Naps are Wonderful

Dad had a great night's sleep last night (almost 7 hours). When asked about his favorite part of the day, Dad replied "I like napping." And it's true, he was able to also have two long naps during the day. Janice reminded Dad that it makes sense he's so tired: he's recovering from major surgery, he is sleep deprived after 7 nights in the hospital and he took a long walk today.

How long a walk you ask? Half a mile! For those of you who know our neighborhood, we started at the circle and made it up to Orchard and Elwood and back. About half way through, Dad said he felt like he was doing a marathon. The feeling is understandable, but he made it. We all enjoyed being able to take a walk together and Charlie (Janice's 100+ pound Old English Sheep dog) keep us entertained as usual.

We have been really enjoying the quiet time at home. For those of you who are wanting to help, our friend has asked that I pass along her message via this blog. As of right now, food might be appreciated. Mom has asked for healthy, fresh food. Please also keep in mind that Dad has to watch his sugar intake now.

Local support for Jay and Emily

Many folk in the Albany area are asking what they can do to be helpful. Jay and Emily are delighted to know how many people care about them deeply. It's important that the help doesn't bunch up at the beginning and then dwindle over time when it is most needed. The nature of help will be changing from week to week as J& E may be going to Boston some times for treatment. Also Jay's diet requirements are likely to change from time to time. To avoid lots of "what can we do?" phone calls, Sigrin Newell has agreed to be the point person. She will talk to Emily each week to find out what is needed and get back to volunteers with the requests. She is setting up a weekly schedule with at least one person/family for each week throughout the summer. When that's full, others will be called for specific requests. Some weeks it might be a meal, others might be chocolate, flowers, someone to hang out and watch a ball game with Jay while Emily is out of the house or to go hiking with Emily, some weeks it might just be "we need alone time, thanks anyway."

If you would like to join the J& E support group, send an email to sigrin.newell(at)waldenu(dot)edu. Tell her what kinds of things you might provide, your email address, phone numbers and dates when you are available. Make the header J& E support so it's easy for her to find it. Thanks!

A new driver!

Just a quick update:

We saw Dad last night after he got out of 8 hours of surgery and 4 hours in the recovery room, and he was lucid, alert, and in great spirits. He had been listening to his ipod (the anesthesiologist selected his playlist) and was watching the Red Sox game. While disappointed they coudn't remove the entire tumor, he is excited to fight to the cancer, and said he felt the most hopeful he had been since the diagnosis.

Ellen got back from her work trip to Denver, and was able to go see Dad late last night - he was thrilled to see her. He talked about wanting a new golf driver (he borrowed one for his famous 330-yard drive), and wanting to keep our family vacation reservation on the coast of Maine. While he is having trouble sleeping, he is next to a window and the nursing staff has been great.

Many of you are asking about his mailing address - here it is! He will be at BIDMC for about a week. After that, please send things to our home in New York.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Patient: Jay Gallagher
West Campus, Farr 9
185 Pilgrim Rd.
Boston, MA 02215

Hey, Jay! Video Project

The friends and family of Jay Gallagher are invited to participate in the "Hey, Jay! Video Project".

Just make a small video (1-3 minutes) that starts out "Hey, Jay!" with a brief greeting/message that uniquely expresses your well wishes for Jay - ideally something to lift his spirits, make him laugh and smile. We will compile these video messages to create a DVD for Jay to view during his recovery.

An FTP has been set up to upload your recorded message using a digital camera or recorder (no cell phone videos please).
The URL is: ftp://preztech.com
The login name is: u36833045-heyjay
The password is: heyjayvideo

Jay, Emily, Janice and Ellen can also download and view messages as they are posted.

I have posted a message to get things started.

Thanks,
Jane Lax

Today's Adventures

Good evening all,

I am back in NY after working all week and Janice has gone home for the first time in almost a week. Mom and Dad spent the day balancing Dad's physical and spiritual well-being. The day started with getting some more tests, which included clearly marking where Dad's veins are on his leg in case they need to use part of one of them during the surgery. After that, they took a 9-mile(!) bike ride that eventually brought them back by Five Rivers. Dad continued his day with a massage and a delicious dinner.

He's spent the evening reading emails from many of you and is moved by all your messages. (He has a new email address: jaygallagheralbany(at)gmail(dot)com.*) Many times this evening he has been surprised at your thoughtful words and has been touched to see how this situation is bringing out the best in people. Please keep those messages coming, I'm hoping to bring him your emails even while he's recovering in the hospital.

...Speaking of the hospital, here's the timeline on the best case scenario: he goes in sometime next week for the surgery. The surgery should last 5-8 hours. After the surgery, he'll spend only 5-10 days recovering in the hospital. From there, it's supposed to be 6 weeks of recovery at home. Once that recovery period has finished, he'll start chemo and radiation. Well, that's the plan as of right now. As we know all too well, you never can really know what's going to happen when you go in for surgery but we are trying to keep our hopes up.

Take care,
Ellen

*: sorry about the typo earlier. The correct new email address for Jay is listed above and here: jaygallagheralbany(at)gmail(dot)com

How does this blogging thing work?

If you're not in the habit of checking blogs and would prefer to receive the blog posts by email, let me (Ellen) know and I can add you to a list of people who get blog posts emailed to you. My email is: ellensgallagher(at)yahoo.com.

For those of you who are slightly more technologically inclined...the emails with the blog updates are being sent to a google group whose email address is news-on-jay(at)googlegroups.com. You can get on that mailing list by going to http://groups.google.com/group/news-on-jay and following the instructions there. You can also sign up to follow this blog by a link on the right or follow it by various rss feeds.

Please also feel free to leave comments on this blog as we'll be reading them and would love to hear from you either by comments or by personal email.