The Vermont Muench Family Blog

Hotel beds are not the same as hospital beds. I report this objectively, not subjectively. In our excitement to leave the sterility of hospital life we seemed to forget that the real world cannot replace that perfect hospital bed....the bed that conforms to your body like sand that ensconces your limbs on a seaside beach. We tried to trick Bill into thinking he was going to be comfortable. Mary Lee built a pisa of white pillows that looked OK from a distance....Bill fell into them as if he was falling into a fluffy snowbank. Unfortunately his neck was not fooled and immediately clenched its disapproval. The surgery cut into his neck muscles which will need time to heal. We worked hard stacking, re-stacking, and puffing until finally Bill just fell asleep. The sleep he was craving so was interrupted with coughing, and neck stiffness. Suddenly the hospital didn't seem so bad. Mary Lee (aka Clara) and I (aka Florence) finally made some final and desperate adjustments (forfeiting our pillows) and Bill finally was able to rest by 2 AM. I felt so badly knowing how exhausted he was but was relieved when I could hear that familiar snore.

Bill made a very full day for himself. He explored the hallway on a regular basis. Bill's walk has developed from a shuffle to a slide and now today I recognized his pidgeon toed stride come through. One of his first orders of business when he woke up was to make his picks for the March Madness bracket. We found the brackets published in USA Today. He filled them out and I typed them onto an email. He was very concerned with missing the deadline.

Bill has (for obvious reasons) not checked his email since last Thursday. He downloaded the emails and I read them to him. He was very quiet as I read each. I asked if he was OK until I realized he was concentrating on taking in each word. He just kept repeating how nice everybody was. It was impossible to reply to all of them although I scribed some emails back out. The brackets and his time on the computer were just further evidence of his recovery.

Clara and I spent the day checking our medical blogs. We missed one med by 1/2 hour, and another by an hour. Our charts obviously weren't working so we designed new ones and now we're feeling in control. Bill's not quite as certain of us....We took turns visiting the Whole Foods store around the corner for meals. We seemed to find something yummy each time we went and Bill has not complained yet.

I made a mad dash to the Inner Harbor to pick up some t-shirts we ordered last week for Weston, Taylor and Pop-Pop. The wind was blowing like crazy. I stopped at the Katyn Memorial at the end of Presidents Street. Bill and I passed it several times on our walks before he went in the hospital. It is a tall statue of golden flames with various human statues embedded in the flames. I stopped today to read the plaque. The Katyn Massacre was an event that happened during WWII when 20,000 Polish military officers were taken from POW camps in the Soviet Union (before the Soviet Union joined forces with the allies to fight the Germans) and transported to the Katyn forest in western Russia (near the Polish border). There they were tortured before being executed and buried in mass graves. The Soviet Union had wanted to eradicate the Polish intellgentsia (teachers, doctors, merchants, clergy, lawyers). Despite the atrocities, the Polish people never stopped fighting for sovereingty. The statue also memoralizes the great Polish warriors who fought against the Turks and Ottoman Empire as well as a two Poles who were instrumental in the success of the American Revolution including the build-up of artillery for George Washington and the engineer of the bastions built along the Hudson River from Saratoga north. The statue was sponsored a the polish community in Baltimore. It sits in the middle of a crosswalk. I approached with curiosity and left somber and reflective. It's amazing what you can learn if you stop for just a minute. I need to remember that even when I feel too busy to pause and read my environment.

I returned to the hotel with a hairdo that resembled a pecking from Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "The Birds." Clara and I did laundry, organized our belongings in preparation to pack, and watched the basketball games with Bill. We had some visitors come in from the front desk late in the afternoon. They brought a basket of fruit and cards from our dear friends. When we read the cards I could feel that all too familiar lump rise....not the bad kind but the one that says you've been blessed a thousand times over.

I realize that my days on the blog are numbered. Bill will be (thankfully) driving the wheel again soon. But I will remember this week not just from a hospital room but from these pages where Bill and I together have shared these days. His smile may be only half as wide, his voice not as clear and his feet not as steady but he is OK. He is here, he is positive, fun and still bigger than life.

This experience while not welcomed has changed our lives. Bill's illness has not emptied our souls but rather with the love and support of family and friends has filled them. I have a lifetime of gratitude, love, and support to give back. You have all filled us with the most important thing in life; appreciation for whats important and the knowing that we can all make a difference.

Bill is scheduled to have his sutures removed tomorrow at 11 AM and then we head north where I can put the studs on my tire back to work.