Things have been pretty bad. Sybil has had a great deal of liver and back pain. Numerous acupuncture and massage treatments offered minimal relief. The pain has made her cross and crabby and sometimes a bit irrational. Once I heard her coughing and choking. She had been vomiting and was trying to swallow her vomit to keep her medicines down. I quickly convinced her that this wasn't a good idea.

She's been bedridden for about nine days now. We have a woman come in during the day to look after her while I'm at work. She grew progressively weaker and her stomach became badly distended. Her urine has been dark and infrequent. The edema has returned to her feet.

Right in the midst of all this pain and misery, I had some wonderful moments with Sybil acting like her old self. At one point I had her laughing and singing her own alternative version of "High Hopes". Even with her patches of hair, skeleton arms and legs and body bloated to the point where I can't see her belly button, she was exquisitely beautiful. We have so few happy moments now that when we get one I savor it with great relish.

Her pains increased and her mother came in to help. Last night it was too much for her and we took her into the hospital. So far they haven't been able to do anything for her distention. She has a bad infection though so they are treating her for that. Right now she's in Intensive Care.

She's very rational and is bossing her doctors around as usual. She made me print out a copy of her story from her web page so she wouldn't have to keep repeating herself to every new doctor. She's quite weak though, so it's good that they are keeping her in a highly monitored room. She's getting some morphine through her IV, so she's sleeping a lot.

Matt Donath

Mdonath@yahoo.com