Exciting news!

Yesterday the Gillette patients were surprised by a visit from Joe Mauer, catcher for the Minnesota Twins baseball team!  This was a very big deal around here because he's a big star of that team.  According to our friend Greg Fishwick, who is a major-league baseball expert and a Twins fan, Joe Mauer is an all-star catcher, won the American League batting championship three times, and yesterday he got three hits in the 8 to 7 Twins victory against the Cleveland Indians.  Mauer got a single, a double, and a triple.  (He must have been inspired by his visit to Gillette.)  Greg says that Joe is the best player on the Twins, and he also does a Head and Shoulders TV commercial.  I can report that Mr. Mauer was in fact sporting a very nice head of hair.  He's a pretty handsome guy.  Unfortunately for the ladies around here, he is already engaged to a nurse who works in the operating room at Gillette!   

What luck for Suchitra that her grandparents had just sent her a baseball and mitt.  He signed both the ball and mitt, and posed for pictures with all the kids.  I was able to get a couple quick shots, but I didn't get a great picture of the two of them.  I've been promised that someone will email me one and I'll post it here when I get it.  For now, here are pictures of the two of them chatting and him signing Suchitra's ball:

Suchitra also had fun with the Twins' mascot, T.C. the Bear, who was part of the entourage.  He even tried to push her prone cart:

Another exciting thing that happened yesterday was that Suchitra got to start spending some time in the stander.  She will now be spending time in the wheelchair, prone cart, and stander every day for the rest of our stay here.  At this point she is supposed to do 30 minutes in the wheelchair 3 times a day, 30 minutes in the stander 3 times a day, and 60 minutes in the prone cart 3 times a day.  I'm glad that the nurses are helping monitor this because her schedule is getting kind of complicated.

Here are a couple pictures of her in the stander.  These were taken in the skyway that connects the wing of the hospital where our room is to the therapy clinics and the Healing Garden.  It's a nice space, with chairs and tables along the sides.  I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures but she is strapped into the stander both around her back and at her legs.  She says it's pretty comfortable.  Definitely easier to maneuver than the prone cart which is very heavy.

In my walks outside the hospital I have noticed skyways all over the downtown area.  I imagine those are pretty nice to have during the winters.