Homeward bound My 12-year-old friend Bethany comes home today, after about three weeks in hospitals, getting poked, prodded, biopsied and tested for an intestinal ailment. The final diagnosis: gastritis. Gastritis! It took three weeks to rule out cancer, Crohn's Disease and half a dozen other possibilities. Her parents -- and especially Bethany -- have had it up to here with doctors and hospitals and testing. She's missed the beginning of school. She's been starved -- and she's not that big to begin with -- while doctors wait for test results. And now her parents will get stuck with big honking medical bills. I know that they have to rule out every dark possibility, and that's what tests are for, but this has been a traumatic ordeal for this family.
Anyway, Beth comes home today, safe but not quite yet sound. I'm thankful she's getting to leave the hospital.