This is going to be a long post...here are a few pics and the emails dad has sent (newest on top)...

Hey


He had a very rough night. Lots of bladder spasms and not much sleep for either one of them. They really happen when we are irrigating the bladder. All this is is pushing 30 ML of saline into his bladder and taking it back out. We unhook his one of his pee bags and put the saline in with a large syringe then suck it back out(With The Syringe), it only takes a few minutes. We give him some medicine about a half hour before we do it and it seems to knock him out enough to get through it without much pain... So Far.

The big news for the day is that we are out of the hospital. We are at the Children's House. We will be here until at least Tuesday, he has a doctor appointment on Monday at 4:00 PM. Guess we will find out then when we get to come home. Not sure what we are gonna do for the next four days. I am sure there is a lot to do here but we don't want to overdo things either.

There is talk of finding a Wal-mart and buying some needed medical supplies and maybe some food.

Well guess that is it for today. Will keep everyone updated on how his doctor appointment goes.

Buy-Buy

Don, Donna, Dawna & Gunnar
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Hey,

Not sure where to start on this one. I'm sure he would say the best thing was playing BINGO over the hospital TV and winning a Transformer. They broadcast over the one of the hospital channels on the TV. You get BINGO and you call them and they have you on the air to verify your BINGO and to let you pick your prize. He was kinda bummed cuz they had a Lord Of The Rings game that they had on the teen prize table for people over twelve. I told him it did not matter if he won or not cuz everyone got a prize and that he has too damn many toys anyway.

He got his epidural out. The doctor thought the area looked a little red and swollen so they took it out. Couple of bad things about this. One was that it was taped all the way up to his neck the other is that after it wore off he could feel it when we irrigated his bladder, it caused bladder spasms which are very painful. This is kind of a big deal as we/he will have to do this several times a day for life, so hopefully the spasms will decrease in intensity. They are going to give him some Valium before the next one at about midnight tonight will see how that goes in the morning.

He got one of his abdomen tubes out. It was the one that was just kinda floating in his gut area to soak up anything that may have been leaking on the inside. He has only got a few drops from it over the last couple of days. He still has three pee bags that he will come home with. These will be taken out at some point over the next month or so by his doctor in Omaha.

He got unhooked from all of his IVs. He still have several ports in him, one in each arm so they don't have to re-stick him if they need to hydrate or give him medicine, but he is mobile now. With these out, he really has to remember to drink. Was drinking water, Sprite and Fanta (SP?) orange soda most of the day.

He walked a bit with our help. Which leads into the next item.

He pooped. Once in a bed pan which kinda sucked and another couple of times we walked him into the bath room. This was a requirement before they would release him, the pooping not the walking.


He Ate Some Solid Food.

He had some chicken pot pie looking stuff with rice, a salad, bread, butter and an apple that he is saving for later in case he gets hungry. Tomorrow he really wants to have Subway, so we may try to get him down there for one meal. I think I said this before, the hospital has a Subway in its cafeteria area. Personally I am about sick of Subway as it is the only thing I have had to eat since last Thursday, they have other stuff to eat in the hospital, but as many of you know I am a picky SOB when it comes to food.

He talked to a bunch of people on the phone today. We found out that we could use our cell phone from the room because he is not hooked to any monitoring equipment, wish they would have told us that a few days ago. If anyone wants to talk to him give him a call, at a reasonable hour please, he can be reached at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

We are hoping to get out of the hospital either Thursday or Friday. The nurses think it will probably be Friday. We have to stick around for a another three to five days to make sure everything is going OK, then we start the trek home.

I am sure that I have forgot to mention something that I will remember right after I hit "Send". Take care everybody, keep those emails coming, Donna and Gunnar will be reading them once they get back here in a few days.

Bi-Bi

Don, Donna, Dawna & Gunnar

PS

Someone asked about "Cute Nurses". Will have some pictures of these ladies to send soon, for those with inquiring eyes.
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Hey,

First if you would prefer not to get these updates, let me know, I
will not be offended.

As you can tell by the attached pictures Gunnar got his nose tube out
this morning. YEAH!!!! This allowed him to get out of his room and
go to the play room. He met a couple of other boys there and they
played Monopoly and some other games.

He got to eat today or should I say drink. He got a whopping 30cc's
of water tonight. Woohoo!! Guess he has to start somewhere. He was
not allowed to guzzle it, he had to take sips through a straw and if
he keeps it down the should get more tomorrow. Gunnar 109.jpg is a
shot of the big event. His first thing to eat or drink since last
Wednesday.

