This was one of those days that was so busy it seemed to pass quickly, but now seems really long from the "looking back" perspective. These are the days that you just slog through. Peter's spirits have flagged, things don't change significantly (or enough) from day to day, and all the P&P continue. The fact that he can't talk (something related to the tube in his throat during surgery) makes it all the harder.
I ended yesterday's post telling how I'd lost my car, but forgot to say how it began - with my getting stopped for speeding on Pleasant Green Road. Oddly, the officer asked me if I had a reason for speeding, and I told him I was going to the hospital, though it wasn't for an emergency. Maybe that's why he let me off with just a warning. That road is 45 the whole way, and it is very easy to let your speed creep up, especially when behind another car. Lesson to be learned...if you're going to speed, be the first in the pack, not the last.
Peter hasn't felt like writing here for some time, but he is letting me copy what he wrote in an email to his college buddy, Scott, about what happened last night (Wednesday). First, thanks to Carol McLaurin for suggesting the iPad, and to Matt Dudek for setting it up for Peter. It has been a life-saver.
[From Peter] I had to laugh when I read your message late last night, especially the reference to being "untethered." Actually I'm always tethered, sometimes less so. But last night, feeling otherwise depressed because I can't sleep here, I got in a great, almost manic mood listening to music on the iPad. The song "Every Time I Roll The Dice" by Delbert McClinton was on when I got up to switch from the bed to the chair. This is a song my band Green River just played at a ten-year reunion recently. I was actually dancing, then noticed blood. I had messed up an IV, not badly but enough to have to call a nurse. Blood well-spent spilling.
Amanda started the day with Peter (before I came), and Jessie came in the afternoon when she got back from her photo-shoot in Boston. The three of us spent a long while in the courtyard (outside), so long that Peter's nurse was getting worried about him. I'd like to think that the sunshine and the gum-chewing (cited on PubMed) helped get Peter moving in the right direction, but probably the medication they gave him had something to do with it too.
They brought all the home equipment for tube feeding, taught me how to use it, and tonight the nurse let me flush the J-tube and give Peter some Tylenol through it. He is off of all narcotics now. The chest tube is coming out tomorrow, so the "tube count" will be down to one unless something changes. But that last one is coming home with us, and will be with us at least until Peter's follow-up appointment on April 10th. Nothing by mouth (except gum) until then. Yikes.
I stopped for the second night in a row for the same curry dish, and brought an extra to Holli Crawford, who was here riding and feeding the horses for me. I asked my friend, Gayle, if it would be bad to eat curry dishes 7 days a week, and told her that this place would give me brown rice. We agreed that you can't really O.D. on this stuff. It is all vegetables.
While Holli and I were eating in the back of the house the dogs started barking out front, and we thought we heard the donkey bray, but it didn't sound quite right. I walked the front door and there were bright lights flashing (we live 1/2 mile off the nearest road), and an arc of white shooting out over the pond. The fire department was here!
Years ago we let them put a dry hydrant on the pond, and they have to flush it and test it at least once a year. Some years they come get water for fires, but they come so rarely that we don't think to tell house-sitters about the possibility. Fortunately for Holli it happened when I was here to interpret the weird scene. I couldn't quite capture it on film, but here's my attempt.
Looks like Peter will spend the weekend at Duke and go home Monday (hopefully) or Tuesday.
Thank you all for all the kind offers. I'll be taking you up on some of them as I prepare for Peter's return home. Can't wait!
I am amazed at how well Peter is doing and how quickly he is off the meds. It is just a testament to his amazing spirit! Just a hop skip and a jump to playing guitar, playing harp and singing along to the Phablulous Phunk Phamily!
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