Short Synopsis: Kayla continues to take baby steps in the right direction. She is happily connected to her huge data base of friends on Facebook, nearly 1,500 of them. This is such a great avenue for her to be socially involved immediately with her peers. For anyone who is sick often and in the hospital as a regular part of life, this is the best!
There are no changes at the moment in her care - only a big push to increase her calorie intake and get her physically active with walking.
Long Story: Kayla gets happy when she beats Mike at the card games they play. The two of them are such competitive animals! Today was a happy social day for "the Kayla." Her first cousin Ryan and his girlfriend, Stephanie, showed up for a nice long visit. Ryan showed Kayla his computer images from his college animation courses. He is working on a lot of drawing for short films of cartoons. Kayla had her nose in the screen perusing the creative renderings.
Kayla also walked all around the hall in a big circle down one hallway and up the next one. She is even pulling her own handle to her Thoratec PVAD heart pump console.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bumpy spent the night in Kayla's room at our Ridgefield home. She and I had a nice relaxed morning doing errands. I put three of Kayla's checks in the bank for her. She is now receiving disability from the government. We went to Stop & Shop to get some Nair and dry cat food.
Bumpy has learned that if you are staying in Kayla's room, you must fill up the bowl by the dresser with dry cat food. Aww...yes, listen to the cats crunch and eat the dry food...especially in the middle of the night. Kayla's habit for several years now. The cats have made her room bowl their favorite place to eat. I teasingly admonish Bumpy if the bowl is empty, but this morning there was no more dry food in the entire house!
When we get to the hospital, Kayla informs us that she now has over 140 responses to her first "status" on Facebook. She has become a local celebrity and an inspiration for everyone in the area. My blog is reaching out to the world and is being hit upon from all sorts of countries. Early on it was Thailand and the Phillipines, soon to be followed by Canada, Germany, Italy, England, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and a few other countries. Australia came up for the very first time the other day. No one in South America yet, but maybe soon.
There have been nearly 3,500 hits in a month's time. The internet is the way to go for a story unfolding day by day. Each day there are between 75-100 readers. When the blog site goes down for maintenance problems (down once for 2 days) the readers kept on clicking in to read. I need people to become "followers" to increase the clout of the blog so that we can get more awareness going regarding organ donation. We will save lives and we need to get a heart for Kayla!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Rain, rain, rain! It just won't stop these last few weeks. Bumpy and I have these grand plans to walk the bridge for exercise and it cannot happen in a downpour. We are now willing to walk in a little rain - we could bring our umbrellas but it's nothing but downpours!
On the way to NYC, Arnold leaves a message on my cell phone. I have not spoken to him since his wife died. I call and leave a detailed message back letting him know how each of the families are doing.
When Bumpy and I get up to Kayla's ward, we realize that we have forgotten her fruit smoothie that we purchased at King Smoothie on the drive down. Her favorite is called "Angel Food." It's a strawberry-banana one. Anyone who knows Kayla knows that she practically lives on smoothies. The smoothie was left on top of the car on top of the parking garage. Kayla is aghast. She is a germophobe and she worries that people tamper with things.
I go to get it. In the lobby is Lydia, the one I gave my broken jewelry piece to fix. Her husband is there too with his walker. They come to the hospital quite often for check-ups for his heart. He has to see many doctors. Lydia is close to Mordechai and always asks about his mother. I tell her that I check on Mordechai's mom and send emails to both brothers detailing what I see.
I bring the smoothie upstairs. Bumpy and I convince Kayla to try it, but first she tells us to take off the top of the drink. This satisfies her and she enjoys the rest. After a short visit, Bumpy and I go out in the torrential rain for lunch at Jou Jous. We get soaked under the little umbrella which we have to share in the whipping winds. The umbrella flips up and nearly breaks.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I go to the elevator to go down. It takes a long time always for the elevator to come. Dr. Naka comes out of nowhere to wait for the elevator too. There is a young woman who was just in the bathroom with me. I noticed her great fitness in her tiny tight body. Her beauty compels you to look at her. She walks by with purpose. Dr. Naka takes a quiet look also, a sneak peek that no one is supposed to notice. A top surgeon in the world and he is like me - he notices the perfection in her beauty.
