Day 21

Today was a bit of a slow news day, which is nice as often in this game little or no news is the best news of all. Burt spent another calm and rather uneventful day under observation in the Stroke Care Unit. If there is one thing Burt loves above all, it is being ‘monitored’, the closer the better.

David, Connie and Wendy arrived at the hospital mid-morning to find Burt in the middle of his physical therapy. They watched from the hall as Burt went through his assisted hokey-pokey. Though it will certainly be a long road, the experts say he is making improvements everyday. All the movement seems to helping Burt in all sorts of ways and his therapy session had to stop for a brief word from the sponsors as Burt was momentarily sidelined for a bedpan adventure.

The rest of the day was spent in rest and repose. At three o’clock, Joe the nurse extraordinaire came on shift and dropped by to let Burt know with mock solemnity that the Yankees had fallen out of first place. Burt was unfazed as the Red Sox still suck. Burt has recently received enough Yankee memorabilia from friends and relatives to look like a true ‘bleacher creature’ trapped behind enemy lines.  Cousin Leslie, who will be in residence next week, sent a blanket, a pillowcase, and a cup. Burt’s friend Christian brought the bathrobe. The employees of the local bank sent an embroidered patch. As Wendy said, “it’ll look like the Yankees threw up on him.” It would be great to surprise the die-hard Boston loyalist Joe with a fully Yanked-out Burt one of these days.

In addition, to gloating over the Bronx Bombers fall from grace, Joe brought in a picture of his two adorable toy poodles to show Burt and Connie. Connie whipped out a cell phone pic of her two westies, Macallan and Rennie. Wendy added a picture of her equally adorable dog Norton to the show and tell. “I love him to death but he has got to learn stop pooing in the house,” she said to which Burt replied, “so do I, it’s my new thing.”

The end of the day found Burt in need of a pint of blood. The hematoma in his abdomen had left his hematocrit level somewhat lowered, but nothing that a warm pint of B+ could fix. So, Burt fell asleep to the Yankees vs. the Rays as the blood and nutrition drink both dripped slowly into his system. If we could and the hot dog and beer line, he’d be all set – all of the indigestion and none of the taste.