Yesterday I wrote that I was hoping to get outdoors to a park or something today. And sure enough, that’s what happened. After getting ready for an afternoon of adventuring, we headed toward the north shore (of the Pontchartrain, of course). Our first stop was a bar and grill where we might have had lunch. But Beth went inside to check it out, and she wasn’t very impressed. It was loud and crowded, and she didn’t think it would be a good place for me. You see, after visiting Buster’s Place, Beth has gotten much more protective of where we go. She doesn’t want me to choose some restaurant based on looks that turns out to be too noisy for my ears, and she doesn’t want us going somewhere I’ll have to travel over uneven floors where I might trip.
Anyhow, this bar and grill didn’t meet her standards, so we drove on and found a Japanese restaurant called Sake Garden. That’s when Beth pointed out one difference between restaurants in Louisiana and restaurants in Colorado. In Colorado, the names often have something to do with the food (style, quality, etc.) but here in Louisiana, the names have to do with what alcoholic beverage you might have while consuming the food. So, a tiny Japanese restaurant like this in Denver might be called Sushi Den or Sushi Garden or Happy Sushi or maybe Tokyo Garden. Here in Louisiana it’s Sake Garden or Sake Den or Fountain of Sake.
So we settled in and had lunch. I ordered the fish katsu bento box, which was a lot of food and way more than I could eat. Plus, almost all of it was really good. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one or two things above average, but the quality was really surprisingly consistently great. The only thing I didn’t like was the katsu sauce, which was homemade. I wish they would’ve used just the regular katsu sauce from a bottle. Anyhow, the meal came with my choice of soup (I chose clear having had more than enough miso in my life), a salad with carrot ginger dressing, a small makizushi roll with cucumber, shrimp, and avocado (it’s like they read my mind when I came in to know what flavors I like), two fried gyoza (would’ve preferred sauteed, but oh well), two pieces of katsu fried tilapia, katsu sauce, some steamed brown rice (they also offered steamed white or fried white), and a half an orange. Delicious!
After lunch, we drove down the road to the Fontainebleau State Park and parked. Their visitor center is only open on weekends in the winter, so we drove down to the shore. There was one other couple there with their dog. In other words, it was quiet and peaceful. They have one pier that goes out over the water, and we walked out there. I found that it was a good balance exercise for me. There was a railing the whole way, in case I got unsteady. And the varying winds and reflections on Lake Pontchartrain made it enough of a challenge to be interesting. When we got to the end, Beth took some video and still images of me, and then we went back to shore. There, I rested while she watched birds. We both had to go to the bathroom, so we only stuck around for an hour or so. The weather was clear, sunny, and cool, and I had a great time. And the walk was a good way to get in some of my balance exercises without really thinking about it.
My recovery self-assessment:
For me, getting out and walking around the park was a good milestone in my recovery. Other indicators are mixed, I guess you’d say. I only pooped once on Wednesday and it was a disappointing little thing, so I think I need to take more laxatives. Perhaps more important, I still can’t hear out of my right ear. I know that hearing takes a while to come back, though, so I’m patient that will fall into line with everything else.
Stubble is growing where Dr. Gianoli shaved the side of my head for the incision, and I’m not sure whether or not hair will grow back right on the incision or not. The left ear (the one that wasn’t operated on) seems fairly normal, but it’s hard to say since the right ear is so messed up at the moment.
I haven’t had any nausea symptoms at all. The main dizziness that I’m having at this point just happens for a minute or two after I get out of a car after having gone for a ride. There’s sort of a wave of dizziness and if I wait until after that happens before I start walking, everything’s fine. If I start walking first, then I have to stop and wait for the wave to wash over me and die down before I continue walking.
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