And a fat puppy by my side! I'm feeling better, I can breathe again. Billye is happier and not so cranky.

I got 2 units of blood, the real stuff. Started breathing easier in about 2 hours. It was amazing. I took a deep breath and realized..hey, I can take a deep breath. I didn't realize how hard it had been to breathe. I was just so tired all the time.

The rheumie was just freaked when he saw the latest hemo/hematocrit results. Wanted me in the hospital immediately. This doctor is one of a kind. He is very hyper and wants everything yesterday. I had a transfusion soon after admission and then immediately another transfusion. Then it was midnight before I got thru with that. Then they gave me the night time meds. Didn't get my sleeping meds. At about 2:00 p.m. I fell asleep and slept for 15 min. That's pretty much the way the schedule went the whole time.

The rheumie called in a GI specialist and then a hematologist. I had an endoscopic procedure to check the throat and stomach for the ulcers. They found the Nexium had done pretty well, because the ulcers found at Mayo were healed but there was some inflammation at the opening to the bowel. A biopsy was taken. So next they did a barium study of the small intestines. And the hematologist and the rheumatologist did bloodwork. I was released yesterday. I'm to see the rheumatologist on Monday. He thinks all the results will be in by then. I don't understand how he will coordinate with both doctors and get results by then, 'specially since it takes at least 3 days around here to just get a call back from a doctor.

I'll also see the indocrinologist on Weds to confer with him on the test results. The hematologist, I'm not sure. We will find out on Monday if I am to follow up with him.

Since I was having to use the walker and my husband had the meds and a suitcase, we decided to leave the laptop at home and bring it later, then we thought I was coming home. So I just decided to wait. I knew Liza Jane would keep you posted.

Thanks for all the good wishes. I'm starting to call the hospital trips Club Med vacations. Really really dislike them. I have found that if you have to take a lot of meds and especially if it is a repeated dosing schedule, mistakes are made a lot around here. It's just scary if you don't have someone who knows what is going on when there are multiple doctors involved with your care. I made out a computer schedule and printed it out for my meds. And even then, mistakes were made that I caught.

Stay well everyone and again,
Many many thanks for being here.
Billye