As many of you know, Bob suffered an injury while on his latest vacation, and has been in the hospital ever since. This blog has been set up so you can monitor his progress.
THE BACKSTORY
If you know Bob, you know that Bob loves to travel. And last month, he was doing just that. He and a friend decided to take a pretty fancy cruise, with ports of call that included Amsterdam, Estonia, Helsinki and St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, it was in St. Petersburg where Bob fell and broke his shoulder. It was decided that surgery should be done in St. Petersburg to repair the shoulder, so Bob was admitted to the hospital. And while the surgery went well, his body's reaction to the surgery did not, and an infection formed. Bob's body did not handle the infection well, and a decision about where Bob should be treated had to be made.
After a great deal of thought, it was decided that the best option for Bob's recovery would be to have him brought back to Bellingham, and the only way to do that would be by private medical jet. So, nearly two weeks after his initial accident, Bob was flown back home to Bellingham.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Since his return home, he has had ups and downs, but has not improved as much as his doctors would like. He underwent abdominal surgery to treat an ulcer that was bleeding into his stomach, as well as some other abdominal issues, including a large amount of toxins that have built up due to the fact that Bob has been on dialysis for some time now.
Bob's nephew, Tim, and friend Brian C have been providing updates every few days. The latest update is from July 4, and reads as follows:
Today Brian C and I met with Bob’s attending doc and surgeon for about 20 minutes. Medically, Bob is in a limbo condition. He is not getting better and not doing particularly worse - but as stated, NOT getting any better. The treatment team feels at this point that they have done about all that they can do. And if something significant or major occurs Bob will not be able to survive another major medical procedure. Currently Bob has three critters growing inside his stomach cavity; iirc (a fungus), an intestional bug and C.R.A.B., thus he is being treated with a precise anti-bacterial cocktail. Unfortunately, a side-effect of this cocktail results is him being lethargic and needing to sleep. Additionally Bob has aspirated pneumonia which, by comparison, is relatively easy to treat, but adds more antiobiotics and contributes to the overall lethargy. The summary result is that Bob is very limited in his ability to participate in regaining strength. Thus, considering Bob’s current medical condition and his limited immunity capacity (if there’s any left) his prognosis, at best, is very sobering. That is, 1 to 2 more months in the hospital and then upwards to one year in a skilled nursing home with rehab before he would be in any condition to live at home; this also includes hemodialysis at least three times a week. And this assumes that no other events or infections would knock him off the razor’s edge to recovery.
We also met with Bob and he was elevated in his bed and he looked comfortable. He was easily aroused, clear in his brief responses and coherently understood. I summarized the Docs' discussion and asked him how about how much fight he has left. His response was that he didn’t have any strength and “I don’t know.” Clearly Bob is struggling with what to do. He is aware that he has a huge hole to crawl out of and that his wings have been clipped concerning future travel shenanigans. We told Bob that we and many others love him and support him. The Doc and surgeon noted at this point in time, Bob is not at an imminent medical event but in limbo and that it depends on him and how much fight he can (or wants to) put into this.
So not much else to say but Bob does love you and appreciate all the prayers, kindness and thoughts. And take a bite of hamburger, corn on the cob, watermelon and potato salad or whatever for Bob...cause he would kill for such a taste.
Tim and Brian C
Please check back to view the latest updates. We are hoping that this will be a more convenient way of sharing news about Bob than trying to remember email addresses.
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