3/2/09 -- Trout Fishing on Pads Creek

Having spent last night in Charlottesville instead of driving back to northern Virginia through a snowstorm, I had the opportunity to see Dad early this morning.  I'm please to report that his post-operative recovery seems to be going well.   In particular, his kidney function continues to improve, which is great news.   The one fly in the ointment (and there always seems to be at least one, doesn't there . . .) is that his pain medication was not working particularly well and was causing him to be disoriented.   This afternoon the ICU team switched him to a different medication that will hopefully perform better on both counts.

At one point I mentioned that Matt and his son had recently gone trout fishing on Pads Creek, which prompted Dad to tell me a wonderful story about fishing for trout on that same creek with my "Uncle" Warren back in the 50's.  He still remembered that Warren "beat me, 6 fish to 2," and "caught the biggest trout I've ever seen" even though Warren was using a "branch he hacked off of a tree" for a pole.  For someone who has been through what Dad has suffered the last few weeks, his memory of things that happened nearly a half-century ago is frankly amazing.