In One Piece

In the Real World:

 

Monday was Kelly's birthday! Happy birthday, Kelly! Dave and I had our act together enough to send some birthday flowers and hopefully we can meet up when we get back to the real world. Kelly's been front and center bolstering my psyche via text the whole time I've been here, something I've sorely needed.

 

In the Unreal World: 

 

We had our last visit to the surgeon this morning. (At least, I hope it's our last visit as we're heading home tomorrow afternoon and the only reason we would have to return is to have her take care of any complications that would require further surgery.) Anyway, the surgeon thinks things are looking really good; I can finish out this course of antibiotics and don't need another course and can taper off the topical antibiotics. We'll still have to do two or three daily dressing changes with iodine though until it heals completely, which might take up to a month. Poor Dave. I don't think he realized that this is just the beginning of our journey into this impromptu nursing school. (I was telling him tonight as he changed and dressed the incision yet again, how it was like in nursing school, when you got to practice on a mannequin or a fellow student once and then the next time it would be on a real patient. Or even better, when all the training you had was a single YouTube video and then you were sent in by yourself to work on a real patient. When that happened, usually the person who was getting paid to teach you was off somewhere like the hospital cafeteria getting a breakfast burrito--that is true, as is this--or sitting in a hospital conference room doing her nails.)

 

Anyway, what a crazy run it's been here in the Unreal World.

 

What did I see of Florida? I saw the ride from the airport to the hotel, two rooms in the hotel, from the hotel to the hospital and back, from the hotel to the surgeon's office and back (twice--no, it was three times) and (tomorrow) from the hotel to the airport. I stood out on our balcony a handful of times. I crossed the street in front of the hotel to go to Trader Joe's twice. That's it. Dave saw more of Florida as he went to Trader Joe's pretty much daily, to Walgreens and Office Depot, to Shake Shack and a pizza place, to Publix and another grocery store called Public Market (?) maybe. He also kept a close eye on the canal outside our window and gave the daily canal report, the comings and goings of parties of kayakers and schools of fish and the man and woman and two very large, energetic and happy dogs who came every couple of days or so in a little white boat that they parked underneath the BOAT TOW AWAY ZONE sign.

 

Bur really, I saw nothing of this place and yet I may have had my fill of Florida for a long time. (Maybe next time we can cross Residence Inn and surgeon's office off our list and add Key West or the Everglades.)

 

We spent the evening packing, exhausted, and having a dinner (pre-cooked chicken, steamed yellow squash, sliced cucumber, slices of sourdough with cheese, some sugary pretzel thins) cobbled together from what's left of trips to Trader Joe's. 

 

I just took my one a.m. meds and I'm off to bed in a few minutes. The next time I write here it will hopefully be from the comfort of my own sofa. I just have to make it there in one piece.