Kerry fights back!!! April 8

I am leaving Florida today, once again, to go back to the chilly north.  Kerry has been very sleepy and groggy and somewhat  "stoned" looking since she has been here.  It had really concerned Marty and I when we left here last Wed for a four day trip home.  She realized it too and last Sat asked to see the list of drugs and vitamins and etc that she was being given.  She said she was damned tired of being so tired.  She noticed that she was getting benadryl 2x a day.  When she was a kid, even a little one, she often had benadryl for the many many ear and sinus etc probs that she had.  It always rendered her helpless and rather stoned.  Why she asked am I getting this.  Well 2 hospitals ago when she was having lots of trouble sleeping at night they wanted to give her ambien.  I said no as that has a serious side effect of inducing sleep walking.  She is somewhat of a sleepwalker to begin with.  I had told them then , this would have been in late Jan,  that benadryl always had a calming effect on her.  So they added it to her evening "cocktail".  Somehow it was added to a daytime dose as well here at Heartland.  Hence, the groggy, sleepy struggle she was having all day long.  No one (like a nurse maybe who would notice the daytime dose and her grogginess and the why a dose anyway??). But no one did until she looked at her drug list.   The moral of this long story, BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE if it is possible.  If not, and you are watching over someone, keep an eye on that drug list.  They have now eliminated many more things from her list that she no longer needed. The results so far have been very positive.   Today is a BIG day for her.  Today she has an xray of her back.  Tomorrow is the 3 month anniversary of her back surgery.  Rememer she had 5 lumbar vertebrae factures, but more important  3 thoracic vertebrae fractures that were subluxed (i think that is the word meaning the 2 pieces having slipped apart).  Doc had pointed out it was incredibly fortunate that they had not slipped a tad further or they would have severed her spinal cord!!!!    They were surgically put back together, a rod put in place to hold them in place and I believe some screws to hold the rod.  Hence the "turtle shell" body armor she has had to endure everytime she was up further thatn 45 degrees.  And it has always been a great tussle and endurance contest on her part to get it on.  If the xray says all has healed as it should, the BODY CAST CAN COME OFF FOR GOOD!!!!!  and she will experience far greater mobility.  Group finger crossing please and all those prayers put into the stratosphere when I count to three to hope all this has mended.   ONE TWO THREE!!!!!    Thank you everybody.  Will let you know the outcome!     Til later,    LYNN, again on a plane back to Cleveland.

--
Regards, Kyla Elderton