12/23 The weekend

To bring you up to speed on Myra's ....she was transferred to Bethesda in St. Paul on Thursday, December 20th.

A selling point for Bethesda is that she is able to take her dialysis laying down, which is important for Myra's condition. She tends to pass out when she is in a sitting position so this is a blessing for them to be able to do this laying down!

Bethesda also has a tilt table that they may try out on Myra during dialysis which will tilt her at different degrees, re-training her veins to constrict at the appropriate times. The goal is to strengthen her veins and the long term goal is to get her to stop passing out.

Saturday

Myra was able to get out of bed today and spent a couple of hours sitting in a chair. She said it felt great to "up and about" and never so happy to sit in a wheel chair.

However, her heart rate was high (130's) for most of the day. Bethesda is in constant contact with all of her specialists at St. John's and when her kidney specialist caught wind of the heart rate, he had her transferred back to St. John's in Maplewood, as Bethesda just isn't equipped to deal with this type of situation.

Sunday

Myra had a pretty crummy day today . She tired quickly after sitting up in the chair for breakfast and taking a few steps in her room. She ended up passing out again today. Sometimes when she passes out, it really takes a lot out of her, and it did today so she's spent most of the day recovering from that.

Her cardiologist and kidney specialist paid her a visit today and said that what she's been through in the last 3 weeks have been a sin and they are going to conduct further research for treatment options. So for now, she will remain at St. John's in the telemetry unit. When she becomes more stable, she will be moved back to Bethesda.

She has dialysis tomorrow and will need her strength for that.