Sometimes it seems in our household that the only luck we have is bad. I hate posting this new development but feel I must. Sue had a petite mal seizure on Wednesday morning, fell off a kitchen stool, and banged her head hard on the ceramic tile. From the blood that gushed from the back of her head, we concluded she was badly hurt and called 911. Medics arrived, strapped her to a board, put her head and neck in a brace, and off we went to Barnes Jewish Hospital in the ambulance. She regained consciousness in the ambulance. Chris met us at Barnes, and we began the E.R. ordeal.

As soon as practical, she had a CT scan which showed no fracture and no concussion--a huge relief given how hard she fell. She had staples (not stitches) to close the 2 1/2 inch gash, but then had another seizure. This time the E.R. physicians gave her a heavy dose of ativan which put her into a deep, deep sleep.

Chris and I came home in the evening before they transferred Sue to a regular room in neurology. Around 10:00 pm, as I was trying to call the hospital to get an update (a futile effort because HIPPA laws preclude any release of information), a neurologist resident called to make sure she had a good list of Sue's meds. This resident said Sue was in a room and doing well.

Today, the expectation was that she would come home, but she was still suffering the effects of ativan in her system and was too wobbly to move about much. So, one more overnight in Barnes.

Sue's phone number is 314 452-3685, and she is in room 11575, hopefully only until tomorrow morning.

Turns out, after hourly checks of her blood levels, Sue is suffering from low sodium caused by the med she takes to control seizures. Ironical, since low sodium can cause seizures. Now the trick is to either change meds or get the sodium levels up. I think the tentative decision of her neurologist is to work on the sodium so as not to disturb a drug trial she is in that holds promise.

If there is any silver lining in this very dark cloud, for me it was that I got to spend a lot of time yesterday with Sue's son Christopher who is one of the bright lights on this planet.

We are thinking of putting a sign on our front door: "Mash 4077"
"Fur Lined" may go into the trash