Another Update...

Elmo giving Coral a good morning hug
(He sleeps all night in Coral's wheelchair parked by her bed)

Tonight I have been catching up on blogland happenings that I have been missing out on for a couple of weeks now, and how encouraging it has been for me! Thank you to all of you!

This is just to update you on us, and I'm glad to report that we may actually have turned the corner. For the last 2 weeks, I have kept Coral home because she was having so much discomfort in sitting. She would lean this way and that in her chair trying to get comfortable, and it was much better for her to lie in bed longer each morning than to sit in her wheelchair for such long hours every day.

Yesterday was the Christmas party for her day program, so I called up the transportation lady and asked to have a pickup for Coral, and off she went, all bundled up against the 14-degree weather. When she balked, I promised that it was only for one day, and then she would be staying home again until after Christmas. She came home happy and animated with a note that said that there had been no problems.

At bedtime, she told me her foot (her weight-bearing foot) was hurting, and it looked all funny and cramped up again to me. I think that might have been due to having to use her abdominal muscles in the evening. Something happens in her back or hip that goes all the way down her leg. I was worried about her and checked several times during the night, but all seemed to be okay.

But then this morning as soon as I saw her face, I knew she was having tummy trouble. We began several hours of some nasty heaving from an empty stomach. What was that about? I thought maybe she did not get enough to eat yesterday, and it seems I was right, as just a few sips of weak Jello water put an end to that. As it turned out, she had a very fun day watching her TV programs with Mom sitting beside her doing fun stuff on her laptop. Lots of kissing and talking about how cute Elmo is!!

I have been feeling so thankful today. Coral is feeling better every day. The heave-ho episode was over so quickly. Even more wonderful, it did not happen overnight when she might have choked and aspirated fluid. And a little (actually, not so little) glitch in someone else's day made it so that I could just sit and have fun with Coral. Last night, much to my surprise, there were no dictation files from the doctor. He usually uploads them to me at the end of his workday.

So I called his office this morning... "Did the doctor work yesterday? ... He did?? ... Yes, I'll wait to talk to him." Oh, no! This could not be good! He told me that when he tried to send me the work, he got a nasty error message on his computer -- a message that included words like "corrupted" and "reformat"... Arghh! He had worried over it all night. I don't know how he will handle the redoing of the records for those 26 patients he saw, but I do know that today I was free to do what was good for both Coral and me. And for that I am so thankful!

Right now, we are all sitting companionably in the office, Barry at his computer and me at mine. Barry has records (yes, the old vinyl discs) going on the player by his computer. Coral is happy in her wheelchair with her headphones plugged into the amp. Elmo is overjoyed to be sitting on the trashcan looking at Coral! Every now and then she leans toward me for a kiss. She tells us to look at Elmo so we can see how cute he is! She sees Najee lying on the floor and says, "Mom!" in that voice that I know means "Look at Najee!" I tell her what a good job of looking at things she is doing! And she beams at me!

Yes, today I am very, very thankful!

UPDATE: Saturday afternoon -- Well, it was a short reprieve, but it came just when I needed it! Last night the doc uploaded Friday's dictation (19 patients) and this morning he has sent me Thursday's which he had to do all over again (26 patients). Guess what I am spending my weekend doing! But Coral is giggling and happy in her room watching all of her favorite stuff, so we are getting back to normal just in time for Christmas!