Wednesday, August 4, 2010 — Patient getting impatient! A good sign.

"When do you think we'll get back to Fort Bragg?" That's the theme of the day now. Our Italy contingent arrived in the States late last night and were here most of the day today along with Chuck and Leah. Steve looks happy to have his family reunited. Mira and Susan both pretended not to be too sleepy but I'm sure the minute they get to Richmond they're going to go into deep crash mode. They both look great and so happy to see Skip on the mend after reading the blog day after day in Italy. Mira gave Skip a lovely poem she wrote for him when she was still in Torino. I'm going back for a short night visit and I'll try to retrieve it for y'all.

Speaking of Lolli, Skip asked when you were coming back to Fort Bragg for a while. He's got everybody on the brain and probably in better order than I do. His bodily functions continue to improve. But still a very diminished appetite, still on dialysis and still very weak. We just have to be patient with nature's healing process. He does get better each day now and we're so happy about that. The nurses have taken to coming in and complementing him on his latest breakthrough.

This coming Friday marks our third week at Sutter Hospital. Shozo has described what it was like while he waited for Alice to come to and rally to her recovery here. But there's no way to really understand what it's like until you're doing it yourselves. I can so much better realize what he and Alice went through now. Our love goes out to them and you and the nurses who have been so steadfast here and who still check in with the blog — especially Bill and Kathy. We love you all.