June 30th, Surgery Day (Part II) Carsten's dad who was holidaying closeby (his original plan had been to hike a piece of the PCT with us) and I took Carsten to the hospital where he was admitted at 11.30 a.m.

We knew the surgery would take around 1,5 hours and Carsten would need one more hour to wake up so we went for a stroll in Carson City, had a drink and then went shopping for what Carsten might crave: Cinamon rolls, pretzels, gatorade, nectarines and Ben and Jerry's Icecream.

We were admitted to him only 20 min. after he had woken up so the nurses were still working around his bed but it was great to see him again and talk to him again!

While laying in bed on his back he didn't have any pain, a position in which he couldn't lay for a long time. He could also move his right foot way better than before.

And at 6 p.m. only about three hours after he had woken up he did his first steps again! Of course with a walker and the physical therapist next to him but nevertheless :-) And he was upgraded very fast from liquid food only to some more solid food.

Carsten has been very lucky to have his surgery done here because we had the impression that he was well taken care off, more like in a hotel than a hospital!

Alice, No Way Ray's widow, visited Carsten since she had been close by and I, too, was happy to see her again. She plans to return on the trail in August which I think is fantastic. Of course she had news from other hikers and the trail (snow and water level conditions) which we are always kind of hungry for.

After a while he discovered the 80 or so TV channels and we knew that he would be entertained more than enough so around 7.30 p.m. we left.

All the details about the physical therapy we will learn next week after the celebrations for the 4th of July and then we can rethink everything and make new plans.

Tomorrow we will pick him up at the "Patient drop-off". Yesterday as we walked by this sign we laughed about the "drop-off" part. It sounds funny for us.  ¶ 01:22 0 comments