Life At Korthuis Manor

Life At Korthuis Manor
Captain Randy and his First Mate!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Golfing anyone?

Just a quick post to let you know how Nathan is doing......................best way to sum it up is...............he went golfing yesterday. Obviously not his "A" game yet , but still golfing!

He's back to physical therapy and needs to keep working on keeping that knee bending.

The week before he had surgery he sent a letter to the YWAM facilities in Kona, where he served before, asking if he could come back to the Mission Builders program again. This is where he helps on the campus and gets free room and board. He got a call a couple days ago that he's been invited to come back on November 3rd for three months. Hopefully physically therapy will be mostly done, and he can figure out his insurance/finances issues while he's gone.

We head back down to Harborview on Tuesday for a recheck with Dr. Rout. I'll post how that goes when we get back. Keep praying for a complete and speedy recovery!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Chelan here we come................

Every year this last full week of August Randy's family heads to Chelan for the week. We were planning on going and taking our boat but plans changed when Nathan's surgery was scheduled.

Since we got home early from the hospital and Nathan seems to be doing so well, Randy has encouraged me to go and take Brandon and Emily over for a few days. As overwhelmed and tired as I am, it sounds good to spend some time with the in laws sitting on our beach towels by the Lake. I will spend the nights with Dan and Marla who are staying this week at Desert Canyon and the kids will be tenting it with the cousins. The forecast doesn't look great over there, but it looks worse here!!

We will come back Friday night and gear Em up for school starting on Monday!! Friday the 3rd she has her first football game to cheer at. I'm so excited to go watch her!

Summer has been a blur - can't believe it's over! I feel like I've hardly spent anytime with Brandon and we take him back to Whitworth Sunday the 5th. I'm ready for routine, normalcy, and fewer trips to Seattle!!

Monday, August 23, 2010

We're home

It's late, we're home, I'm crabby and tired, overwhelmed and so just a post to say - hey, we're here.

Nathan is doing fine, healing great, bending great..............

More tomorrow when maybe my emotions are a bit better, just wanted you to know I appreciate your support and checking of the blog and wanted you to know - mission accomplished.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Tomorrow is the day!

We are coming home tomorrow!! Nathan is doing great and the team is very happy with the progress - and so are we!! It's so good to see that knee bending and see him sitting at almost a 90 degree angle!

Yesterday Uncle Larry and Aunt Kim came by............................The Scheibs also came............................................(yes, they brought their parents!!)
We realize what a sacrifice it is to drive that long distance just to say "hi" and help pass time - it meant a lot!!

Tonight we're going to pick up GOOD food to go and have a celebration dinner here - we're going home! (I'm rootin' for Macaroni Grill - we'll see if I "win").

Thanks for all your prayers, we know Nathan's journey isn't over yet, lot's of healing to happen, dozens of staples to remove, therapy to be done, and he still is at a risk for infection. Keep prayin!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Pillowcase #2...............

Thursday after surgery we met with Dr. Rout.
For those of you that remember this from April..............................................well, this is pillowcase #2!He drew this one as Nathan's rear view - the last one was the front view. It is amazing to sit and watch him draw without even pausing to think - I think he's done this a couple times before!! :-)

The CPM machine is pumping away and Nathan's knee is at about 110 degrees. They told us this morning that they have a spot reserved in the OR for Monday morning (this was news to us), just in case the leg starts to stiffen up at all again , then they will take him back in and manipulate it again right away. It sounds like there would be no actual surgery - just putting Nathan out and reefing on the leg. They say this to keep him motivated to work that machine like crazy!!

Randy went fishing with Dennis this morning, and my friend Debbie that we met while we were here at Harborview last time came and had coffee with me this morning - what a treat. This afternoon Jason, Tanya and the kids are coming down for a visit - we are looking forward to this. Randy's whole family left for Chelan so we haven't had any visitors yet - gets kind of lonely and time drags on.

Continue to pray for no infection and that Nathan's pain will stay managed so he can keep that knee and hip moving.

Thanks for checking in and for praying for us!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Friday morning

Last night I went back to the house and slept HARD! I crawled in bed about 11:30 and didn't wake up until 8:15!! I needed that - still could use a few more :-)

I picked up b'fast and Starbucks and headed to the hospital. Nathan seems better this morning. He was sitting up and they already have his leg in a CPM machine bending the knee and hip - boy is that a sight for sore eyes!! He's having muscle spasms so they just gave him some muscle relaxers, so hopefully those will subside.

Randy left to go work for a few hours - anything helps - with $20 parking a day and meals for both of us, it adds up quickly!! Nathan and I are sitting here in our big room looking out the window. We're in the flight path for Seatac, so we're watching all the planes - makes me want to get on one! The roommate has been great, he's real quiet and these rooms are so big and nice it makes things so much more bearable!

