Thursday - July 30

It's been a busy week and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Last Sunday I was in the emergency room with Janea all night. Dennis, Jessica and Janea volunteered at the Wharf to Wharf on Sunday, for those not familiar it's a 10K run in Santa Cruz. Janea started to feel dizzy about noon and by 2:00 she was vomiting. The strange thing is Janea felt fine all morning. Janea was so sick she couldn't hold anything down, by 8:30 pm her arms were trembling uncontrollably. I took here to emergency and they kept her all night, she was severely dehydrated and her blood pressure dropped scarily low 77 / 21. Three IV bags later her blood pressure was 80 / 50. They were concerned about releasing her but she was able to get up and walk around without getting dizzy and she was fully hydrated so they released her about 7 am. I was really tired because I didn't sleep at all and was sitting in the most uncomfortable chair all night. Janea slept all day Monday and is back to normal, I pray Jerry doesn't come down with it, it was awful. I managed to get about 5 hours sleep but was pretty wiped out on Monday.

Tuesday Jerry had his endoscopy, they didn't do the colonoscopy there was a misunderstanding on my part. The endoscopy went well, the results came back normal with a little bit of acid damage in the esophagus. The doctor thinks the ditropan Jerry takes for bladder spasms is relaxing the sphincter to the stomach so acid is backing up into the esophagus. The doc said that it could be what's causing the nausea so he put him on protonics. I don't think the acid is the nausea causer, he has been off and on protonics since he was in the hospital and it has never had an effect on the nausea. I'm going to request Jerry's doctor to order a stomach emptying study, I think he has a motility problem. We'll see. Jerry has felt pretty bad all week, however today he seemed a little better.

We had to cancel SCI-FIT on Wednesday because I had a doctor appointment. I have been having trouble hearing in my left ear for a few months now. The doctor put me on a steroid for two weeks to try and resolve the issue I'm having with my inner-ear. I had another hearing test and there was no improvement so the doc gave me a shot of steroid. The shot hurt, they poke the needle through the ear drum and inject the cream next to the inner ear membrane. After two weeks there is still no improvement to the hearing so at this point the doc has determined the hearing loss is permanent. I now have an appointment to be fitted for a hearing aid, how ridicules, I'm to young to loose my hearing.

Today Jerry had therapy at Dominican Rehab. Jerry did the FES hand bike. Every time Jerry does the FES hand bike he feels like he gains a little something back. After the FES session Jerry gained the ability to rotate his wrist slightly. This is new, until now he could only pick his arm up and let it fall but he cannot push it down or rotate it. Jerry also had a very slight movement in his thumb when he was trying to rotate his hand. The thumb movement is so small you could hardly see it, but it's there and it's exciting to have something new. I thank God for anything new because it keeps hope alive and renews motivation to keep working hard.

Jerry's friends from Florida are coming this weekend for another visit so I know Jerry is very excited about that. Tomorrow we are off to Pleasanton and then having a BBQ at our house for the summer staffers. Summer staff leaves on Saturday which is a bummer, Jerry very much enjoyed them dropping by for visits.

Well I think we've caught up and the dinner dishes are awaiting my presence so I will say good night.

Katie