THURSDAY - 12/4

I called the hospital directly tonight. If you have the patient's medical records code you can get a progress. The nurse's station transferred me into Dad's room, since his nurse was in there at the time.

She said Dad has had a pretty good day, fairly alert. However, he has a fever again, currently 101+. They've started culturing everything again and are putting him back on antibiotics.

Then she said, "He's awake, I'm going to give him the phone." I could tell she'd handed it off, so I waited. And waited. After a few seconds I heard her tell Dad to put the phone to his ear. She told him a second time, and he said, "I got it."

Then I had a very nice chat with my Dad. I asked him if he was doing ok. His response was, "Well, we've got a difficult situation here, but we've just gotta deal with it."

We talked about the family birthdays this week and about how Mom is doing. And I told him that we all know how hard he's working and how great he's doing. There were lots of I-love-you's and several I-miss-you's. As further evidence that he was plugged-in during this conversation he asked me if I was in Carlisle. I told him I am, but I'm already planning my trip to come back in January. He said he's looking forward to it.

Me too, Dad. Me too.