Monday +252 (Evening)

Once again we spent the entire morning at the hospital. She had more blood work and cultures drawn. Jackie continues to make small amounts of improvement. Her stomach is better today. She is still having some pain in the stomach and gut, but it isn't as bad. She also continues to have pain in her lower back and hips. This is the bone pain she had dealt with for the past month. She ended up spending most of the day in bed. That is where she has been for the last week - in bed.

Jackie's blood counts continue to be good. Her hemoglobin (Hgl) is down a little to 10.3. A few days ago it was at 12.3. It is probably down a little due to the large amounts of blood that is being drawn for tests and because she has been receiving fluids. Still her energy level is clearly down and this is the likely reason. Her WBC count continues to be very good at 7.1 and has come down from the much higher levels of a week ago. This indicates the antibiotics are working on the C-Diff. Her platelets remain excellent at 208. Her sodium level is still 129, but I continue to salt everything she eats (much to her displeasure) and this should be normal again before long.

Today she said she felt like eating Mexican food so we went to one of the local TexMex restaurants. She was able to eat about 1/4 of a burrito. Not much, but still progress. This evening she said she felt like eating some California sushi-type rolls. So I began a search for sushi in Rochester. As you might imagine, sushi is not a big food item in the cornfields of MN. I finally located some at a Super Target store and she consumed a few for supper. My stock tip of the month: Buy TGT stock! Last night I went to Best Buy to purchase some software. They had a line a mile long to check out with only half the check registers open and employees standing around gabbing. I left the store and went across the street to the Super Target and bought my software with no wait whatsoever. They had 36 registers up and running. Today I found sushi there.

Tomorrow we find out if we will be released to come home. We won't know until about 5:00 or 6:00. I believe they will send us packing, however. They want as few souls around during the holidays as possible. My plan for returning home if we are released is to leave very early in the morning on Wednesday (about 3:00 AM). This will put me back in Pryor by 2:00 and ahead of the snow storm.

Until Later....

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN