May 14, 2006
I have already received an outline for a movie script. To make sure the movie is a commercial success, however, the plot has been . . . tweaked. A key figure in the story is a graduate student obsessed with Gary, whom Gary has been rebuffing (typical, a graduate student falling in love with her professor ;-)). I, on the other hand, am racked by guilt because I have been carrying on an affair during those times I said I was at writing group meetings, but now I realize how much I truly love Gary. And at the hospital, what I put down as actions due to the incompetence of the nurses are really attempts by the graduate student to take her revenge on Gary. The climax comes when I figure out that that is what is going on and rush to the hospital just in time to save Gary from the student. I am injured during my scuffle with the student, however, so I end up in a bed next to Gary, where we renew our vows to each other. Think this plot has possibilities? (This is a quick overview – the author actually fleshed out over a page of synopsis. Note to the author – Gary was laughing away as I read to him what you wrote, as I had done when I read it beforehand. Gary says to tell you you have a very good imagination. . . . Does this mean you now believe he exists and is not merely the figment of my imagination you have been claiming he is?)
Gary sat for two and a half hours straight this morning, so is making a little progress every day. His voice is a bit stronger, though he can’t use it much yet (he did inform me with it that the hospital coffee is terrible, so I will get him some from Starbucks tomorrow). In an emotional conversation, he talked to his mom on the phone this afternoon, and he talked the longest yet. He hadn’t been sure he could talk loud enough for her to hear, but there was no problem. I got a little worried he might strain his voice because he was talking much more than he had (although it really wasn’t much), but it seemed to be fine – though he did say he got pooped out at the end.
As I suspected, they did remove his staples today. I was happy to see that even the bottom part of the incision, which had previously appeared to gap, has healed up nicely.
We did our usual stuff – talked, listened to Car Talk and Jack Benny, etc. In the mid-afternoon I had another massage, this time with a different person as the one I had seen before had gone to see her mother. I paid extra for the therapist to come to the hotel and give the massage, but it was worth it. (Note to my family. When I made the appointment with her I was standing in the room with Gary. She asked how he was doing and I told her about the sitting up and eating. When I got off the phone, Gary asked if I’d seen her before. I said no. He spelled out, “You gave her details.” I told him she had been the first massage therapist I had talked to here, and she knew the reason why I was in Birmingham and had recommended the other therapist. He spelled out, “Oh. So you are not like your dad.” I protested some and he smiled and spelled out, “I knew that would get a rise from you,” my dad having been infamous for telling all and sundry about all and sundry.
Oh, God. I just realized that with this blog I have now become my dad.)
When I went back for the evening visit Gary told me the nurse had said his bed sore was a little aggravated after his sitting this morning and that he shouldn’t sit at all tonight. :-( It seems like that thing is never going to heal.
I wrote out a list of the things that we wanted to bring up to the people from Shepherd tomorrow, and then I took out my phone, intending to call my mom while with Gary so he could talk to her a bit. Right then my older sister called me. She started out by saying she liked to read the blog. I said “Really?” I told her I felt uncertain about writing it, saying people probably thought I was strange. She replied, “You are strange. But I like reading it anyway.” Hmmm. We talked a bit and then she asked me to put the phone to Gary’s ear. I hadn’t yet had the chance to tell her he could talk a little, so I let it be a surprise. Gary said hello and they had a short conversation. When I got the phone back, she said she’d nearly fallen off her chair, not expecting to hear his voice. She wondered how it felt to him to finally be able to talk. I asked him afterwards, and he said that since it had been such a gradual thing – first being able to mouth words, then whisper -- that there hadn’t been a well-defined moment when he could say “now I’m talking again.”
I next called my mom and told her someone wanted to say something to her. Gary wished her a happy mother’s day. His next words were “that’s what my mom said,” in response to something she said to him. I found out later that both our moms said hearing his voice was the nicest mother’s day gift they could have.
It *is* lovely to hear his voice again.
