Updates about Karen's Condition - April 2001

• March 26 - April 1 - At the risk of sounding like a broken record... Karen is still in the same situation. Her wound is looking better, but still not good enough for her to start sitting up. The nurse who is seeing Karen regularly now will be back on Friday so we're all praying for good news on Friday.
• April 2 - 8 - Can you even believe that nothing has changed? Unfortunately, the nurse who usually comes on Friday didn't make it last week, so there isn't even any good news in that department. However, Karen is still healing, it's just taking forever (as usual). She is still in great spirits though, and continues to be an inspiration to us all.
• April 9 - 15 - Well, the nurse came on Friday and even though Karen's sore continues to heal, they are going to put silver nitrate on it to completely close it up. They are planning to do that tomorrow (Monday 4/16) so Karen should be sitting up in no time (of course only for 1/2 hour at a time, but she'll take what she can get at this point). She tried sitting up for a few seconds today and got very dizzy so she knows she has a lot of hard rehabilitation work ahead of her, but she's definitely ready to face it. She wishes everyone a Happy Easter!
• April 16 - 22 - Finally some good news to report! Karen did indeed start sitting up this week. At first she started sitting up for 15 minutes, 2 times a day, but yesterday she sat up (got out of bed and sat in a chair no less) for a whole half an hour at a time. It has been difficult for her because she gets dizzy and her blood pressure drops significantly, since she hasn't been upright in so long, but she is determined and anxious to get back to a normal routine.
• April 23 - 29 - Karen's progress continues -- she is now up and about for an hour at a time twice a day and the dizziness has for the most part gone away. But, the biggest development of the week is that she is going home on Monday! She's a little apprehensive about going back home, and she hasn't gotten a lot of instructions from her doctors or nurses about what she needs to do when she gets there, but she's facing it with her usual positive attitude.