Saturday was another good day

Again, I cannot believe I haven't posted anything today.  Then again, it was kind of a casual day. Let me first say that Mary is feeling stronger and stronger.  Today saw her walking around without the walker at certain times.  Other times, she definitely uses it.  She took her first shower without having her abdomen wrapped in Saran Wrap. And, the cleaning of the incision is now just a few minutes. There is no deep packing (insertion) of the sterilized materials, so the procedure doesn't cause discomfort.  Her ostomy bag volume of fluid reduced today from 500-800ml a few days ago to 150ml.  The doctor said that would happen as soon as we cut down the salt.  At this rate, we can probably drop the bag in a day or two and simply go to a bandage. And that would result in the full healing of the draining stoma (hole). 

Mary is eating well and now she is concentrating on foods with high potassium so that is creating variety in her eating--Our neighbor Lillian was nice enough to provide a fresh head of broccoli from her garden just before dinner last night and it has served us well! 

Our neighbors John and Gina dropped in with fresh banana nut bread.  It was a short visit but well appreciated. And, the bread was divine including the orange zest added to it!  

Mary got up about 7:30AM and we had a leisurely breakfast.  After breakfast she took her shower and then sat in one of several locations in the house depending on her comfort/discomfort of the moment.  She has progressed to only be in bed when she is trying to sleep at night and during the afternoon nap period (roughly 2 to 5PM).  She is eating everything Reenie prepares although in small quantities. Her stomach is still rather constrained, perhaps from the two weeks of fasting during her hospital stay and the very light eating last week.  We are providing a movable feast of high protein, high potassium mini-meals to make sure she is well tended to.  

Reenie and I tag-teamed the various Saturday errands.  Just before lunch, I started with Walgreen's (more pain killer prescription), bank, post office, dog food, dry cleaner, back to Walgreen's for pick up and finally Safeway for frozen items--found only in the ice cream section. Turns out Reenie was concerned about melting the ice cream so I picked it up on my way home. Lesson learned: Do not send a man out on an hunter-gatherer trip for ice cream just before lunch.  We have lots of different flavors in the freezer now!  

After lunch and during Mary's nap, Reenie headed out and hit Walgreen's for the things I forgot and then the appropriate grocery stores.  She is using our GPS so she feels invincible because the GPS is very polite and always brings her back to her desired location.  By the way, if you haven't read my little GPS Ladies story on our home page, be sure to do so. Click here. 

Tomorrow is our Farmer's Market day and we spent quite a bit of time during dinner planning the attack of the market.  Watching and listening to these two sisters plan and discuss food is simply amazing.  Talk about your mind meld!  

More tomorrow.