Moving in the direction of normal

First, I am happy to say that Jeff continues to improve. Most of the time he actually seems perfectly normal, and has no symptoms other than a little bit of pain sometimes, and getting winded a bit more easily. This comes with its own challenges, as he forgets that he has to take it easy, and I have to remind him not to do things. He is not allowed to exercise at the moment, possibly for the next six months, and that is quite a difficult prospect for him. It is expected that he will make a full recovery, but recovery from a pulmonary embolism is a long slow process. He has to take blood thinners for the next six months, and wait for the clot to slowly dissolve and reabsorb. There are apparently no other treatments (anything that would remove the clot more quickly is much more risky).

When I look at the statistics, it's a bit scary – about a third of people who have pulmonary embolism die within the first twenty-four hours. After it is detected and treatment begins, the risk of death drops significantly, but it is difficult to find statistics that accurately predict risk. The best statistic we have found is that between 3% and 8% of people with treated pulmonary embolism end up dying. However, as Jeff continually points out to me, this includes people with all kinds of compromised health including COPD, cancer, recent surgery, and other serious risk factors. So it is likely that Jeff's risk of having something serious happen at this point is low, but that doesn't keep me from worrying about it, at least sometimes. I have made a rule, which Jeff is electing to follow, that he can't be anywhere alone without checking in at least every fifteen minutes. I figure that this way if there is some serious event, at least it won't be too long before help is called.

But, as I said, most of the time Jeff seems pretty normal at this point. Although we didn't spend Christmas with my family as we had planned, we did have a nice Christmas just the two of us. Jeff was even able to surprise me by filling our stockings – he went for a short trip to the store, and managed to stop at a candy store very quickly.

Because he was so fast at the candy store, he thought he was buying a box of assorted Jelly Belly jelly beans, but was in fact buying a box of Bean Boozled Jelly Bellys, which have normal flavors as well as very nasty flavors that look identical to the normal flavors. Here is Jeff tasting a jellybean flavored like skunk spray:

After that, it was necessary to cut open and sniff each jellybean before eating it:

We opened our presents from each other,

and Jeff got me handmade bowls, specifically for ice cream. It's a good thing I had made some peppermint ice cream (with candy cane pieces) for Christmas, because it was perfect for trying out the new bowls: 

This afternoon I leave for Eugene, and will get in around midnight. I am ambivalent about leaving Jeff, and sad that he will not be able to make the trip with me, but I am sure that he will be fine (being looked after by friends in town who he will be staying with until his brother arrives from Calgary to be with him) and it will be good for me to spend some time in Oregon. So for those of you in Oregon, I can't wait to see you soon!