Day 11 and still at the Antioch Hilton

Dear Family and Friends,

It is 9:15 and Mary is here with us visiting. Nan is receiving yet another unit of blood and eating sees candy (special medicine). She is doing pretty well with numbers holding, nausea gone and quietly resting in her classy bed. She has a way of adjusting the bed so there is a little pocket she fits into and it is comfortable. She is so cute. A nurse came in today and told her how beautiful she was and how inspiring she was, very sweet and all true.

We have had a nice day of rest and friends. Bob and Carrol Sorenson drove over from Lodi arriving about 12:30. We spend a nice time together and then I went with them to Olive Garden for a late lunch. We discovered that there was a Sees candy store right behind Olive Garden. I brought her a box of nuts and chews. George and Yvonne would always bring a box of candy when Nan was recovering in the hospital and she thought that was a good tradition. She has had many pieces of medicine, I mean Nuts and Chews. Right now she is slipping in and out of sleep as the blood flows in.

Our medical situation at present appears to be stable. The potassium they have tried so hard to maintain had slipped a bit this morning so she got a bag more, then magnessium, then more hydration along with the TPN and the last of her antibiotic for something fungal. Doctors have told us that she can be released tomorrow afternoon or monday morning. However there is no TPN available until sometime on monday so we will probably not go home until the monday time frame. Nan walked this morning and although her heart rate approached 160 she did very well, had no dizzy moments and came back to a nice nap. She has been mentally alert all day and had just one brief moment of nausea and then has been better. She is feeling some very sharp pains from time to time in her abdomen which appear to be something new on the scene. We have had a run of colostomy bags breaking, we think there might be a flaw in one of the shipments. One broke just as Bob and Carrol arrived today but Nan quickly handled it.

We are so sorry to hear that Keanna has been ill yesterday and today even asking to take a nap. Meleboo has decided to be a wild child, she is their lab puppy and she has been chewing everything in sight lately, even bringing in a flower plot from the back yard and placing it on the carpet. So she has been visiting the inside of her little doggie carrier lately, one can only clean up so many messes.

Nan is munching pretzels again and found that they taste even better with some extra sea salt I brought from home. Her eyes are bright and she is definitely herself again. I cut up a lemon that Dana had sent from Houston and brought it in today in a little baggie. She asked that I bring another baggie with sea salt. She enjoyed her lemon making little pleasure noises as she ate. It was like pretty music to me.

I just walked Mary out to her car since we both parked at one end of the hospital and after 8 that door is locked so we had to walk completely around the hospital and it was spitting rain, brrrr. Mary is a precious person and Nan enjoyed her surprise visit this evening. We have had a nice day. We played quartet music this morning, then I connected to a worship service for a church in southern california where our friend Patrick Bitzer is the music minister. That was nice to see him in action and to worship with the folks there using the laptop. We have gotten very nice messages from friends today and some really wonderful snapshots from Gerry and Barbara from the party. We have them up on the wall. Our room is now complete with a walker, a wheel chair, a suitcase, the computer bag, Nan's new computer still in its box. Good thing they allow Nan a private room.

Well we are finding ourselves yawning so its time to wrap it up. I'm trying to include some photos we shot today of Nan with her visitors. Thank you Bob and Carrol and Mary for blessing us with your company!!

We are thanking God for the good care, good medicine, good condition and His peace in our room.

love

tim and nan