Progress Report

I went for my first post-op visit on Friday. The surprising thing about the whole thing is that he seems to be in better spirits than he usually is. He carries around a backpack that feeds him intravenously and pushes antibiotics. He can't talk, so he uses a laptop that my roommate S-- loaned to the cause. I have been knocked for a bit of a loop for this and other reasons. I'm not necessarily questioning the need for this project; it's just a weird curveball.

Anyhow, V-- is just as taken aback (in a good way), and we're both discussing ways to keep the ball rolling.

He was still getting used to the undersized keyboard (and this is a bit of a task given his relatively low frustration threshold), but he was able to communicate about it a bit. He said that seeing the ICU nurses operating so confidently with nothing but encouraging words gave him food for thought (the only food he's getting for a while). I'm starting to wonder if this whole thing was really about the best thing that could have happened, in a roundabout way.

About my father (and, by extension, me), part I

My relationship with my father is complicated and problematic--although I would venture that this is virtually synonymous with simply saying "I have a father." My parents divorced before I have any conscious memory, and that fact puts me in the role of being a little weirded out by the thought of my parents as a couple. My dad wasn't really ready to deal with anything but minimal custody arrangements--he had oats to sow, and absolutely no clue about what one might do on when a two-to-five-year-old child visits for the weekend. We would watch movies and hang out in his series of bachelor pads (not the pimped-out kind, but rather the cinderblock-bookshelves-and-eating-ramen-noodles-over-the-coffee-table kind); girlfriends would come and go, usually only manifesting as only a vague presence on the edge of my awareness. In my preteen years, my dad met V--(I'm going to use the old 19th-century naming convention for the time being), who is still with him, although they are not officially married. While there is some friction with the family at large, she's been one of the most positive influences on his life and on his relationship with me (there are exceptions, but nothing that I haven't come to terms with).

Anyhow, there's certainly a lot more to this whole thing, and the pre-me history will be forthcoming at some point, as well as an airing of grievances and sundry other concerns, but the general focus of this effort will be on the day-to-day side of everything.