Maybe We'll Glow in the Dark

One can never know what might happen after spending a quarter-hour in a lead suit while X-Ray machines hummed away a few feet from where I sat watching Tuesday morning. Their job was to reveal Bettie's gall bladder on a video screen, just adjacent to where she was lying beneath those probing rays.

And reveal it they did. Well actually they were revealing a dye that had been pumped into the bladder. Bottom line, the bladder is clear and the drain, that has been troubling her for so long, can now be removed.

We were at Auburn Hospital again, two floors below where her home-away-from-home was for the entire month of July. That was a little after 9 O'clock this morning. With the drain issue confirmed, she was moved down the hall where a different imaging device assisted Dr. Gordon Greenman with the actual removal. The internist who we saw last week about having the drain removed (Dr. Donald Stephans) was in attendance too.

Update: A day after yesterday's appointments - on Wednesday morning - within about 30 seconds of each other, both Drs. Greenman and Stephans called me, just to see how Bettie was doing. It sure feels good to be in the hands of such caring professionals.

These things always have risks, and complications are not unknown, so we have to watch Bettie closely for the next few days to see that all is well ... but we're very glad to have that darn tube out of her tummy. That's got to feel better. We always take for granted how good feeling nothing can feel.

The tube out, we had time for just 30 minutes' rest at home before we headed out to Dr. Heide's office for a followup. Both he and his associate confirmed a lot of progress. This is the kind of progress that just sort of sneaks up on those of us here at home, and of which we are largely unaware because we see her every day. Tomorrow we go back to see Dr. Heide's so he can scan the area where she banged her head in last week's fall.

As if all of that were not enough for one day, we next went to the Anti-Coagulation clinic at Valley Hospital where her blood consistency could be checked. It turned out to be still too thick so I am going to have to continue a series of Loxenox injections into her abdomen twice a day, until her Coumadin level improves.

Gee, if it isn't one thing, it's something else.

Well, since she is hopefully headed for brighter days, I won't bore you with the follow up visits and tests she has been through the last few days, but it has been intense. Twelve separate appointments in just the last four business days. Enough already.