Transitions

When I got to Beth's room this morning, she was sitting in her chair looking glumly at some scrambled eggs and toast. We got rid of that pronto and replaced it with steel cut oats and chopped pear from my bag of tricks. She had had a rough night and it turned out to be a rough morning as well. They took the epidural out and are trying to figure out her pain management with pills--Percoset and Oxycontin--by mouth. It's a terribly difficult transition. Beth is really feeling the pain of her ribs, which everyone has indicated is the worst, as well as all the healing that is happening in virtually every other area of her body.

She felt a little better after she ate and we were able to talk more. I managed to get her teeth brushed, her hair braided, and some letters read to her. She said the messages and letters are like "the treats on the top of the cupcake, the fun stuff," and that they mean a lot to her. Please feel free to drop her a quick note of encouragement if you have a moment, either here by comment or by mail. She is counting so much on our circle of support to help her through some of the darker days ahead.

They took her down for a CT scan a bit later. Her chest tube had started to increase its output yesterday, and they weren't sure why. (The tube is collecting fluid that is gathering in between the lung and the chest cavity.) The scan showed that there is an additional area where fluid is gathering, so they are monitoring her for infection by watching for fever as well as doing cultures and checking her white blood cell count. There seemed to be a little uncertainty about the precise location of the new pocket. If they think an abscess is forming there they will need to take surgical measures, but that is the worst-case scenario and they are hopeful it won't come to that. At this point they couldn't say more. She does have a low-grade fever.

In terms of the medical detail, let me say up front that I'm not a medical person so if I've gotten info wrong, I apologize. This is as much as I could glean today.

In other news, a few of us met last night to talk logistics around food and visitors. In accordance with Beth's wishes, we have decided to scale back the visiting hours, particularly in light of her new level of pain and discomfort. You can sign up on the calendar to visit her at the times listed between 8 and 2. If you do visit her and she isn't able to interact well or it seems like too much, it's fine to just give her your best wishes and take off. Please try to "read the environment" and do what is best, depending on how she is feeling. She loves having people come and really enjoys the support, but these next few days could be particularly challenging until they figure out the pain meds for her.

Please send your loving, healing thoughts her way for a more peaceful night and the same for the days ahead.