A day of improvement

Dear friends and family,

My sweet Bernice is now into her second day in ICU and, as we and any optimistic person hopes, has made notable strides of improvement. Her surgeon visited in the early part of the day between two procedures and again in the late afternoon. He showed me the just-before CT scan and the one taken in the early afternoon. In the first I clearly saw the mass of blood debris that had collected on the brain surface at the forward-left and had pushed her brain off-center and was evidently compressing it. I was relieved to see in the second CT scan an absence of that blood clot and that the resilient brain had already moved into the void that was created by the evacuation. There was now symmetry and her brain had reclaimed its rightful shape. I was really overcome with joy at the rapid response her body is making. I could see the drain positioned at her brain surface, ready to remove any residual fluid remaining. The doctor pointed out that no such residue was visible and her drain would be removed. About an hour after that, in the afternoon, this was done and this permitted her to have her bed inclined upwards which was markedly more comfortable than having to lie flat on her back. The doctor pointed out that the brain and the spinal cord both are floating in a watery spinal fluid and this generally provides a fine shock-absorber mechanism for modest shocks. In Bernice's case the shock was so great that the brain was severely bounced and suffered an internal wound.

As if all her present troubles are not enough, we learned of another insult of that fell swoop of a fall. The external wound where the back of her head crashed on our tile floor and which took seven stitches to close, has not healed properly and there is a concavity there which must be treated by a plastic surgeon. Relatively speaking, this is a less serious problem but it means a reentry to the OR. If I believed in such things I would wonder who it is putting her though a Job trial.

Bernice and my activities, excluding the doctors, started at about 9:15 this morning. I had already showered, had my cereal, and was about to check my email when my cell phone rang. It was Rosa Bernice's nurse conveying Bernice's wish that she missed me and I should hurry to her. I hustled out, picked up a NY Times and was at he bedside at about 10:00. She was happy to see me and told me her night had not gone well. There was a steady improvement during the day especially after the drain removal. She had a yoghurt at about 5:00 and that was the first food since entering the ICU. I entertained her and myself by reading much of the time when she was not dozing. I read from the Times and the current New Yorker. I was pleased with her quick correction to my infrequent mispronunciations and quickly giving me the meanings of words beyond my ken. . This is a sharp lady. At 7:45 tonight I left and just finished a satisfying slice of pizza. We are right in the middle of an Oliver Sacks article on face recognition. Fascinating.

Hurricane Earl is approaching the east coast of the US. This is a little relaxing diversion for me so, if you are uninterested in hurricanes, skip this paragraph. This powerful hurricane is now north of Cuba and its most probable path at this point is brush past the east coast and reach the NY area between Friday and Saturday. Presently it has top winds of 135 mph and is moving at about 14 mph. If its center stays out at sea and it makes no landfall then coastal communities will have the advantage of weaker winds then the peak winds. This is because the hurricane, hundreds of miles in width, is circling counter-clockwise in a majestic swirl. Its left side (towards the west) having its winds blowing to the south will have the force of those winds diminished by the northward movement of the entire system. This means winds on the ground of 135-14=121 mph instead of the full impact. By the same token, if Earl takes a slight turn to the west and his center makes landfall then the right (east) side will experience winds at the ground of 135+21=156 mph. Big time winds. We shall see in the next few days.

My iPod and SoundDock are blessing me with Dvorak as I close my nightly communique.

Having an operational printer now in the apartment, I am able to print and read emails to Bernice but probably will be unable to reply to any.

love and thanks for all the good wishes (they seem to work),
Merwin