Friday, August 01, 2008

Whistling and Frisbees


Well, I must confess dear readers (if there are any out there) that the last few weeks have been exhausting. Not because there is a lot going on...simply because well...times like these are exhausting. But that doesn't mean bad at all...not by a long shot. There have been many cool things over the past few weeks. One was the second night home from the hospital -- I heard the sound of whistling coming from down the hall. No particular song, just the kind of sing-songy whistle that I would often hear from Conor. Except I realized that I hadn't heard it for a long time. Certainly not during the previous 11 nights in the hospital (and I was there every night, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have missed it). It was a sign of normalcy. A bit of normalcy. A tiny, thin bit of normalcy -- in a somewhat (okay understatement post-alert) un-normal situation.
That whistle was some pretty good music to my ears.

Then last week Conor said "Dad, can we go out and play frisbee golf?" For Father's Day he had bought both of us a set of frisbees. The picture is from our outing over at Washington Park just a few miles away (taken with my Treo).

He really is doing well. There are certainly signs that he is not back to the way things were before the surgery. He still searches for words, has some problems reading, and a few other things like that...but it does seem to be getting better all the time.

This week he went with his friend Vienh to Kathy's folks cottage up in Three Rivers, MI for two nights. And tomorrow he'll be off to King's Island for the day.

Last night and this morning the story about his surgery appeared on CNN. And it will be on again tomorrow (Saturday) morning - on Dr. Gupta's program at 8:30 am. It was very strange to see the video. I don't think that either Kathy or I thought we would or were prepared to see Conor's brain open in the video. But there it was. It wasn't bad...just very weird. And it was strange to hear him talking to the doctor while the surgery was going on. The link to the video on CNN's website can be found here. There is an accompanying (written) story also available there. There are so many things swirling in my heart and mind to say - but as I said at the beginning -- I'm exhausted.