Dad got a private room!

Dad on how he feels when he has to share a room. (He was moved out of his shared room last night)

Just kidding! This is Dad showing how big a baddy he can be while wearing a hat that says "Support Your Local Bandido," the motorcycle group his friend Lori's huband belongs to. It was one of about a million gifts she and Christine:



brought to dad. There were some magazines, madlibs, logic puzzles, a stuffed rabbit, a SpongeBob lap blanket, blackjack electronic game and a fake World Ark, magazine of the Heifer Project, with the title "Rendezvous in Chengdu" with the infamous picture of dad smoking with the local Chinese officials with their hats all tilted funny. Oh yeah, and the R. Kelly/Jay Z collaboration CD. Because dad and the rap, like peanut butter and chocolate, milk and cookies and Stephen and G.I. Joe, just go together really well.

They got dad's spirits up pretty good — Christine is from Dallas and she was in town for a Heifer press conference (the Keller family donated $3 million smackaroonies) because she does PR — and got him laughing. Which kind of hurts him a little in the chest, what with the split sternum. And Reader's Digest thinks laughter is the best medicine indeed.

Dad's bosses, Tom and Mike, also came by and I brought up the ill-made promise Tom made to cut the grass. He seemed repentent but willing. It was really sweet of him to offer. But that doesn't mean I won't tease.

Also Terry and Judy from Heifer dropped by and brought a bag of food for whoever was taking care of dad. Which was me. Those pretzels, blueberries, carrots, cheese sticks and tomatoes bought dad a few more hours of my company, because I was starving. I gave him a few blueberries — I figure that's kosher on a no-salt diet — and he said it was the best thing he'd tasted since he got in the hospital. I've seen his meals and I don't know how he could so easily dismiss his limp iceberg lettuce salad with a slice of whitish tomato.

But Heifer people weren't the only ones to drop by. Pati had a workshop in Conway and swung through to see her big brother after it was over.



They had a good visit and a good talk. It's so good to see her. She and dad were talking about the exercises he's supposed to and they're basically the same ones Grandmommy had to do. One of them is described in his handout as "lifting hubcap burger to eat," which I think is a particularly cruel descriptor because eating one of Cotham's hubcap-sized burgers isn't something these patients are working up to (in fact, it may be a bygone pasttime of some). Imagine lifting a big burger up from your lap to your mouth. Or holding your arms out straight for a second. This is what dad will be doing for six weeks, along with "walking around the Wal-Mart," though since we're too klassy a set of people for that Target will probably be our destination until the Fair Trade Big Box Store opens a branch in Little Rock.

Here's another exercise dad does:



This is the blowing machine and dad is almost consistently hitting 2,000 somethings. Which is where he needs to be. It makes the air sacs in his lungs get used to working on their own. He also accidently sat around without the oxygen tubes stuck up his nose for hours (I couldn't tell because he was sitting in the chair and I was on the bed where I didn't have a face-on look) but didn't have a problem.

Dad is able to get up and around and we walked down the hall about 30 feet and back to his room. He was whipped. I was nervous because I had to hold the chest tube wound sucker as we walked and I didn't want to get too far away and rip it out of his chest. Which they are talking about doing tomorrow.

Dr. Ozdimer also talked about sending dad home tomorrow, but that is only a possibility. There is a security in being in the hospital — all the stuff to stop things from going wrong is right there. Nobody is more aware of that than dad. Still, this demonstrates dad's good progress.

The depressing thing about this surgery is the prognosis says if he does well, he'll get to sit through this again in 10 years. Of course, by then they may be able to put something in his chest that lasts longer than his own veins. And he'll do fine since all those other people in the cardio wing are that age and getting hacked open.

Dad had the exotically-named Exzeria for his tech today. She was so sweet to him. And the food services guy fetched TWO diet french salad dressings (yum!) for dad when his was left off his food tray. That was really nice of him.

Doug should be in the hospital watching The Daily Show with dad about now. They probably watched Reno 911. Yeah, dad says it hurts to laugh but can he stay away from the two funniest shows on TV? I seriously doubt it.