I couldn't believe how much better I felt this morning. My balance was manageable, I was not so exhausted, and my vision was normal. I went for a short walk around the floor, one lap, and a nurse told me that 17 laps around was a mile. I didn't think I'd be doing 17 laps any time soon!

In the morning I canceled my appointments for a follow up with my PCP on Tuesday and for PT for balance training on Wednesday. I knew I'd be in the hospital at least that long. Our pastor and his assistant dropped by in the late morning for a short visit and prayer. It was so good of them to come. The pastor told me that a request for prayer for me went out on the prayer chain last night. Again even though I was very concerned about what was going on, I felt at peace.

Toward late afternoon, I noticed the double vision was starting to manifest again, probably because I was getting tired. I had a nap and it disappeared, but showed up again shortly before bedtime. My balance also seemed to depend heavily on how tired I was.

The double vision was gone again this morning. I could see that it definitely depended on how tired I was. My balance had improved as well, back to where it was before the relapse. The neuro was very pleased with my progress, and said the dependence of my symptoms on tiredness was normal. She also said she could see dry spots on my eye. I assured her I was trying my best to keep it moist. She agreed it was probably the hospital air, and told me to keep up the drops and patching.

Today I did two laps around the floor in the morning and two more in the afternoon, holding tight to the wheelchair rail all the way. That's almost a quarter mile. Woohoo! I expected to be tired and I was, but only a bit. I also could tell I had lost a lot of muscle tone in the last month, because my legs ached just from those short walks! I'm the lady who loves to dance all night, and I couldn't even do a quarter mile??!!

They have been taking my vital signs every four hours, but last night they stretched my meds out a bit and let me sleep uninterrupted from midnight to 6:00 A.M. That felt so good! I had had no fever since I arrived and my blood pressure and pulse had been their usual low numbers. And I felt so much better. The hospitalist agreed with me that I really didn't need to be in the hospital for 24 hours only to get meds once every 5 hours! He said he would speak to my clinic's case manager about sending me home and having a visiting nurse administer the IV.

Well, the decision about my going home was disappointing. Just because the equipment provider would balk at delivering what I would need for only two days, and then picking it up again, I would have to stay until I no longer needed the IV meds. Bummer! I thought it was ridiculous for me to be there taking up a bed, but there I stayed.

Today I walked four laps around the floor, in two trips, and I wasn't as tired this time. My legs still felt a bit rubbery, though, from the unaccustomed exercise. I was able to walk only brushing my fingers over the wheelchair rail for security. Clearly, my balance was improving.

The neuro and hospitalist agreed that, right after my last meds at 10:00 P.M. tomorrow, I could go home! That would be a weird time to get out of the hospital, and they gave me the option of staying until Friday morning, but I really did want to go home!

The IV line in my hand had been a bit sore since it was installed, but today I noticed it was getting a lot worse. By evening, it was really sore. I mentioned it to the nurse.

By the time my midnight IV meds were finished, my hand was killing me and there was a thin red line leading from the IV line along the vein. The IV lines are only good for five days before they have to be replaced, but obviously this one was not going to make it until this afternoon. The nurse removed it just after midnight, as soon as I showed her the red line. I would need a new one before my next IV meds were administered at 6:00 A.M. this morning, but that was another 5 ½ hours, no problem, right? Wrong!

At 4:00 A.M., a new nurse, one very skilled at inserting IV lines, woke me and started in hunting for a good spot to stick me. Unfortunately, my left hand had been used the day before to draw blood, so that was out. She tried my wrists, then my left forearm, but the veins wobbled under the needle and she couldn't hit them straight on. Finally she gave up and said that the IV department would send someone up in the morning. Unfortunately, the IV department had no one on duty until 7:00 A.M. (Is this any way to run a hospital?) This was an hour after I was due for my meds, which were already being stretched out at night as far as they dared so I could sleep. I had been told it was important for my meds to be on a regular schedule to stay ahead of the virus.

I didn't sleep at all for the rest of the "night." When 7:00 A.M. came and went, then 7:10, then 7:20, and still no IV technician, I was a nervous wreck. Just then, my day nurse, Marty, who had come on duty at 7:00, poked her head in to see how I was. When I explained the problem, Marty, all 5 ft., 90 lbs. of her, said she would handle it and stormed out of my room. I could hear her on the phone dressing down the IV department, then taking on the pharmacy. By 7:25, an IV tech was searching, unsuccessfully, for new IV sites, at 7:30, the head of the pharmacy department leaned in to say she had mixed my meds herself and hand carried them to me, all the meds I would need for the rest of the day. She had left them at the nurses' desk. Finally, at 7:40, the tech hit a gusher and we were in. She hooked me up to the pump, and my meds were only an hour and 45 minutes late. I'm still convinced God sent me Marty to be my advocate when I was feeling totally frustrated and powerless!

I walked 3/4 mile in three stages today. It was even easier this time, no rubbery legs. Maybe I'd get my stamina back eventually.

I finally finished my 10 P.M. IV dose, the last one, at 11:00 P.M., whipped off the Johnny I had on over my undies and jeans, put on a blouse and sweatshirt, grabbed the bag I had packed earlier and was wheeled downstairs. I was going home! Hubby dropped off my prescriptions at the all-night drugstore, then brought me home before he went back to get them.

I was taking fewer meds this time than last time I came home from the hospital: Acyclovir tablets, 800 mg 5 times a day for 8 days (twice as much as last time); and Prednisone tablets, 10 mg three times a day for 7 days, 10 mg twice a day for 7 days, 10 mg once a day for 7 days, and 5 mg once a day for 7 days.

At home I went straight to bed; it had been a long, long day!

Except for popping a pill at 3:00 A.M., I slept uninterrupted. It did me a world of good! I felt like I could take on the world. Of course the Prednisone may have had a lot to do with that. I felt even better than when I got out of the hospital last time. We'll see what happens when the Prednisone is gone!

After making another "matrix" to time my meds, I rested all day. I thought I had earned it! In the evening, I chased Hubby out the door to our club's monthly square dance. I had arranged him a "date" with a single dancer friend of ours earlier in the day, so he had no excuse.

I mapped out a walking course around the kitchen island, through the family room, around a children's rocking chair in the middle of the living room, and back to the kitchen. I measured it with a steel tape measure, did a little math and determined that 10 laps totaled about ¼ mile. Until I could get more active, I was determined to do at least that much every day, so my muscles wouldn't atrophy any more than they had already! Of course, after all that measuring, I only did 5 laps today.

I got out some of my bead stash today, and worked on a bracelet my cousin had asked me to repair well over a month ago. It felt so good to touch the gemstone beads again, that I made myself a new pair of earrings! I find the beads very soothing, and I relax more and more the longer I work with them. It was a bit hard to work with one eye patched - no depth perception. I eventually started to tire and put them away, but it was great to be creative again, even for a little while.

Hubby was still spoiling me, and not letting me do a thing for myself. I wondered how long I could fake being sick after I got well before he caught on? ;o)

I had no problem yet with the lower dose of Prednisone. I hoped this slower ramping down would work. I had no desire to spend another spell in the hospital!