Day 856: Good Color

My sister Ellen sent me this email two days ago, after she saw me in the hospital recovering from surgery:

Hi Ann,

It was really GOOD to see you.

You just underwent 8 hours of surgery!! Done by people using their experience, skill, and intuition to mend your heart using the best technology and tools possible. Your heart was the end product, so to speak…and from my point of view, it was doing its job well.

You looked bright, alert, in touch, had good color… Mom would have put “good color” first. You had better color than you have had in a long time. ..and that’s directly related to cardiac functioning.

What a compliment to you and everyone else involved in that surgical process. And it wasn’t just the 8 hours there, it was all the planning, prepping etc. And before that, the planning of this particular solution.

Every time I read Ellen’s email, it brings me more good color.

Here’s some good color I observed yesterday, as I prepared to leave the hospital:

That’s Ellen on the right, holding a brown paper bag with the supplies for the daily changing of my surgical bandages. On the left is my nurse, Diane, who took a “field trip” away from the cardiology unit to take me to the hospital pharmacy as I was being discharged. Don’t Ellen and Diane both have good color?

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo (a holiday with lots of good color) AND Diane’s birthday, and we talked about how she was working on her birthday and taking today off.

As we were waiting at the pharmacy, Diane said, “There’s Deeb!” because she saw one of my colorful cardiologists, Dr. Deeb Salem (who has appeared in many previous colorful blog posts, including one titled “Pink“).

Doesn’t Dr. Salem have good color, too?

Here’s some more good color I saw yesterday, after Ellen brought me home from the hospital:

                  

                

That last shot shows our cat Oscar, with good color, in the middle of the night. He is doing his best, there, to keep my color good by lying on the bed — safely away from me — as I heal from surgery. This is colorfully notable, simce Oscar loves to lie on people, as you can see here:

My boyfriend Michael, who has good color but does not like to appear in my blog, often says that Oscar looks “very brown in the morning.”

What do you think of all the good colors in this post?

Here‘s a good-color compilation of Todd Rundgren‘s 30 years of appearances on David Letterman shows:

If you start watching at 11:11, you’ll see the colorful images of Todd Rundgren (and Bobby Womack) included in my good-color collection of photos, above.

Good color thanks to Ellen, Diane, Dr. Deeb Salem, Dr. Mark Estes (who was in charge of my surgery Monday), our cats Harley and Oscar, my ex-sister-in-law Deborah for the Creative Cats book and the coloring pencils, my friend Jeanette for the white chocolate and other goodies, Michael for the good color dinner last night, Paul Nagano for the beautiful colors of spring on our living room wall, my son Aaron (who did some of the good color artwork in this post and who has a really good color hair), Todd Rundgren, Bobby Womack, David Letterman, Anne Tyler, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and you — of course! — for all the good color you bring, today.