Krissie’s prognosis is better. I visited yesterday and she had apparently just tried to get out of her room before the nurse corralled her. She’s ready to get out of that place. I would be too. She’s texting now, and checking Twitter to read back on all my updates (she was so out of it for most of that stuff that it’s probably a pretty bizarre timeline to read), and generally feeling more upbeat. Which…
Night one: After the hospital’s 10 p.m. lockdown Thursday, My brother and I took to the halls in search of distraction. I was mostly looking for a wifi signal. We discovered a cafeteria gearing up for its nightly output, and I fed myself forkfuls of chocolate chess pie and gulps of coffee as he watched crap TV in the dining room. We continued the sugar dump in the vending area, with him knocking…
My much anticipated dinner-plate dahlias opened up mere hours before I hit the road for Middle Tennessee Thursday. They were beautiful enough when I saw them, but when I returned home today (Sunday), I saw that more of them had opened up in my absence and had already collapsed under their own weight. They were splayed out like they’d fainted under the sun’s wilting rays. They are so gorgeous but so unable to support their…
That’s been the name of my game lately, it seems. My sister’s ordeal has been its own beast, and one that has not yet been fully tamed. She’s coping. I’m coping. We’re all coping. We are mining hope like it’s our job and so far it has either actually helped or made it seem that way. But there is other uncertainty around. It swirls up from the bottom like creamer in my coffee, making things…
Home for the night. Tired. I wouldn’t have left the hospital if I didn’t feel pretty good about Kris’ status, even though it’s still pretty shaky (still in ICU isolation, on liquid diet, immune system really weak) and any road to full recovery is going to be long. But I’m in check-phone-constantly mode. Naturally. And I’ll see her again soon.
I’m stealing a moment on the ICU computer to get an update into the ether. It’s warranted. It’s a good one. The doctors put off surgery overnight to just observe Krissie and see how she would do on her fluids and meds. She’s on a saline drip and some antibiotics — not freaking Cipro, which is what probably caused this awfulness — and she is slowly, so slowly improving every time we see her, which…
It’s 1 a.m. and I am on the public computer in the intensive care waiting room of Jackson Madison County General Hospital. My sister is one floor up in isolation, fighting for her life. That is a sentence I have never typed and never once imagined I’d have to. The doctors have been trying to piece together the puzzle for hours and hours now; I’ve been here since 2 p.m. and since then, no one…
My camera and I have a date with several bands and a chunk of muddy farmland. If I can actually get online (last year I couldn’t, really), I’ll check in here and at The Memphis Blog. Of course I will be tweeting. I imagine you are nearly unable to contain your excitement so I will hush up and get going.
And now I wait to see if the Universe is going to issue me an attagirl, or a smack in the face.
Memorial Day weekend was also the weekend my grandmother turned 78 years old. She’s my only remaining grandparent and I am working on the technology to allow her to live forever.
You must be logged in to post a comment.