It's Sunday again

A hard beginning maketh a good ending - John Heywood (1497 - 1580)

When I got here this morning, Butch is doing better than yesterday - when the cart came around, he asked for French Toast with his breakfast - always one of his favorites. We always go out to breakfast after church on Sunday, and he very often gets French Toast, or - even better - waffles. He has evidently decided to rejoin the land of the living because - he cleaned his plate! He has mentioned a couple of times that his Brother Tom was right - he HAS to eat, or he won't ever get better (no matter that that has been my mantra day after day - why listen to me!). Tom - thanks for backing me - when some of the Doctor's were telling him it was fine - "just drink the ensure" - it was hard to swim against the tide, but - now that he got in a state where he is COMPLETELY run down - everyone is saying - "eat, eat - you have got to eat"! Anyway - it is definitely better. For a few days - he was asking everybody if it was OK to just drink the ensure - and they were saying it was OK! He was giving me dirty looks and inferring that I didn't know what I was talking about! Then - thank God, he asked Dr. Gamblin, and he said of COURSE Butch has to eat solid food - he and Tom started to turn the tide. FOOD IS STRENGTH. Anyone that knows Butch knows that he has been a pretty good eater - can really pile away some food if he wants to - it has been just so hard to see him in this anorexic state! Anyway - things are improving each day. OK - enough obsessing about the food situation.

Today is another cool day - high 50's right now - at 9:45 AM. The weather certainly has changed - this is late September weather - it is beautiful, though. Sun is in & out - blue skies/grey skies - sort of like our lives! I lost the only sweater I brought with me - don't know where - probably on the bus, and I need to take the city bus out to Target to buy another one - Joyce's big adventure - need to change buses - Target is on the other side of Pittsburgh, so it will be a change of scenery. I am on corner 3 out of 4 on the Christmas table topper, so - I might need to go to Michael's also - to pick up something else to work on. I finished reading "The Shack" - a very inspirational story about a man who lost his youngest daughter to a child molester. I am now reading "Tallgrass" - a story about the Japanese "holding" camps that we set up out West during WW11 for Japanese/American citizens. I also have a book of logic puzzles with me - exercise for my mind. Last, I have walked further , since I have been here, than I have walked in YEARS! If it wasn't for my poor back and shoulders - I would walk even more. Yesterday when Butch was combing his hair, he said he never thought we would be here long enough that he would need a haircut - well, me too! I should have taken an apartment.

We have walked - it was the first time in 2 weeks that he has walked further than from the arm chair to the wheelchair - 5 feet! He did well - I carried the pleur-vac, and we unhooked the wound-vac ( we got permission 1st, of course! He walked about 30 feet down the hall and back - totally wore him out, but - it's a start. We have some exercises to do for his legs, too - the therapist says that for every day in bed, it takes 2 to 3 days to overcome the inactivity.

Well - it is 5:00 and I did take the bus to the waterfront shops, where there is a target. Enjoyed the couple of hours out of this atmosphere - bought a new cardigan - will try to hang on to it this time. It was a pretty drive, along the street that Carnegie Mellon is on - lovely old stone buildings - and a nice view down along the Allegheny River. While I was gone, they gave Butch another x-ray. The one from yesterday showed a lot of fluid still on that lung, so - he has the pleur-vac on for another day. I really hope that fluid is gone and he can get off that thing. The Doctors haven't come in yet this afternoon - this morning they stopped briefly and said - "carry on - try to move around, and EAT".