Enduring Spirits - August 31

Healing continues.

A very quick update to let you all know that the flap is doing well.
Though we get no guarantees in this little deal we've made with the
Gracilis, if a flap is going to fail, it usually does so within the
first few days, so we are gracefully and gritfully moving out of the
danger zone. The doctors come in to check the pulses in the flap every
hour with a "doppler" and we get to hear it---the arterial blood
sounds BOOMING and the veinous flow sounds swishy....all good
news....vascular surgery will surely be my profession in my next life!
These people get my highest admiration. Plastic surgery is a hellava
lot more than I ever knew.

These post-surgery days have been rough ones. Mark was in the OR for
more than 11 hours. When he was wheeled back into his room at 11 pm on
Tuesday night, I put on Natalie Merchant's "Wonder" and tried to tell
him that the surgery had gone really well. I'm not sure he knew who I
was, let alone any news about a "beautiful" flap. Then the nurse
snapped at me to turn off the music while they flurried around him
setting up a formidable fortress of medical "things" to keep him hot
and flapping. More like Hell than Hawaii I've already told one friend.

In spite of lots of pain accompanied by an inability to move, Mark
still manages to laugh and make fun of himself. Bad Ass Mo.....

We received pictures today from Fred, a blessed soul who was on the
rescue effort. Mark and I will be happy to share those with people who
find such things interesting....lots of ropes and rocks and people in
helmets. It brough it all home for me in a much more concrete way and
made me re-visit my immense admiration for the way Mark handled
himself in those first few hours.

Thank you for the continued support. We are so happy to hear from any
and all of you. Please do not hesitate to email back just because you
think we are inundated with messages....it has helped us, not hindered
us. We aren't really returning phone calls very much, but still love
to hear the voices of family and friends.

Peace Salaam Shalom.