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  Thursday  August 31  2006    02: 52 AM

what happened?

No, I didn't wander off in an alcohol and drug induced haze on my 62nd birthday. I wish! It was a great party with family and friends and a game of Extreme Croquet where my son Robby, the Croquet Master, laid out part of the course going down a gravel path and some steps. Zoe should have some pictures up, as it turns out, later than sooner. Sunday Zoe and I drove down to Tacoma to visit Gerry at Western State Hospital. This is never easy. We almost didn't recognize her. She was sitting up, with her head slumped forward, dozing. We arrived at dinner time (not planned cut there was a hour and a half ferry wait going over). We brought some of Gerry's favorite food which she loved. Since she won't wear her dentures, they are feeding her pureed food. I tasted it. No wonder she isn't eating. She did love the squash souffle we brought. Zoe talks about it more in: Gud Fud = Good News!!!!. Monday I drove Zoe up to see her doctor. We didn't get home until around 8. Around 9 she started to complain of stomach pain. Zoe has had stomach problems these past three years. It's been diagnosed as Irritable Bowel Syndrome. That means they don't know what it is. But we do know it hurts. She has it more under control but occasionally she gets a break-through episode and we go to the Emergency Room, Zoe get shots for pain and nausea, then we go home. Zoe put me on ER alert. I went to sleep at midnight and woke up and she was still in pain so we headed up to Whidbey General in Coupevill (19 minutes away.) In what has to be a first for us, and we've been in the Whidbey General ER too many times, we were the only ones there. We were out by 5:30 and on our way home. Zoe was still pretty uncomfortable but we both crashed. I got up late morning and got some work done. Zoe woke at three and was throwing up by 3:30. It got pretty bad so we headed back to the ER. We were in the ER from 6 until midnight. We had the option to admit Zoe but she was a little better so we headed back home knowing we could come back and get her admitted if it got worse. Which it did. So we were headed back to the ER at 3am Wednesday morning. She was admitted around 5:30. Once we had her settled in, I headed back home to to crash. I fed the cats, made some calls and got about three hours of sleep. I went back up in the afternoon. They did a CAT Scan on her abdomen and discovered an obstructed bowel. This meant that she needed an NG tube to keep her stomach quite. An NG tube is fed through the nose into the stomach to suck out all its contents to keep it empty. Very unpleasant but this will let the rest of the system get back to work. Came back home to feed the cats dinner and get another three hours of sleep then back up to visit Zoe. She was pretty doped up on pain meds and still pretty uncomfortable. I got back home around midnight. Hopefully she will be back home tomorrow.