October 1 (Monday) - 750pm

After a great "FaceTime" conversation with Rich, I thought I'd pop out an update and bring everyone up on the news as it stands on this Monday evening.   For Rich, he was really happy that his "frappin" knee is finally getting back to behaving itself, and for the first time he's not been having any issues with it.   He even cranked up his lawn tractor and drove it all over the place sucking up leaves---which by the way, are all pretty much off the trees and are on the ground instead.   Ah...winter is rushing at us, and the night temps are dropping down to the freezing point!  For those of you who don't know, Alaska has four seasons likes everywhere else.   But they are JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, and WINTER.   Ummm.

Jeannette had a rough night on Sunday; seems the staff messed up and forgot to give her the anti-nausea meds 30 minutes before they gave her the med that upsets her stomach.   So, no surprise--she had an upset stomach.   But they figured it out, and she was pretty savvy and let them know.   Needless to say,  tonight they got the sequence right and that problem hopefully is behind us.    There is a new "good news" item to report--another tube has been removed!   Yeh!   As I said a long time ago, I count the progress when the tubes come out, because that's oh-so-measurable and even a non-medical person like me can figure that when it comes to tubes that less is more.   She no longer has the bladder tube, and so that's another big step and one more indicator that she is getting better!  

Speaking of getting better, according to Rich, during her therapy today she sort of wowed the staff--using her ams to get herself from one spot to another, pretty much doing it all "on her own."   Rich was able to "FaceTime" with Jeannette several times today, and he plans to get in there to do the personal visit tomorrow.    From both of them, the message to be relayed is a big "thanks" for all of the support and prayers!   They have been really appreciated and they have both read every single "post" that you all have written.   -- John