I feel WICKED! -(or)- What a difference a day makes!

Last night, my friend Vitka and I attended the Chicago version of the Tony award winning musical "Wicked." The musical itself was wonderful! I was so impressed that I had to rush out today and buy the soundtrack cd and a copy of the original book. Mike just shakes his head when things like this happen. He asked me why I had to have them right away and I was like, "Because I want them! Why else?"

We picked Vitka up after she got off of work at the Field (aka the seventh circle of Hell) and went out to grab a bite to eat to kill the couple of hours before the show started. We went to Miller's Pub in the Loop. The food was fair to good quality. As we were leaving we had what I refer to as an "almost Yao Ming" sighting. You don't see too many 7 foot tall Asian men and we had to stare through the window for a few minutes to see for sure.

My mom is doing great so far. We went to see her in the hospital today, arriving at about 1 p.m. I hadn't seen her before we went in but my dad says he is shocked every day because he sees so much improvement. On Wednesday, according to all sources, she was ashen/gray colored, short of breath and looking quite unhealthy. Post-surgery (in which two arteries were stented) she was given a good prognosis by her surgeons but remained groggy and pretty out of it for the rest of the day. In fact, she doesn't remember speaking to me on the phone, although "speaking" is really a generous word for it. My aunt held the phone up to her ear, I spoke and she grunted back at me. She also doesn't remember being cranky, smacking away helpful hands nor the numerous attempts she made to climb out of bed. The next day, my dad says, he entered into her room and she was sitting on the side of the bed (pre-surgery this was strictly forbidden!). She smiled big and said, "Hey, babe!" She was also no longer the chalky gray color - she had a pink face and pink feet. The difference, according to both my dad and my aunt Linda, was like night and day. (Yeah, that's right...I've got both a mom and an aunt named Linda. Big whoop...wanna fight about it? Actually when I was younger I had two Aunt Lindas - one on each side of the family. There was 1 Linda Parker (my mom's maiden name) and 2 Linda Harrises...crazy, huh? ) My dad was telling me today that her improvement was again a pleasant surprise. Because I hadn't been there through the entire hospital stay, I hadn't noticed it myself. Yesterday she had 6 IV's, an oxygen mask and a catheter. Today the catheter had been removed, she was down to 1 IV (which was turned off during the time I spent in the room) and she was down to a nasal cannula with reduced oxygen. They're weaning her completely off of the oxygen and she is now taking her medicines orally. She has a lot of sore spots, including a burn on her back where they shocked her with a defibrillator to get her heart rhythm normal again either before or during her cardiac procedures. She's got a long road ahead of her as far as recovery is concerned but they're estimating she'll be ready to head home the first to mid part of next week.

Her sense of humor is back, though. Today Mike had the misfortune to sit on the chair that had somehow rolled on top of her oxygen tubing. There was a loud popping noise when the tubing came off from the oxygen source in the wall. We had to call the nurse to come and reconnect it. For the rest of the day, my mom absolutely delighted in telling anyone and everyone who came into the room that her future son-in-law was trying to finish her off. Depending on who she was speaking to I was either an innocent bystander or a willing participant in the devious plot.

The bright side? Mike's beloved WEW was playing in West Point, IA this weekend (very near where my parents live) and he was in town for the concert. Yippee.