Day 5

After a very interesting drive in this morning, we had a nice day today visiting with Debbie and seeing some of her friends. When I arrived at about 8:00 AM, Ms. Sociality was on the phone and had taken a bath, all by herself, and was ready to do her laps. Lucky for Deb, her breakfast arrived and she ate instead. So far she has been able to eat at least 1/2 of a portion -- which although not much -- is better than she had been eating.

After breakfast, we did about 5 laps around the nurses station and then I understood that "Debbie laps" are different than real laps. 5 real laps are 7 Debbie laps. But so long as she is moving, who cares how you count them?

After a short nap, 3 of her friends arrived and bearing gifts. Debbie now has 12 bandanas, a pink Eagles hat and a new quilt for her bed. With all of the cards, letters, Christmas angels, Santas and a little Christmas tree, her room is looking like "Debbie's place." Since she has no drawers to hide her clutter in, we have a little pink plastic bucket where she hides her extra stuff. Funny how whatever we can't find ends up in that bucket.

Mary Ellen's husband made a great batch of chicken soup and Debbie had that for lunch. They have microwave ovens, special frigerators, etc. for patient comfort and there are more than a few items in the fridge that now belong to Debbie. Denny brought a batch of wanton soup and Kim brought rice pudding that Deb has enjoyed as well. That kind of comfort food is what she seems to enjoy the best.

After lunch we did some more laps -- 2 less than "Debbie laps" -- and she took another nap. Then Kris McLay came, decked out in her fur hat, Cossack boots and disco ball. We had some ribbon left over from another gift and used that to affix the disco ball to the IV rack above the bed. When they added the love beads, the nurses got a little worried. We will pipe in the music tomorrow!

At about 3:30, Deb got a little uncomfortable and began to spike a temperature. We had to cut Kris' visit short -- something we all need to get used to and accept -- and Deb was having some problems going to the bathroom, i.e., too many times. After about 45 minutes of up and down she settled down and was able to sleep for a few hours. She ate half a sandwich for dinner and the temperature was coming down when I left to come home.

Deb has her blogs to read tonight and is so glad to hear from everyone. Having spent a full day there today, it could be a lonely place without this kind of connection with all of you. She does have internet connectivity in the family lounge and we can access the blog on her floor. Tomorrow we plan to show Deb how to do that and maybe she can post her own blog??

Deb sends her love to everyone and needs your support and prayers now. She will be going into a very difficult stage over the next week. Her white blood count is falling and her immune system will be shut down shortly. This will result in some inevitable infections, fevers and overwhelming fatigue. Please check with us before coming down to visit for the next week.

Deb sends her love to all.