A quick update

Hi everyone:

Patty is still experiencing discomfort that runs the gamut between bad and nasty, with brief respites granted from time to time by sleep. She has vomited several times--although, since she's had only popsicles and apple juice, the volume is nothing Exorcist-like (and you'll get no complaint from me about this.) When she's awake and the pain eases back for a few moments, Patty has seemed chatty, if not entirely coherent (partly because her mouth keeps drying out, and partly because of the one-two punch of pain and pain medication). In true Patty fashion, she was barely awake after her surgery when she asked me to check her work e-mail to see if her AP art students had received scores on their portfolios.

Over the past hour or so, a headache that started out as a twinge has grown into yet another pain to manage; Patty's nurse gave her Benadryl, though, which within 30 seconds transported our patient to La-La-Land. All in all, I would say that Patty is doing okay, all things considered. She enjoyed visits from Neil, Emily and Kristen this evening. Dr. Costanzo dropped by, as did Maryanne Spencer, who has always made sure the folks at Edward are on their toes in looking after Patty.

All afternoon and evening, Patty was doted over by Kelly. At one moment, Kelly both surprised me and filled me with pride at her maturity; at the next, she seemed so vulnerable and frightened I wanted to conceal her under my arms and hide all of this from her. She's been a great help, as has Kathleen, who is clearly downplaying her own discomfort so she can be here for Patty. She's been invaluable many times. Sometimes, when I'm in the presence of Patty and Kathleen together, and I think about how sick they've each been and may be in days to come, the order of things seems anything but orderly. Bad things sometimes do happen to good people. Okay, enough of the home-brewed philosophy...back to our patient.

Patty has had one incident of blood pressure dropping to the point nurses needed to intervene with additional IV medication (and tons of fluids), has complained of feeling uncomfortably warm (although she's not febrile), said about an hour ago that her heart felt like it was racing and, as mentioned, has been dealing with pain and vomiting. Still, if she can tough out the first day or so, and I know she can (easy for me to say, no?), I think she'll come through this just fine.

I'll provide an update tomorrow sometime...I'll try to actually wait until there's something of any consequence to report...unlike today's 30-minute vignettes that really said little.

I'm staying over at the hospital tonight, so if anything of consequence comes up during the night, which I don't anticipate, this is the place to check. Speaking of which...if you text me or call and I suggest you visit the blog, I'm not trying to avoid a conversation; it's nice to hear from people. I just think I do a better job recalling the details when I sit in front of a screen than I do with a phone to my ear, so reading the notes here is the best way to ensure I'm not overlooking too many important details.

Sweet dreams...

Love,
Brian