February 12

Mom is telling me that she feels like she has some new jobs at the hospital. She has recently been given the opportunity to evaluate service on other floors in the hospital, namely the 5th floor. This morning she is back up on the 7th floor, and is "glad to be back home" (which is what she has told all the nurses she has seen), after her 2 day stay on the 5th floor. Mom was transferred down to the 5th floor on Saturday evening (the family was not informed of this change of level of care) because she was experiencing some different kinds of pains in her chest. The 5th floor has equipment to monitor the heart and that is why she was moved. Dr. Wallentine wanted her checked for possible heart attack issues. A cardiologist checked mom and felt like things with her heart were good, but still wanted Mom to have a thalium test on Sunday morning. Dr. Wallentine also ordered a bunch of other tests, which all turned out good. Mom has developed pneumonia and has been feeling pretty weak with that. She is trying to get up and walk more now. She has felt pretty winded when she tries to walk a few laps around the floor. The more she walks the better it is for her lungs. She is doing some exercises to help her lung capacity, but the doctors say that walking is the best for her lungs. The really GREAT news is that mom's neutraphils are climbing more rapidly than they did before. Sunday her ANC count was at .3, Monday it was .6 and today it is .8. She actually was at .8 when she came home on Christmas Eve, but she didn't have pneumonia then. Dr. Wallentine said that her lungs sounded better today. We think those white blood cells are recovering and are helping fight the pneumonia. YEAH!

It is sure a good thing that we decided against decorating her room this time, we would have had those nurses going crazy taking down and putting up all our decorations with each move she has made. This is the fourth room she has been in since she came 12 days ago. We are recognizing what a special blessing it was for her to be in room 789 the whole month of December.

Here is a funny story. Mom recognizes that her thinking has been a bit foggy lately, but when she was down on the 5th floor she told Kathie that she kept thinking she was on the 5th floor in the University of Utah hospital. Yesterday Kathie saw a big U of U hospital logo on one of the pillows when they were changing the sheets on the bed. They figured that mom had seen this and thought she was at that hospital. It was reassuring to mom that she hadn't been so foggy in her brain to have missed traveling from the hospital in Provo to the hospital in SLC. She is not as groggy as she thought she might have been.

This has been a rough go-round for mom this time. She is relieved that she is starting to recover. I would love us all to focus our prayers in her behalf to the near future. We have our mother-daughter retreat planned for February 29 - March 4. We want mom to be sufficently recovered to be able to travel to Houston with us for that retreat. Dr. Wallentine told mom to focus on feeling well enough by then so that she could make that trip. He said that he would wait until after that to do her next bone marrow test. Sometimes I wonder what to specifically pray for regarding Mom. Well, here is a specific. We want her to have a wonderful retreat with us. She loves these retreats so much. If you feel it is appropriate consider asking the Lord for such a special blessing to come to her.

Love, Valerie