This week Bev had a couple of days where she looked quite perky and alert; when I got there, she was watching TV. That second day I squeezed into bed on top of the sheets and we watched Hollywood Squares together from bed.

However, yesterday, Nine Eleven (that date!), as I was getting ready to go visit, I got a call that she had just been rushed to Flushing Hospital with "respiratory distress". The nurse said she was turning blue. I thought if this was pneumonia, this might be it. This was the same hospital where she had had the stomach tube inserted.

When we all got to the emergency room she had on a mask with 100% oxygen, and was wheezing. After a while that subsided and she seemed to return to normal. They wheeled in a portable x-ray machine, and she did not have pneumonia, or any obstruction in the lungs. A blood sample showed a very high white count. In addition to the infection from her decubitus ulcers, she has a urinary tract infection. When her four-week antibiotic course was ended last week, she started having fevers, up to 103.1, so they started another four-week course. It's not good to have to do that, but there was no choice. The sore on her foot is back down to a simple stage one, but the one at the base of the spine remains a stage four. Since that one had reached the bone, it was finally explained to me that she has osteomyelitis.

We went back today and she has a nice, bright, sunny room, and seemed to be back to her current normal self. She will stay in the hospital for a while, and they will use the time to see if she should have plastic surgery to close the ulcer at the base of the spine. It was not clear how the infections could possibly have caused the respiratory problems.

Asians in Flushing   A cultural note to lighten the atmosphere: in recent years, Flushing, which dates from the 1600's, has become extremely multicultural, especially Asian. Most signs, by far, in the center of Flushing are in either Korean or Chinese. At the hospital, all notices are posted in English, Spanish, Arabic, Korean, and Chinese, and I saw one in Russian. Obviously the patients in both the nursing home and hospital reflect this demographic, as does the staff.

Bev's regular doctor at the nursing home is Dr Tu. The attending physician at the hospital today was Dr Hu. I know there was a doctor in the emergency room last night named Dr Wu, but he didn't attend Beverly.

Therefore, we have plenty of Tu, some Hu, and no Wu. Is that clear to Yu?