Update

Hi all -- Maren is still in the hospital and it looks like she may be there for a few more days. The doctor would like to locate the fluid through an ultrasound so that it can be drawn ("aspirated" is what the cool kids call it) and tested to figure out what exactly it is, but it takes two days for the cultures to grow. Harumph. She'll also be started on an antibiotic that targets staph/strep infections, since the doctor suspects a bug may have gotten into her system through a cut on her foot.

Good news is that she had a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon take a look at it, and he's feeling very confident that there's nothing sinister going on in the joint or the bone.

She's getting a little more comfortable there and putting up a brave front, but still has some teary episodes. If you're praying, please pray for Maren's emotional well-being, Malcolm (he's starting to really miss her and said he was almost crying at school about it), Mitch (he seems to be feeling very stretched and I know he gets bummed out by hospital stays pretty easily), the strain of figuring out logistics... oh yeah, and me! I'm having trouble keeping up with schoolwork in the midst of keeping everything together on the home/hospital front. And I have my road test for my driver's license scheduled for Wednesday morning and don't know how well stress and a driving test go together!

Feel free to leave comments for Maren -- she loves hearing from you! And if you love her and she likes you back, she may even like to see you for a little visit or hear your voice. Just shoot me an email if you're wondering about times or a phone number, etc.