But The Quest for Beauty is a Beast. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Treatment ~ \"Halfway\" Home Gwennie Goddesses! How are you all? Gwen sends her Love... she has now (since last week) stepped down in treatment, and is in the "partial" program at Rader, their "day treatment" program, and lives outside of the hospital, currently in a nearby hotel with two other Rader partial patients... Gwen goes to the Eating Disorder Unit for treatment everyday, from 9am to 4pm, eating lunch there... but fending for herself for breakfast, dinner AND evening snack. She is doing well with the partial schedule, she is eating, and she is taking her insulin (with a couple exceptions that I understand, but that I hope don't continue). Her health is kinda screwed up (nothing terribly new, I suppose). She was told by Rader nursing staff that she has pancreatitis and has had it for a while, but I guess it's mild... (though still disconcerning) and most of her major organs are inflamed... a key problem is her liver, because it can't metabolise medicine for other medical issues, like high cholestorol (sorry if my spelling sucks), so she has to wait to take the medicine but her liver will probably flare up again if she does take it (the human body -- it is a wonder of an instrument, but it is so complicated!!)... and her heart rate is randomly shooting through the roof, causing her to shake (she went to the E.R. for this a few days ago, but left before they could do anything, and unfortunately the un-aware E.R. nurse told Gwen her weight which just freaked her out)... and then apparently her blood is clotting (which she can't take medicine for either because of her liver)... sigh... but in GOOD news, her eye sight is much better and that is really nice... also, she has been doing well on partial, she hasn't gone crazy and binged on sweets (something she thought she would do when she was still inpatient) or purged. I'm really proud of her for doing well, despite her "freedom" to go back to the eating disorder. She is still figuring out the "after treatment" plan (where to live, what to do, etc.) and her eating disorder (I swear sometimes I can see it coming through her, I can see it in her eyes) is royally pissed off about her weight. I tried to remind her that it does not matter, not even in the slightest way, but you all probably know that she didn't hear me (her eating disorder certainly didn't). Anyway, it was lovely to see her, joke around, and I went with two other alumni goddesses from Center for Discovery and we had fun. It is wonderful to see Gwen smile! Take Care all of you - Enjoy Every Day that you have. Love and Peace, Lisa p.s. a photo of the visit can be seen here: http://dimstar.diaryland.com/images/melissavisitsgwen.jpg and another one is here: http://dimstar.diaryland.com/images/cfdalumsvisitgwen.jpg 5:35 AM - Monday, Oct. 17, 2005 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- |
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