The fever was gone as of this morning!! This is such a huge praise, but keep praying as he is at high risk for infection with such a huge incision and 3 empty cavities where they took the bones out!

I'll update later today if there is anything new, otherwise, I will write in the morning.

We covet your prayers......................

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Finally...............we're with him

About 6pm we finally got the call that Nathan had been moved out of recovery and into a room.

He is in 632 bed 2 Maleng Building - the new building. Huge brand new rooms, and so far no roommate. But aside from getting an obnoxious roommate, it wouldn't be so bad to have a roommate in here because the rooms are almost twice the size! Although, it would be lovely to have this one to ourselves! ( as I was finishing this post, they brought someone in - pray!)

Nathan has looked at us a couple times, and just said "hey", but he's not completely "here" - which for now, is just fine with this momma. They have him on a patient dosed pain machine - which means, for now, Nathan has a "happy button". My anxiety was sky high waiting to see him since it was 4 hours after we had spoken with Dr. Routt. Speaking of Dr. Routt here is a pic of him..............
...............and a quote I read from him on the Harborview site............................
"It's my goal to treat patients as I'd want to be treated, with compassionate, strategic, and detail-attentive patient care.?and I'd be demanding!"

As usual, he was very straightforward, didn't candy coat anything, realistic, and yes - compassionate. He said this is the longest incision he has had to make and he commented on how long Nathan's femur is. He said he wished Nathan had just stuck with baseball and been drafted and then he would have been playing ball instead of riding motorcycle!!! Dr. Routt is a BIG baseball fan.

He removed 3 bones, 1 of which had grown around 2 bundles of nerves, lifted the quad off the LONG femur, broke up scar tissue on the knee, and cut a muscle that was restricting the knee. He said that Nathan will be a hurting unit as this was the largest surgery he's had to go through yet - (we had kind of figured that out)!

Now - bear with me - this is for Uncle Steve :-)
Dr. Routt had the knee bent to 130 degrees and the hip to 90 degrees. He was happy with the progress but said it's going to take a lot work and a lot of work through pain! (Of course you knew that Steve!)

Nathan just told us "That was painful - especially moving from the O.R. stretcher to the bed". So - again (I sound like a broken record) pray for his pain, especially as he comes out more and more from anesthesia.

Tonight, I sleep at Dennis and Michele's and Randy pulls bedside duty - pray for Randy too.

It's now 8:00pm and Randy and I will probably grab a bite to eat and then I will head out. More wordy updates tomorrow!

not much info.............surgery is over

We met with the Surgeon about 2 -everything was fine. I'll give more details later - too foggy right now.

It's 4:30pm and Nathan is in recovery and we haven't gotten to see him yet. We have to wait until they move him to a room.

I'm very anxious right now......................time to see my boy!!

Nathan is #1 ................................

Actually - #111
As you can see he was first man in the O.R. today. Anxieties were high, lots of people shuffling about, lots going on, needles going in, people asking questions, etc. They all seemed to have the same response........."wow, this is a big surgery". I figure if that statement is coming from people that do this for a living, then indeed, it IS a big surgery.

Of course, as to be expected - I am a wreck today - weepy and all! My 4 hour "nap" last night doesn't help with my emotional state today.

We checked in at 6AM (yes, Nathan and I left home at 4am, Randy has been down here since Tues) and stayed with Nathan until they took him to the O.R. at 7:30AM. We left Harborview (which hasn't gotten any easier to walk away),to take Randy's truck back to our friends house so we wouldn't have to pay parking. Then we went to Starbucks (compliments of Raskes and Jansens :-) for coffee and this - (thanks Kathi for informing me of how many calories this baby is)....................................................
Now we are sitting at Dennis and Michelle's once again, looking out over Puget Sound, I'm going to try to sneak in a nap because my husband says I need to, and then we're going back to the "holding tank".

I will update when we know more...............thank you for praying for Nathan! Thanks for the verse Trish!

(taken from Psalm 33)

“We wait in hope for the Lord;He is our help & our shield.In Him our hearts rejoice,For we trust His Holy Name.May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord,Even as we put our hope in You.”

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

UPDATE!!!!

It's a go...............Dr. Rout's office just called and gave us the green light for tomorrow!

Pray for us - this is Nathan's most major surgery and there are 4 major risks involved. So glad he's in God's hands!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Some prayer needed............

Nathan's surgery is set for Thursday morning - we hope!

This weekend Nathan had an ingrown toenail that decided to get infected. I called Harborview today just to see if he should get on some antibiotics ahead of time and they freaked out.

To make a very frustrating day and about 2 dozen phone calls into a short story here's where we stand.

Nathan saw Dr. Caldwell today,( bless his heart for fitting him in his crammed schedule in about 45 minutes), and he said there is no more draining and that he sees no sign of infection but gave him a prescription to start right away.

Meanwhile, before I even could call to tell them that Dr. Caldwell felt good about it, Harborview called me and said that Dr. Rout is concerned and wants to reschedule!!! I asked them to please call Dr. Caldwell because he felt it was good to go. They did, and now we have to wait for Dr. Rout to be back in the office tomorrow before we get the final answer.

I explained to the nurse that I appreciate the fact that they don't want to take him into surgery with any infection in his body - he's already going to be at high risk for infection with this surgery. But we have absolutely rearranged out lives for this surgery. Canceled our family vacation, gotten people to stay here with Em, gotten school shopping done, worked extra hours, Randy left for Seattle today and will meet us down there AND the worst part frankly, is Nathan is in pain from this extra bone and waiting for this surgery the last 2 weeks has been excruciating for him.

Please pray that we will get the go ahead tomorrow....................this is one fried and emotionally exhausted momma!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Kind of like ski to sea....................

.......................only last weekend, Randy and I did Sea to Ski - we did the trip backwards!

After our wet weekend out in the ocean, we headed up to Mt. Baker for a drive to check our Artist Point that had just opened up. I whipped out 2 vanilla latte's - very necessary for the drive.
Things were very socked in up in the mountains..........................but it was beautiful - it's amazing the amount of snow still up there. But then again maybe not considering the "Junuary" we had!On the way down we stopped in at the new pizza restaurant in Snowline. It's called "Chair 9" and it was good. It's worth a stop in. We are cheesebread lovers and this one had alfredo sauce AND 2 kinds of cheeses with marinara dipping sauce - how could that be bad?Came home, crawled in bed watched the news and slipped in to slumberland - a very nice Sunday afternoon!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Boating in the rain................

So this last weekend we had a boating trip to Sucia Island planned. Dan and Marla, Jeff and Kathi, and Randy and I. Crabbing (not at each other), eating, resting, kayaking, etc - just plain fun.

Well, the plans started to fall apart when one of the older members ;-o of our group blew his Achilles tendon, had surgery and had his leg put in a cast............................(NO weight bearing)
So we decided that 4 of us would go out Friday evening and pick up the other 2 Sat. morning for the day, or the evening if the ol' guy was up to it ;-), Then the weather forecast started to fall apart! Things weren't looking good for our trip at all.

The 4 of us did head out Friday evening, set our crab pots and anchored in Fossil Bay for the night..............................Dinnertime...................By about 10AM this lady had had it with the rain!! Water was starting to leak through the top and the sides and I was tired of "puddle" duty. I don't mind boating in the rain, if I can stay dry. But when the clouds were sitting on top of us, things were socked, in and there was no sign of reprieve, I was done. We headed home about 4pm and decided to have our dinner at home on the dry, covered patio.

Dan grilled up his specialty slider burgers.................................Kathi had made an awesome pasta salad with shrimp, and Jeff made us crab cakes with the fresh crab. A delightful (and dry) evening!
So ----------------we are going to try again this weekend. The forecast looks awesome, and barring any one of us old folks getting hurt in the next few days, it looks like a go!! I'll keep you posted!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Deja Vu.............or View

It's all how you look at it. Today I was standing in the kitchen talking to Emily holding her cat and this is what I saw in my mind's eye.................
.........but this is how it really looked!
Does your mind ever do that to you?

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Surgery date is set

Surgery date is set for Thurs., Aug. 19th, and then we have to pray that Nathan doesn't get bumped because of another trauma coming in. I'm sure Nathan bumped someone (or two) when he was flown in!

This will be the most major surgery Nathan has had yet. It was last a minimum of 5 hours, and they tell us to expect to be there at least 5 days! Now, don't get me wrong, I AM thankful for Harborview and Dr. Rout, but the thought of going back is a little overwhelming.

Nathan is bummed he has to wait 2 weeks, he is ready to get it done and start moving his knee! I will explain it in Non-Surgeon terms! They are just going to cut from his rear down to his knee alongside his leg, remove the extra bone, fillet the muscle up off the femur (it's stuck there), and break up scar tissue on his knee, and manipulate it and get that knee bending. Sounds pretty intense to me!

Of course, for me, the hardest part is not being able to plan........... what things will look like when we bring him home, what his needs will be, how long will he be down, will he be able to drive........etc! All the mommy questions.

Pray for Nathan as he waits for the next 2 weeks - and especially pray he won't get bumped!

How appropriate - this was the verse for today by my sink.........

"Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear." Isaiah 65:24