Saint Alexius

is where I've been spending my time lately. I said Janett was feeling better and she was. Not eating for three days may have had something to do with her feeling better, but she felt enough better that we went to see Jase and Dee Sunday afternoon for a little visit. Sunday evening she began to have a problem with some serious bleeding. A call to her GP's office resulted in a call back from a doctor in his office who said she could stay home until she decided it was getting worse rather than better. Janett woke me at 3:30 Monday morning and said we had better go to the hospital.

So Monday was a long day. After spending the morning in a nice examination room
she was admitted and moved to a temporary room. Kim and Steffy were there most of the day. Jase came for a visit, and the bleeding slowed. She was moved to a "permanent" room at supper time and got to eat a clear liquid dinner. The staff GI doctor thought she might go home this morning, but a staff surgeon wasn't so sure she wouldn't need a colonoscopy, and who knew what else. Since the GI was the attending physician we were kind of optimistic.

She had a lady roommate in her new room, so I couldn't spend the night with her. It would have been difficult for Steff or Kim to stay and Janett said she thought she'd be alright overnight. So we all left her at or soon after 8 PM. Things didn't go as well as we'd hoped. This morning she began to feel stressed and kind of agorophobic, and asked her nurse for help, either some sedative or a less public room, perhaps further from the nursing station. The nurse who was a nice enough person explsined why Janett's proposed solutions were impractical, and not within her authority to implement. Well, when Janett is getting stressed, telling her no solutions are available is the wrong approach. She decided she was leaving the hospital even though she felt weak and still not very well. She called me at 8:15 to tell me to come pick her up.

When I got to the hospital, I risked Janett's ire by suggesting she stay to talk to the doctor since she hadn't entirely stopped bleeding. Kim and Steffo arrived and Janett was given a litle valium and gradually felt cared for enough that she said she would stay to see a doctor. Her surgeon came to see her. He asked why we thought diverticulitis had been causing her symptoms. That kind of shook me. What else would it be, I thought. Colon cancer came to mind. He said that he had neither a cat scan or colonoscopy to insure that diverticulitis was the cause, and would need some tests in the next few days to determine that.

I came home at 3 PM to get my car out of the shop (a flat tire and two bent/broken aluminum rims, thank you very much) and clean up. Steff called to say Mom was doing well and liked the night staff and would be OK, so she wanted me to stay home and get a good night's rest. She put Janett on the phone and I told Janett I had to run to the office tomorrow morning for a few hours, and would be back to the hospital at lunch time. Janett was fine with that, so I made a sandwich and coffee and turned on the news.

Now it's 8:30 and I'm ready for bed. Mark just called and told me that Janett is still bleeding and the staff GI is concerned and acted a little distressed that he hadn't been told. Mark says that doctor said that he wanted a transfusion started, some procedures performed immediately (which procedures wasn't clear from our conversation) and wanted Janett moved to intensive care. Mark said he and Steffy, having the boys to care for, were leaving but that Kim was going to spend the night. So I guess I'll run back over there.