AlamoPA Mailing List: Update on Joe Cook

[Clara Cook (santa.baby]

Hi Everybody,

Just wanted to let you know the last 2 ½  weeks have been crazy. Started off Joe got home from

the hospital on Wed. afternoon, Aug. 5^th.  Was doing real good, we were walking him with the walker a couple

times a day in the house. Then everything changed on Mon. Aug. 10^th, that hurricane winds hit at 1:00 pm. our lights went out so we sat in the dark Mon. night, then my daughter Lisa, in Urbana got her power back on Mon. evening sometime, so they came over Tues. morning and moved Joe and me over to there house, plus all of the food out of our refrigerator and freezer. We had no power and no phone service. I had no computer for days,

finally I just got my computer working, and emails on Mon. the 17^th. and finally got phone service on Thurs.

afternoon, the 20^th. Of course, Joe didn’t have dialysis Monday night with no power, so we stayed with Lisa Tues. night, then our power came back on Wed. afternoon in Center Point, and he had a appointment at 3:00 with the Home Physical Therapist, and we had no phone service, so we finally got a hold of her and ask her if she could come around 4:00, then we would be back home in Center Point. So that worked out.

Then Thurs. night I helped Joe get to the bathroom, and when he sat down his surgery knee popped, made a

loud noise, after it did that, it was sore, then Friday afternoon, the physical Therapist came at 3:00 again, she

walked him some and when he sat down, his knee popped again, so she said to put ice on it and if it got

worse to call the Dr., well I tried to get him up to go to the bathroom about 9:00 pm., he couldn’t step on that

leg at all, so we had to call the ambulance, and took him back to the hospital. They took and Xray of his knee

and said the screw at the end of the rod just above his knee had cracked. So he was in hard pain, because

he ended up having muscle spasms every little while in that knee. Then they took him to Xray, to take a picture

of his whole surgery leg. We wouldn’t the results until morning. So I finally left the hospital at 2:30 am, Sat.

morning, it was hard finding my way out of Cedar Rapids, because that storm hit Cedar Rapids and completed

destroyed the whole city, Trees blocking most of the streets. Power was out all over, no street lights or stop

lights. It was really spooky trying to find a way out of their when it was coal black. I had my bright lites on going

up 1^st. Ave. Don’t think that wasn’t spooky.  I got home about 3:00 am. slept for 3 hrs. then headed back to the

hospital, so I could be there when they came in with the results of the Xray.  His surgeon was not on call that

weekend, so his co-worker came in and told us that he has a cracked screw in the rod just above his knee,

but there would be no surgery, they said it will heal around the screw, because that was 7 weeks already since

his surgery. She said the whole surgery looked really good. So she said absolutely no weight on that leg, until his surgeon gets back and looks at the Xrays, then we found out the surgeon that done his is on vacation this week.

They showed me the xray, and the screw is curved, not straight, so they call it a cracked screw.

So they have a call into him, to come up and see him when he gets back this coming Monday, Aug. 24^th. So

they have been doing therapy with him, exercises with his legs and arms. Then Thurs. afternoon, about 1:30

they moved him up to rehab again, said he would probably be there a week.  Well, a lot of the soreness has

gone from his knee, so they been teaching him how to slide on a board from the wheelchair to the bed or chair.

They said the only way he can walk is on one leg with a walker, he will have to do the hop. So we are waiting

for the surgeon to get back Mon. then he will let us know how much weight he can put on his leg, if any.

Joe got so depressed again, I got to the hospital about 8:00 Thurs. morning, and when I walked in his room,

Joe was crying, two nurses were in there with him, trying to pep talking him, because he wanted to die right now,

He said he doesn’t want to live, with all the problems he has, he can’t take it any more.  That was really bad,

because Tues. was our 47^th Wed. anniversary, and in all those years, I have never seen Joe cry like that.

So we had to do a lot of talking, then finally he came out of it a little, and then they moved him up to rehab that afternoon, so that helped him perk up quite a lot.  So now we have to have a temporary ramp built to get up the

3 steps in our breezeway, because he definitely have to be in the wheelchair to get in the house.  We had

raillings put on both sides coming up the steps, and he was doing so good going up and down the 3 steps.

The carpenter was put the railings up, when the storm with thru at 1:00 pm, it was so dark, I was holding 2 flash lights so he could see to finish them.

So now we are just praying real hard, that his knee is healing good, and maybe the Dr. will let him put some

weight on his leg, because it has been a week yesterday, since he went back to hospital.  As I said before,

anything that can go wrong, has went wrong for Joe, and it still is, so I hope everything starts happening for the

good. In fact, tomorrow, Sunday, will be 8 weeks since he had surgery, and they said from the beginning, hip

surgery heals in 6 to 8 weeks. So I hope Monday will bring us some good news. We have been living in the

hospital almost 2 months, that is way to long.

Thanks again to all of our Alamo Paradise family, for all your prayers, emails, cards, and phone calls. Joe sure

needed them and still does.

Thank you again,  Clara

 

 

 

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