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7/18/06

9:32 AM Well, for all my talk of "normal" in the last few posts, here's "normal" for you: Sophie started running a fever last night. In fact, she's had minor health issues for a couple of days. She had a touch of whatever stomach bug Elisabeth caught, and on Sunday she had that low blood sugar episode. Her appetite has been pretty weak lately, but none of that was really worth worrying about. Last night after her dressing change, we were watching Alladin together and she seemed especially tired/lethargic. When she crawled in my lap, she definitely felt hot and I immediately went for the thermometer--101.5.

So, instead of going to bed, Sophie went to the ER at UNC-Chapel Hill (Susan drove). The ER was packed, so it took quite a while to get seen, have blood drawn, and start IV antibiotics. Sophie's counts came back strong, so she was not admitted last night, although we are anxious to hear the results of her blood culture. If the blood culture grows something (bacteria), then she'll likely be admitted for treatment. Unfortunately, we are quite familiar with that process.

Needless to say, it was very difficult to go to sleep last night, wondering what was happening and whether or not Sophie and Susan would come home or not. Elisabeth decided that she didn't want to sleep in her own bed, so she slept in Sophie's bed. I guess I could read something into that--wanting to be close to Sophie even if Sophie wasn't here. I tossed and turned and read until Susan called to say that Sophie's counts were good and they were likely to come home, eventually.

For the most part, we go through our lives "as if," not allowing minor issues/problems to upset our normal processes (there really is not an alternative--we're not going to live our lives walking on eggshells or worrying about what might happen even when it isn't happening, especially given the wide range of truly scary things that might happen in our situation). But last night, our lives went from normal to "normal" in the span of about 60 seconds. One minute, we were watching Alladin, the next minute, we were anxiously planning a trip to the hospital, not knowing what the outcome of that trip would be.

Comments

Hi Randall & Susan- I'm glad you had a light week and am sorry that "normal" has returned. We'll keep a good thought for you.

Jean

Hugs and prayers on the way to all of you.

Karin