A DIFFICULT PHONE CALL FOR KELLY AND I TODAY

I thought it a bit odd yesterday when 3 emails I had sent Kelly remained unopened.  And I saw half a dozen other things in our 'inbox' also unopened that Kelly usually opens.  And since our 2 p.m. phone call she hadn't phoned back a couple times.  With nurses coming and going tending to things it's easier for Kelly to pick a time to call than me to call her when she's in the middle of something or sleeping.  When no call came by 8 o'clock last night I picked up the phone and called her.  A faintly weakened and barely recognizable voice scratched out a meek 'Hello'.  It was Kelly and she was in pain.  Being immobilized in bed hooked up to a number of IV lines she has not been able to get up to even walk around and those two compression fractures in her spine have become very painful.  And, she had not yet been given any solid food.  As we talked, the positive bounce in her voice wasn't there and she sounded tired and discouraged.  It was obvious she had had a difficult day.  She hasn't been able to access her iPad because she can't sit up straight and that explains the unopen emails. Our phone call didn't last long as she waited for a nurse to bring her stronger pain meds.  The Covid advisory on her eighth floor is still in effect with 'No Visitors'...............

It was a very disheartened Kelly who I spoke with early this afternoon saying some Physiotherapy people had managed to get her up on her feet for a short walk but it didn't go well.  Doctor Scarrow, the head liver surgeon who both Kelly and I have met, came in to talk to her.  He's a straight shooter and told her that despite their best efforts it was very unlikely a matching liver for Kelly would be found.  He also said that despite her spunk, determination, and positive attitude her condition has worsened to the point now where it is likely that her name will be removed from the liver transplant list.  She wouldn't be able to survive a liver transplant now.  A meeting of the liver transplant team on Monday will decide this.  He said the only thing they can do for her now is give her stronger meds to slow down the bleeding and ease the compression fracture pain.  Palliative care was mentioned.  It was a difficult phone call for Kelly and I.  She is hoping to come home Sunday depending on her hemoglobin number. I wished I had happier news...........but we have run out of happy.

Al's Music Box:)) Teen Age Idol is a song written by Jack Lewis and performed by Rick Nelson. The song reached No. 2 on the Easy Listening Chart, No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, in 1962.  The song is ranked No. 77 on Billboard magazine's Top 100 songs of 1962.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( After spending 3-1/2 hours enduring the long lines, surly clerks and insane regulations at the department of Motor Vehicles, a lady stopped at a toy store to pick up a gift for her son. She brought her selection - a baseball bat to the cash register.  "Cash or charge," the clerk asked.  "Cash," she snapped. Then apologizing for her rudeness, she explained, "I've spent the afternoon at the motor-vehicle bureau. I am not too sane right now!!"  "Shall I gift wrap the bat?" the clerk asked sweetly, "Or or you going back?"

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- “What happened to the rich guy with the double chin? He made a four chin.”

Diner: "Pardon me, waiter, but what kind of pie is this?"
Waiter: "What does it taste like?"
Diner: "I don't know."
Waiter: "Then what's the difference?"

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The psychology instructor had just finished a lecture on mental health and was giving an oral test.  Speaking specifically about manic depression, she asked, "How would you diagnose a patient who walks back and forth screaming at the top of his lungs one minute, then sits in a chair weeping uncontrollably the next?"  A young man in the rear raised his hand and answered, "A basketball coach?"
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