Big day yesterday: Tessa had her penultimate physical therapy visit and they were very happy with how she has been doing. Knee flexion is always a big issue after lengthening surgery, and she's up to 72 degrees now, which is right on schedule! She'll have her final visit with them later today, then we will pick up again back home next week.
Kathleen came to visit on the train after a weeklong family reunion cruise through the northeast. She's a longtime friend of Tessa's and was in charge of helping her get from class to class in her wheelchair after the last operation in 2008. It's great to have some more company and I really love having an extra helper for these last couple of days and for the trip home!
And here they are back in 2004:
We grabbed some dinner at Potbelly's on the Inner Harbor, and then went to the football stadium for the U2/Florence and the Machine concert last night! It was a pretty monumental undertaking, a four-mile round trip walk from the apartment pushing Tessa in her wheelchair through a mass of 80,000 people over some pretty rough terrain. It's amazing how easy it is to take walking for granted! It's easy not to notice the city planning stupidity that abounds (like why not have wheelchair curb ramps on BOTH ends of the crosswalk, not 20 feet up the street? Don't get me started...)
The concert was pretty amazing- they use a ginormous octopus/spider/spaceship stage that soars nearly 200 feet in the air and reminds me in scale of the base of the Eiffel Tower:
The opening act was Tessa's current favorite, Florence and the Machine:
U2 was amazing! I hadn't seen them in concert in 24 years, and the theatricality of the stage and the performers was really something special. This was the highlight for me, "Where the Streets Have No Name":
The band is really close to Springsteen. When Bruce gave the introductory speech for U2's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he said they were "the last band that I would ever know all the names of" (Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen, Jr and Adam Clayton).
Bono sang a snippet of "The Promised Land" at the end of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and at the end of the night Bono had everyone hold up their cell phones to make a starry sky in rememberance of Clarence Clemons. He then added a "Jungleland" coda to "Moment of Surrender":
The audio is a little rough, but at the end he said "Clarence Clemons, RIP."
Time to get packed up for therapy... home tomorrow!
Thanks to Kathleen, or Katleen as I would prefer to say, for coming. I am glad all looks well. I can't wait till these updates are coming from KC. Tessa Jean and Rob I love you both.
Love to All!!!
GS
Posted by: Jim (Grampa) Smith | June 23, 2011 at 06:55 PM
The concert looks fabulous! That trek to get there sounds like a workout for everyone. I am sure maneuvering a wheelchair isn't easy but I also imagine being in one bumping along is equally a task! Good wishes for the last therapy! Have a safe and uneventful trip home! I am sure everyone is ready. Nothing like getting home to your own bed !
Posted by: Diana | June 23, 2011 at 01:13 PM