Second Helpings

Breathe Again

I could not find the words to describe the last few days and all that has happened. I could never express the range of emotions and concerns we've experienced or the blind terror of not knowing what each day might bring.

I will keep this short as I'm very tired and my head is still whirling with all the activity and upset. Hubby was moved from the Intensive Care unit to a high dependency ward last night and I think we can hopefully say he is now off the critical list.

He still has a trachiotomy in place so cannot speak, but is managing to communicate by various methods and understanding what is being said. We even detected a few chuckles, which is pretty rare under normal circumstances. He's still on oxygen, drips, monitors and not able to eat or drink, but hopefully things are moving in the right direction still.

He will face skin grafts and reconstruction when ready, but is being quite stalwart at present. For all he has suffered in some ways he has been lucky. Untreated fast enough the infection would have killed him, no question. We were fortunate to have experts on hand within 48 hours, though it could have been sooner with hindsight.

Had the infection started in a limb it would have resulted in amputation, but because the blood flow to the face is better than arms and legs he has avoided that scenario. We now know that cases such as his usually result in the removal of an eye, so again we have to be thankful. The team of five surgeons have only seen eight cases of this particular strain of streptocccus in their combined eighty years of experience. I will be forever grateful for their expertise.

So, we move forward one day at a time and keep hoping and praying. Obviously there is little time to spare, but I will do my best to keep updated. Thank you yet again for your continued support. Yet again I find myself thinking good riddance to another lousy year, but struggle daring to hope the next might be better. But as always things could have been a hell of a lot worse. One day at a time...breathe.