4/21

10:18am

The surgery on his finger yesterday went fine -- they

put in a metal plate

and six pins. He jokes that he now has a bionic finger

and asks whether that

scared us or excited us (me and my sister Janet and

brother-in-law John and

my mom). I told him it depends what he does with it.

It will be in a metal

splint for 6-8 weeks, and he won't be able to use it

until then. They had

x-rays of it for him to see.

One thing that I don't like is he now is having

trouble hearing, like his

ears are plugged up as they get during flying. I've

been pestering the

nurses about it to get on the doctors about it. The

neurological docs say

there is no neurological reason for it. Wouldn't you

know it -- I finally

pestered the staff enough so they tell Gary what they

are doing when they

come in the room with him and do stuff to him, and now

he can't hear them.

They had to suction him a lot with all those tubes in

-- I'm hoping it's

just something like irritated sinuses, or maybe all

the anesthesia. I will

see him in about 20 minutes so I will see if the

doctors are doing anything

about that yet.


All for now.

Peg



I forgot. When I first wrote some of you about Gary's

address, he was in NICU (N=neurosurgery), but then he

was moved to TBICU, Trauma and Burns ICU, where he

still is now, just a floor up from where he was before

. I got on his university email account and see

someone has said his address is MICU --I'm not sure

where they got that info; perhaps that is a correct

address as well. I will try to remember to doublecheck

that when I go over for next visiting time. Anyway,

the Browns' card made it, and I believe that was sent

to NICU, so if you already sent one off, it will

presumably eventually make it to him.



The hearing loss, the doctors say, is due to the all

the anesthesia he has been getting for his different

surgeries, so will return. We have a new method of

communication -- we've written the letters of the

alphabet on a piece of paper and he points to the

letters with a pen. I know, I know, I should have thot

of that earlier.



All for now,

Peg

Staff assured me that anything that was sent to him at

the NICU will be sent up to the Trauma and Burns ICU

(TBICU) where he is now. His new address (put his

name at the top):







TBICU/North Pavillion 9th Floor

Room 9508

1802 6th Avenue South

Birmingham, Al 35249