Donna seems think he has really lost weight. I am sure he has lost
some, but I am not sure how much. Picture Gunnar 108.jpg was tonight
before I left. He weighed 72 pounds when he entered the hospital, we
are not sure what he is at now, we will try to see what he wiehgs now.

I forgot to mention "The Incident" yesterday. At one point he got
some plhegm or something in his throat and could not breathe. He was
gasping for air and about gave mom a heart attack. It probably only
lasted for about ten - fifteen seconds before we could get him calmed
down, but to him I am sure it seemed like 10 - 15 minutes.

We started to learn how to flush his bladder. We will have to do that
several times a day from here on out. Lots of changes for everyone
going forward.

That be it for today.

Don, Donna, Dawna & Gunnar

PS

Dawna, I will burn you a CD of all of the pictures and send it to you
when we get home.
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Hey,

Nice subject huh?

Well he is starting to fart so the nurses and doctors at the hospital
are excited and thinking his nose tube will come out tomorrow. That
is one of the things they really want him to start doing as it means
his bowel is really starting to wake up. Tonight he really ripped a
good one and you should have seen the smile on his face, Ear to Ear.
Fortunately for us he has not eaten in so long there was no smell
associated with it. Once the tube comes out he will get very small
amounts of water and some chicken broth over the next couple of days
and then it is on to some real food, Jello. They are not sure when he
will eat any solid food, it might not be for quite awhile, maybe even
until after we get home.

His nurses this morning were amazed that he slept through his entire
exam, but anyone who knows him knows that he can sleep through just
about anything.

He got a blood transfusion today. O positive is his type. He was a
little low so they set him up with one pint. It took three hours to
transfuse, he slept through the whole thing. Donna thinks he will be
in longer than seven days because of the low blood count.

He played Play Station 2 for several hours today. He was thrilled.

Tomorrow he is expected to be able to go in a wheel chair and go the
play room another milestone he is looking forward to.

That is about it for today. will let you know how he is doing over the
next few days.

Don, Donna, Dawna & Gunnar
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Hey,

Dawna went home. :-((((((( Tears all around

Things went pretty good today except for the part above. He had/has a
bad case of the itches, which they say is because of the epidural,
they gave him some medicine for them, not sure that it worked that
well, he was/is scratching the hell out of himself. He went to
scratch is back and got the tape on his arm stuck to the stuff
covering the epidural, that was a scary moment as the epidural is
probably what is causing him to have very little pain.

He is in pain when he coughs or laughs, so we try not to be dusty or funny.

He is not on oxygen anymore, he was on it at times if he was napping
and stuff.

The doctor says once his bowel wakes up, he will get the nose tube out
and get something to drink and maybe some Jello. It could take
several more days. He is very weak and quiet probably due to lack of
food, which we were warned about beforehand by the doctor. They keep
him hydrated through his IV.

We were able lift him into a chair today. He sat there for several
hours watched TV and played his Game Boy.

The pictures are before and after shots(Yeah No Shit Right?).
100_0209.jpg is right after he was wheeled into recovery.
100_0226.jpg is of his bags (Not Those... Sickos!) He has several
bags draining from his abdomen region and one from his nose that is
hooked to a vacuum that sucks stuff out of his stomach.

I have a bunch more but did not want to overload anyone. Have more
graphic pictures of everything for those who request them, other wise
you will have to wait until we get home to see more. The purple glove
one is a thing to help his lungs get back up to speed.

That's about it for today.

PS

Laura I see we did not win the Powerball. Dammit I was looking
forward to an early retirement.

Dawna we love you and miss you already.

L8R G8R

Don, Donna, Dawna & Gunnar
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¶ 10:59

Well, Dad wrote an email, but for some dumbass reason, the library has the computers so locked down that you cannot even copy and paste things!! WTF?? He also sent some pictures (which I'm sure you can tell) that I am attaching, one before and one right after he got to recovery (he was freezing... 8-( poor little guy). I tried posting more, but couldn't get it working, I'm not sure if that is because of the library computer or if it is because of Blogger...I dunno if there is a max amount of pics you can put in one post...

Anyways, I left Baltimore on Saturday, it sucks that I can't be there still, but I guess thats the way it goes...Gunnar is doing good, he is now able to sit up in a chair. I guess he has been up yesterday and today...he still isn't walking or eating anything. The doctor is still waiting for his bowel to 'wake up' before the tube in his nose comes out, then he will be able to slowly start eating.

