May 2016: "The Georges in Peru"

Ice cream, especially the type I make, is extremely calorie-dense.  I once weighed more than I wanted to weigh and weighed myself daily and plotted my weights on the fridge door as a reminder.  I didn't allow myself to eat icecream as long as I was over 170 pounds.  It was a great motivator for me, and it worked to get the pounds off.  But it is a great way to put the pounds on too, and today Amy actually ate a small bowl of icecream after her bath.

Since yesterday afternoon Amy has been doing poorly.  Her O2Sats are around 70 right now (for non-medical people that tells how well her hemoglobin is carrying oxygen and 70 is terrible, even at our altitude) and she can't swallow and is really gurgly when she breathes.  I skipped the team meeting today to stay with her.

With a heavy heart I must make this post, this afternoon at 3:45 pm, Amy went to heaven. 

The funeral will be Saturday at 11 am at Enfoque Familiar near our home.

Visitors will be received tomorrow from 10 am until 5 pm at our home.

Thanks for your prayers,

Allen and the kids

Since Amy can't move, she's susceptible to bed sores (the pressure of one's own body weight can reduce the circulation so much that it damages the skin, especially over pointier parts of the body).  About a week ago, I mentioned here in my blog that her right heel was hurting and it was the beginnings of a bed sore.  We quickly kept the pressure off of it and it heeled [ahem] up (which makes one wonder how it could heal with the almost complete lack of nutrition since she can't eat) but other sores have formed.

"It is well-marked, so you can't get lost!"  announced the race director of the 11-km trail run right before we started the race.  I joked to the guy standing beside me, "I'll just follow the guys ahead of me!"  This was a good strategy until shortly after running past a bunch of angry dogs at km 8, the 5 or 6 guys I could see ahead of me just stopped running as we reached the end of a ridge.  Not a good sign.  One pointed to the ridge a valley away from us where a string of runners was heading down the correct mountain!

Today Amy has been more alert and responsive than she has for a few days.  Just now, one of the neighbor dogs was barking and she put her extended finger up to her lips and made a 'shhhh!' noise!  Earlier this morning, at the end of her bath, Sarah pulled out the drain and she became very upset and said, "I love the bath!"  So we put in some more hot water and left her in the bath for another 10 minutes.  She's drunk a fair amount of water as well today.

Amy didn't do much today.  Just kind of slept quietly.  Drank a little water and juice.