Day 7

We're already to a week. In a few ways, the last couple of days have gone quickly. Sheer exhaustion has come, for both of us, and I have settle into a rote routine again. A routine of "zombieness." Just doing what I need to do, when I need to do it, because that's what needs to be done. Even at 3 in the morning. Monday morning, Mary fell while getting up out of bed. That combined with a few other things (a continually dropping blood pressure for one) has lead to a couple of things. Increased hydration. We're up to 2.5 Liters a day. Um, that's 2 and a half of the huge Nalgene bottles, to put that into perspective for you. It takes about 12 hours to run. Also, we have a walker for Mary to use now as it provides more support than a cane but lets her get more exercise than a wheelchair, and this Friday Mary will be starting Physical Therapy. We have continued to struggle with finding a stable FK-506 level for Mary to take. Which leads to almost daily blood draws and multiple phone calls back and forth each evening to decipher and check results and decide a course of action. Hopefully we've got it figured out for now. We'll find out after our Friday morning blood draw though.

I am going to say, very loudly now, "WE HAVE A WONDERFUL DOCTOR!" I'll probably find myself saying it a lot more in the coming weeks, but it was most noticeable to me yesterday. I had found an odd spot on Mary's arm that I didn't like the looks of and wanted someone to check on, besides the fact that she was hurting much worse from falling than she was the day before. And after we were sent down to Triage, Triage called Diana and she called and talked to me downstairs and said she would rather make time to see us upstairs than have us seen downstairs. I couldn't have agreed more. Not only does she explain things wonderfully, but she has the kindest and gentlest spirit. She is one of the first doctors I have encountered over here who truly believes this, "You are going through a hard enough time already, I'm not going to do anything to make it any harder." And so she doesn't. Mary is having a hard time drinking and so instead of telling Mary to drink more, she gave her more hydration. Mary's been horribly nauseated (and I was waking up every two hours), so she gave us long acting pills that can be taken once every 12 hours that have really cut back on the amount that Mary has had to take everything else (only six or seven times a day now, YAY!). And Diana is full of encouragement. Even on the days when Mary and I feel like we've done nothing right, she is sure that we've done everything perfectly. And so even though I'm sure she'll never read this, I just wanted all of you to know, that there is someone in the background here at the SCCA who is really helping Mary and I out a lot. Thanks Diana. We appreciate all that you do for us!

And thank you friends and family for all of your thoughts and prayers. One week down...do you want to know how many to go?? (I don't want to talk about it, even if you do).