"I feel better than I have in days." That's what Heather just said to me. Her surgery went off perfectly...a small incision, stitches on the interior, glue and steri-strips on the exterior. Hernia fixed and she's on the mend. Yay!
In retrospect, we could have made this another do-it-yourself project... the dremel, the leatherman, some fiberglass cloth, a little waxed sail thread, and epoxy. Alas, Heather wasn't game for that suggestion. Dr. Berlin probably did a better job anyway.
It's funny how different worlds work... as part of the whole deal a visiting nurse comes out 3 times for check-ups. Remember, we're at anchor. So we explain this to them and they say okay... and we ask ourselves "did they really understand?"
The visiting nurse is the talk of the marina. All the old men want to see what she looks like so they congregate like a flock of seagulls waiting for her to arrive.
"She can give me a check-up anytime"
"Maybe I should get surgery"
I hop-to and head her off before she can run the gauntlet of singlehanded sailors. She does just fine with the dink ride and boarding ladder, it's not rocket surgery... at the end she tells us that normally she wold go home from here but the other nurses made her promise to come back and tell them all about it. Seems we were the talk of their world too. A different nurse is coming out Friday, seems she wants the Holding Pattern Experience too.
The cruising community is amazing. I thought there was going to be a scuffle over who got to loan us their car and give us a ride to various appointments. Our phone was ringing off the hook, "Do you have a ride?" "Can we help?" Karen made us lunch yesterday and gave a jingle on the VHF. Chicken and rice, green beans and black eyed peas. Red seedless grapes too. Yummy, a much better lunch than we'd have come up with. Various ladies are organizing a group outing to visit Heather for a tea party. We have an excellent selection of loose leaf teas to share and Barb from Barbara Ann is making little sandwiches, I will be the taxi service for those sans-dinghy then go ashore for some male bonding over tools, engines, windvanes, and such. You'll never find a better group of people than a bunch of sailors who, for whatever reason, have congregated in one place.
Today is the perfect day for Heather to relax and recoup...it's 70's and rain. Comfortable enough to sit in shorts and read or sew and dreary enough that she doesn't want to be up and about. Me, I'm supposed to be doing $work but the sound of the rain has lulled me away...the siren's song. Thank you all for your support, your prayers, and your encouraging comments left for us to read. Our spirits are lifted by you all. | 