Recovery

Alan and I finally made it to the surgeon’s follow-up visit after our first appointment was due in the middle of the holidays and then a too snowy day stopped us from making the big drive to Albany early in January. When the surgeon looked at Alan's incision scars and said, "beautiful", Alan and I just looked at each other in astonishment. We should have been ready for him to be only concerned in his handiwork and its outcome. We were hoping for more concern about patient comfort! Luckily Alan's surgery was called a heartport, and not a full opening of his chest so the visible physical scars are small. It's the emotional and internal healing that has taken quite a while in showing visible progress.

He is recovering slowly and in bursts of feeling good and then feeling like not doing anything. I can understand why they don’t want to tell you about the myriad of weird things they inject, IV and do during surgery beforehand, but afterward I wish they would suggest a detoxifying diet to help get rid of all that stuff more quickly. The heart healthy diet routine in the hospital is a total joke compared to the great kinds of foods we all eat from our gardens and the CSA. One day they served sweet sugared beets and wondered why all the patients had high blood sugar levels the next morning!! It was too funny until you realized how serious it is. These people directing the food service are "nutritionists". Anyway, at least you only stay there five days. Now with the holidays and eating extravaganza done, we are back to normal and slowly emptying the root cellar of leeks, beets, potatoes, garlic, squash, cabbage and brussel sprouts.

Alan has been determined to make each of the 4 trips to NYC since Dec 13 with Joe, who helps drive along the Thruway and is the mover of all the boxes and bags to each drop off site. The drive through the city invigorates Alan somehow. He has also made it to most all of the County Supervisors meetings and all of the Town of Jackson meetings where he is the Supervisor. The budget discussion and decisions at this time of year are a big impetus to get him there and be involved. He is the curmudgeon of the board and the fiscal conservative. He is happy this year to be the chairman of the county department of public works, one of the largest spending departments and where he feels he can make a difference. His good friend Don Wilbur, supervisor of the Town of Greenwich, is the chairman of the county board this year and together they are working on lots of ideas to reduce spending within the gigantic budget of our rural county. It is activity like this that stimulates his analytical energies and gets him going.

So all in all we are doing well. The snow has been wonderfully fluffy and soft in the last 2 storms since the big ice mess. I got to go skiing at Bromley Mountain with my nephews for a great day. The snow is deep enough for snowshoes but I haven't gotten them out yet - but I intend to soon. I love walking on the logging roads around the farm in the quiet with the dogs running all over and seeing all the animal tracks and bird wingtip impressions in the snow. The temperatures are rising a bit over 10 degrees these days so maybe in this break between deliveries I'll get out there. So any of you hardy CSA folks who have some time off this winter, come on up and take a walk with us!! Stay warm and be healthy!