It's Been A Long Time Comin'

Some of you check Col's blog everyday, so I feel honor-bound to write a word or two or five. I can't speak for Colleen, but for me each day here with her unfolds like a Wagnerian opera. At day's end, if I think back to the morning, those early hours seem light years away. As you know, Colleen's lungs and now heart are extravagantly compromised. Excursions outside the house are pretty much limited to nearby doctors' offices. Camille, Leslie, and Suzanne, our mother--who all live spitting distance away in Ocean City across the baylands--each have houses with stairs leading up to their front doors, which Colleen can no longer navigate. Walking from her bedroom to the living room is a road trip on feet. And yet, in spite of these radical simplifications and constrictions, a day in the life of Colleen plays out on a massive scale. Quiet moments alternate with dramatic intensities. Each twenty-four hours is punctuated with a mind-bending series of tasks-medical that Colleen is proscribed to perform at fairly exact clock times that she's entered into her iPad set to ring at the appointed hours. Colleen has assigned each task a different ring tone, which jangles relentlessly until Colleen clicks "OK," i.e., done. Sometimes she clicks "OK" before the task is done, which sets me to worrying and hovering.

Spring is bursting here. Cherry trees are in full pink blossom. Colleen's big white oak is budding green; its leaves have doubled in size since I've been here. Bunnies are hopping around the backyard--bunnies with cottontails. The sun is out, the brisk air fresh, especially given how close to the ocean we are.

Colleen has been in a 5-week holding pattern to have one or more necessary heart procedures done. As of yesterday, Dr. Mathai, her main Hopkins doc, believes she is now stabilized sufficiently, in the areas that needed stabilizing, to proceed. He said he will consult forthwith with the cardio "electricians." If they give the go-ahead, Dr. Mathai hopes the procedure(s) will be scheduled immediately, to occur no later than the end of next week. We hope so too. He'll call us on Monday.