A grilled cheese may not sound like a delicacy, but for Katie Hisey, the sandwich was a gourmet blessing Monday.
For the first time in about a month, the 15-year-old Portage girl was able to eat hot, solid food, a treat after weeks of fruit, and not much else.
It's been nearly a month since Katie was admitted to the intensive care unit of St. Louis' Children's Hospital, after suffering a stroke and complications from a 2003 heart/lung transplant.
Katie got out of bed Monday for the first time in weeks, and with the help of hospital staff, was wheeled around the horseshoe-shaped corridor of the immediate care unit.
To the delight of her doctors, she was able to sit up for 45 minutes.
"They were really pleased," mom Nancy Hisey said. "But trust me, she was watching the clock, wanting to get back in bed."
When she was 8 years old, the Fegely Middle School student was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension, a rare and incurable disease that slows blood filtering in the lungs and causes a backup in the heart.
Nancy said her daughter's speech has improved since being admitted and the swelling in her brain has diminished. Doctors still are waiting to see how Katie adjusts to being without some medication before moving her from the ICU.
Doctors have told Nancy to prepare to spend the next month in the hospital, and they say they don't know when Katie will be able to return home.
"It's a guessing game," she said. "There's really no way they can predict it."
Both mother and daughter long for when Katie is moved from the ICU, so that Nancy can sleep in a bed next to her.
"Even though she's 15, she still wants her mama," Nancy said.
Once Katie is well enough to begin therapy, her mother plans to use photos of her two dogs as motivation to get well, and back to Portage.
More than her dogs or grilled cheese sandwiches, Katie longs for home.
"'I want to go home,' that's all she keeps saying," Nancy said. "I tell her, 'It's all up to you.'"
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How to help
People interested in helping the Hisey family may donate money to the Katie Hisey Fund at Mainsource Bank, P.O. Box 487, Hobart, IN 46342.
