AT BARNES

Night view from the room looking down South Kingshighway.

We got to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO. @ appx. 0230 22 MAY, and get to the room on the 17th floor. For those of you that don't know, I was a Paramedic for about 10 years back in the 80's, so somewhere during the admission process the nurses realize I'm giving them a patient report, not just answering questions. They say, "You're not the average husband we get up here." And it turns out to be a big help to both me and the nurses. She was set to be admitted to a semi-private room, which means no over night visitors, which means no rest for The Ol' Man because he's crawling the walls.

The nurse asks if there is something they can do for me, "A place to stay?" sez I. Nurse sez just a minute and walks out. Comes back in a few minutes and offers me a proposal. If I'd be willing to blow the dust off of my past experience and help in her care and be a familiar face and voice in the most confusing time of her life, they'll move her to a private room so I can stay 24/7, and because I'll be earning my keep, they'll waive the $60/day guest fee on the room. After considering their offer for about a Yoctosecond, I accept.

And that's how we got the view we have.

We get settled in the new room and have about 1.5 hours to catch our breath before representatives from almost every department in the joint start showing up. For the rest of the day it is an almost non-stop stream of Doctors, nurses, techs and therapists, oh my. The next few days are a plethora of lab tests, imagery, and consults about what's up and what to do about it.

At this point, here is how things stand -

Diabetes - Under control for the most part. Now that she is eating, it's gonna take some re-adjustment in the treatment because now there is more variation in blood sugar levels than there was when she was just on fluid alone.

Stroke - It has done all the damage it's going to do, now we have to figure out the extent of the damage and start rehab to get her back on her feet and get her brain re-wired to work around the damage as much as possible. The neurologist was in earlier and he said that Anna's is looking at an excellent chance of physical recovery w/ only minimal deficit if any at all. Only expected problems will be in vision, memory and cognitive abilities.

Speaking of rehab, the speech therapy girl was in the other day. They stop by every so often and try to get her to do tricks, to which Anna doesn't respond well. But I have seen her get on the phone with friends and carry on a conversation. Anyway, she's here doing her thing and Anna's not playing along very well. I told the girl, "Wait a minute.." and got Marsha on the phone, and the conversation takes off. The Therapist is standing there not believing what she's seeing and taking notes like a mad woman. I recorded a 3-way phone session w/ Marsha and LaDonna to show the head therapist next time she shows up.

Circulatory Problems - There is a clot located in her descending aorta that is about half the size of the vessel. Tiny clots that have broken of this clot are the main suspect in the problems in her left leg and foot. The foot and leg are being treated with heparin, and we are shooting for WED, 30 MAY to put a stent in her aorta to control the main clot.

Endometrial Cancer - Because of the heparin, surgery is a NO GO unless in a dire emergency, so the game plan is a combination of implanted and external source radiation to treat it. You know you're in deep kimchee when cancer is the least of your worries, but because of it's suspected stage and slow rate of progress, Big C got kicked to the bottom of the list.

Due to Memorial Day, this weekend has been pretty slow, and that's good for 2 reasons - time to rest up for what is gonna be a busy week, and if the situation weren't stable, things wouldn't be slow.

So, now y'all are caught up. There will be daily summaries and "breaking news" as things happen. Feel free to leave get well wishes, thoughts and questions in the comment sections of the posts, and I will relay them to Anna, and I'll try to answer all the questions I can.

We are starting down a long and hopefully not too bumpy road, so all the good vibes she can get are welcome.