December 26 (Friday) update

good morning and merry day after Christmas everyone! Dad is doing ok. He's had a minor (hopefully) setback with another "collection" forming in his abdomen. he's scheduled for the draining procedure early this afternoon. He's still feeling pretty lousy and is not up to talking on the phone- although he said a quick "merry Christmas" to me yesterday.

Despite the collection, rehab is working with him daily. He walked 4 feet with a walker this morning! He's very very weak, so rehab is going to be a long road. If today's procedure doesn't set him back, he's looking at another 2 weeks in the hospital and at least 2 weeks in a rehab center (we'll work on finding one in NY).

We're in Baltimore this morning. Johnny and Michelle are in Texas and graciously, as always, opened their home to us. We had a nice dinner and opened presents with Mom last night. This morning, we got to spend some quality relaxing time together and then had a hearty bacon & eggs feast! We'll be hitting the road soon as we have dinner plans at the Wantagh Clarke's.

We do have a request- if at all possible, we need someone to spend next Friday (1/2/09) with Dad. We have show tickets that we bought months ago for me, Bob, Siobhan and Arlie (mom) to go to see Hairspray on Broadway. This is Siobhan's first Broadway show and she's a huge Hairspray fan. Mom was very excited about going, but is now concerned about leaving Dad by himself. If anyone is free, anywhere nearby the Baltimore area and interested in spending the day with Dad, we would be extremely grateful!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! I'll post later when I know how the procedure went. Keep your fingers crossed that it is quick and uncomplicated. We're hoping for no return to ICU!

Monica