Home From the Hospital

Julie was released from the hospital last Friday (the 9th) after Tuesday's hip replacement surgery. She is doing great! Her recovery is going much better than after her previous hip replacement last February, and she is already motoring around by herself with a walker and being pretty independent. Many of you can probably recognize her fighting spirit coming to the fore. She is taking pain medication and has some trouble sleeping at night, but is getting stronger and better each day.

Julie's care at Sentara Hospital was pretty good. Her doctor and the staff were great. The only problems were some rather desultory food and service from the kitchen, and a building which, though brand new, seemed to have "issues." It was almost impossible to get a comfortable temperature in her room and her call button, a rather important piece of equipment in a hospital, decided to have the vapors. Overall though, we were very pleased with everything.

The whole process was made so much easier by the help and generosity of my parents, Art and Marion Seder. I stayed at their house while Julie was in the hospital, they took care of our little dog Kiki while I was visiting Julie, prepared or treated us to many meals and snacks, put up Ashley for three nights, and also got a place for my sister, Beth, to stay for one night when she came down. What a lot of help!

Now it's time to get on with the healing process. She is walking and doing exercises and will have a home health nurse here a couple of times next week. On Saturday Elizabeth, Jayson, Ian, Ashley and Dan all arrive to begin Thanksgiving week, so she's not going to be short of company or things to do. We're really looking forward to having a house full.

My health is very good, and I feel stronger every day. Julie and I are taking turns taking care of each other.