This is the question of the evening, because I am trying to relean how the calendar works as well as convince myself that this matters! So I’ve spent a bit of time staring at the calendar trying to convince myself that it really matters because without, it, I don’t show up to do things on time, for example. Funny that I just can’t convince myself that it really matters. That part of my brain is fairly off line right now. I can’t seem to convince myself that it matters a lot. It is a weird experience of living the eternal now. don”t worry, I really am working on caring about this so or you may be in for the longest sermons ever. But it is interesting to see how much my brain is not wanting to remember the calendar and just live in this eternal now. So, i’m doing my best to care enough to learn how the calendar works again. I am now able to remember that it is 2013.

We went to our old church here, and I was able to remember some people that I haven’t seen for over 20 years. One of them was pregnant while first baby when I was pregnant with Leda and the church had a baby shower for all of us at the same time! My friend, Clifford decided that I need a bishop”s hat to wear when I’m back in Pullman, so he brought one by the MGH. So you see, our friends out here are taking excellent care of us. And I realize how much our friends here would like our Pullman friends!

We’re such a cute couple walking circuits around the ward, and my gal is such a snappy dresser! (If you’ve ever worn a johnnie, you get the joke). Dr Sunshine is enjoying this interlude in which he is not the one having to exert to keep up!

Tryig to write after brain surgery turns our to be very cofusing who wave known? Thanks for being part of my rehab process by reading this cofusing note! Dr sunshine is the best ever! Thaks for all the love!

Rev Zakarison shares some thoughts about governance with Congressional leadership. A distinct sea-change, just in time to help fix what’s broken. It has to come in short clips before she runs out of gas, but sometimes in DC simpler is best!

Moved into new digs!!  First order of business for Dr Sunshine is a little nap on that couch.  Goodness knows Dr S can power-nap anywhere, and has.  Although the implication is one could sleep here overnight, I don’t think so.  The charms of Somerville hoteliers are not to be denied.

After a somewhat leisurely start, made some big time progress … unplugged from IV drip, a little bit of chit chat, can walk to the WC with help, nibbled on a saltine, chuckled at some uproariously Sunshiny pronouncement.   Mostly though continuing rest/silent meditation.

I did learn that the morphine is cut off at 24 hours by policy,  and they were holding off on oral meds waiting out the nausea … so there was a little stretch there of no pain meds, then some tylenol.  Imagine that, 2 days after the having your skull opened and closed, but this was acceptable on the Norwegian pain scale.

Getting back to the hair front .. the best way I can describe it is imagine some Seattle dude with a 4-inch x 7- inch mohawk.   Take the complement of that, and you’ve got Kristine’s do.   Not sure really the best hat for that.

Upon returning from a run to the coffee bar, found a very nice Physical Therapist in the room. Was encouraged to watch as Kristine practiced standing, and then sitting in the comfy chair. Passed those milestones with flying colors!

If you didn’t know, to watch her from across the room you might think she just finished harvest, poured a glass of the good stuff, and sat down in front of a Mariners game. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Probably in the worst case she could work with Garth and Sarah to come up with “comfy chair yoga”, so this seems like a mighty fine step. Keep those GI meditations coming — y’all know she doesn’t have the caloric reserves I do!

Back in the day, when Dr S worked in nuclear medicine, there was talk of this guy who thought MR imaging was possible, but in every talk, the only thing shown was this reconstructed fruit. 30+ years later, had a free moment to lookup the story of that guy> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Vahan_Damadian There is a long line of paradigm-shifting physicists, math wonks, engineers, investors etc that followed, some who succeeded, and others crushed.

There is so much to chew on here. Starting with How can creation be so magnificent. How can the human mind be so powerful as to mentally visualize spinning atoms and magnetic fields at the atomic scale and devise ways to manipulate that? Yet be so frail as to fret in a general sense over attribution, reward, medals, etc. As a group how can our species admire and reward entertainers way more than folks who unveil the universe. Maybe others want to add to this list?

One wonders about the “citrus pictures” of today, stuff that seems unlikely, over-hyped, hard-to-imagine, and which will become reality that our children look back on in another 30 years.

(PS .. imo the answer could be “none” if we don’t collectively get our heads straight and focus more on educating our children and less on target-marketing them)

Today, if everyone could just focus their meditation on calming gastrointestinal images, I think that would cheer everyone up in the NICU. Not much else to report at the moment, I’m afraid.

The night before surgery, Kristine and I had a nice walk around Harvard Square, reminiscing. As many know, Kristine did a lot of running back in the day, and one of her favorites was the Pack Monadnock 10 miler in New Hampshire. The fun feature of this race is shown in the elevation map, especially the last 2 miles > https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=345130218866273  See also> http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/1/1_39/3665.shtml

Dr Sunshine has a strong memory of standing in the rain under some sort of shelter watching dozens of runners go by blowing snot as they ran uphill; wondering “Yes, but why?”.

Of course, now we’re familiar with the WSU 100k, which has a similar uphill leg from the river, but my understanding is it’s over a longer distance. Again, why? Maybe Willma or Mr Riley or Mr King knows the answer to this.

Anyway it occurs to me this has metaphorical possibilities; running along just fine, then hitting that fierce uphill, but rewarded with a nice view and bowl of pasta at the end. On the other hand, one could just drive up, so I think the metaphor might need work ;- )

So it looks like another night in the ICU — but only because there are no beds available on the regular neuro ward. Also they wanted to do a post-op MRI scan and MRI was swamped today into the evening.

A bit less monitoring going tonight which allows more mobility, and I heard that Physical Therapy will come by tomorrow and give the chair a try. Will be fun when they realize Kristine’s physical strength.

Those with an “space design” bent may find this interesting> http://www.massgeneral.org/about/newsarticle.aspx?id=2771 The building Kristine is in is really quite remarkable. A lot of attention paid to human friendly spaces, and LEEDS Gold certification. Though I’m inclined to think a lot of the greenery is not real, and you know, can’t touch the vista from Kamiak 🙂

Along with the neuro questions, Kristine is regularly asked “how bad is your pain, like on a scale of 1-10?”. Y’all know that Kristine is always motivated to give a correct and precise answer, but for one thing she’s stoned out of her mind on morphine, so why would one believe whatever she says 😉 Anyway, I was reminded of this radiolab> http://www.radiolab.org/story/314056-plotting-pain-scale/

which is super interesting, especially the 3rd part wherein the woman assigns “10” to the pain of being dragged by a chain behind a truck, and therefore under-reports her pain. I’ll have to listen again, wouldn’t surprise me if she’s Scandinavian.