Sunday, July 15, 2007

Day +130: Think Outside the Crust

After planting the seed that we might need to stay through Sunday because of Keith's respiratory problems, the nice folks at Stanford decided to give Keith an early birthday present and let him escape late in the day on Saturday. Keith really rallied on Saturday and his lungs seemed to have cleared nicely with all of the antibiotics he was given. So even though it was about 10 pm when we finally pulled into the driveway in Orinda, our dark house never looked so welcoming and after a good night’s sleep we enjoyed a quiet and pleasant Sunday with Kirby and yes, the Wii.

The downside of being home from Keith's perspective is the massive quantities of pills he needs to swallow each day for the next week or so. Today the tally was 13 large capsules and each one seems to exact an extraordinary mental toll on him. It's always been difficult, but with only a few pills each day it's been manageable. With 13 it's a constant effort. Advice gladly received on this particular subject as we don't seem to get much help from the medical teams.

Keith has been emoting at length about all sorts of food related topics lately. Tonight the subject was pizza and he rambled on for about 30 minutes on his philosophy of pizza and various ideas he had for the perfect pizza as well as restaurant ideas: Pizza Boat was one idea, where customers get to select various gourmet pizza slices from floating pizza pans a la sushi houses – there could even be a sushi pizza.

“Think outside the crust” was his leave behind for us.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keith: Good to hear that you got "sprung" from the construction zone and are happily camped out with Kirby. Taking pills is simply gross and no fun, but I have learned that ice cream helps them go down a bit more easily, as does pudding. Now, Max the Golden Retriever takes his daily pill with a big dollop of peanut butter, but I don't recommend that for you. I'm sure that there are worse things that getting peanut butter stuck in your throat, but I can't think of one. Are you a Harry Potter fan? Our grandchildren saw the latest film and said it was terrific. They saw it on an IMAX screen...said it was amazing, especially the last 20 minutes. XO Barbara Hunting

Anonymous said...

I am so happy that you are home now. The weather is a little cold and windy, but much better than being too hot. Trevor really wants a Wii now since he played with yours. (Trevor skip this part) His birthday is in September, so you never know.
I am sitting here on the computer at the dining room table and the cat (Hershey) is looking over the top of the computer wanting to pounce on my fingers as they type. Oops HUGE sneeze from the cat. Now I am typing in cat spit. Oh well.
Taking pills. I have great experience with this. I take three pills every time I eat. I seem to eat all of the time, so I down 15 or more a day. It does not matter if it is two bites or a whole meal. When I first started I really hated it. They tasted terrible, especially if they "got stuck" half way down and starting disolving. They smelled like dog food and I hated them. Now the repercussions are such, that if I don't take them, it is not much fun. (I can't digest food without them because my pancreas does not work). Anyway, I have found that you can't think about it, never take with anything carbonated or with pulp, down two at a time if you can, the more you stall the worse it is, drink with something with flavor (not water) - lemonade works great, and don't lay them out to stare at them - it looks too daunting. I just put them in my hand and hide them. I have to take three pills everytime I eat for the rest of my life - so I will test all different methods and let you know. After you take them, don't drink anything carbonated for a while. That burp tastes terrible if you just took pills. Odwalla juice, watermelon juice, lemonade, a runny smoothie (no too cold or you get brain freeze - and that is another problem all together).
The dog, Yukon, got a hair cut the other day. He got the "puppy cut" so he looks like this fat stuffed animal (a 75 pound stuffed animal). His fur was soo thick that he broke the trimmers. They had to go and borrow trimmers from another groomer. I am glad that we did not get charged for that. Trevor keeps feeding the cats so they get fat like Kirby, but the cats are skinny and the dog is HUGE! I guess we will change that to be one fat animal per family.
Enjoy your games and we will talk to you soon.
Julie Whitsitt

Allison N. said...

