No,
it’s not fun, at least the recovery part, but I’ve been ably assisted by friends
and family over the past few days. I’ve ventured out into the public despite
feeling like a watered-down Elephant Man with the huge bandages I’ve been sporting
since Monday. I’ve come to loath these damned things, but I understand their
need, especially after peeking underneath to see the delving sites the surgeon
left behind, pretty gross, especially the one on top of the skull. I’ve also
been called out by my Favorite Panamanian for being a grouch. She believes it’s
because my daily dose of boogie boarding has ceased with our return. I assured
it was more about the constant dull pain of the two surgical sites, despite the
best efforts of the modern chemistry to quell. I’ve resolved to be in a better
mood and it helps that the pain is finally dampening a bit. I got a full night’s
sleep last night for the first time since Sunday.
 |
Outside Restaurant with Great Aunt Yesterday
Note the Jury Rigged Bandaging |
We’ve
kind of reversed roles in the house. I’m under strict orders from the surgeon
to attempt no physical labor, including exercise, for the next couple weeks. I
made the mistake of telling my Favorite Panamanian about that edict which she
is enforcing in her usual strident fashion. She, on the other hand, was personally
offended last Friday when she felt gassed after only one dance and realized she
had let herself get out of shape (although that’s very hard to tell). She’s
thrown herself into an exercise regimen this week while I sit slothfully in the
Man Cave ardently willing these incisions to heal. This afternoon I head north
for my first thunder run to Keene which should help the healing process (at
least mental aspects) as I get to hang with my hometown friends again. That’s
something I truly missed during my tropical sojourn.
We’ve
been to the movie theater twice over the past two days as I try to re-acquire
that routine. So much fun to hear English spoken movies again. The best day was
yesterday since it involved lunch and the movie with Great Aunt who journeyed
up from Rhode Island to join us and provide some medical advice on parking lot
bandaging. I’ll get to my travails with these bandages later. She met us at the
restaurant where we had a great time catching up with her adventures over the past
few months before we hit the cinema. We’ve got a McShawn’s night scheduled for
her house on Saturday night which will be additional fun.
 |
| The Mafioso Upgrades |
Now
to those bandages. On Monday, the surgical nurses said I had to keep the bandages
on for the entire week, keeping them dry and in place. The dry part is fairly
easy although it does call for some acrobatic showering. They emphasized that
the ear bandage was most important since that’s where the skin graft went in and
there’s a bandage actually stitched onto the ear (I know, gross!). Luckily that
outer bandage has stayed in place although the ear has a tendency to itch,
really strongly. The other two bandaged sites, in front of the ear and on top
of the head have been problematic. The front of the ear one, where they took
the skin from for the graft, fell off Tuesday night and yesterday when the AAA
guy showed up to start my car (dead battery) I hadn’t realized the top of the
head one had fallen off while I changing my shirt. This gave me the first aforementioned
look at that site and it made me a little queasy, the surgeon really went to
town up there. I’m guessing north of 30 stiches are involved, surrounded by my
Friar Tuck haircut.
I
made my amateur efforts to replace the bandages which did not meet my wife’s
approval. We bought a bunch of bandaging material at CVS on our way to meet
Great Aunt which led to her using her medical experience to try and jury-rig
a replacement in the restaurant parking lot. I did get some stares when we
entered the restaurant. Later, back home, the Neighborhood Mafioso heard about
my wound coverage issues and hurried down the street to assist. She brought
with her some industrial strength medical tape. She cleaned and effectively bandaged
both troublesome sites. Both held overnight which was the acid test. I am so grateful
for her assistance, a true friend. Thankfully she’s blessed with a strong stomach
and years of working in a hospital herself for dealing with that scalp
incision. It’s the stuff of nightmares.
 |
| FBR and Her Mom, Off to Work Together! |
Today
is bring your daughter to work day and the FBR accompanied my daughter to her
corporate job office. She was very excited telling us about that and you can
see from the picture that she was more than ready. I can’t wait to get a report
tonight. We’ve also had updates from Panama thanks to our upstairs neighbors.
They sent us a video showing them stepping off the repaired elevator in excited
fashion. It was broken for our entire four month stay which made grocery days
so much fun They also experienced yet another earthquake Tuesday night, 5.3 on
the scale, so noticeable, but not as violent as the one we experienced last
year and the elevator still worked afterwards!
The
first movie was saw this week was Monkey Man, a big disappointment. This is
getting marketed as India’s answer to John Wick. Nope. Dev Patel is always
great but this just didn’t work for me. Patel plays his usual Indian,
downtrodden everyman, seeking revenge against the murderers of his mother. There
are some very pointed attacks on India’s political system (glad we’re not the
only ones with demagogical issues). The action scenes are every bit as bloody
and well done as anything Wickian but the movie grinds to a halt between these.
We spend a lot of time watching Patel contemplate his navel between fights. I’m
still trying to figure out what the fights in the ring were all about. Finally,
any movie that criminally underuses Sharlto Copley is fatally flawed. Didn’t like
this very much, even though I am probably the guy this was aimed at.
We
had much better luck yesterday with The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. I’m
a huge fan of Guy Ritchie films and he really delivers here. It’s loosely (very
loosely) based on a real WW2 commando raid, Operation Postmaster. They really nailed
the casting with Superman, Reacher, and the very hot gal from Ambulance leading.
There was plenty of the understated British humor I love in Ritchie films. The
action was expertly woven into the plot as the commandos have to fight both the
Germans and the British high command who wants to surrender to Germany (remember,
highly fictionalized). I loved this movie.
In
my A-Z watch, I’ll be alternating between newly acquired movies for the
library, including some upgrades for which I only had DVD versions before
upgrading the 4K, and the alphabetic sequence. Two fell since I last posted,
both keepers, Animal House (upgrade), holds up so well, even after all these
years, and The Hunt for Red October, Connery was such a star and Alec Baldwin was
a great Jack Ryan.
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RECURRING CHARACTERS:
ABFA – Amazing Best Family
Athlete - my daughter
in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter
#3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel -
second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue
about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut
Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor
of the big river; Curbside Girls – close
friends of my daughter acquired during him her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which
grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of
course); FBR - First Blog Reader -
first granddaughter; First Friday –
celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene
Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene,
NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend
since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife –
her US sisters, my wife is the 3rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew –
son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia
member; PanaGals – female relatives
/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin
Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we
have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor
Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Seis Amigos
- two couples from our condo complex and my wife and I; Soxfather – my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger
sister; Wingman
– my son in law; Wingmom –
Wingman’s mom, of course
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