Hello All!
Well, we are proud to announce the birth of a bouncing baby left knee joint. 
Born August 19, 1997 at 2:45pm PDT. <  "Miss Bessie" weighed in at just a 
pound and a few ounces so she is pretty "light weight". <
Needless to say, since I was so long in returning there were a few minor 
complications.  Mostly drug reaction related, and that tended to slow me down 
quite a lot.  In fact it slowed me down enough to land in a nursing home for 
just over two weeks.  That was quite an experience, but the staff was quite 
nice and very helpful and understanding.  Besides that they loved the idea of 
having a "resident" who was coherant (ME???) and knew up from down. <
I had a room mate who was in her late 70s or early 80s who was not all there 
psychologically.  It is such a sad sight to see a woman who was OBVIOUSLY 
into crafting or sewing of some sort in her earlier years (she had her trusty 
sewing machine in with her belongings) come to such a demise.  I pray I never 
have to go through what she goes through day in and day out.  Up at 7:00am 
put into a wheelchair and turned lose to wander the hallways back and forth 
and back and forth.  Until she would finally come back to the room to either 
go to the restroom, or go to bed for a nap or to sleep for the night.  The 
last three days I was there, "Ellen" had not slept for over 50 hours when 
they finally got her to go to bed.
Ellen and I became friends inspite of her disability to remember or carry on 
a coherant conversation.  The night I was released, I told her that my hubby 
was taking me home, and that I would be back to see her again, and that I 
loved her.  She started crying don't leave me!
You know, I think she really meant that!  I do hope to see her again this 
weekend.  I want to see if she remembers our "secret signal" at all.  We 
would always wink our eyes at each other and wiggle our hands in a "Hi there" 
gesture everytime she came in contact with me.  They took her to the doctor 
last Friday, and when they came back with her, she was terribly disoriented 
and lost.  She knew somebody had stolen her house and her clothing and her 
sewing machine.  She fought and screamed and yelled and a few other things.
But as soon as I could get her attention I gave her our "secret signal" and 
she returned it.  She came over by my bed, and I put my arms around her, told 
her she could come stay with me and she would be ok.  She said, "OK", and 
then started to settle back in.  The thoughts of her nearly break my heart.
Anyway, I am OUT OF THE WHEEL CHAIR!!!! <  I certainly hope it is for the 
remainder of my life!  I have my walker and can walk a little with it, and 
improve some more each day.  I have my cane so I can walk where I can't get 
my walker to (bathroom door is tooooo narrow!) and I can even take a few 
steps without my cane or the walker.  However, I'm not pushing my luck!  Miss 
Bessie is only 22 days old today!
I'm still under the influence of morphine and darvon for pain, but I've been 
able to stretch out the time on the darvon more today than I have been.  I'm 
probably going to start cutting back on the morphine as well, and see what 
happens.  I don't want to be on the morphine any longer than necessary.
Needless to say, I didn't get a single stitch done in any of my 
cross-stitching projects :(  And now I have really got to make those needles 
fly like the wind to get my Christmas Ornaments done for the Christmas 
Ornament Exchange here in FIDOland.
Just thought I'd tell you all HELLO THERE!!! and give you an update. <  
I'm going to keep Pat Knox on board as a co-moderator for a period of time as 
I still have my days when I can't bear to sit up at the computer.  I've been 
home since Monday night and have only answered a few personal messages, and 
tended to some Network business which needed tending to.
Take care!
Let's Get Stitchin'!
Anne McReary
mcreary@oz.net
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