Ron Santo pulling for Kari

     All in all this was a good day for Kari.  Her fever was down most of the time, and perhaps they have even found another way to attack it.  Her roomate Brittany had a lot of trouble with fever.  She was given some medication to keep calcification down in the joints, and there's some thought that Kari might be experiencing pain and fever because of that too.  When they gave Brittany the medication, her fevers went away.  X-Rays revealed that there's no serious damage to Kari's shoulder, so excess calcification might be the culprit.  Things are better enough that the plan is to get Kari back on schedule tomorrow, which may be a relief after having to stay in bed, and not even being able to have the head of the bed raised up much for about three days now.  She did a one-hour wean today as a kind of preparation.

     Reading blog comments is always interesting.  One nurse tried to explain why there might have been delays the other night, and that causes me to want to say that on the whole the care at Craig has been very fine.  Kari has grown fond of many of the nurses, techs, and respiratory therapists, and the doctors have been excellent.  It's a very, very good team.  One of her techs was paralyzed for half a year herself, and even blind for a couple of those months, so she has a special sympathy for the patients she takes care of.  "I just love Kari," she said to me several times, and you could tell she meant it.  A couple of comments on the blog seem to be from people who really do like it, but also want to plug their own businesses.  It's hard to control cyberspace, so we grin and bear it.

     But something to really smile about happened at the Cubs game today--and, of course, it wasn't the Cubs' play.  Rick and Aaron ran into Ron Santo, the legendary Cub third baseman.  Aaron told Santo all about Kari and gave him the website URL.  Pretty much a life-long diabetic who's had both legs amputated, Santo can sympathize in a special way too.  He said he'd be pulling for Kari and gave her a hat signed "Get well soon, Kari -- Ron Santo."  On the website, look for pictures of the meeting, and Kari in her Santo hat soon.  And pray with special focus on the coming week, asking that Kari can get back on track.

 

--Richard R. Guzman