October 11,2011

Good Evening!,

Don awoke around 4AM with terrible pain.  My Mom massaged his legs a lot and got the nurse getting some pain meds in him.  Of course they could only give him meds that would be put in the IV because of it being surgery day he was not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight.  I arrived at 5:20AM and Mom and Don were both sleeping.  Mom had already gotten him washed up and his teeth brushed earlier so he was ready to go to surgery.  We had the nurse give him his 3mg. of Dilaudid so he would be more comfortable and not so agitated.  I also did the usual essential oil pre-surgery protocol and also put Peace & Calming with Idaho Balsam Fir on him for added comfort.  It all worked beautifully.  By 6:05AM they came to get him for surgery.

He was only in surgery less than an hour and the doctor said that his wound looked clean and the stitches he put in at the last surgery were holding well.  He still has about 8 cm undermining left to heal up before he can consider closing the wound.  He estimates another 5-7 days more and then he will go in for another surgery to attempt closing the wound.

Again, after surgery when Donnie got to his room he was in terrible pain.  We finally discovered that he has to tell the recovery room that he has some level of pain even if he really doesn't because it gets away from him in a matter of minutes when he returns to his room.  Then because it is at the time of a shift change and the new orders are not available yet for the drugs and they have to hook his bed and vital sign machines up it takes about an hour before they give him anything for pain.  As a result we all had about 5 hours of pure hell to live through.
I didn't really appreciate the new nurse today from the start and I truly hated her attitude of "power" and trying to change things and at the same time not giving Donnie anything for pain.  My Mom and I and her almost got into it at one point but we finally came to an agreement and Donnie made the final decision to take his previous meds since the Doctor that needed to be consulted for new meds was in the operating room.  My patience is running very thin today and I am not handling the stress very well anymore.  I think I am going to go home early today to try to distress somehow.

We are flying Mom back home on Saturday morning so pray that Donnie shows huge signs of improvement by then.  If he still needs a lot of extra help we will have to come up with a Plan B for help.  We thank Mom for her fabulous help and the awesome care she has given Donnie for four complete weeks!  What a sacrifice she has made in so many ways!

Today our friend Pat Fowler finished the new steps, landing and ramp on our home in Mesa, Arizona.  He sent a picture from his phone and it looks absolutely fabulous!!!!!  Now, all we need to do is get Donnie well enough to go home and everything should be set in place.  God has truly worked many miracles in this situation so far and we are so humbled and grateful to each and every person that has listened to God's voice and coming to our aid!  God knows we could not do this on our own, it is definitely a team effort.

Donnie's legs really hurt him and even though he had surgery today he still forced himself to sit up on the side of the bed twice.  He really wanted his hair washed thoroughly and also wanted me to shave him.  So while Mom was back at the hotel resting and showering this afternoon I took care of these personal items for him.  He just loves being spruced up.

Please keep praying and believing for creative miracles.

We love you so much,
Don & Carol Schirr and Mom (Sharon Zelinko)