We Have A Diagnosis

Whitney watched Katie for us, while Maryann, Ryan, Doug and myself went back to the hospital today. Ryan wanted to see Mom one more time before he had to go back home and work. When we walked in her room, she was in the middle of her Physical Therapy and she was sitting in a chair. YES! THANK YOU ALMIGHTY GOD! It has been over a week since we've seen her sitting in a chair. We were all rejoicing in our own way. Poor Dad was so overwhelmed that he began crying, happy tears. We all cheered her on and tried encouraging her to move her limbs (arms & legs), while she was sitting. She wasn't happy that we had her sitting for 45 minutes before paging the PT. Of course, she was experiencing some pain in her lower back and she couldn't hardly wait to get back into bed and lay down. Again, we all encouraged her by telling her today is going to be the worse day and each time she gets up and moving around, it will be so much easier for her. She didn't want to hear that at that particular moment. Too bad! I was encouraged in the way she looked. For once in several days, she didn't have the weak, glassy eyes and she was actually making some sense. They ran a CAT scan early this morning to check her abdomen, they didn't find any thing wrong.

Sandy and I were getting restless when it came to hearing from Dr. Barnes. After talking about it, we decided to go ahead and call his office. The lady I spoke to said Dr. Barnes was out of the office for the whole week, but Dr. Allen would be taking his cases for him. She told me Dr. Allen would be making his rounds late tonight. She went on to say that if we miss him, to leave a phone number with the nurses' station for him to get in touch with someone from the family. Doug and I left the hospital around 5:30, so we could get home in time for Whitney to visit with her boyfriend tonight. As soon as we got home, June called and let us know that Sandy and Dad met with Dr. Allen. Yes! Mom's diagnosis is Endobacterial Infection of the Colon. Dr. Allen told Sandy that it will be easy to treat with the right antibiotics. They are going to give her the correct antibiotics for a couple of days and check her to see if she is responding to them correctly. If her fevers stop and she is doing well with them, they will give them to her by pill form. If everything goes as planned, they are talking about releasing her. I'm sure she will return to the rehab clinic to do her physical therapy.

I really think everyone is breathing a little easier tonight and hopefully we will all be able to have a good nights sleep. I don't think I'll be going to the hospital tomorrow. I have to clean my house, spend some time with Katiebug and do some laundry. Leslie and Jon are going to come by sometime tomorrow. Jon will be staying with us for a couple of days, while Leslie stays a couple of days with a friend. Her friend doesn't live far from our house, so that will be good. I'm not making any major plans for tomorrow. We are just going to go with the flow of things. Maryann asked me to go with her to the hospital on Friday. I didn't even think about Doug being home and I told her, I didn't know what time Les would be by to pick up Jon. Doug reminded me that he would be home with Katie, so that will work out. I'll call Maryann tomorrow and see if she would like for me to ride with her.

Maryann and Kevin invited us over for supper tonight. When we got home from visiting Mom, we hurried up and gathered Katie's things to leave. Katie really enjoyed being with Whitney. She didn't want her to leave at all. We reassured her that we were all going to her house for supper. She liked that idea. She said, "I ready to go." I got her coat on and she told me bye. I guess she thought I wasn't going with them. Whitney went ahead and left to go over to ther boyfriend's house, to pick him up. From the inside of the truck, Katie saw Whitney's car tail lights. She said, "there goes Whitney. I see her again, Mom. Okay?" Katiebug had a good time at Aunt Maryann and Uncle Kevy's house. Their house dogs are small and love to play, so she had a blast playing fetch with Layla and Jack. She was doing a good job going around the house and snatching the kids' cell phones. I was scared that she would throw them across the room. Fortunately, she didn't but I think there were some close calls.

Maryann gave me some advice that I'm thinking about trying. She was telling me when Whitney was little, she had a pair of pants that she hated. They were her bad girl pants and whenever she acted bad, she had to wear them. Whitney told me that she remembered those pants and they were awful looking. I told Maryann and Whitney about how Katie insist on wearing a dress every single day. If I put pants and shirt on her, she throws a fit and starts crying. Someone gave us a pair of overalls that she absolutely will not wear. I'm thinking they may have to be our bad girls pants. Maryann said she carried those pants every where and Whitney straighted up, if she threatened her to wear the pants. This might be a good idea.