Week Nineteen

Week Five, post operation, is where we now are.  Weight this morning was 126.2 lbs, best weight in a week!

This may be a long grind, where one day seems no different than another, and progress is difficult to assess one week from the next.  We’re heading across the desert towards that oasis we can see in the distance.  We walk that way every day, but it’s hard to tell if we’re getting any closer.  So just keep walking.

I got the blood work back, and it’s all pretty good…red blood cell count is nearly back to normal, kidney functions are normal. One of the liver enzymes is a bit elevated, but doctor says that might be due to the surgery and j-tube placement.

My eating routine of every two hours, four ounces of high calorie intake, is going okay.  But the schedule is often getting disrupted with long naps, a visitor, or errands that push the two hour hiatus to three or four hours. I haven’t gotten to 2000 calories a day yet, but am pretty regularly at 1600 plus, and still working on strategies to get to the 2000.

Carol and I are continuing our daily walks, with occasional misses, as we try to walk for 30 minutes at a time.  I can usually make it, although the other day I had to lie down half-way through to stretch out my back a bit.

We went out to lunch in Woodland last week with friends from Sacramento, and ran into some swimming buddy brothers at the restaurant.  It was very nice seeing them and it was fun being out and about.

So that’s about it from here.  I don’t know how much more life this blog has in it…..the changes week to week are pretty minimal….but I’ll keep it up, at least for a while.

Happy Standard Time this weekend.

Here’s a little imagining:

A Voice

The moonless night was quiet

The sky without a cloud

The distant stars like gems

Upon the midnight shroud.

 

From the east there came a voice

I had not heard in years

“Yes,” I said, unsure

What fell upon my ears.

 

The stars began to fade

The blackness turned to blue

The voice I heard was firm and deep

But gentle was it, too.

 

“Hello,” it said, “my son,

Have you been well-behaved?”

“Daddy, yes, I have,”

I said without delay.

 

With that the stars all disappeared,

And twilight greeted dawn.

“I’ll tell your mother,” Daddy said,

And then the voice was gone.