When I decided to keep a journal during Tommy's surgery in December 2011, I didn't know we would have so many complications following the surgery.
My original thought was simply to help keep track of the different doctors and nurses so I could remember their names -- I'm terrible with them! As it turned out, my daily record helped me keep track of much more than that.
His first complication was not expected -- by me, at least. He absolutely could not swallow anything, and if he tried to swallow even water, he coughed for quite a bit afterwards. So my journal turned out to be helpful in letting our surgeon know exactly what made him cough.
He had a couple of different swallow tests, which necessitated visits by specialists in that field.
Finally, the decision was made to insert a gastric tube, so we had additional doctors for that!
His kidneys were not working as well as the doctors thought they should, so we saw a kidney specialist -- actually more than one doctor from the same practice!
His heart has an arrhythmia, so the heart doctors kept checking in -- and they were very helpful in monitoring his blood pressure.
And there was the "hospitalist", who was the overall director of his case.
The journal was invaluable when we got home. I showed it to our family doctor so she would know what had happened, and I shared it with the nurses at the nursing facility where he went for physical therapy and rehab.
Even if we hadn't had all of these complications, I know that just writing down procedures, blood pressures, blood sugars, doctors names, etc., helped keep me calmer and feeling at least a little bit in control. In turn, I could be calm when I explained what was happening to our children, so they could understand our situation.
And as I wrote, I often prayed - for the doctor, for Tommy's healing, for my spirit to stay positive, so it was a prayer journal as well.
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