My New Buddy

Hey, Y'all,
I left home last Sunday and went back to the Jefferson City Emergency Room with a fever of 103.5 and tossing my cookies. They immediately (well, when I got back there to the actual room) began getting my medical history of the past two months. They took blood samples, urine samples, and sent me back = you guessed it = to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. I am glad they did. The four hour ride in the ambulance was loooonnnggg and agonizing, but we finally made it.

By the next morning they had determined that I had an abcess on my liver that was causing all the problems. They also decided to put a pick line into my right arm at the bend of my elbow. They didn't get it right the first time, so they did it again the next day and got it right. A pick line allows them to get blood with out sticking you again. They knew they would need a lot of blood. They install a pick line using x-ray and they insert a tube into your vein and it goes up to very near the heart.

They did a ct scan as one of the first things when I got there to determine exactly where to put a drain to drain the abcess. They immediately started me on two or three intravenous antibiotics, one of which is the very powerful vancomycin. I stayed on that for the entire time until the day I left (yesterday), when they switched me over to amoxycillin and diflucan (GAAAAG) -don't worry girls, I won't stop taking them until I am supposed to. I nearly lost it tonight swallowing the amoxycillin, but so far, I have kept it down. I took it with ensure and salty potato chips.

On Tuesday, (I think it was), they had determined where to put the drain, and I got to go down to the first floor where they do all their torture stuff (radiology) and had a new tube inserted into my right side. It is called an Accordian drain. I decided to make that drain my friend and be buddies with it. So I gave her a name - Cordelia (Cordy for short) suitable for the kind of drain she is.

She has a little round face that comes out kind of like the folds in an accordian, and when it comes out so far, you can push it in till it becomes flat, and she suctions fluid out of the tube in my body and it drains into her body (a rectangular plastic bag). At the bottom of the plastic bag is a little tube that can be loosened to allow you to drain out of the bag what has drained in from the body. Now, I say Cordy is my friend because she is just a suckin' all that bad stuff from that liver abcess, but I must also say I won't be really sorry to see her go, because that means that I will be much better.

Here, I must say once again, "Thank You, Jesus, for seeing me through all this" and thank you to all those who have inquired about me and have been praying for me"

My daughter, Allie, came and picked me up from Nashville yesterday, delivered me back home safe and sound and did some really great things for me and loved me and I am so grateful to her. My daughters, Carol and Teresa, have kept really close check on me several times each day and I feel so loved. My two sisters-in-law (actually they are more sisters than inlaw) have kept a close check on me and prayed for me.

Today, my good friend, Judy, came and put fresh sheets on my beds and helped me with the laundry, then took me to visit my Sweetie Pie, then we came back here and found a dress I can wear over Cordy so that she doesn't offend anyone's sensibilities with her drain and ugly body. Later she took me and she and her husband, Gene, and her mother, Marian, out to supper at the Gondolier to celebrate Marian's 91st birthday. We had a lovely time but I sent most of my supper home with Gene and Judy.

Well, it has been a full day, and I do eventually need to get to bed to get a few hours of sleep. Of course, I have to watch out for Little Cordy and not get tangled in her tube and not do any accidental tugging where she goes into my right side. Needless to say, no sleeping on the right side, and she has a clip that I use to clip her to my clothing night and day. What fun! My pain is constant, but so is my joy in the Lord and His Goodness to me.

This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for today. Thanks to all those who continue to lift Gramps and I up in prayer. IT'S WORKING! More tomorrow on my visit with Gramps today. Love to all of you. Bye for now.