This is The Wife again

Thanks to everyone for your good wishes for both LG and me! Very nice of you all. He is doing well – a bit bored, but being very careful to keep his head in the correct position. He’s gotten into the audio books, which is helping a lot. I happened recently to get a large cup with screw-on lid and a straw – one of those plastic ones that looks like a fast-food cup – for use in the car, and that has proved to be quite useful.

It turns out that he’s going to have to stay in this position only until Wednesday, when we see the surgeon again. That’s much better than the 6 weeks we originally thought…! (He’s got a special 6-week gas bubble, you see. They normally dissipate after 2 weeks.)

A bit more about the hospital:

• The gown was extremely cool – after you put it on the nurse hooks you up to a warm air hose, and the gown inflates with lovely warmth that you can control with a little dial. That was the reason for the goofy smile in the pre-surgery photo.
• The anaesthesiologist was pretty interested in wet-shaving, and will shortly have a copy of The Book.
• We asked the nurse to write NO under the right eye, but she would not – apparently hospital procedure is very strict on this. (Edit: LG just reminded me that the very nice nurse said, “That’s not new material, you know.” Heh.)
• The nurse also took an incredibly detailed medical history using a software program that looked like 1996 with about 400 screens and popups, and then she printed the whole thing out on 30 pages and put them into his enormous patient file/binder. Gahh!!!

And LG wants me to share this: A family member frequently gets sick when she travels. She’s currently staying at a hotel in Philly, and when she booked it, they asked if she wanted a “feather-free room.” A-hah! She’s allergic to feathers, which explains why, whenever she stays somewhere other than her feather-free home, she gets sick. Fantastic idea for hotels to offer this option.

So there you go. Now I’m off to put drops in the patient’s eye.