It pays to know Doctor Gray...

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For those that may not have known, Lilly was in the hospital pretty much all of last week. She got very sick late Sun. night, and started puking violently. She was also feeling very weak and sweating profusely. I though it was food poisoning. So, for about 3-4 hours, we waited it out. It just seemed to be getting worse. Finally, after speaking to her mom, we went to the ER.

Later that morning, they admitted her to Baylor. She had pancreatitous. Apparently, this is one of the more painful things an individual can have. The two most common causes: Binge Drinking (look out Rob, Jason, and Pat!) and gall stones. Both the catscan and ultrasound came back negative for gall stones though, and Lilly hadn't even had any alcohol for a many days (maybe weeks?).

So, we were left not knowing what the problem was. For three days, Lilly was fed only via IV. Then, on Thurs., they sent a camera down her throat to look around. They found something. Apparently, she had the beginnings of gall stones forming. Her gall bladder was heavily infected, and thus her pancreas as well. They decided to remove her gall bladder. So, the next day, they did. Thy had her on a liquid diet on Thursday night up until about midnight. On Friday, post surgery there was more of the same. By Friday night she was eating solid food!!

Saturday, they took her off of the IV. But they didn't want to let her go because her white count was 14, still high. Apparently normal is 11. We were hoping very much that they would let her go today (Sun.). This morning they came in, and told us that everything looked good...., but they didn't have the white count yet. If it was low enough they would let her go. Ten minutes later, they had it....13.8. They wanted her to stay for another day.

We were pretty let down. Another day in the hospital. We prayed that God would work out a way for her to get out still today, but we knew that was not a logical possibility.

Flashback: at our wedding, we had a pair of witnesses in addition to "Best Man" and "Maid of Honor". My witness was a guy named Paul. Doctor Paul Gray. He recently left the U.S. to work in Sodo, Ethiopia.

Back to the present: On Saturday I was e-mailing him about Lilly's condition, and he asked who the surgeon was who removed her gall bladder. It turns out she was someone he had worked with on the same team there at Baylor for his whole residency!! He told me to say "hello" I didn't think I would get the chance to do so.

This morning, she came up to the room to talk to us. This was after we had already been told that Lilly could not go home. She reiterated this, and explained that Lilly's white count was still high, and that was why. Seizing the opportunity, I mentioned Paul, and said that he had said, "hello". She looked pretty shocked that we knew him. I ended up giving her Paul's new blog address as well. She left the room. Only a couple of minutes later, she came back! She had convinced Lilly's other doctors to let her go! Woohoo!

I don't know if mentioning Paul had anything to do with it. We like to thing it did. Either way, we're glad to be home! Lilly seems to be feeling well. We have another appoitment with the doctor on Tuesday, but it is so good to be home today!

Now, if only dropping names could solve the bill, too.... :)

- Just for Men Commercial Featuring the line, "No play for Mr. Gray" (hehe)