Monday, August 2, 2010 — News by phone —

I am actually writing this on Tuesday before returning to Santa Rosa. Yesterday Steve held the fort at Sutter Hospital and Kathy plus Elena and Larkin joined him in mid-afternoon from Echo.

I am going to take the dogs over to them today and they will join the canine forces in the mountains for a while. Hopefully without any major battles taking place.

I talked by phone during the day and heard all the complicated possibilities for steps after discharge that were discussed. Of course Skip would prefer to come straight home. But until he can stand on his own or move with a walker, that doesn't seem very likely. He is still in that kind of circular dilema caused by taking several remaining courses of antibiotics which cause digestive irritations and make all his food taste like some kind of metal. This, in turn causes him to reject food ............. I went to Viraporn's last night and will be carrying his very favorite food in all this world back for tonight's dinner. He considers her shrimp lemongrass soup to be his necter of the gods or "the best tonic he knows." Let's hope it doesn't take on the metallic luster all the Sutter food is suggesting to him. If anything can turn the tide for him it is something from Viraporn.

Kathy says that Skip's voice has almost returned to normal, or at least seemed that way last night. He was so happy to see his grandchildren and Kathy along with Steve. He did a crossword puzzle and has requested his laptop and his Kindle. These are fantastic signs of improvement. We just have to figure out where he can go next. My own preference would be to transfer back to Fort Bragg Hospital for several days to do so physical therapy and then have a quick ride to Madsen Lane and a return to the place he loves. We'll keep you posted.