A Full Friday in the City

Another long day that began in the hospital with the consult from the nuero oncologist but ended with a lovely 12 block walk over the First Hill area of Seattle. Dennis was very vocal with the doctor and asked lots of good questions. His verbal skills are returning, but he is still frustrated by some word finding. He is still in pain and told the doc he doesn't like painkillers ,and doesn't want to take them (in no uncertain terms I might add). The swelling is slowly subsiding, but still pressing against staples and sutures. I have learned to be very careful about cleaning the incision. Friday was marked by a shower, a tiny sip of coffee at breakfast, a change in the anti-seizure medicine that affects him less markedly, lots of extra sleep, another tomato soup meal at a local cafe (we could write a restaurant guide here now) and preparing to leave. Thanks to Connie our Premera Blue Shield case manager, Jackie who amazingly got the ENTIRE medical record delivered to our hotel, the Hospital mailroom staff who took the extra weight off my hands and mailed a 17 pound box home, Lisa for delivery of uncanny nutrition support, Becky for taking our grocery order (heavy on the lime jello, he's from Missouri, after all) and Elizabeth for reminding me about curbside wheelchair pickup and delivery. In the afternoon we read all the blog comments since the surgery-phew, I laughed and he kind of chuckled at many of them-after a dinner of coffee ice cream for Dennis and leftovers for me, we walked through the cool evening air - and got homesick. We hear our lovely Kona dog hasn't been quite up to par - Ardath our wonderful pet parent has said the animals have had a perceptible change in behavior-by tomorrow night we'll all be together again, and hopefully all will be well. We'll bring you up to date when we settle back in at home on Revilla Island. Yours blogfully, D&F