Saturday

The NG tube is still pumping dark green as if you've been on a diet of boiled spinach. But it is being neglected now, almost useless, and tomorrow it will be removed. Most of the time you have it disconnected with the pigtail tucked into itself, and the vacuum tube dangles from the cup on the wall. How things have changed! That tube was a lifeline last week and now, with your newly-piped intestinal tract, you are ready to digest food again. The tube will go; it's done its job.

When you woke this morning you took a walk. As you reached the blood transfusion rooms you found a rocker recliner someone had moved out to the hall. You sat in it. The rocking gently exercised your abdominal muscles and soothed your aching back. You were peacefully rocking away when a security guard came by. He thought you were trying to escape. They called your nurse's station and scolded Abera for not keeping better track of you. Did you forget to tell him you were going for another walk? And where did the security guard think you were going to go with your monster IV pole in tow?

I brought a beard trimmer, razor and nose trimmer today. Without warning, you shaved off your beard. I loved your beard; I thought you looked distinguished in it. I thought if you shaved your beard, I would almost want to shave my head. But once it was off, your face looked as young and handsome as it did on our wedding day. I will enjoy looking at that face again. When you were heavy, your face got very broad, your jaw wide and strong, and you looked like someone else. Now since you've been ill, you have lost a lot of weight and, if there is a tiny upside to your predicament, you look younger.

Your intestines are working and starting to make noise. like an old piece of machinery coming back to life after being offline for repairs. Slowly they creak and groan as they begin to do their job. It is painful, this reawakening, and whenever your gut starts to hurt, you take a walk and the pain subsides. You are still loving you morphine drip, so much so that you set your watch to beep at eight-minute intervals to cue you when it's time for you to make another click. Your dressing has been removed and your duodenal bypass scar is now a continuation of your triple bypass scar. If you get a longboard tattoo, it could extend from your clavicle to your navel. You are getting better.