Another point scored for avocado toast

What a week for all of us and for the world!

Pop was released from his second trip to the hospital this week as planned and is currently enjoying his first Saturday outside Duke Medical Center in over a month. That gives him and Mo plenty on time for one of the very best activities in life: porch-sitting.

Pop is still on IV antibiotics to resolve any lingering hint of chest infection and continues to work with the medical team to get his cocktail of oral medications dialed in. Right now the focus is on keeping his magnesium levels up. He has been taking supplemental magnesium, but is on so many diuretics at the same time that his kidneys are flushing the magnesium out almost as soon as he swallows it! The body tends to absorb vitamins and minerals more successfully from food than from supplements, so the doctors have now put him on a magnesium-rich diet, meaning more almonds, spinach, black beans, avocados and whole grains. I personally will use it as yet another excuse to eat more dark chocolate.

Pop is also still using some supplemental oxygen while his abdomen heals from the last surgery, though he walked 15 laps in rehab yesterday with no oxygen tank, again exceeding the expectations of the physical therapists. But the blessing of Saturday and Sunday is that there are no clinic appointments, no rehab sessions, no lab work to get done—nothing to do but enjoy the porch and get some much needed rest!