He is often alone. I see him all over the hospital walking in a stealthy way. He emotes a soft intelligence, but acts like an undercover agent. He does not like to be near a lot of people. The elevator comes, but it has too many people in it. He does what I often do. He takes a quick scan of the other elevators to see if any of them are opening. That way you can jump into a more empty one as the bulk of the people walk like sheep into the first one.
He looks disappointed to see no other doors opening, gives up and comes in. He is in front of me. I am amazed to be near the aura of what I consider to be one of the most incredible people on this earth. He saves hundreds of lives every year with his surgeon's hands.
His name tag is slightly covered on his white jacket but I know who he is. He covers his lapel with his raised hand and he waits on the ride. He is clearly unhappy by the crowded small enclosure. I don't like it much either. When the elevator opens on the bottom floor, he walks out with big strides. Then he disappears around the corner and into a door where no one else is allowed to go...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The baby hawk is growing fast. He looks like a fat little bald chicken, the kind you buy in the super market covered in cellophane. His beak is sharp and curved downward, the tell tale sign of a raptor. He dwarfs the dead eggs that he shares the nest with. He stretches his wings out a lot. They are the biggest part of his body but they are still fuzzy...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A woman took over Dovid's chair. She slept in it the night before in her clothes and she stares blankly at me. She looks tired. My chair, that was at the back of the cubby, facing out from the wall, has been taken out completely. The corner looks bare now. The white table still has a box of matzah crackers. Aaron's shelled almonds and a metal cracker tool are there. A cup which holds plastic silverware is also there, next to some cheap brown napkins from the cafeteria and a package or two of salt and pepper. A bottle of wine sits in the corner on the floor in a brightly colored bag next to an opened jug of iced tea. A big jug of extra water is on the other white table along with the Hebrew bible. There is an empty box of blue tissues, which no one has bothered to throw away even though they used up the contents. There are only a few people in the entire room as it is early morning when it is generally empty, before the crowds come in to wait for surgeries to end. I sit for a few minutes and write a message on the chalkboard for Beth. "Kayla is up on the 7th floor..."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bumpy and I decide to go past Tarrytown. It is Deirdre's actual birthday after all. We find that she is not home but downtown getting a birthday drink at Brutes, a new bar that was not there when we grew up. The place is nice and empty with only Deirdre's crowd, maybe around 10 people. Bumpy and I get a black Russian and a white Russian. We are still searching for that delicious taste that we had from Tucson cousin Chrissy's homemade kalua. Hers was the best - we've never had better!
Deirdre is having a great time, floating from one friend to the next, enjoying her special day. I watch her and realize she has never looked more beautiful. Her hair is perfect and she is wearing something brighter and more colorful than her drab work out clothes, the ones she wear to exercise in, the ones she wears to perform on second base for her town baseball team.
I strike up a great conversation with a young 40-somethng gal who is one of Deirdre's friends. She says she is one day older than Deirdre and she is the eldest of 6, never married, no kids. She says she enjoyed helping raise her younger siblings. She says her name is Sabrina but that her mother named her the dumb middle name of "Meadow."
"I love that name, Meadow," I tell her.
"It's taken me a long time but yes, finally, I like it too," she replies.
"It's beautiful," I add. Sabrina tells me that her mother was from the hippie generation from the 60s and that she was married in a field and that well, Meadow... I am looking closely at this girl now.
"Who was your mother?" I then catch a glimpse of her profile and I've seen this profile before.
"Arlene Fiorelli."
"Are you kidding me? I went to school with your mom and at our 10th high school reunion, when none of us were even married, your mom came along and said she had 6 kids!"
"That's her..."
No comments:
Post a Comment