Joyce's KP Adventure mikepasini.com headlines
Returning Home for Lunch
20 August 2025
Two weeks ago I was occupied in the kitchen so didn't take a photo and last week was Joyce's debridement so only the nurse took a photo (and only of the wound). So it's been a month since I've taken taken her photo -- and that was before she had her hair cut.
Time flies when you're rehabbing.
Since I actually cooked two weeks ago, I thought I should keep up the pressure.
To start I warmed up some La Brea bread in the toaster oven and made a caprese salad of half a plum tomato (salted) with half a ball of mozzarella bufala (peppered) drowned in olive oil with a sprinkle of lemon juice and some sliced up basil leaves.
She ate that, soaking up the dressing (which was delightfully refreshing as the temperature broke into the 70s today) with some bread.
I gave her a choice for a main course: carbonara or salmon fettuccine. She opted for the fettuccine.
That's spaghetti with a sauce of alfredo mixed with tomato (for a glowing orange) with green onion, roasted red peppers and smoked salmon. With a little parsley on top of that.
She at the whole thing.
"That's a lot to eat!" she said. And it was for her. The salad was a full portion but the pasta was lunch-size, a bit less than we usually have for dinner.
Still, I was very glad to see her polish her plate.
We finished with an espresso before it was time to go back. "I wish I could stay," she said.
She is making progress.
When I was getting her out of bed at Golden Heights today, she said she'd rung for the CNA to change her pull-up. We waited a bit but, frankly, that's against the concept of having a pull-up. They should be taking her to the bathroom next to her bed on a regular schedule so she can use the toilet without soiling a pull-up.
When nobody came for 10 minutes and the hallway was devoid of personnel, I suggested she put on her shoes and walk to the toilet, pull down the pull-ups, sit, take them off and clean up while I get another pair started over her feet.
And that's what we did. She'd done that before so we didn't break any ground but for the second time she also had a bowel movement. Given that they are monitoring her for that and giving her suppositories to encourage it, I again reported that to a nurse.
I'm not an expert on the subject but I find it revealing that merely sitting on the commode results in the desired behavior that is eluding lying in bed.
So progress. Yes. But she still needs 24-hour care and I am still disabled. So lunch is the best we can do right now.
It occurred to me to take her photo when we were done. "That's a good one!" she said when I showed it to her. So I'm making progress too, apparently.