Day 155, Year 8: Happy Birthday, Ziggy
Date: Sunday, April 7, 2013
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warmer, High Temp in the Upper 60’s
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
Happy Birthday, Ziggy Milo Handley! Ziggy is the second born of our five grandchildren and he was four today. Or rather, he will officially be four years old at 11:47 pm. We got to talk to him ever so briefly via Skype video today and when we wished him a happy 4th birthday, he immediately pointed out to us that he was not four quite yet. He is holding out until the actual time of birth before he will call himself a four year-old. It was April 9 in Thailand when we finally got the email announcing his long and arduous birth. We were supposed to be in New Mexico for his birth, but he decided to come a couple of weeks early and he arrived as we were sailing from Thailand to Malaysia where we would leave Windbird while we flew home. With the difference in time and the email delays when at sea, we didn’t get the official word until we reached Ko Lipe in the Butang Island Group—just before you reach Malaysia. We celebrated on the beach by releasing a Chinese lantern. I wrote in my log that evening, “It went up and up and up as if it were trying to reach the full moon. A number of children that had gathered uttered the Thai equivalent of ‘wow’ and we were all in wonder of the light that just rose higher and higher in the sky. All I could think is that a new star is born—our Ziggy.”
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| 130407 Day 155 New Mexico, USA–Ziggy's Birthday Photos |
My nephews left this morning and things are back to normal here. Patsy continues to recover, but she had a bit of a setback today. She has arthritis in her left foot and they took her off the Celebrex she takes for the arthritis before the surgery. Her orders when she left the hospital were to not resume taking the Celebrex, but the pain in her foot today was so bad she could hardly walk, so she took it in hopes of stopping the pain. Evidently Celebrex can hinder the healing process of the incision, but at the same time, I read today that it can also inhibit the formation of adhesions (scar tissue) internally which would be a good thing. Her incision is almost healed, so she decided to try the Celebrex, contact a doctor tomorrow, and hope for ‘official’ permission to take it. In the meantime, we are hoping for an improvement after taking the Celebrex that will tell us it is actually an arthritis flare-up that is the problem in her foot. As Patsy said tonight, Mark and I are ‘taking the day off’ tomorrow and going to Brookgreen Gardens with friends Lynda and Lee Kaufman. The temperature is still below average, but it was warm enough today for us to take a walk on the beach. Every day this week is supposed to be warmer than the day before, so we will celebrate the arrival of spring at Brookgreen tomorrow. And we’ll check in with the patient via phone and hope for a great improvement.
