Went to visit Scott this morning. They finally moved him out of ICU to a
regular room late yesterday. This morning they removed one of his chest
tubes and the catheter but he's still hooked to a heart monitor. He's
feeling better, although weak.

He was given a choice of food to have for lunch. He selected a Cobb salad
with a cup of Minestrone. They brought his lunch while I was there.

I'm not a salad fan but he is. It looked pretty good, as far as salads go
Just in case you don't know what goes into a Cobb salad, which
originated at The Brown Derby in Hollywood, CA, the ingredients from the
original a Mixed greens, chicken breast, chopped tomatoes, crisp
crumbled bacon, sliced hard cooked eggs, avocado slices, crumbled roquefort
cheese, chives and (a special Brown Derby) vinaigrette dressing.

Being a hospital, they substituted thinly sliced turkey breast for the
chicken and brought him low-fat Italian dressing rather than a traditional
vinaigrette. And they didn't put avocado on it. (They added sliced black
olives, which I gather is something a lot of places/people do these days.)
He doesn't like blue cheeses so he skipped over the roquefort. The
Minestrone probably came out of an industrial-sized can, but he enjoyed it.
He also got a cup of Peach Crisp for dessert.

He has a few complaints about the hospital food. For breakfast they cook
the scrambled eggs until they are so dry they are practically rubber and the
home-fried potatoes are dry and unseasoned. (They didn't mess up the
bacon!) He told me he'd welcome a small box of cereal, such as Cornflakes
or Cheerios, and some milk instead.

The Cobb salad was huge. I suppose that's fine if you're healthy and
ordering one for lunch or dinner in a restaurant. For someone recuperating
from radical surgery, he said it's just too much.... expecially given the
meal schedule in this particular hospital. Breakfast between 8-8:30am,
lunch at 11:30, dinner at 4:30pm. Maybe some people are ready to eat again
that soon after each meal. He's not. I wouldn't be, either.

At any rate, he'll probably be released tomorrow afternoon. They could
extend it to Wednesday. He doesn't know yet. I'll be there to drive him
home and help him out for a few days afterwards. The doctor indicated he'd
need full-time assistance for at least 2-3 days. I'll only need to run home
to provide my pets with a little care. No word yet about chemo or radiation
therapies.

Jill