One and a half laps, Movie night picture

It has been a good day! First of all, look at this picture from our movie night at the hospital tonight. For the first time, Denise completed one lap around the rehab floor corridor this morning (that's 300 feet) with rest stops! She did another half lap later in the day. She ate well, and the food stayed down. The doctor thought it might be fun to take Denise out for a short shopping trip tomorrow. We'll see about that. I'm not much into shopping. In fact, she wanted a nice wool coat for Christmas. So I ran to the local Burlington Coat Factory and found one like what she described within five minutes of entering the store. Then I stood in line fifteen minutes to buy it. Sad, huh? Anyway, don't tell her I found her gift so quickly. Her thinking that I spent hours shopping to find the perfect coat will probably be part of her enjoyment of the gift. I spoke with her case manager from her medical group and we figured that we'll still aim for her being discharged the weekend of Christmas. If she's not ready, we'll have a pass lined up to get her home for a few hours on Christmas day. I think (hope?) we've got all the bases covered. Earlier today, just as I was leaving to get the kids from daycare, one of my students rang the doorbell and dropped off a bag full of homemade chicken tamales from one of the teachers at my school. I was going to steam one for Denise, but tonight she wanted me to bring her Pizza Hut pizza. Not our favorite (that'd be Petrillo's in San Gabriel or Glendora), but it's local. I phoned in an order to the local pizza place and explained that I needed to pick up the pizzas at a certain time. It was important that they not sit under a heat lamp for a long time, because it's for my wife who's been in the hospital for five months and craved pizza tonight. We don't want to disappoint. When I picked up the pizzas, one of the boxes had "We're glad you're well now!" written on it. That was nice. Tonight we had a movie night at the hospital. We watched "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" in Denise's hospital room on a portable DVD player. The battery pooped out just near the end, and I forgot to bring the charger. Boooo! Hiss!
San Diego Zoo trip update: My aunt (the nurse) & uncle offered their place in Escondido for people to stay overnight to make a trip down there more bearable. They and my cousin also have passes to the Zoo & Wild Animal park, and can get additional people in for free if that would be helpful.
Vision note: Several people have mentioned that they'd like to bring Denise magazines or books with which to pass the time while in the hospital and recovering at home. It's difficult and frustrating for her to read, even with a magnifying glass. And when sitting still (not too often), she'd prefer to do art, which would also help her regain her coordination, strength, and endurance. Perhaps music or a book on CD for her to listen to while doing other activities are good alternatives to reading material. Just wanted to throw that out there.

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