Tuesday, July 27, 2010 — A quiet fruitful day

The constantly humming and strumming CRT dialysis that provided gentle 24/7 kidney aid is out of the room and a new, honking sized conventional machine came in for three hours with its own nurse attendant. Besides the machine doing its job in a somewhat more powerful manner, the nurse also gave Skip two more units of blood to boost his strength. Machine and companion said their goodbyes and promised that "someone" would be back for a repeat performance tomorrow. You can always count on a few open questions regarding personnel. Such suspense.

Skip is definitely progressing. His color is good, his muscles respond better than yesterday and his eyes open very wide if possibly startled once in a while. The physical therapist came today to begin some formal movement regimen. I couldn't get myself to be there at that time. So afraid it was going to really hurt. But I'm told he was able to have his legs hang over the bedside and stayed there with some support for an admirable length of time. His sympathetic nurse of today kept asking if he was in pain. Whenever he said yes and the timing was right she gave him some morphine. Definitely my drug of choice in the case of extreme pain. But while I was there he answered the question with a "no" which I think was a good idea. It's a bit of a tight rope walk to hit that right balance. I think he'll begin to self regulate because he'll be wanting to come further out of the fog.

Elena and Larkin will stay in Richmond tomorrow night and return Thursday to the mountains in order to be on the job at Echo Lake Friday. Our grandchildren have been such steadfast supporters and it's been important for them to see their grandfather making these amazing strides forward. I'll never forget how great they and their parents have been. Between them and all of you checking in with your caring messages, this has been much easier on me than it might have been.