Thursday 4:00 PM

I was pretty exhausted yesterday since Joanie prevented me from getting a good night's sleep. Tuesday night I drove back to Twain Harte and got to bed about 1:30 AM. Wednesday I had every intention to get back down to Modesto in a timely manner. It turns out that I was so distracted and disjointed that it took forever to get away. I decided to wash her clothes that I'd brought home from the hospital to get the blood out of them. I threw away her shirt & bra that had been cut off her, but happily washed her fleece jacket. When I took it out of the washer, I realized that it had also been cut to shreds! Her jeans have a mysterious one inch cut in the bottom of one cuff. I'm guessing they started to cut them off but then decided to just remove them. They were her best fitting pair of jeans. Maybe I can fray and cut up the cuffs and she can be more stylish.

When I arrived this morning I learned that the neurosurgeon had finally been able to look in on her last night about 11:00 PM. He canceled all orders for an MRI of her head and lower back. He must be satisfied with her progress. I talked to her hospitalist this afternoon and he is pleased with her progress but is deferring to the neurosurgeon about when to move her out of ICU. Joanie's INR is down to 1.0 with the addition of another unit of plasma yesterday. The anti coag clinic in Sonora has been doing an excellent job of keeping her between 2-3 to avoid the possibility of her throwing a clot if she goes into atrial fibrillation again. When she arrived at ER Tuesday evening her INR was 2.3. When the internist talked about moving her soon, I requested that she be kept on a heart monitor as long as possible.

Physical Therapy has been in twice today to get her out of bed. The second time they had her take a few steps out into the hall using a hemi walker since she cannot put any weight on her left arm/hand. Wouldn't you know it, 3-4 weeks ago I donated her hemi walker to a group that gives them out to needy people. After her stroke in May 2008, I had purchased her a new one when I could not find a used one. She used it in the house only two or three times before going without. C'est la vie!

Joanie is looking better but is not so much fun some of the time. She is still on morphine for pain and enjoys sleeping. Apparently I'm not that much company. She is still very puffy in the face but they are slowly working at washing away all the dried blood from her face. Some places have scabbed over so of course they are leaving those alone.

We are amazed at the responses we are getting from this blog and FaceBook. I've been on FB for six to eight months and have made 3-4 posts and 4-5 comments. Mostly I just glance at it every day or two. Within about thirty minutes of my post yesterday morning mentioning Joanie's condition and linking to this blog, I had three responses and I continue to hear from people. I read all of them to Joanie and we marvel at the outpouring of love for her. That and your prayers are keeping her going.

We have heard nothing about a timeline for Joanie's release from the hospital. Since we are getting such good care, I'm in no rush.