Good News and....

The original reason Lisa went into the hospital was the stroke, which led to the seizure. Sometimes I forget with the other things that have popped up while she's been in the hospital.

Report on her brain MRI: Dr. Melton, the neurologist, came in yesterday and gave her a big thumbs up. He said the new MRI ruled out the swollen brain stem, she had just moved in the earlier one and the affected area of the stroke was not going to cause her a lot of problems. It was an area that of the brain that affects vision - so her left peripheral vision might not be great, but he thought she was responding well when he checked her and she has equal strength on both sides - so all that is good.

Dissecting Aneurysm
Next in was Dr. Rogers, the cardiologist. His bed side manner was not the best - but he too felt that the dissection was minimal if any and wandered out the door in mid sentence, I think so I could not ask any other questions. Later I confirmed with Dr. Saad that after comparing everything, there is something small there that they will watch - but it doesn't look like it will cause her any problems for now. They were trying to keep her blood pressure under 130, but now it can fluctuate a bit more - up to 160 and that is ok.

Stomach Issue
Well, after all that good news, we were thinking that she might be headed for a regular room. But, something else is causing problems and she is keeping her spot in ICU 382 for now. Her small intestines are dilated quite a bit and her colon is slightly dilated. They did a CT of her stomach and it doesn't show an obstruction - it is dilated all the way through. They inserted an NG tube down her nose and are trying to empty her stomach of some gross stuff and trying to figure out what is going on. I think she will be on NPO (for you non-hospital folks - that is "nothing by mouth" - don't ask me how they came up with that!) she will be super grouchy if she is awake...yesterday she was pretty much out of it all day, thank goodness!

Still to Come
They are still going to biopsy her abnormal lymph nodes, but Dr. Saad doesn't think that is connected to her stomach trouble, so that will be later. Her thyroid is still an issue - but 'off to the side' for now.

Lisa's "Neighbor"
When I walked back into the ICU yesterday, one of our elders from Southeast was standing there. Gerald is one of the kindest men you will ever meet. His sister had been admitted and was Lisa's next door neighbor. His has such a sweet spirit, it was so nice to see him - and how he interacted with the nurses and his family was encouraging. Please pray for Gerald's family, his sister was being taken off life support last night and as Gerald said, "to have some comfort before she goes to be with Jesus."

Thank you for taking time to read this and for praying for us!