Doctors declare David's progress successful

Already three weeks out of surgery and David has gotten good reports from the surgeons and therapists we visited at Hopkins and GBMC yesterday. He used the walker to traverse some long hallways at the JHU Outpatient Center and was grateful for the fold-down seat during the prolonged delays in a crowded waiting area. According to the surgeon who transplanted the fibula to jaw, the stabilizing “boot” for his right leg won’t be necessary unless Dave goes on further long walks. That leg incision looks better and the trach opening is nearly healed over. The GBMC swallowing expert/speech therapist is working with David to get his swallowing and jaw opening functioning better, despite the swollen tissue inside his mouth. Hopefully that replacement will lose bulk naturally and David will find that eating and speaking are coming back rapidly. The physiotherapist has a routine of exercises for his shoulders, neck and legs. This is definitely an amazing team of specialists working with David for complete recovery ahead. Our next oncology surgeon’s appointment is in late April, after Easter.

We also met with the nutritionist yesterday. Dave’s stomach PEG tube stays in for a few more weeks for the highly nutritious supplements and medicines. There are entire cookbooks for cancer recovery but I’m mostly just adapting our normal diet for this wounded researcher. For Dave’s supper, I blended up some of the chicken curry and dal I cooked – a la Bangladesh! Today he consumed scrambled eggs for breakfast and put crackers in his lunchtime cream of broccoli soup to practice near normal swallowing. Dave thoughtfully slurped and “tasted” a chocolate/peanut butter milkshake this afternoon and anticipates the chewing exercise of meatloaf and mashed potatoes with asparagus for supper! Who knows, he may gain back that 12 pounds that he shed earlier this month. Interesting that culinary enjoyment is so much a part of our social life. So, we will look forward dinner guests next week, but I won’t offer to grind up their meals, I promise.

In the hallway of GBMC is a little saying: “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but rather learning to dance in the rain.” One aspect of David that you all will agree is that he maintains a positive attitude and is always willing to learn something new or even to be the subject of an experiment. An associate at Hopkins has an uncle who invented that facial jaw replacement with the fibula, in children, about 25 years ago. I’m glad that it works in adults as well. David definitely is still low on energy but I’m working out in the garden whenever I can before that rain comes. Our grandson, who was playing after the rain in Rwanda, fell against an iron gate and broke his left arm. You can bet that I will definitely hang on to David on rainy days!

Speaking of Hopkins, each day David is spending hours on his computer and is trying out a new lab software for analyzing the tests necessary for antibody titers. Next Monday we will go back into the SPH for a meeting with his vaccine testing lab staff who have successfully done two trials during his absence. Hopefully David can begin to do the drafting of an NIH grant proposal, using work from Dhaka. If President Obama is serious about opening up more funding for scientific research, especially in health breakthroughs, why not participate? Perhaps this enforced rest and time away from his office can be productive? Thanks again for your many communications, books, and prayer power on this “dance”.