OK, don't get overly worried, but...

Sarah has been in the hospital since Monday night after suddenly developing severe lower internal back pain, mild nausea, and upper right abdominal sensitivity to palpation. I'll let Sarah share all the juicy stories of hospital incompetence/chutzpah, but basically the doctors still don't know what's going on, despite having already taken x-rays, a CT, and doing an ultrasound. The next test they want to run is a gastroendoscopy, but since there's no one to do it until Sunday, Sarah is stuck in the hospital until at least then. The good news is that she's getting two meds that are pretty much taking care of the pain and the nausea, so she's able to rest, eat OK (when the staff isn't making her fast for the next test), and entertain visitors. Interestingly enough, the painkiller is intravenous Optalgin, which in its oral form was worthless for Sarah. As fate would have it, one doc suggested it to get rid of a migraine Sarah developed while in the hospital. It really worked! *And* it relieved much of the lower back pain, to boot. So one good thing that's come out of this story is that Sarah has a new option for treating her migraines. Anyway, hopefully Sarah will be writing the next update, and it will have some really great news -- G-d willing!

In the meantime, I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to "M" for sleeping over with the kids during the all-nighter at the hospital Monday night, and then basically taking the kids for most of Tuesday (with some help from "R", as I recall). Also, a big thank you to (a different) "R" and to "B" for the delicious chicken and potatoes, which were really clutch as I was running around on Wednesday trying to build a sukkah, do several loads of laundry, take care of the kids in general, deal with the hospital, etc., etc., all before 5pm and the start of the holiday of Sukkot. And I want to thank "J" for visiting Sarah in the hospital today when I was too exhausted to. I hope that covers all the thank yous I owe.

BTW, I took the kids to visit Sarah earlier this evening, and she was in excellent spirits, which were buoyed by seeing the children and getting wonderful pieces of art they had made for her. Still, she really, really wants to come home, but it's a difficult decision because it means not getting the intravenous meds, plus possibly losing time re the gastroendoscopy. We'll see...


Robert