I have already received an outline for a movie script. To make sure the movie is a commercial success, however, the plot has been . . . tweaked. A key figure in the story is a graduate student obsessed with Gary, whom Gary has been rebuffing (typical, a graduate student falling in love with her professor ;-)). I, on the other hand, am racked by guilt because I have been carrying on an affair during those times I said I was at writing group meetings, but now I realize how much I truly love Gary. And at the hospital, what I put down as actions due to the incompetence of the nurses are really attempts by the graduate student to take her revenge on Gary. The climax comes when I figure out that that is what is going on and rush to the hospital just in time to save Gary from the student. I am injured during my scuffle with the student, however, so I end up in a bed next to Gary, where we renew our vows to each other. Think this plot has possibilities? (This is a quick overview – the author actually fleshed out over a page of synopsis. Note to the author – Gary was laughing away as I read to him what you wrote, as I had done when I read it beforehand. Gary says to tell you you have a very good imagination. . . . Does this mean you now believe he exists and is not merely the figment of my imagination you have been claiming he is?)
Gary sat for two and a half hours straight this morning, so is making a little progress every day. His voice is a bit stronger, though he can’t use it much yet (he did inform me with it that the hospital coffee is terrible, so I will get him some from Starbucks tomorrow). In an emotional conversation, he talked to his mom on the phone this afternoon, and he talked the longest yet. He hadn’t been sure he could talk loud enough for her to hear, but there was no problem. I got a little worried he might strain his voice because he was talking much more than he had (although it really wasn’t much), but it seemed to be fine – though he did say he got pooped out at the end.
As I suspected, they did remove his staples today. I was happy to see that even the bottom part of the incision, which had previously appeared to gap, has healed up nicely.
We did our usual stuff – talked, listened to Car Talk and Jack Benny, etc. In the mid-afternoon I had another massage, this time with a different person as the one I had seen before had gone to see her mother. I paid extra for the therapist to come to the hotel and give the massage, but it was worth it. (Note to my family. When I made the appointment with her I was standing in the room with Gary. She asked how he was doing and I told her about the sitting up and eating. When I got off the phone, Gary asked if I’d seen her before. I said no. He spelled out, “You gave her details.” I told him she had been the first massage therapist I had talked to here, and she knew the reason why I was in Birmingham and had recommended the other therapist. He spelled out, “Oh. So you are not like your dad.” I protested some and he smiled and spelled out, “I knew that would get a rise from you,” my dad having been infamous for telling all and sundry about all and sundry.
Oh, God. I just realized that with this blog I have now become my dad.)
When I went back for the evening visit Gary told me the nurse had said his bed sore was a little aggravated after his sitting this morning and that he shouldn’t sit at all tonight. :-( It seems like that thing is never going to heal.
I wrote out a list of the things that we wanted to bring up to the people from Shepherd tomorrow, and then I took out my phone, intending to call my mom while with Gary so he could talk to her a bit. Right then my older sister called me. She started out by saying she liked to read the blog. I said “Really?” I told her I felt uncertain about writing it, saying people probably thought I was strange. She replied, “You are strange. But I like reading it anyway.” Hmmm. We talked a bit and then she asked me to put the phone to Gary’s ear. I hadn’t yet had the chance to tell her he could talk a little, so I let it be a surprise. Gary said hello and they had a short conversation. When I got the phone back, she said she’d nearly fallen off her chair, not expecting to hear his voice. She wondered how it felt to him to finally be able to talk. I asked him afterwards, and he said that since it had been such a gradual thing – first being able to mouth words, then whisper -- that there hadn’t been a well-defined moment when he could say “now I’m talking again.”
I next called my mom and told her someone wanted to say something to her. Gary wished her a happy mother’s day. His next words were “that’s what my mom said,” in response to something she said to him. I found out later that both our moms said hearing his voice was the nicest mother’s day gift they could have.
It *is* lovely to hear his voice again.
posted by Peg Daniels at 7:51 PM
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