Dr. Rusche's comments to me from the get go "I don't want to see anything drastic.  I just want you to get a little better than the day before."  Easy enough, right?  Ugh, I guess!

Frustrating. 

That about sums it up!  I'm holding okay.  I'll get through it, but never did I think I was going to experience THAT kind of pain AFTER my Remicade and never did I think THAT kind of pain would throw me into the hospital for a week, but I guess it does.  Dr. Rusche was quite surprised I hadn't had a stay like this yet. 

Anyway, the update is this, all is pretty much well.  He's hoping to have me from IV steroids to oral steroids by Friday which indicates to me I might get out of here around Saturday, 8 days later.  (not the 3-4 we thought).  But, Dr. Rusche just isn't quite pleased that we're still having 6 bowel movements a day and all watery. I guess I'm getting well and resting and that's good, but I just want to go home, yet home will be hard with an almost 1 year old to chase around, so I stay here and rest and get better. 

The BEST news of the day is, I was given the okay for SOFT FOODS.  I went from CLEAR LIQUID DIET to ALL LIQUID DIET to SOFT FOODS and then we'll soon be at REGULAR MENU.  That's a GREAT feeling!  But, I just ate my first meal in almost a week - meatloaf (was thinking it'd be already processed - easy to diet) and macaroni and cheese (soft), cottage cheese (soft), and angel food cake.  But, too be honest, not as appetizing as I thought.  My belly hasn't held that much food in a long time, so I got down about 1/2 of all of it and I'm stuffed. 

Of course my baby came to see me tonight!  She just lights up when I see her but she's terribly ancy here and I think she just knows something isn't right.  So, hopefully I'll be home soon and she'll be a little easier to handle.  But, she's as cute as ever and that makes me smile. 

I had a few other visitors.  My mom has been to see me daily.  I wouldn't be able to do any of this without her!  Seriously, she's my lifesaver and has been helping with Addy all week.  And, 2 of my coworkers came to see me.  It was good seeing new faces...

All for now.  I don't have any drastic to say.  I did have to take some more dilaudid (pain meds) this morning and it was a rough night.  But, I had a very nice nurse this morning who kindly gave me some drugs, shut off all my lights, put a sign on my door, and I was able to get a few hours of shut eye.  And, they let me skip breakfast this morning, WHICH IS HUGE!  If I skip a meal around here, usually the dietitian is banging on my door!  I know I've lost some weight because I haven't been able to squeeze into my size L t-shirts for a while, and now they fit pretty darn good...  I guess there's some good to this situation!