1st Communion

Lisa made her first communion on Sunday morning.  I woke her up about 15 minutes beforehand.  I was able to get her dressed and in the car, and when we arrived she managed to walk from the car and into church but immediately laid down.  That little ordeal was enough to take a toll. She stayed down the entire mass with the exception of receiving communion.  She sat up and managed communion with a few painful tears. It was a very touching moment with Father Ron coming to her.

Monday I brought Lisa to UofM for lab work that would tell us if she needed more blood products, which she did.  She needed both platelets and red blood cells.  When I brought her in she was very uncomfortable indicating pain on her right side near her bottom rib and additionally up in her right shoulder.  Her pain was so bad that she was actually crying which I can't remember her ever doing. Typically Lisa will retreat to a bed, close her eyes and try to manage her pain quietly and hope to sleep it off.  She’s so strong.  I think she’s actually trying to “suck it up” at home so that she isn’t a burden, even if she doesn’t know she’s doing it.  What we are beginning to understand is that when Lisa arrives to the infusion area she seems to feel safe enough to let her guard down just a bit.  Whenever the nurses ask her to rate her pain from 1 -10, it's always 10, at the hospital. When asked if she is in pain at home, almost always the answer is "no".  I wish I had her strength.

Including this picture so that you can see her outfit. (Still tightly clinging cha-ching the teddy bear.)

We decided to keep Lisa overnight at the hospital with the hope of getting a handle on the pain.  We are considering bringing her home with VI pain medicine which would be managed by hospice but we haven’t yet made that determination.  Today, when I spoke to Linda, Lisa was playing in the craft room so I’m taking that as a positive sign that she’s feeling “better”.  Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, and send her lots of healing/pain relief energies.

As always, thank you for checking in. 

Mike