He is still really itchy from the epidural, they gave him some medicine for it, but I guess he is still pretty itchy. He had big scratch marks on his back when I left, and I guess he still does.
I guess he actually got some tape from his arm stuck on the epidural when he was trying to scratch, but luckly the epidural didn't fall out. That is probably what is keeping him from having pain, so we want that to stay in, the last one he had umpteen years ago fell out shortly after surgery, so he had to have tylenol as I remember...I dunno though could be wrong on that one. He is not on the oxygen anymore, he was on it all the time at first, then he was just on it when he was asleep, but I guess now that is gone, which is good. One less thing that he has hanging around his nose.

Well thats about it for now...work has been good, I'm actually starting to learn/do stuff so thats cool. I guess I will update more in the next few days.
¶ 14:33

Here is dads email for today, pretty short and I will leave it at that since its almost midnight here and we still have to get stuff packed up since the childrens house has openings tomorrow. Will update more as needed...

"Hey,

Things went fine today. He has had a fever, which they said was
normal for this type of surgery. They took some blood and urine
samples to check for infections, still no word on that. They are
pumping a bunch on antibiotics into him so I think that helps. He
should be able to sit up tomorrow and might even get out of bed.

He still has not eaten anything solid since Monday and nothing since
Wednesday and won't for a couple of more days, since surgery he has not
even been able to take a drink. Not sure how he is lasting, I thought
2 1/2 days was bad with no food. Everything goes in through IV, well
almost everything. He gets Tylenol through a suppository, Yikes! He
has not complained tho.

He has been in almost no pain. YEAH!!!! They said it must have been
a perfect epidural. He has a patch on for bladder spasms, not sure if
it is working or if he just has not had any.

Dawna flies out tomorrow, sure that will be tough on everyone. We
will also be moving to The Children's House so we should be able to
send some pictures.

That be it for today.

We out Don, Donna, Dawna & Gunnar"
¶ 21:23

Today was a pretty long day, it seemed like we sat in that waiting room for a few days. We were there from about 9:15AM or so until about 7:00PM. His surgery got started at 10:00AM so it was pretty long. Dad is currently typing out the family email which I will be posting in here as soon as he sends it. We have taken a few picks, dad will be able to download them on Saturday when we get to the Childrens House so hopefully I will be able to post them shortly after. Just realized tonight that there were no spaces in the last email, for some reason blogger is not letting me cut and paste the spaces, so I tried to fix it tonight but am to lazy to go back and fix it for that one so...yea...deal with it. Why?? Cuz its my blog and I said so...

Well, here is the email that dad sent out...

"Day II

Started out with a phone call from Donna at 5:45 AM saying they weregoing to take Gunnar at 8:00 AM instead of 9:00 AM. We had the alarmset to 6:00 so the other 15 minutes of sleep might have been nice. Guess I can't bitch cuz Donna and Gunnar only had about one hour ofsleep. Guess that is the price you pay for insisting that you are the one that has to stay with him every night.

Gunnar's first room was a small room that he shared with some littlekid who had kidney surgery. They decided to take the medicine tube out of Gunnar's nose at about11:00 PM last night if he promised to drink some medicine. Guess theygot the first one down fine. Two hours later they woke him up for the second dose, he got it down with only a couple of "Hibbity Jibbity"faces and shivers. A while later they woke him up for the next dose,he sits up and after about 5 seconds, he hurls all over the place. So for the next hour or so they were cleaning up the place and giving him small does of the medcine. Can't say I am sorry I missed that. So he had a pretty exciting night with little sleep and fluids flying of of him from both ends.

At some point during a lull in this action Donna decided to pull out the chair they have there that pulls/folds out into a bed. Shethought she had it setup and when she sat on it, WHAM!!! The whole frikken thing collapses. Wakes the dad up of the kid on the otherside of the curtain by scaring the shit out of him. He comes runningover to make sure she was OK. So he helps her set the thing up right. Strange as we are from the Midwest and he is from the middle east.

So we get to the hospital and see him for a bit, then they come and take him about 8:30 or so, the surgery is to start at 9:00. We get tothe waiting room and they tell us they are running behind and that they pry won'g get started till around 10:00. So they start at about 9:55 AM and we hear from the operating room about every two hours or so. Everything is going fine. YEAH!!!!

About 6:00 PM we get the call that they are "Closing" him up. YEAH!!!! The doctor came out a bit later and said that everything went great, some of the work our doctor in Omaha had done previously saved him about two hours worth of surgery. YEAH!!!! But everything went Great!!!!!!!! They wheel him down the hall about 7:00 PM, we are not even watching so he almost slips right past with us without even seeing him. He is in the recovery room until a little past 8:00 PM and then moved his room, a private room with cable and video games.

