Moving On Up – February 3, 2013

So it has been a quick few days with some good news: Cassie, on last Friday, was moved to the 3rd floor, which is still considered ICU. It is not intensive care but intermediate care.  So they still like to keep the nurse to patient ratio small but the doctors do not checkup as often. She was real excited to get a change of scenery, and she was able to procure one of the better rooms. The view is not great as it faces the inner brick walls where the air conditioning units are, but she can see the sky and the sun. Her room had been a double room, but is now single and so there is quite a bit room more than her ICU room. I do not like the nurses as much (in general) as the ICU, but I am sure they mean well.

She has been eating more and drinking more, and her vitals are doing well.  Dr. S. Call and the intensivist from the former ICU have explained that the expensive biological medicine, which treatment she began in the ICU, is producing the signs hoped for, that it is working and preventing any additional damage. She is showing improvement in her physical therapy sessions, as she circles the room with two people supporting her with one person blocking her right leg. Amy and I have taken her on two wheelchair tours of the 3rd floor, so that she could see the mountains and some of her surroundings. Both times she has come back to the room completely drained and wanting to lie back down. 

One of the setbacks worth mentioning is that her hair is falling out. This was almost too much for me to handle.  Obviously it is a far less dangerous outcome in comparison with the more pressing health struggles, but this is her outward appearance that is being damaged. People can somewhat tell what is going on inside, but it is much easier to see the outside. When they can see her outward person deteriorating, it is hard for me to see. I wept as I read some scriptures, searching for what they say about the hair of God’s children.  I found Doctrine & Covenants 84:80, 116.

D&C 84:80, 116
 80 And any man that shall go and preach this gospel of the kingdom, and fail not to continue faithful in all things, shall not be weary in mind, neither darkened, neither in body, limb, nor joint; and a hair of his head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed. And they shall not go hungry, neither athirst.
116 Let him trust in me and he shall not be confounded; and a hair of his head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed.

Cassie and I had some time together and I was extremely blessed, in hindsight, of selecting an eternal companion.  She comforted me as I cried and expressed sorrow about her hair falling out. She has a habit of running her hand through her hair, and a result of that is pulling out chunks. Her bed around her hair is strewn with hair. She has cried a few times about it. She is still the most beautiful girl in the world, and whether or not she gets to retain her hair or has to eventually regrow it, I love her and bless her name.

Contributed by Christopher Holt