Two tubes out and one in

I'm finding that progress for post-surgical recovery is marked by how many tubes are running in and out of the patient. Today the last wound drain was removed as well as the nasal gastric tube. David's face looks almost normal without the swelling but he still can't swallow too well and needs the trach to breathe. A PEG stomach tube was put in late this afternoon so that he can take medicines without an IV and also absorb more food directly, rather than through the narrow NG line. We realize that this painful insertion of a the PEG will make it easier to "eat" once we are back in our home. Discharge is still several days away, however.

Lately David is doing a lot of shoulder shrugging (part of his physical therapy, if you can believe!) to prevent him from becoming too stiff necked. He's always been calm and easy going before... He is also learning to handle a walker with a certain careful grace in the hallway outside the room. .. hard work for a goal oriented scientist! The leg wound looks good, if you like horror story wounds. Sometimes I feel like singing him the "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" song our grandchildren learn - the body parts are all there but needed to be rearranged a bit to work well. Speaking of grandchildren, they now believe that GBMC is the ice cream parlor since I've treated them in the cafeteria each time they have come. They don't even need to peek in his room to "see" this transformed Poppa Dave. Each time we share an ice cream, they feel like they have visited him (and the nurses enjoy these chirpy little blonde kids). They enjoyed the PT room tonight, in fact, with Lydia as their amused supervisor while son Paul and I bid David a sweeter sleep.

Your many cards, some beautiful flowers, such kind e-mails and those sincere prayers are the best "visitors" for David at this point. We are enjoying catching up via my e-mail with some overseas friends during this ordeal. Several of you have shared parables of healing with us, including the vision quest scene of a young Indian boy who is left alone all night, blindfolded, in a dark and scary woods - he was told not to leave that place and be brave until the sun rose when he could remove the tight eye cover. Frightening animal noises and imagined dangers haunted him in those lonely hours but he stayed firm until dawn. When he took off the blindfold, there was his own father sitting close by, watching all night to protect his stalwart but terrified son from any real dangers. So it is with illness and our imagined worse fears - our God is watching over us even though we are unable to see.

Although David has had to drop out of the Deer Creek Chorale, the Director has chosen several appropriate songs for our choir concert April 26: The Storm is Passing Over and A Bridge over Troubled Water. Tonight on the way home from the hospital, the full moon was shining through the gathering rain clouds. Life offers so many parables for us in difficult times.