Yea Keith!! Back at home where you belong.
I can't top the earlier expert advice you received on pill taking techniques. If you don't take the pills with ice cream, however - I think you should at least get a scoop of your choice after every round.
Speaking of ice cream, I thought of you and your sophisticated palate last week when I saw a local ice cream shop offering their flavor of the month, "mushroom". My hunch is that it probably would taste like some of the pills you have to take. I'll bet you would have tried it - but I wimped out.
Love from, Allison

Anonymous said...

Hey, Keith.

Jail was even worse than I thought! Let's start with NO MAKE-UP ALLOWED. Maybe you could have mentioned that? How about NO MANICURISTS OR EVEN MANICURE SUPPLIES? That was a shocker.

Now that I'm out, I wanted to talk to you about a project I am thinking about pitching to Nintendo -- "Paris Hilton: Papparazzi for the Wii." Basically, you use the Wii controller to block camera flashes going off on the TV screen as you step out of super-expensive vehicles (like Maseratis) or come out of night clubs really late after hours of looking HOT. You get bonus points for spotting and blocking the shots of the hidden papparazzi peeping over your fence when you're by the pool and stuff like that. Those bonus points let you unlock hidden levels -- including posh boutiques on Robertson Blvd in LA! Of course you lose mega points if you hit a papparazzi while trying to block a shot. The boss levels, you ask? Get this: you have to deal with multiple video cameras while trying to visit Nicole Ritchie and other celeb friends in jail. So hard!

Imagine being me trying to block all those camera shots. Doesn't that sound like SO MUCH FUN?!?!?!

I really value your advice, Keith. Is the market for this Wii game as ginormous as I think it is?

(Yikes, I've done it again -- a post entirely about me. So, let me close with a suggestion about those pills. When I was in jail, I used the stuff they called "lemonade" to choke down the stuff they called "food." So, I agree completely with Ms. Whitsitt who recommended lemonade. Try it!)

XOXOXO

-- Paris

Anonymous said...

Sorry to disagree with Paris, but I fail to understand how someone whose lower lip is extended to such a length that a 747 could land there, with room to spare, could possibly have any serious input into pill taking. Having said that, lemonade is definitely an option...particularly MY LEMONADE!!!! Stay cool. Paul Newman

Anonymous said...

Tonight was the annual Stingray Ball. This is the "date" night at Orinda Park Pool. The older swimmers are pared with the younger swimmers. I saw Scott there all dressed up in his summer best. He looked great all cleaned up. The boys bring desserts and the girls bring plates, cups, drinks, forks, etc. Since I have one of each, I had to cover all of my bases. I tried to make the Hershey Kisses on Pretzels that your mom made for your birthday. I either did not have the heat on high enough in the oven or did not keep them in long enough - they did not get soft. Trevor said they were still good - you can't go wrong with salty crunchy chocolate. I also made little lemon tarts with fresh whip cream. The tart shells poofed to much, so it was more like fluffy disks with lemon curd and whip cream - still good.
The party went until 9:30 and some of the kids looked like they could dance all night. The little 5 year olds did not want to leave. I saw your Mom at the swim meet last night. We swam against Meadow. There were four records broken. Robbie Fluggee (Park Pool) broke three. He broke Trevor Rose's backstroke and Greg Allen's backstroke records. Huge upsets - but fun because it was not Meadow breaking them.
The weather is getting a little nicer, so I hope you were able to get outside a little.
We are sending your our positive powers to make this next stage pass quickly.
Thinking of you and your whole family
Julie Whitsitt

Anonymous said...

Hi Kelley's

Thinking about the "pill question", something came to mind. Can any of them be compounded as a powder to mix with juice or applesauce, or compounded in a flavored suspension? Our 13 year old would have to take 10 capsules a day of his TNI, but as a powder, it's a tsp. in 4 tbls. of applesauce once daily. When he was younger he had to take some high dosage antibiotics for an infection that wouldn't go away so we had those compounded in a flavored suspension. It's still no fun but it helps the "medicine go dowwwoun"(singing helps too:).

Alison U