Week 9

Weight gain is still not happening for Nick. I have encouraged him to eat more small meals rather than fewer large ones, but he says that eating all meals requires enormous effort  because of his lack of saliva, and the process exhausts him. Hopefully this problem will work itself out soon.

I have been concerned about Nick’s voice. It seems to me that he more he uses it, the weaker it becomes. Yesterday he spoke with his ENT doctor, Dr. H, who said that Nick’s voice was within the range of normal considering what he has gone through. Nonetheless, I will continue to discourage him from talking when I can.

We are preparing to leave for our trip to Sarasota this coming week, and we are both so looking forward to it! Sunshine, warmth,  relaxation, great company, and great food, here we come!

Week 10

Ah, Sarasota. We thank my brother Joe and sister-in-law Linda for hosting us and helping Nick with his recovery. Rather than giving a day-by-day account, I’m going to share the experiences we enjoyed, and one we didn’t.

• You can still get into any restaurant you like  at any time you like at this time of year  because the snowbirds haven’t arrived yet. At Carrabba’s, I  enjoyed a chicken entree while Nick tried valiantly to eat as much of his meal as he could. Salute! is a restaurant whose owners are vintners in Italy. Linda had heard of their restaurant from people she had recently met in New York, and we decided to give it a try. The meal there was like eating in Italy. I nibbled on my brother’s antipasti of meats and cheeses, and  enjoyed  pasta with mushroom sauce.  Nick had grilled calamari, which is vastly different from the breaded and fried version.  We shared cannoli for dessert. At Bonefish Grill I enjoyed fabulous ahi tuna while thinking of my friend Flo, whose husband catches ahi in the Pacific. Nick tried a pecan crusted trout filet, but had trouble swallowing it. And at Columbia Restaurant he had to skip his favorite salad and dessert (key lime pie), but the substitute dessert he found, a crema pudding, worked well for him.

• On most nights we enjoyed delicious meals prepared at home my my sister-in-law, Linda.

• Nick had a vanilla shake (one cup of whole milk and one cup of vanilla ice cream)  for breakfast almost every day.

• Because of the unusually rainy weather, we only took one dip in the pool. We didn’t have the time or the weather for the beach.

• We were able to get together with our long-time friends Eric and Mafalda for lunch at the Ringling Museum of Art. The beautiful art  there got me in the mood for Italy! We lunched in the museum restaurant.

• We met with  a delightful second cousin of Nick’s on his mother’s side named Barbara Stolfi Maggio, who  has recently relocated from New Jersey to Sarasota with her husband. I found Barbara on Facebook, and  she and I have been communicating by e-mail  ever since. While we were with her and her husband Jim, we called Nick’s Aunt Margaret, who was back in Connecticut. Aunt Margaret remembered Barbara’s parents as well as the neighborhood in Brooklyn where they all used to live. Barbara and Aunt Margaret  really enjoyed reconnecting! Barbara has written a book about her father, a referee, called Third Man in the Ring, which she hopes will be made into a movie.

• Linda, Nick and I had our annual shopping trip to the Ellenton Mall a few towns away, where Nick and I outfitted ourselves for  our upcoming trip to Italy.

• Joe, Linda, Nick and I visited Peter and Mary Greci and their son Ivo. Peter lived with my mom’s family for six years as a child and then moved with his parents to my dad’s street, all before my parents  met each other. Peter showed us photos from his childhood that included many  of my Mom’s family members in their youth. We all enjoyed the walk down Memory Lane.

I mentioned that there was one negative experience during our trip. Each evening, I accompanied Linda and her two miniature Schnauzers on their walk. As we were walking on Saturday night, a woman opened her front door and a big beige dog, perhaps a boxer, ran out of the house, across the street, and onto the sidewalk, where she attacked  Linda’s  male dog!  There was a lot of  barking and shouting! Linda was wrapped in the leashes as I screamed for help and picked up  Linda’s female dog. The owner of the big beige dog ran over with a leash and pulled her dog away from us.

We weren’t able to examine Linda’s dog until we got home. At that time we discovered that his underside had a wound. The next day at the vet’s, he required anesthesia, antibiotics, and ten staples! The vet said the wound was a lot deeper than we had thought. We were required to report the attack to the authorities, who came  to get our statements. Linda’s dog will recover, but we shuddered to think that the big beige dog could hurt another dog or perhaps a human.

I’ll end the account of our trip with the news that Nick gained two pounds while we were in Sarasota! It will be great if eating comes easier to him before our trip to Italy later this month.