Saturday, April 12th - Platelet's and Side Shows

Cliff Notes

There is no internet access at Jewish, so that will surely have them ranked poorly on my and Jake's hospital evaluation/comparison. Both Baptist East and Suburban have wireless everywhere!

It was a long day and we only got to actually speak to one doctor today. We decided he was too much of a science geek to be interested in fire works - so he was probably the only one working. This doctor got some history and was actually the one that originally spotted the dissection at Baptist East. He still believes he did see a dissection - but told us that either way, they would not operate on Lisa, so the treatment is the same - some type of medicine.

New things:

• Low platelets, they had to give her 2 units of blood today. Her original kidney problem 11 years ago started with a blood disease, and they got some history on that today. It seemed they might be curious if that might be a factor.
• They are scheduling her for a biopsy of her abnormal lymph nodes. When she was at Suburban 2 weeks ago, they looked at those and didn't seem too alarmed and were not pursuing checking them out.
• She is a bit more disoriented today and saying things that don't make sense - not all the time, but more than yesterday. (She has a chicken casserole in my oven, and there was some talk of a stage coach last night...)
• They are still not able to the MRI - maybe tomorrow.

Progress:

• She had dialysis again today, and they got to give her the units of blood then - which is a great thing. We are hoping she can skip dialysis on Sunday - so far it has been the last 3 days in a row. Normally she has it 3 times per week.
• She passed her swallow test and after 3.5 days got to have a drink of water! She is also able to eat now, but she didn't seem all that interested in the food - I can't say I blame her, it looked pretty unappetizing.
• Her blood pressure was a bit more stable today.

Prayer Needs:

• Please pray for our family to know how to encourage her and one another.
• Please pray that God will give Lisa an incredible sense of peace.
• We were sent to Jewish because of possible surgery - and now that it is ruled out, we would love to go back to Baptist East - there are lots of reasons and probably ZERO chance, but we're still going to ask God about that one.
• Lisa's second son, Joe, is in Ohio and it is difficult for him to be off work for an extended period. We are all trying to figure out when is the best time for him to come.
• The doctors and nurses treating her.
• The many families we are meeting in the waiting room that are struggling with the same things we are.

Thank you!!!!!!

-----------------------------Side Shows-----------------------------

At the Circus, there are often interesting Side Shows. Ours is no different, and honestly - sometimes we are not only the Circus, but the side show, too. Today it was some of other families in the waiting room.

The family that kept us up all night - I'll call them... Country Charm, met unexpectedly a new family to the waiting room, a family I'll call - Deep Country.

For any of you who have spent much time in hospitals, it is an interesting - but predictable thing that happens when you come into the waiting room for the first time. It is a bit like the first day of school, when you sheepishly enter and try to figure out where to sit. Where are the cool kids, the nerds, the bullies, etc - and where do you want to position yourself. In waiting rooms, there are some factors that push you into a specific area. Like, how many are in your group - where are the seats that don't have armrests, so if you have to stay all night, you are already positioned for maximized zzzzzzzzz's. (this part reminds me of trying to find open seats on planes when i travel). Anyway. Our family scoped out a corner of the room that had one open 3 seater (3 seats with no armrests) and a cubed coffee table for us to put our feet on. A special feature is that there are windows right there with ledges for our opened cokes, snacks, magazines we don't want to share, etc. I think our spot is great....it is a prime seat to watch the rest of people come and go.

Today, the CC (country charm) Family were transitioning their 90 year old mother off her medicine, called in hospice and were preparing to say good-bye. They have been there for week, and you could tell that they knew this was coming and they have said their good-byes and this morning was the calling of everyone from coast to coast to let them know that today was the day. Stephan and I could recite the delivery of the news and I made a mental note, "your seat in the waiting room is not sound proof, step into the hall to make private calls."

You are wondering when Deep Country comes in, aren't you? Well, the ICU nurses are very nice and because of the circumstances with CC's mom, they were letting as many back in her room as they wanted. Great news for CC. What they did not anticipate was that by all being back there and not really 'saving their seats' with their stuff...another family whose mom had been admitted found their seats very appealing. So they parked themselves right in the middle of "their" row. Now, DC (deep country) are those kind of people that would give you the shirt off their back, have colorful language - but a deep accent which masks some of it, and have 'their people' on the way.

When CC came out of the ICU to see which other of their family had come up, they were SHOCKED to see their seats gone...while the bossy sister had told ME that I was not their kind of people during our brief chat, I felt certain that these were even less so. So I watched with interest as a few of them debated on what to do when they saw their seats occupied. It was so awkward as they had a few false starts on a 'march' up to tell them their error... then they finally regrouped on the side and one was sent in to get some of their things under the chairs and the others picked out a few other seats to hold their coats, papers and junk.

I have noticed that the topic of haircuts or hairdo's is big in the waiting room. The DC crew all goes to the same lady to get their hair cut and not one of them was really all that happy with how it turns out. Their mother always goes in and tells the lady to cut it short - and she never does ... 15 minutes later - they conceded that hair grows back, so get your money's worth.

More tomorrow. Thanks for your prayers!