April 29, 2018

Okay, I took a bit of flak from some folks, about the hat I was wearing on the boat. I'm a SF Giants baseball fan, and not Atlanta Braves. As you can see from the picture, the weather was actually pretty nice and much sunnier than what I expected and I needed a hat. Of course Atlanta didn't do much better than the Giants this year, so I guess it really doesn't matter that much. The SF Giants will be back next year, so I have that to look forward to. Okay, on with the rest of the blog... ;-) Today was a nice day for Jason, as he was able to get down to the PACU a bit earlier than what has happened in the past, and that means he was back a little earlier. I got to his room just a few minutes after 10:00 this morning and Dr. Malone was in there already talking to him (but I didn't miss much). She let us know that things were still progressing nicely and that Friday was still the day for the next big effort to get those wounds closed. The difference this time was that she said they had identified a new product they wanted to use, and if it worked it will allow Jason to avoid the skin grafts that were planned. That would be a very good thing as far as we are concerned. If this new product does not work, all that will happen will be that the skin grafts take place a couple of weeks later than originally planned. Jason was totally on board with this, as he doesn't want to have skin grafts again, if he doesn't need to have them. His PT session went well, and he did the circuit of exercises that the therapists have put together for him. Actually he was able to do some pull downs, on the universal gym that they have, and he was working with 100lbs. He did two reps of 10. The Physical Therapists were surprised at the weight Jason was working with, and very happy. When I set the weight for him they both thought I was asking too much, then he just went to work and got through the routines. I told them that if they had seen him do some of the things I had seen they would not have been so surprised. The only down side was that his right hand, where there is nerve damage, was giving him some trouble once he was done. Both of us ate lunch from the galley today, and it was obvious to both of us that we needed to identify something to change what we were eating. The good news is that we didn't have to eat dinner from the galley tonight as we had been invited over to a spaghetti and meat balls dinner at the Fisher House. One of the other patient's wife loves to cook, and apparently isn't happy unless she prepares a meal for at least a dozen people. Jason and I were happy to help out... ;-) We wanted to get over to the Fisher House a little earlier than we did, and we would have had it not been for a little confusion with getting his meds set up so we could go. Apparently there has been a rule change on the distribution of the meds and we didn't find out about it until we were ready to go. Fortunately we were able to work around it and we still got to dinner in time to eat with everyone else. Jason will be going back down to the PACU, again tomorrow, for a dressing change and washout. This should be one of the last visits down there, as long as everything goes well Friday. With that I am again thanking everyone for all the support and prayers that have been sent our way, and ask that you continue to ask for wisdom and skill for the medical staff, as we approach the end of this portion of the journey.