Monday Night

Dave and I went by tonight after a fun evening watching Cy's bowling league do what it does. Folks were all busily signing a cool poster that will be taken out to Cy at some point.

We headed out to the hospital and got there at about 10:40 p.m., so there was not much time left for visitors. We checked with the nurse to make sure he was awake. "Oh yeah, I was just in there. He's just reading a magazine," she said.

When we got in, she was right--he had his nose in a Fantasy Football magazine someone had brought by today. He was really happy to see us. He is breathing on his own and talking. He is no longer hooked up to the EEG machine at all, so he's just rocking some scraggly beard work and a semi-shaved head resembling Riff Raff from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. He was a little groggy, but mostly just tired. He also had a nasty case of hiccups that was causing him some discomfort, but the nurse had called for some magic drug or wand or pixy dust that was supposed to take care of that. Those hiccups were really making Cy frustrated.

I asked him how he felt about being at Duke hospital, and he responded, "I'm not happy about it." Then, really softly under his breath, he muttered, "Fuckin' Duke." I said that it sounds like this is the best place for him to be right now, and he responded, "I guess so." Someone apparently brought him some kind of Tarheels paraphernalia to keep the balance. (We should keep that coming.) I told him that I had heard from Bo Williams, and he responded, "Bo Williams?! What? How does everyone know?" I told him everyone knew because he was Cy Rawls, and who doesn't love some Cy Rawls, you know what I'm saying?

He was really happy about all the people who had come by to see him so far and all the well wishes we relayed to him. Contrary to what some might have expected, Cy was really psyched to be hearing from so many people. He said it was really cool that so many people know and are coming to visit.

The nurse said that they are working on getting him to a point where he can sit completely upright instead of relatively reclined. They will hopefully have him eating real food by tomorrow night. Right now, he has a teeny feeding tube through his nose. All in all, he looks awesome for someone who had just had the shittiest 36 hours ever. Those who visited him on Sunday will be relieved to see his progress. As far as I know, Carolyn's update about Cy's surgery being Thursday or Friday is still the plan. He had an MRI this morning that came back fine, so the brain appears to be doing just what it's supposed to.

Please continue to visit. He is still in room 4215 at Duke Hospital. Because he is in the ICU, he cannot yet receive flowers, but his parents are taking the flowers that have been sent. He really enjoys seeing everyone. Dave and I will likely be going back tomorrow, so we can print out the messages you all are posting below unless someone else beats me to it.

Man, what can you say? It's Cy Rawls!