Tuesday, November 29, 2005 at 04:45 PM EST

The belly catheter is out, and Sam is doing fine;
she's been a little groggy since coming home early this afternoon, but is starting to perk up. The stitches will dissolve, and she can take a bath (a real bath!) later this week. The PICC will likely come out next month sometime; they want to wait a little while longer on that. Her labs looked fine yesterday.

Unfortunately, she missed her first Thanksgiving gathering,
as she had diarrhea, which continued several days; we've since found out it's likely due to the long-term antibiotics she's taking for the TB exposure, so she's taking lactobacillus caplets to help with that. She should be back to herself by tonight or tomorrow morning.

She was quite the character down at the hospital,
still trying to talk to everyone through the strawberry gas mask they gave her to make her sleepy.

So it's Shriner's next week, then back to the kidney docs later next month; they'll check her belly again then, to make sure it healed up okay.

Last night, our social worker came to do our 1-year post-placement visit
(the final one), and was able to finally meet Sam;
Sam really enjoyed her visit, as did we.
Thanks, Heather!! I'll update again after our Shriner's visit.

As always, thanks for your continued good thoughts;
we feel especially blessed this holiday season.

Jessica

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There will me more Thanksgiving Gatherings, Sammy;
and Christmas is Coming, too!
Happie Holidays!!