Wait until he becomes coherent and finds that out. He did manage to watch a little bit of Survivor. He has several tubes sticking out of him. They gave him an epiduralto help with pain, he is on oxygen, not a mask just one of the tubethingies you always see on TV. He is thirsty. He can't have anything to drink. He is hungry. Hecan't have anything to eat. They will be feeding him through another tube that he has down his nose and throat. Not sure why they did not leave the first one in and use it, but I am not a doctor, just acomputer guy.

PSMakes me think of something he told his teacher at daycare a couple ofweeks ago..."I can't wait for my surgery so I will be a real boy." Well little man you are there. Anyway things are going fine. Will send more as time allows.

Some info about our doctor. http://urology.jhu.edu/johngearhart/index.php

Some info about the procedure. http://www.urologyhealth.org/adult/index.cfm?cat=03&topic=170"

Well since its getting late I will leave it at that, more updates to come...
¶ 21:18

Im in Baltimore, Gunnar is at the hospital, to make things easy here is the email my dad sent out to the family...

"Hey,Well it was one long ass day.Gunnar is supposed to be check in at noon today. The hospital callsabout 9:00 AM and says, don't come over cuz we don't have a room andwe should wait for them to call and tell us they have a room...

Nice!!!!

So we wait until about 3ish and they call telling us they have a room. Off we go.

The cargo thing on top of the vehicle is not compatible with theparking ramps around here. The one across the street from the RonaldMcDonald House kinda scraped entering and I thought it was gonna teara light off the building when we left, so instead of parking in a rampacross the street from the hospital we have to park a few blocks awayin a parking lot. Not a big deal during the day, but at night, this is not the best neighborhood.

We get checked in and because we were not there at the time we weresupposed to be, they gotta stick a tube down Gunnar's nose and throatto give him the medicine to clean him out. Guess there was somegagging on his part and Donna about passed out. Dawna of course had no problems with any of this, me of course I waited in his room.

They tried several times to get an IV in him with no success. They had to call in the IV Specialist and they nailed it first try. Hmmmmm whynot have them do it in the first place. Dawna said they were abouther age. Gunnar had to help them out by telling them where not tostick him, cuz there is an "Artery" in one of the places they talkedabout sticking him.

We (Dawna and I) bugged out about 7:30 and he was sitting on the "Portable Crapper" giving it hell.We got to the parking lot with no problems, then we had to find our wayback here. Once we got here we took the bug covered cargo thingie offand took it to the room, hope all the critters on the front of it are dead.

The surgery is at 9:00 tomorrow...We'll keep everyone updated."

So that is what has been going on. Work has been good so far, I have just been reading policies and stuff for the first few days, when I get back into town, the real work will begin. My captain called me into his office yesterday to review my psych eval, and he told me that he also wanted to mention that he thought I had the best interview that he had done in the last 8-10 YEARS! He said that he was very impressed with it, that I was very confident, that I seemed very wordly for my age, and that I was not cocky about it. He said that he could see me moving up quickly in this department if I decided to stay there. I thought that that was pretty awesome. He said some more stuff from the eval about how I really seemed like someone that would make a great cop, so that was neat. Other than that nothing is really going on, so I guess I'll be done for the night.
¶ 20:07

Milwaukee has been going pretty good. I just got a job working for a police department up here as a dispatcher. Its a part time job, but the plus sides are that the job is in my field so its a good place to start; and I will be working half as much as I am now, but will be making more money than I am now. For the first three months however the job is full time, so that will really help with the bills, and hopefully I should be able to save up some money for Christmas, so that will be nice.

Mike got me a Kitten for my birthday! As most of you know I am not really a cat fan, but working at the pet store and being around them, I have realized they aren't that bad, and since I can't have dogs where I am, a cat is the next best thing. We named him Dash. He is the cutest thing, he is white with blue eyes and he has light orange rings around his tail and his ears and nose are light orange too. Once I get internet at home, I will post pictures of him, as well as pics of our family trip to Washington/Baltimore.

Speaking of Baltimore, I am going to Baltimore for Gunnar's surgery next week. I am really glad I was able to get time off for it, cuz i really wanna be there for him. This is going to be a tough surgery for him I think, but in the long run I think it will be worth it. Well I guess thats all for now, the library computer is going to make me sign off in a few minutes, so I will update more, pry after Gunnar's surgery.
¶ 14:12