Day 18 @ UM

Day 18 was a second day of treatments and to be honest I was completely wiped out.  The hospital staff informed me that they were no longer supplying a sitter for Tracy because they felt that she didn't need it.  However, I later found out that it was also a cost issue for the hospital.  So I sat in Tracy's room again Tuesday night, basically 7AM Tuesday morning to 8:30AM Wednesday.  I went down with Tracy for the treatment and then to my room and slept for about 4 hours.

The doctor today was Dr. Taylor, who we had heard was a world renowned catatonia doctor, everyone said he basically wrote the book it's treatment.  It was nice to finally meet him and to know that he would be doing todays procedure.  He was very confident that this was the right treatment for Tracy and there was much improvement in Tracy from just the one treatment she had had already.

After waking up from my slumber, I got over to Tracy's room around 3PM and was somewhat discouraged as I saw little improvement.  Dr. Belmonte stopped by around 4:30 to talk to me, as he had already seen Tracy while I was sleeping.  He told me that Dr. Taylor was very pleased with Tracy's treatment that morning, but by the time Dr. Belmonte got to Tracy she had already tightened up, but he said that his evaluation didn't really mean anything.  Evidently the telemetry that they receive during the treatment tells them how good the treatment went.  I stuck around for another hour or so and then left for the office to do payroll.   Drew met me there with dinner and our dog, Murphy.  I hadn’t seen her for 2 1/2 weeks.  It was great!  Payroll was a different situation.  What should have took me half an hour took 1 1/2 hours.  We parted ways about 9:30PM; this was easier than earlier in the week because I knew Drew would be with me the next day in Ann Arbor.

When I got back to Tracy's room I found her to very lucid and laughing at what I said.  I guess that telemetry was right!  I stayed with Tracy until around 1AM and then headed to bed.

This morning I woke up at 6AM and called over to the nurse see how the night went and she said Tracy had a good night and got some good rest.  When I got there she was even more lucid, still not conversing with me but trying to.  That was pretty much the way the rest of the day went.  Drew showed up about 5:30 and later the Harrison's showed up and took us to dinner.  I choose the same place John Pale and I ate last week, Grizzly Peak.  I think it is becoming a favorite.

We all returned to Tracy's room to tell her about the evening.  She responded to the conservation with laughter and facial expressions as she heard about the evening.  The Harrison's left a little after 9:00 and Drew and I followed around 10:30.  

So there you have it, until we meet again.

God Bless and "Never Give Up... Never Ever Give Up."

Rob