Sunday, December 3rd

Today’s code phrase for ice chips… “I need my car keys.”

Kerrie let me sleep until 5:00am today.. very gracious of her!

I awoke to my name being called and a plea for car keys. “Jenny… Jenny.. I need my car keys.” I was so tired I almost reached into my purse and handed her car keys to her, but instead I wiped my eyes and walked down the hall to get the precious cup of ice chips.

She’s obsessed with these ice chips.. and this is NOT an exaggeration. She has to have them all the time or she gets irritated. We may have joked that she would become a blonde with an attitude, but let me tell you… take away her ice chips and the attitude flairs 🙂

Because of her bariatric surgery, we have to be careful how much ice she really eats. Her stomache can only handle four ounces of any type of food or liquid, but she doesn’t stop when she’s getting full. Yesterday it almost made her sick, so we have devised a routine: She gets one cup of ice chips, filled halfway, and if she wants another one ( which she will) she can half another cup filled halfway. Then she must take a break, for at least 30 minutes, and put her humidifier mask back on.

She agrees to this.. until the second cup of ice is empty and then she starts demanding another one. When we tell her “no” she turns into the blonde with an attitude. If it’s Mom telling her “No” she pouts, brings on the tears and says “Please… please.. just a little more.” If it’s me… she doesn’t try the “Poor little sick girl” routine.. she gets angry and demands I give her more ice.

Whichever routine she uses it just breaks my heart and makes me want to give her more, but just can’t do it. Trying to reason with her doesn’t work sometimes, but if we can get her to put the mask back on and tell her that in 30 minutes we will give her more she will eventually give in. The best part of this is that she usually falls asleep during that time and we can get a good one or two hours of “mask wearing” time in before she wakes up, looks at the clock, thrusts out the cup and points to the door.

Today she got very angry when I made her put the mask back on, but she did it.. then she looked at Dad and I, took the mask off, announced “This is a piece of crap” and put the mask back on 🙂

We aren’t sure why the obsession with the ice, but Dad asked her if it was because she was just that thirsty or if it was just because she could… her response.. “Because I can”. Hopefully once she starts being able to handle food better the ice obsession will stop.

She scared me a few times today.. once was when I was brushing her teeth and she started saying her face was tingling on the right side, then it moved to the left and now it was in her forhead. The Doctor walked in just as she was telling me this, and she told the doctor this, but the doctor didn’t seem too concerned. Mom wasn’t alarmed when I called her about it, so maybe I am just extremely paranoid ( Did I mention I came back to Ohio today and have to work all week?). The second time was when about two hours later, she said “It’s almost done, but I’m moving.” When I asked her what she was talking about she said the tingling was almost gone, but that her body was moving and she kept making hand motions like she was moving fast towards the bottom of the bed. When I asked how long she had been tingling she said it had been happening since the morning, but now it was almost done and then she kept making the motion that she was moving. She said she wasn’t worried, the nurses didn’t seem to be worried… no one seemed to be worried but me. I’m sure I’ll learn to relax eventually, but every little thing that happens puts a knott in my stomache.

Someone asked about our brother Ron, since I had not mentioned him in any of the posts this week… Unfortunately, he has not been able to see Kerrie since the night before her brain surgery. Robyn and TJ have been sick, so he hasn’t been able to be around Kerrie, but we’re hoping he will be able to come see her by the weekend.

For the people who have asked for Kerrie’s address.. please send me an e-mail at Jenn@kast2006.com or jandree@geaugalake.com
We prefer not to post the complete address on the internet. If you send me an e-mail I’ll be happy to let you know the address. As for the phone.. it’s not on and we don’t have any plans of turning it on just yet.

Dr. Jana has decided to go ahead with the Liver Biopsy tomorrow… Mom will be with her and will hopefully have good news for all of us once it’s finished.

Kerrie was pretty mad at me, right before I had to leave, so I gave her a nice cup of ice, before I left, as a peace offering. I called Mom when I got home and she put Kerrie on the phone. She said she wasn’t mad anymore and that she loved me 🙂

Now that I know this I’ll be able to sleep tonight !

Mom, better be ready with the ice somewhere between 3:00am and 5:00am!

Jenn