The View from Here

Dan awoke in the early morning dark of the hospital room and called to me, needing help to go to the bathroom after his shoulder replacement surgery. I stumbled over to him from the couch in my sleepy state, falling into what had already become routine in our short hospital stay, pulling back his blankets and removing the Alternating Leg Pressure (ALP) sleeves from both of his legs, helping him to slowly sit up, all while making sure we didn’t pull any of the myriad of tubes out of him. As I did, he told me that he had had the sweetest dream; that the gentle weight and pressure of the ALP made him think that our dogs, Coops and Sophie, were sleeping on his feet and legs as they love to do. He said that one side had more pressure, so he felt each dog and their different weights, and that it gave him such comfort during a time when he really needed it. How beautiful that our animals were with us in that room, able to work their loving magic, even if it was only in spirit.