Back At My Favorite Bed & Breakfast

I woke up yesterday with a flare up of the gastro paresis. It reared its ugly head again in rare form – it was all back - the nausea, the excruciating pain and the uncontrollable vomiting. I couldnt keep down my anti rejection meds and was becoming dehydrated which can damage my transplanted kidney.

I went to the ER last night about 7:00pm and after a 4 hour wait, they finally brought me back to a gurney. I was so miserable, I just wanted to be knocked out. The wonderful doctor in the ER could see how miserable I was and gave me, what he called, the gastro paresis cocktail consisting of Morphine for the pain, Phenerghan for the nausea, Valium to relax my stomach muscles, and IV fluids for the dehydration. Mom said the nurse didn’t even finish pushing in the meds before I was out. They did an echocardiogram, x-ray, poked and prodded but I never budged.

I slept for 12 hours and woke up in a regular patient room. I didn’t know where I was at first but I quickly recognized the familiar scenery. I am, however, starting to feel like a part of the human race again. There is nothing more miserable than nausea! I am starting to get hungry now and ready to trash the chicken broth and jello and eat a serious bowl of gumbo! If all of my lab work checks out fine in the am, I should be able to be discharged by tomorrow afternoon.

Since I have been doing nothing but sleeping all day, mom has had plenty of time to visit with Beverly Kohl and her sister Janie as we are in the same hospital This afternoon, Janie told mom they were interviewed by our local TV station and Bev's story was going to be the lead story on the 6pm news. I was so excited for them and since I was feeling better today, I got dressed in my PJ's and slippers and mom and I pulled my IV poles, tubes, extension cords and all across the hospital and downstairs to visit them. (Or as I told my nurse, just a little walk to help me feel better.)

We had a great visit and I was able to hold Beverly's hand and tell her that we were all praying for her full recovery. What a beautiful person she is. Given all she is going through, she manages to keep a huge smile on her face and tells me she is praying for me as well. She is such an inspiration!

Here is the link to the Channel 2 WBRZ news

http://www.2theadvocate.com/search?searchKeywords=beverly+kohl&searchdatabase=Advocate&searchsection=