-- David Wiseman __________Bay Area Medical Center, Marinette WI
Karla has been moved from ICU to a private room. She CAN NOT receive phone calls at this time as she remains weak and needs much rest! As we all know, it is one thing to deal with your body trying to heal itself when and how it can, but it is a whole nether issue when it comes to your emotions and thoughts. Karla has so much to deal with as she struggles to remain alive as in her case, her tomorrows will bring more sepsis infections and probable intensive medical interventions that are always life threatening to her! Your continued support for her is appreciated as well as an inspiration to all who post on the IAS message board. This is what the IAS message board is all about, responding to each one of you and your needs!
Karla expressed joy at receiving so many wonderful words of encouragement and support, and of course love from her " family" in the IAS! Karla has been a recognized name on the IAS message board and has taken into her heart every single friend she has made through it as well as every single friend who she is yet to meet through it!
Bev shared her visit with Karla last evening: Though Karla and I talk about everything, last night when she shared with me that she has signed a form NOT to be resuscitated in the event she has another massive sepsis, my response, unfortunately, was a simple cliché when I said, "You won't need to use that, Karla!" But my whole being went cold as I knew my words were probably not true! Karla was not going to let me off with a comment like that and we did talk about life and death agreeing that there are definitely things in a persons life that are worse then death! ( This is a line that Karla has used more then once in the past!)
It is not easy for me to spend time with my long time friend, Karla, because it floods my mind and emotions of my walk with our friend Christina Buelteman who died at this same hospital from complications of ARD. ( see ARD quilt) I am not sure I have ever reconciled myself to Christina's death and now I must look into Karla's eyes as she looks a hole through me asking if I can help her. I will give her my 150% support, she knows that, but help her? We both know we are running out of options here, but we really don't say that, instead we plunge right into how we will tackle the medical team that is dealing with her ( four - five Dr.'s at this time) and we talk about getting this record and that one, what pain med's we will challenge them about and we talk about what future medical/surgical intervention we will look into for her! She really smiled when I told her that Dr. Wiseman and I were going to do everythning we could to make sure all her questions get answers so she is informed enough to make good decisions! I saw a flicker of hope in her eyes, how much can really be done for her we don't know, but we do know we will support her and do our best to get her information as she requests it! Karla and I discussed all those things to each other again, but this time we said far less about them, and it wasn't long when Karla started to drift off, and I told her we will finish planning our approach to her future medical care once she gets strong enough! She nodded and said, " Yup, I'll get some rest now and we will talk, right Bev?" " Yup, we will talk then Karla, try to sleep."
Karla is so tired but she fears going to sleep thus wakes frequently depriving her body of rest, she is not eating well at all and remains on IV's due to dehydration. I offered to sneak some " Peppermint Snaps to her disguised in Hot Chocolate" ( we all know a nice warm cup of hot chocolate can help one rest..if prepared correctly that is!) Karla laughed, and a hearty laugh too! I prefer ending our conversations on an up beat note if at all possible because then I can picture her smiling when I think of her, and that is quit a lot! I do think that Karla will pull through this current bout of sepsis, for how long remains the big question, and one I can't alllow myself to dwell on or it will crush me emotionaly and I will be no good for her!
It is not known how long she will be in the hospital, so I will close with these words, "One Day at a Time!"
Gods Blessings and Love from Karla!
Regards Bev