Bev Report 6: the saga continues

Have just been too tired and frazzled to post info. Sorry. Another drain put in night before last, this one "more painful than all the others put together." Yes, the gradual conversion to full Borg status is happening again. No cranial implants, yet. I finally sat in on a dressing change for the abdominal wound, and it was a real Cronenberg (not my favorite film director) moment. They've left the incision wide open in case they have to go back in. They just change the gauze "caulking" every day. Let's just say that I can report with accuracy that our favorite jouster has no belly fat, and very lean muscles.

Lots of pain yesterday. When I got there a bit after three she was dark around the eyes. She has no memory of returning from the procedure the night before and the consequent dressing change. I'm glad, because she was in screaming pain for a lot of it (she has a healthy grip, if nothing else!). Late in the afternoon they finally gave her an anti-inflammatory. Took a while to kick in but it really helped. They boosted the dosage on the "pain button"...but now it's so high that she gets nauseous if she uses it too often. Need to find a middle ground.

The head of surgery is reviewing her case/chart in order to offer a second opinion on the progress. He's a good guy. Right now it looks like they won't be putting her completely back together for about a year, so there will be no jousting for her until 2010. As soon as she can move around and eat real food she can go home. I don't see it happening this week.

She's been in the hospital for exactly one month as of Friday. Keep praying for healing of all infection and more importantly for her spiritual condition.