A WEEK OF MORE PROBLEMS

Today is Saturday, October 24th. Since my last post on Tuesday telling you such an optimistic report, the week went down, down, down. Kim began having anxiety or panic attacks on Tuesday morning and they began to just take over her life. She would break out in a sweat all over her body so great that her hair would look like she had been in the shower. She would have trouble breathing and also would be so weak that she couldn't walk across the room. We tried everything to take care of this situation but nothing helped. The episodes would come without any warning. I did not leave the house because she needed my presence to feel secure. On Wednesday it was a worse situation and she stayed in bed all day, too weak to hardly make it the few steps into the bathroom, and even had her meals served to her on a tray as a direct contrast to her formerly coming to the table and eating with me. She only took medicine for the "thrush" on her tongue and nothing for pain or nausea or any of the things that had called for a complete regiment of medications on a timely basis throughout the day. I thought it very strange that her doctor took her medications away with such an abrupt order. Thursday morning I found Kim in a complete pool of perspiration and so weak as to be incoherent in most of her thoughts. I called her primary physician, Dr. Tom Miller, and he sent a home health nurse here to check her vital signs. They were the worst - Blood Pressure was 60/30; temp 100.5; (can't remember the rest) and she was ordered to the hospital immediately. Corinne came and together we took her to the Vanderbilt Emergency Room where Brad was waiting. The ER doctor diagnosed an infection and she immediately began to receive antibiotics and fluids intravenously. She was admitted but there was "no room in the inn" so she and Brad spent the night in the ER. Finally on Friday morning the doctor came with his reports from the blood work and decided that she was much better and dismissed her to go home, advising her to go back on some of her medicines and he told her which ones he recommended. Home, her home, is where she went. They stopped here at my house to pick up some of her things and she went to her house to get into her bed and sit in her recliner and try to recover from this last episode. She is now taking some of her medicines that her body was used to receiving every four hours and already she is feeling somewhat better. Corinne was with her yesterday evening and could see a big improvement. We are still in awe as to why a doctor would just stop strong medications without "weaning" her off of them. I think that is certainly something that Kim should discuss with her the next time she visits. I have been a bit disillusioned over the confusion that seems to exist between the Vanderbilt staff of nurses, doctors, and other personnel. We all know what a wonderful reputation that hospital has and how people come there from all over the world so it has to be good, but it seems so big with so many employees that naturally many personalities and many opinions will exist. Maybe I am just used to the smaller hospitals where more personal service is administered. However, the good news this morning is that Kim is better from the terrible week she has had, she is at home at her house but will come back here to my house for another week of "Nurse Mother's" care and hopefully she will feel better. We have fun when she is feeling half-way good. We talk about every subject you can think of - even those times when she was a teen-ager and we had our ups and downs and we talk about serious subjects such as prayer and what to do when the words just won't come. In a book I was reading recently the woman was grieving over a loss in her family and she said that all she could say was "please God, please". I told Kim I thought that was totally sufficient. After all He knows her name and He knows her needs and He knows that she is in His hands so she can just trust Him to take care of her. I was also telling myself the same thing because sometimes I, too, don't know what to say except Please. The main thing is for all of us to keep praying because God is listening and every time she has a set-back He sends the right person to us for help. Keep praying and keep loving Kim - we love you right back.