Christi's turn

PRICELESS
Baby steps are turning into giant leaps!


Great minds think alike (and dress alike, apparently)


Hello all! I thought it was time for a fresh voice to inform all of you about Willie’s progress (and a few other things to spice it up a bit), so I have locked Aunt Terri in the closet while I take over. (Coach – I expect my payment in full if you want me to keep her in there). I have some big shoes to fill, however, since she does such an amazing job of keeping us “in the know”. I told her yesterday that the reason I was always so impressed was because she writes in such an organized and clear manner and that is soooo NOT the manner in which she thinks or talks. The focus she must endure to say the actual names of the nurses on the first try instead of writing “Summer, er Deb, no - Caroline, Jack, I mean……whatever her name is”. I don’t think she knows how much we appreciate her willingness to skip the usual role call and just spit it out already.
My visit has been more than I could have hoped for. Willie’s progress in just the few days I have been here is astounding and from the sounds of the cheers (literally) coming from everyone on the unit, he has been consistently and quickly (relatively speaking) blowing them away. Forget the medical side of it – he is getting compliments left and right about how great he looks, and who are we kidding – that is really what matters, right? It must be the enormous amount of weight (fluid) he has lost since he started dialysis. He is shrinking before our very eyes and I just know the day his chicken legs return is right around the corner. Aunt Terri and I have asked for dialysis too, but the stingy medical people didn’t think it was the answer to our weight issues. What do they know? They also said no when I asked for some pain meds when Will gave me the thumbs up (behind the nurse’s back) while getting his. I really don’t think he should be able to brag about the awesomeness of his happy pills knowing full well I wont be able to experience it with him. He can be so selfish.
He has doubled his walking distance since I got here yesterday and he went from 6.5 hours on the T- trial yesterday to 8 hours and 22 minutes today. He kept telling everyone it was 8.5 hours. He lies, and I just can’t go along with it. Oh – and he cheats too. While we are doing crossword puzzles, he tells me to look in the back. I said, “We are only on the second word….I am not looking in the back”. I told him - just like I wont lie with him, I wont cheat with him. I do have some morals and I am not going to let Willie taint them. I will make him a deal though – If he says a bad word, I will cheat with him. Guess who wont be cheating anytime soon?
Dr. Harris (I think that is right), who is the head doctor over the ICU, came in today to see Will. She told him that if he kept bringing tears to Dr. Cahill’s eyes, then she was satisfied. Dr. Cahill seems every bit as wonderful as Terri says and she seems pretty tough, so if his progress is enough to bring tears to her eyes – that says a ton.
He stayed awake for quite awhile today too, which was huge considering he had dialysis again (another 4 units) and that usually wipes him out. After he was done with that I rubbed his knees, which were only sore because he is getting old. I know this because my knees were killing me when I stood up to rub his (and we are the same age). Of course that could have been because I spent 30 minutes wandering around the apartment parking lot this morning after my run looking for the right building. In my defense, there are at least 890 buildings in their complex, they all look the same, I forgot to look at the bldg # before I left, and I was totally discombobulated (your new word for the day, Keri) after getting lost on the trail and coming back the wrong way to begin with. I only humiliated myself with that story because I knew Terri would if I didn’t and she would have been merciless. Back to the point…where was I? (I had a Terri moment for a second) Oh yeah - we then watched some Seinfeld (these pretzels are makin’ me thirsty), did some more crosswords, chatted about my boys and school, got caught up on Keri’s daily emails (which are an absolute riot)………. And then he finally decided to take a rest. Thank God because I was exhausted! Of course they come in every twenty minutes to check this or refill that or give him a treatment, or insulin, or whatever……It was impossible for me to get any rest. :-)
I have spent my whole life admiring Will, as I know all of you have. It is impossible not to. Even so, I had NO idea how endless his capabilities really were. My time here with him the past few days has reminded me that there are very few people (if any) that we encounter in life that can exude the strength and humility that Will does, and to be as blessed as we are to have encountered him in any way at all is more than most people could ever dream of. I have come to believe that with this gift we have all been given in Will comes huge responsibility. We owe it to him to live our lives in a way that illuminates our gratitude and makes him as proud to know us, as we are to know him.
You are pure magic, Will and I LOVE YOU!
Your favorite cousin, Christi

PS: I almost forgot to tell you that Uncle Tom sucks at reading lips. I think it warrants mentioning.