It was a big week

Movies Movies Movies. We ventured out to the theater to see TWO movies and then rented a couple to watch at home. So the theme this week was MOVIES!!! Roger calls me a movie geek - I LOVE LOVE LOVE movies and I especially like going to the theater to watch them. You just get so totally lost in the movie AND you get to eat really horribly expensive and bad-for-you popcorn. I get excited just thinking about going. We first saw Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr....yum! And I'm not talking about the popcorn now. I really like RbtDwnyJr...and Roger endulges me. It was an excellent movie - especially on the big screen. The second movie: Avatar 3D - it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!! We both enjoyed it...the fantasy/sci-fi lover in me really really loved it. The next movies we watched here at home. Julia & Julie was really cute though I think I got a bigger kick out of it than Roger. I'm the food lover and cook in the family. After watching it, it made me want to cook up a storm. The last movie proved to be our movie mistake: Ingenious Bastards. OMG, it was classic Quentin Terintino - blood guts gore blood guts and gore and more of it. 3 out of 4 ain't so bad. I see more movies in our future!

The other big thing we did this week was drive down to Louisville to meet friends for dinner Saturday evening and then drove back to Indy. It was great getting out of the house. Roger drove, which I think was a big thing for him as well. Kinda getting him back in the swing of every day life. He found that he could eat a little bit at the restaurant which was great also.

The week also included a couple big walks outside around the neighborhood. Roger remarked that it felt good to get out. He also commented that he knew it was good for his lungs and his system over all. We expect to do a lot more walking this week. Roger is going to try to incorporate some light exercises possibly trying to use the Wii/EAS programs we have. He is still restricted in the amount of weight that he can carry- no more than 10 lbs.

We meet with the surgeon this week, hopefully he will take out the LAST TUBE - the feeding tube AND hopefully he will "release" Roger. We are anxious to go to Florida for a little sun and warmth to complete the recovery process. We'll also find out during this meeting when they will take out the stent that was inserted to stop the leak back in December. I expect that it may be another 6-12 weeks before they take out the stent.

Roger has pain in the front of his chest, down his throat/esophagus, and in this back where the back incision was. It varies. Sometimes the position he is sitting in or laying in will make the pain better/worse. We haven't been able to predict. He can eat more now - but finds that he needs to stick with soups, chili, stews, and soft foods like egg dishes. His appetite continues to slowly increase and his taste buds seem to be coming back - regardless he feels the need to keep it simple for now. He has said that he thinks once the stent is removed, it should make it easier for him to swallow and thus will mean that he will have more food options.

Life isn't quite as carefree as it once was - thats just one of the tradeoffs you make. Life is getting better though every day.

~ Roger and Angie