Monday, December 11th

I waited, cell phone by my side, all day.. waiting for the dreaded call from Mom saying Nuerosurgery had come in to evaluate Kerrie. Waited for the news that I would need to pack my bags and head back to Michigan. Every time my cell phone rang my heart would stop, I would get a lump in my throat, and I would look to see who it was. I waited through the morning, through the afternoon and into the evening. The call never came.

As a matter of fact, as of 10:00pm I still hadn’t gotten a call.. so I stopped scrubbing my kitchen floor ( YES.. I actually got some cleaning done) and picked up the phone to call Mom.

“So… what’s going on with my sister?”

“Oh, we took a walk through the unit, Kerrie got some new Christmas socks and we had a concert with the angels.”

Giselle, one of Kerrie’s nurses, had come in to work an hour early to get Kerrie into a special chair and take her for a walk around the unit. She wasn’t too happy about it, and made her pouting face when they told her what they were doing, but once they got her into the chair she was fine. Iwona walked beside them, pushing Irving the IV cart, and Mom and Giselle wheeled the chair around the halls.

As they went through the halls, Kerrie waved to everyone with what Mom calls her Princess wave… they should have planned ahead and had one of Kerrie’s funny hats or wigs. Maybe next time 🙂

Giselle also brought her a pair of Christmas socks, with slip resistant soles, so she could stand on the floor without fear of falling. I guess the socks were a hit and other staff members were coming to check them out. They also came to see the angels..

Our friend, Dave, had given me a present to give to Kerrie when I was there last weekend and one of the packages was a beautiful trio of fiber-optic angels that sing in three part harmony. They can be set up to 6 feet apart, so Kerrie has them spread out along her window sill. When you turn them on their wings and gowns light up in multiple colors and they sing Christmas Carols. I’ve never seen anything like it.. and I wish you could have all seen Kerrie’s face when she first heard them sing… especially Dave. She loves them.. and they are the hit of the Unit. Kerrie had to give several Angel Concerts tonight as people had heard about them and kept coming to see them.

ENT came to see Kerrie last night, and had to perform their dreaded nasal suctioning, but they said they did not see any sign of infection or any real problem going on right now. Much to my dismay, Neurosurgery did not come to see Kerrie today… Mom said they must not feel it’s an urgent issue right now, but as far as I am concerned ANY little thing with Kerrie is urgent and shouldn’t wait. As I have always been told, I need to learn patience…Mom did say that if they didn’t come in by tomorrow she was going to start making some phone calls. I suppose that if they don’t feel it’s urgent that’s a good sign, but I won’t be able to get rid of this pit in my stomache until I hear them say there’s nothing to worry about right now.

Kerrie’s room is starting to look like a highway, with billboards all over the place.. Differnet departments have put instructional signs up in the room and we have added signs to cover every possible thing while we aren’t there:

Don’t feed her more than 4 ounces at a time, blah, blah, blah

Don’t lift her by her right arm, shoulder, blah, blah, blah

Kerrie must wear her mask as much as possible, blah, blah, blah

So far, my favorite is one Mom said she added today:

Dear Physical Therapy,
Don’t let Kerrie say “No” to her physical therapy. She says “No” to
everything except ice chips. She needs her physical therapy and should do it
whether she wants to or not.
Thanks
– Her Mother

Kerrie was not very happy about that one 🙂

More tomorrow….

Jenn