Angels In America

This morning, I was thinking about guardian angels and ministering angels and where are they and what are they doing.

Well, here are two that I ran into:

One is Theresa Jones, DO, a hospitalist that I know.  Her husband has Crohn's.  I ran into her at the elevators today, and I asked her if her husband has ever been on TPN and what their experience has been.  She said that Brad was on TPN for an entire year in the early 2000's.  She told me that she became a "closet eater" because she felt so bad about eating in front of him.  It was really good to talk to someone who had been through this before.

(Oh, and as a point of information, TPN stands for Total Parenteral Nutrition, meaning that you don't get your nutrients through your digestive tract but get them in liquid form through an IV.  People who do not have enough small intestine to absorb nutrients or have other issues such as severe vomiting in pregnancy can be on TPN.  Rowdy is allowed to take food by mouth, and he's even encouraged to drink liquids as much as he can, but he won't get the nutrients from the food.  So we still can have Thanksgiving.)

The second one is Nicky Barrows, RN, who was able to work things out so that Rowdy can have his TPN pump in a portable case, not on an awkward IV pole.  That's going to help make things less-unwieldy.