Life Goes On

Coleman said that Grandma lives on in his quilt and today he got a stuffed dog from Aunt Gwen (who plays a mean hand of cards and will take all your money) just like the dog he likes from a movie he has watched so many times in this journey. He named the dog Dale after Grandma's husband - she outlived two.

I've been thinking about Grandma all day how she taught me to make biscuits and gravy and fried apple pies. How my cousins and I used to steal rhubarb from the garden and feed it to the pigs, how we picked her concord grapes and snuck into the little building to eat them, how we slopped the hogs, how we climbed the trees in her front yard, the sound of her front door as it drug across the carpet, the cuckoo clock, the hundreds of pig collectibles and the wonderful smells that came from her kitchen. That woman could lay out a spread in what seemed like minutes and she expected us to eat every bit of it....we did.

I confess that I keep thinking what it would be like to make it to heaven and have two husbands. I mean I know we won't have marriage in heaven but we'll know each other, so I keep picturing her standing in the great divide comparing husbands. I know that's an odd thing to think of, but I did say it was a confession.

Coleman has been so much more comfortable in this bed and since we don't have to move him too much, he has done a lot less gagging today. He ate two decent meals today - if you count McDonald's as decent, which those of you who know me know I don't, but any port in a storm. If he'll eat it, he can have it.

I have circled back with our PCP doctor and he is moving for a new circling of specialists and tests and it's hard for me to make him understand how truly homebound Coleman is. I've been doing some research into home bound care and got some good tips from a friend tonight. I'm all for drawing blood here, which will be hard enough, and sending out for blood strep tests. These tests, if positive could set a lot of wheels in motion. From what I have read and found out from two MD consults today, most Lyme's/Bartonella tests will come back negative because there are at least 32 strains of Bartonella alone and most labs only test for two, so the law of mathematics is against us.

The signs on his legs, the symptoms and the bioengineering say Lyme and Bartonella. If he has strep, the antibiotic would indeed cover both whether we have a positive Lyme's test or not.

Tomorrow's task will be pushing for a home-bound blood draw and continuing our homeopathic regimen while we wait. Coleman has been more stable today and I'm feeling good about what we have done so far.

Thanks to everyone who has pitched in to help. To my neighbor Val for giving Spen some breaks and cooking for 8 instead of 4 and for my life-long friend Terri for dropping what she was doing to pick up meds and to my dad for delivering cheeseburgers without even being able to see his grandson. You guys show such love and that's how we become God's hands.