Better News From Sylva

Today has been a good day. I’m feeling far more positive and comfortable with the future.

I was down at the hospital by 7.30 am this morning after sending yet another couple of documents to the insurance company (It never seems to end). I’m told that I might get a decision on my claim overnight tonight. It was raining again today and more leaves are falling from the trees. I took this photo from Jill’s bed in the ICU.

Jill was much brighter this morning and was sitting up in a reclining chair when I arrived. She had her IV line removed from her neck later in the morning and she was able to talk normally – a big step from yesterday! In the afternoon, she had an x-ray that showed that her surgery was successful. There is no leakage from her re-joined bowel and stomach into her abdomen. She is watertight!

Late in the afternoon, she was moved to a ward (or room as they call it here). She was rather whacked when I left at 5.00 pm so I left her to get some sleep. A liquid meal arrived for her at about time she moved and I tried to encourage her to have some of the soup. She hasn’t eaten now for six days but she wasn’t interested in food at all.

It seems like she will be discharged late in the weekend or on Monday and transferred to a local Rehab facility so that she can build up her strength to come home. I don’t know where that will be so I may be moving hotels soon.

We are a bit of an oddity here; I think we are the first Australians that have ever been treated in this hospital. Everywhere I go through the hospital, people say hello and even some that I have never met before ask if I’m the man from Australia. I have built up a good relationship with many of the ICU staff and in a way, I’ll be sorry to leave them behind. I’m very grateful for their efforts in looking after Jill. There is a nice chocolate shop in town and I bought a couple of big boxes to say thanks and asked one of the nurses to share them around those that had looked after Jill.

I stepped out for a couple of hours over lunch and met up with Mike Hopp and his wife Judy. I haven’t seen them for twenty five years or more and it was wonderful to renew our friendship. Mike was the Manager for International Training and Development when we both worked for Control Data. We had some great times working on a variety of management development programs in Europe and Greece. Mike was kind enough to invite me home on a couple of occasions in those days and I have always valued his friendship. We swapped stories about events that happened as we worked together and the people with whom we worked. Mike is now retired and living a couple of hours away in South Carolina.  Judy looks really well although she has wrestled with a few health issues over the years. She has actually been to the quilting museum that we visited in Paducah.

Today is Halloween and the nurses were all dressed up in various costumes and witches hats. I noticed that Main Street in town was all closed off for some form of celebration when I came back to my hotel tonight.

The people that I feel really sorry for are Darvin and his dad, Doyle. They have been sitting in the ICU waiting room for days, worrying about Darvin’s Mother. She is having difficulty breathing snd every time they stop her ventilation, she regresses. They come from a place about fifty miles from here and spend hours in the waiting room just looking at the wall. They are humble folk with a heart of gold. I go out from Jill’s room from time to time to talk to them and keep them company. Hopefully I take their mind off their worries for a few minutes. With all their concerns, they have been really concerned about Jill and I am very grateful to them.