Switch-o, chang-o!!

Today started out very much like yesterday except she did eat a small bowl of Fruit Loops. But no shake and very little fluid. The fluid intake had dropped to a small 16 oz by 1:00 this afternoon. All the doctors and nurses, therapists, specialists, involved were very concerned. At one point in the day, the two rehab doctors came in. Again they were trying to figure out what it could be that would make Shannon's stomach ache so much. After several negative answers to their inquiries that might help, I said, "Shannon is there anything that will make your stomach feel better?" She answered simple "no" which told us a lot.
Her anxieties only worsened through the day--she would fall apart if I left the room for more than 1 minute. Each day she is becoming much more aware of where she is at and what that means. And frankly, all she wants to do is come home because she thinks that will solve all the problems.
So they decided to put into place some very specific goals in each therapy area that they could use to say that when she accomplished them, she could go home. They are in the process of that. But while they were working on that Adam, one of the doctors came in and told Shannon that she could go home in a week if she meet the goals and as he was saying that, I said that she had to be eat and drink the required number of calories and fluids for 3 days and the dr agree with me. But for a while Shan just thought all he said was that she could go home. We have worked through that hopefully but it didn't change anything with her eating and drinking.
Because of the anxieties, the doctors decided to try a very small dose of anti anxiety medication. Shan heard that it could make her more sleepy so I worked things around so she didn't even know she was given the medication around 5:30 pm.
She had continued to do wonderfully well in therapies which was good and that earned her a middle of the week pass. That pass took us to the "angel's"" house with her 3 children. That, along with two of her favorite past YW's leaders, really brightened Shannon's countenance. I believe that with the help of the medication and 3 caring wonderful women, something happened. We returned from the outing and out of the blue Shannon says, "where's my food." We quickly grabbed a bowl and got "honey bunches of oats" and placed them in front of her. She started to eat! We ordered dinner and as soon as it arrived she continued eating. She thought that if she ate dinner it would have enough calories to make the grade for the day. Not so. She didn't even eat the whole meal but she did eat probably close to 400 calories. So she has some struggles yet ahead of her but that was the fastest quickest switch-o, change-o I have every seen. She's like a different girl. Now the prayer is that it will stick and we can move on to see what the next step is to be. She is going to need therapy longer than a week obviously and if she eats the requirements (I do think it will take a bit to work up to the required levels but this is Shannon so there is no telling!), we have to stick to promises and figure a way to continue from home. We are working on that options next! How grateful we are that the Lord is mindful of us and knew just how far we could go before the prayer was answered. I am coming to better understand how the Lord uses trials to strength us.
Pheobe