Wednesday Morning, Dec 5, 2007

If anyone notices the time this is being posted, yes it’s very early. But today is a big day for me at work so I wanted to get this finished on time.

Yesterday, Dave had his second round of radiation treatments. The effectiveness of the radiation won’t be known for a little while but he seems to be taking them well.

With the passing of every day, his interaction with others gets better. He asks more questions, engages is more conversations, and watches everything that happens around him and notices (to the chagrin of his visitors sometimes) pretty much everything.

The staff at the City of Hope have a “Family Meeting” scheduled for this evening which will engage his family (wife and children) with the team of specialists who have been evaluating and treating Dave. It will give the family of chance to get the whole story on his condition, progress, and prognosis, and ask questions as necessary. It’s a pretty important meeting.

Dave (from my non-medical point of view) is doing good. While his attention to his surroundings are good, his appetite is even better. His hand-mouth coordination is still a bit sloppy so, in the interest of making sure he gets the large amount of food he wants, his wife and sisters assist him in feeding.

A few days ago, Judy (our sister visiting from North Carolina) was helping to feed him and he kept asking for her to go a little faster. She replied “I can’t just shovel the food in”. As she continued, and sometimes got a little distracted by the others in the room, he would sit there, mouth wide open, and mumble “Shovel!” His dining experiences have now been labeled “Shoveling time”. Sweet!

Those of you who have dined with Dave in the past know he has a deep appreciation for good wine and pretty much any type, good or mediocre, of food. Well that hasn’t changed. The City of Hope has a menu from which to choose each meal and he is taking full advantage of that. The doctors are pleased he hasn’t lost his appetite. Those who know him figured that is something that he never could lose.

Two nights ago, I had the great pleasure of having Marla, her sister Kathy Jackson from Columbus, NE (our true hometown), my sister Judy, and niece Tina to my house for dinner. It is difficult to imagine a more gracious group of guests. They not only praised my cooking (under no threat of course), but also my talents as a host. It’s odd how we love people who like us.

As I look back on that night, they also left right after dinner, supposedly to get back to the hospital to say good night to Dave. But that also meant I didn’t have to start turning off lights, yawning, start putting on my pajamas, flashing the porch light, yawning some more, and turning off the final lights to have them leave. Like some other members of my family. Who I love. Dearly. Very dearly.

Anyway, off to work soon. It’s Wednesday and, for those of you who know Dave, know every Wednesday morning we have our weekly management meeting at the company. They are stimulating times where we review sales, the marketplace, news (scuttlebutt--gossip is for women talking over the back fence), watch Dave get interrupted by a cell phone call confirming a golf game, employee updates, marketing efforts, another cell phone call, this time from Marla who can’t find something Dave told her to look for, topics anyone needs to bring up, and the final phone call from a golf buddy confirming that some long lost friend is in town and will join their foursome.

Though Dave won’t be joining us this morning, we will be making a field trip after the meeting to wish him well. Maybe he’ll get a phone call! Oh yeah, I’ve forwarded all of his cell calls to my phone. Darn.

Until next time, God bless everyone who has the courage and stamina to read these. Keep those comments coming!