Let us begin at the beginning. Which is to say, this morning, Wednesday morning, seven days after my dear mother’s surgery. We were blessed with significantly more sleep this week than last, and on our sojourn to the wound care center, were able to glide the I-10 all the way downtown, unimpeded by the tedium of rush hour traffic.
Dr. Brink’s demeanor was calm, cautious, and neither alarming nor optimistic as he assessed mother’s foot. He explained that his hope is still to be able to perform the skin graft, however, the reality is that 50% of his patients in this situation do ultimately require an amputation. However, he was quite reassuring about the after-amputation outcome, and the blessing that today’s new and improved prosthetics can be to increasing mobility. So we came away with a sense of hopefulness in spite of a still uncertain future.
When we arrived home again, Megan and Laurent decided to tackle the little interior design project they had planned. Well actually, Megan worked on the interior design project, while Laurent worked on a fashion design project. (And in case you are wondering why those colors look so familiar, yes. They used the cans of leftover house paint from last year.)
After 3 hours of painting outside in 100+ heat, the girls were more than ready for a quick shower before we all loaded the van to go have a celebratory dinner at Chick-Fil-A in Avondale. We were unsure what to expect, having been watching the news all day. My FB feed was blowing up with photos from drive-throughs and reports of standing in line outside for an hour. I wondered if we might have to send a tag-team of ambassadors to do the standing in line, at least until we could get inside. I was pretty sure mom wouldn’t be able to handle the heat! Fortunately, though, the crowd was still small at 4:30 when we arrived, and we were able to get both seating inside AND to stand in line inside – a blessing many were not afforded, from the pictures I saw! Just as the reports I had heard, our experience was completely pleasant, and the atmosphere was joyfilled, festive, energetic and with a warm sense of family and community. The line moved quickly, service was smooth, fast, friendly – as it unfailingly has been in all our visits to Chick-Fil-A. And of course the food was too tasty and we all ate too much.
Here are our pics:
