Sixteen days postop today.  My arm movement has improved considerably.  I’m doing things I have been unable to do since my accident in February: like touch my nose.   The daily Occupational Therapy sessions however are painful ordeals that must be endured if any progress is to be made.  I am fortunate to have a terrific therapist, a Hand Specialist who is one of the best in the business.  Tony Dao keeps his patients focused and motivated as he works through the pain with a sense of humor urging you to commit for yet another pull or push on the muscles before finally turning you loose.  For me, the exercises continue at home every two hours until 6PM (only I’m a tad more gentle).  Only to begin again at 9 in the morning.  This is what my life is like these days.  One looming possibility keeps me working as hard as possible: another surgery.  If so, it would be the last, and I hope it is done right away, if that is what they decide.  I have a doc’s appt to take out the sutures Monday, I’ll learn more then.  I continue to be in touch with my colleagues in Honduras and learned that the personeria juridica has finally been aprroved by the federal government.  The nun is so happy.  Now we must maneuver through the local bureaucrats to finalize the legal documentation.  One of my fondest desires is to be back in La Paz when the ground is broken on the new building.

xx

On this date we traveled to my daughter’s mountain cabin in the North Cascades to get away from crowded city life for the weekend.  Hiking the rural country roads and steep mountainsides helped me clear my brain for the rigors of further surgery.  Nothing however can really innure one to the pain accompanying medical treatment that requires slicing deep into muscle and tissue and manipulating bones and nerves into a hopefully healthier alignment.  I thought I had lost these pics and is why they are out of sequence.