Just got a call from the hospital at 6am. Dh is on his way to see MIL. Her vitals are ok right now, but she is depressed.

MIL was allowed "food" today. Juice and ice chips. Hey, it's better than IV! It was a big deal to us.

MIL's test number are improving very slightly. Medically, it's nothing noteworthy. But we celebrate every bit of good news here.

Dh ran off to the hospital. We got a call. MIL was going for a test, and was convinced she was about to die. FIL & SIL went too.

So far, no significant change with MIL. Numbers are still not good.

Dennis Leary on Autism

LEARY ANGERS AUTISM ACTIVISTS
from UK's Daily Express at http://ping.fm/z1jNG


Wednesday October 15,2008
Actor DENIS LEARY has sparked outrage among activists for children with autism - insisting parents are just using the disorder to explain their kids' academic "laziness".

Leary talks about the brain development disorder in his new book Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid.

He writes: "There is a huge boom in autism right now because inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can't compete academically, so they throw money into the happy laps of shrinks... to get back diagnoses that help explain away the deficiencies of their junior morons. I don't (care) what these crackerjack whack jobs tell you - your kid is NOT autistic. He's just stupid. Or lazy. Or both."

But the actor's comments have sparked outrage at The Autism Society of America.

A spokesperson for the group tells the New York Post: "For Mr. Leary to suggest that families or doctors conspire to falsely diagnose autism is ridiculous... (His) remarks reflect the same misconceptions of autism being caused by bad or unemotional parenting that were held over 50 years ago."

Firecracker

My MIL was a little better last night. To us, it looked like a lot better, but medically, not a whole lot different. But it's hard not to be excited when she is sitting up a little bit, and talking a lot, and being much more coherent. She also didn't doze off every few minutes like before.

Medically, the numbers have barely changed. But that doesn't mean there aren't positive signs. Her kidneys are outputing a little more, and the color is not as dark. They don't seem to be functioning like they should, but this could be a sign that things are starting to turn around. Time will tell. She is not getting sick on the antibiotics (up or down), so that's gotta help. They've been giving her breathing treatments, so her labored breathing is much improved (though that's not really an indication that the infectious colitis, the c. diff., or the failing kidneys are improving). They have to give her insulin because her blood sugar is quite high, but they think that will be temporary.

Sadly, we haven't heard that any of the bad numbers are coming down yet. The white cells, the kidney function, etc, all the scary stuff, doesn't seem to change much. However, the good signs may be an indication that the meds are starting to have an effect. We're hopeful.

But it was great to see her chatting again, and being really feisty. She was even trying to play matchmaker for her young and pretty nurse, lol.

She told dh that she thought she was going to die. She dreamt that my FIL (who is very handy and crafty) was carving her tombstone. Eek.

After her first bout of physical therapy, she commented that the two male PTs tossed her around "like a corpse in a morgue." (We'll have no more talk like that thank you very much!) Oh, and she also commented on her assumptions about their, um, sexual preferences. Iyiyi.

She was funny. Her wit has returned. We all got a big laugh out of some of the remarks she was making. She's a real firecracker. It felt wonderful to hear her talk like her old self again. It's hard to imagine that she could not be improving medically when we see so much improvement in her manner.

I'm really hoping for some good news from the docs now. And the hope doesn't seem so farfetched.