I hope that what Jeri posted is relevant--but Sally's diagnosis is viral meningeal encephalitis, a mosquito-borne disease.

I just got back from the hospital: she was to have another CAT scan. While I was there one of her friends, an acupuncturist, was given access to her medical file (she gave her sister, daughter, and this friend power of attorney to make decisions: the friend has enough medical knowledge to interpret the file) and he said that earlier tests had shown no swelling of the brain, and although she wasn't conscious this afternoon, he thought things were looking up, that she was probably just resting and marshalling her defenses to fight the disease. I checked with the nurse who thought that music would be great, so I sat by Sally and played and sang to her for about an hour, then her sister and daughter, the daughter's boyfriend and best friend, and Dick, the banjo player--who's closest to Sally of anyone in the group--and I went down for lunch in the cafeteria (upon their assurance that it was better than most hospital cafeterias--I remain unconvinced), and afterward, Dick, and sister Sylvia, and I returned to Sally's room where they were about to take her for another CAT scan. I will probably go back in an hour or so when she's back in her room and sing to her again (too many of the songs the group plays--and too many folk songs in general--are concerned with death or with heaven and I was having difficulty avoiding the subject: I sang (with the acupuncturist's wife harmonizing) such songs as "My Grandfather's Clock"--last verse about his death-- and "Waltzing Matilda," ditto, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody," "The Crawdad Song," ("Whatcha gonna do when the pond goes dry/sit on the bank and watch the crawdads die") plus a few others untainted by the subject: "The Mountains of Mourne," "Jimmy Brown," "Times Are Getting Hard," and played some instrumentals: "Hard Times Come Again No More," etc. But I had to stay away from such group favorites as "I'll Fly Away," "Angel Band," "God's Railway to Heaven," "Unclouded Day," "Free Grace," and so on: I don't want to give her any ideas about saying the hell with it and going to heaven.

Anyone have any good ideas of "Fight for Life" songs, "Hang in there" songs, etc.? I'll be going back for a couple of hours tomorrow as well and could use some inspiration.

love to you all, --seed