Wednesday, January 20th

Salutations and good evening!

I am in Edmonds now.  Went straight from the airport to the hospital this afternoon and was greeted by a roomful!  Aunt Dana and Uncle Bob were there, as were some great friends from the 'hood.  lol  Dad was having a real good day.  Was talking, eating, and he saw pictures for the first time of Dylan, his great-grandson.  Took in my laptop and just turned on a slide show and he watched it probably twice through.  Just kept it going.  Did my heart good to see the look on his face when he saw his boy.  I think it was just what the doctor ordered!

Not long after I arrived at the hospital, dad had physical therapy.  I gathered this may have been the first time since being admitted at VM.  I'm not positive on that.  I do know it was the first time they had him get up from the bed, stand and then sit in a chair.  While in the chair she had him doing ankle bends, and a couple other light leg exercises.  Needless to say, when this was all done, he was plum tuckered.  We left him getting ready for a nap.  Don't know how long that lasted as he did have the procedure described below.

The evening got a little tough for dad.  They are supplementing his eating/nutrition with an NG tube.  Will be getting liquid nutrition probably during the nights.  They had a struggle getting the tube positioned just right, so had to use a lot of contrast material for the xrays.  Understandably, all the poking and chemicals didn't set right with his tummy.  He skipped dinner tonight.  We're okay with that, now that he has the feeding tube.  Some of the pressure is off of him, if he doesn't feel like eating a meal.

Gina and I went down to see him tonight.  Was kind of nice going later in the evening.  It was later than usual, as he's usually asleep pretty early.  It was quiet, laid back and an easy drive to and from.  Had a good time watching Pixar short films on tv.  It just felt good to be back with him.  It did us all a bit of good - he had some quiet time, and we had quality time.  A good evening of decompressing.

Now that I'm down here, I'm hoping the blog updates will be closer to every day.  Thank you for understanding why a few were missed.  I did forget to get a mailing address for him while I was there.  I will try and remember tomorrow.  I guarantee nothing.  *wink*

Good night all, and pleasant dreams!

*cue Lawrence Welk*

Leslie :)