Get Well Soon

I’d just fetched the mail from the box down the street and walking back to the house, sorted through it.  Let’s see, coupons, card for Cora, card for Cora, credit card offer, card for Cora, letter from the homeowners association – “fuck those busybodies”, more coupons, card for Cora, card for Cora and finally, oh, look at this, a card for Cora.  Walked into the house, “Look at you,” as I handed her the cards.

Four of the cards came from her workplace, Clif Bar.

Cora, I hope you feel better fast.  I miss seeing your stylish and beautiful self in the office!  I don’t know what I’m going to do when you retire.

They were covered inside and out with well wishes.  Just for the hell of it I started counting messages.

Cora, my friend, please feel better soon.  It doesn’t feel right for me to come into the office and not get a hug from you.

I stopped counting at 100.

Corazon (her real name)!! Mi amor…feel better, rest up and bring that smile back to the office soon! Much love y besos.

It’s been 17 days since Cora had her kidney removed and she’s been home for 14.  The first few days were spent mostly in bed with a fair amount of pain, mostly in her left shoulder.  Have a kidney removed and get a sore shoulder; makes sense, right?  Turns out that in order to create a little workspace where the kidney is located they pump some gas in the area to be operated on.  You know as we grow older we all get a little gassier and now they're adding extra?  Anyway this gas kind of lingers in the system and causes a pain spike in the shoulder.  The shoulder is fine now.  There is still some discomfort around the surgical site but she's done with pain meds.  Those first fitful nights are gone now and we sleep soundly; and a little closer together.  

Cora!  You put up with all of us so I know you will recover just fine.  You are a true beauty.

I get into my office at 6:30 and around 9:00 make it a point to give Cora a call to see how she’s doing.  When she answered during those first few days that I was back to work I was struck by how frail her voice sounded.  Hanging up I found myself staring down; boring a hole in my desk.  I suppose that I knew that weakness in her voice was a residual of that tube that went down her throat during surgery but that was small comfort.  As the days have gone by, her voice is about back to normal but that doesn’t stop me from pausing for a minute or two after hanging up.

Cora, My fashion princess.  You are greatly missed.  Take care.

Our kitchen and family room are starting to look like a flower shop.  Two dozen organic pink roses, an orchid, a fortune plant and various arrangements. Early last week the package from Harry and David arrived, sent from her department at Clif.  I posted a blog about Cora and her surgery; it rocketed to number one in number of hits, passing the one about North Beach in a matter of, oh, a day.  The North Beach post, published last October, was the most popular but in less than two weeks Cora’s story had double the amount of hits.  When you’re bright and cheerful and light up a room and make people happy you reap some unsought after rewards.  When you’re a curmudgeonly old bastard you get the corporate flowers and the message that HR requested to be put on the card – like when I had minor surgery last year.  And I’m still wondering how I didn’t even get a bite of one of those Harry and David pears, not one.  Even the dog got some.  Damn. 

Dear Cora, I miss your smiling face and speaking Italian with you.  Please take care and get well soon. (Someone’s been holding out on me because I didn’t know Cora could speak Italian; well, maybe fractured Italian).

During the early recuperative period I’m supposed to be taking care of the house; and I am -- sort of.  But that doesn’t mean that the house isn’t suffering for it.  I’m also doing the shopping and that’s going to raise hell with the checking account.  Cora uses coupons, gets supplies and canned goods from Target and then goes to Food Max for meat and produce.  I go to the local Lucky which I’m guessing got its name because if you come away with what you were looking for then you were damned lucky.  Or maybe it’s just lucky for the grocer’s shareholders because I spend as much on three bags of groceries as Cora does on about ten – I swallowed hard when a bag of grapes was scanned at over eleven bucks.

Cora, You are so missed!  Get well soon-come back strong-don’t retire.  

 

We’ve found out that cooking isn’t exactly like riding a bike; you do forget as I apparently have.  I used to be a pretty fair cook.  Now that I’ve taken over the cooking duties we’re finding, to our palates’ dismay that my cooking skills have taken on a fair amount of rust; as has the taste of our food.  There was the meal of pork chops with tomato sauce; went a little overboard on the tomato.  I would describe it as pork chops bathed in seasoned ketchup.  And then there was the Nicoise Salad with salmon.  The smell of burnt salmon lingered long into the evening, though I was able to salvage enough for the meal. 

Cora, Miss your smiling face.  Can’t wait to have you back. 

There’s been great progress.  While she’s still moving slowly, Cora has been moving around regularly now.  No heavy lifting for a while and contact sports like football and martial arts are absolutely out of the question.  She’s going to be able to cook simple meals which will give the smoke alarm a break. 

Miss Beautiful, I can’t work here without you.  Come back soon. 

And then there’s the silent, menacing specter that’s taken up residence.  We pretend to ignore it but we both know it’s there.  It even has a name – pathology report.  Its presence will make itself more apparent in about a week when Cora has a follow up at which time we hope it will be exorcised for good and forever.  It lingers in our thoughts but we avoid talking about it.  We discussed it briefly the other evening and quickly moved on to something else. 

Cora, My heart and prayers are with you.

Cora, I’ll be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.  With love

….Amen to that.