had long since shed any remaining parts of humanity and had become mostly machine. He was completely unresponsive and was drowning in his own saliva. He had not had a frank discussion with his doctors prior to getting sick about what kind of heroic measures he wanted. I am quite sure that if he had been conscious enough to make a decision he would have begged for the welcome relief from his worn out body.

It is no secret that we spend a ton of money on medical care in the last month of life. The number approaches 40% of every healthcare dollar spent. There are ethical issue here and no one is denying that. I believe, however, if the doctor and the patient would just sit down and have a frank discussion about end of life care, that a lot of wasted pain, suffering and money could be saved.

The patient, not the doctor, will be the one to decide when enough is enough. But the doctor and the patient need to talk more about it.

I can't understand why this is such an explosive issue. If you know anything about healthcare, you know that no one is going to pull the plug on grandma until the pt or the family member are darn well ready.

I hope that this coming week can be filled with a real debate about something actually found in one of the proposed bills. We don't need to make things up to debate about, there is plenty already there.

P Town Here We Come

Nope, I don't mean Provo. I mean Private. I never thought this day would come, but here it is.

Send me an email or leave me a comment with your email address if you would like an invitation to read our blog. Seriously, even if you are a blog stalker from a friend of a friend, let me know. We love being able to share our craziness with everyone-- just not crazy people :)

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I'll be changing it on August 18

Chao!

Home Again, Home Again

Yay! We're home! Caleb did really well last night and this morning, so they discharged him this afternoon. He's been such a trooper and we're so proud of him. He periodically pulls up his shirt, points to his new belly button and says, "Owies", but he's distracted pretty easily and he moves on.

The real hero in all of this though, is my mother-in-law. Pete's mom came down Friday night and stayed with Caleb for the night. It's one thing for grandparents to take the kids for a weekend trip, but it's another thing all together to come hang out in the hospital with a sick kid. Especially given that Caleb had just spent the day throwing up all over the place-- she was willing to handle it! Pete and I were able to sleep at home Friday night and it was the break we so desperately needed.

Between my parents coming up to stay with us on Wednesday and Pete's mom coming on Friday, we don't know how to appropriately show our thanks. You guys were wonderful!

Thanks for the support and prayers and words of comfort. We're hoping this is the last stay at CHOP for... umm... ever? Keep your fingers crossed.

Post-Op Day 2

Caleb has been having a little bit of trouble keeping food down-- and by a little bit of trouble, I mean, he's not keeping anything at all down.

He seems to go through cycles:

~Wake up happy

~Want to play

~Drink something

~Keep playing

~Realize that eating was a bad idea

~Get lethargic

~Throw up

~Go to sleep

So far we're staying positive and assuming that he just has an ileus which is rather common after surgery. It's a temporary paralysis of the intestines and it fixes itself on its own-- it just takes time. We're about to go down to have an X-ray of his abdomen, just to make sure that it's not anything more. (Plus we really just love spending tax payer money on medical tests-- kidding!)

Yesterday we were totally bummed that they wouldn't let us out of here. We figured that we would be able to eventually get him to eat and drink all on his own and we didn't need to wait around in the hospital for it to happen. We were wrong. Today Caleb's vomiting has consisted of gastric substances, meaning he's throwing up stomach acid and bile. And it's projectile. Is that enough detail for you? It should be, because seriously, it's gross.

So please keep your fingers crossed and pray to whatever Deity you pray to that Caleb will be able to keep his food down and his body will start functioning normally. We're ever so grateful that it's NOT something serious, but we would like to skip out on this joint.

He's hanging in there like the tough guy that he is, but it's sad to see him so defeated. We like the loud, obnoxious Caleb-- not the sad, lethargic one. And yes, you can remind me that I said that when he turns 13.

Post-op

Caleb went through the surgery really well. He slept most of the day yesterday. My Mom and Dad came up to spend the day with him, which allowed Pete and I to get out of here for a little while.

He's thrown up every time he's had anything to eat, so we're just waiting for him to be able to keep food down before they can discharge us. Keep your fingers crossed!

Family Fun

This past weekend we had two fantastic family gatherings on Pete's side of the family. We ate food, we played cards, we ate food, we told family stories, we ate food, we laughed at family jokes. And then we ate some food. I think that's how it went... I'm in a bit of a food coma. We're talking crabs, cheesecake, hamburgers, sausage, pasta salad, potato salad, seven layer bean dip, mint oreo brownies, I could go on....

Every year Pete's Grandma Knickerbocker's side of the family (I think... give me a break, I'm "new" at this) gets together for an annual crabfest. They all sit around a table and eat crabs-- for hours-- which means they get about 8 ounces of crab meat in total. Just kidding-- they are much more efficient at eating crabs than I am. I love this tradition though, because they do it at a time of year when there are not any holidays, so no one has any other obligations. Pete's cousins, Aunts and Uncles all come in and we have a blast. I'm really hoping that we'll be able to make it when we are who knows where for residency.

Anyway, this year, we added an extra get together, with another side of the family-- don't ask me how they are related-- its taken me this long to figure out the crabfest. :)

We all went out to Pete's parent's place and had a great cookout (see, more food!) and the cousins all played the in pool together. Caleb was completely soaked, several times. But he loved it!

So thanks Knickerbockers for being such a fun family :) I sure do love y'all.

He posed this way all on his own.

I swear he had a cute outfit on before he found the water!

But how can you complain with that grin?

****In other news, Caleb goes in for surgery tomorrow morning at 6:00 am. We should be in the hospital for one day, maybe two, provided everything goes as planned (which is silly, since we don't really have a plan). If they find that they have to resection part of the bowel, we'll be there for three or four days. All I can say is modern medicine is amazing!****