Today did not go exactly as I had hoped. Vicky is doing very well physically, but today she was delirious and having hallucinations. Turns out a blood test yesterday showed that she had a very elevated thyroid (300); I don't know what that number means, but I spent a fair amount of time with the hospital psychiatrist talking about it. I was impressed by his interest in her brain. Everyone has been so focused on her lungs, kidneys, stomach, etc.

He wanted to know if her thyroid had been high before. All I knew is that she had complained about gaining weight even thought she was dieting. That's another symptom of hypothyroidism. My only knowledge of that is Emily, my late Golden Retriever. She had hypothyroidism.

They are giving her meds to counteract the high thyroid count but the impact of them is cumulative so it will be a while until we see any change in her behavior.

It was hard for me to believe that the person I talked to yesterday was just not there today.
It was hard for me to leave, but I do feel like the psychiatrist will be her advocate and that is comforting.

We did have some wonderful experiences today. We watched a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. At first Kerry and I thought it was just part of the bark of a tree, but then it started to move it's wings in the sunlight. Meanwhile down below the tree the Juncos were stirring up the dirt to find seeds. It was a nice way to counteract what was happening upstairs in Vicky's room.

The other experience is the free lunch at the hospital. It's sort of like going through the cafeteria when I was in grade school. The ladies wear hairnets and serve from a steam table. Today's menu: barbecued riblets (could have fooled me; they looked like those Vienna sausage cut in half), cooked carrots, mashed potatoes, salad, cream of broccoli soup and banana cake with white frosting. All of this is free. There are also soft drinks and coffee. The Minnesota seasoning is on all tables: ketchup.

You know how cops get free coffee in a lot of places, well the mail people and UPS/Fedex drivers stop at the hospital for lunch each day.

So we are home now; it was a long flight. Right now it's 1:30 a.m. but even though I'm tired I still want to do some research on hypothyroidism.

So that's the new from Lake Woebegon. It was very hard to leave her.