Calling All Kitchen Angels

Dear Friends,

Chester is gratefully receiving donations of meals and food to nourish him during his continued rehabilitation and treatments. I will be coordinating the flock of kitchen angels, with the aim of always having meals on hand for Chester and his assistants. I will also be keeping a dynamic list of Chester's "favorites and requests". I hope that this coordination makes it easier for all of us Chefs and Cooks to provide food in an efficient and graceful flow.

If you would like to join the team of "Healthy Chester Chefs", please email me directly at chrys@healthychester.com. In your email, please indicate your availability for cooking and delivering meals to Chester's loft in Emeryville. Below are a few general suggestions and guidelines. I will be in touch with all the Chefs with requests/information each week.

Chester is currently enjoying:

+ Whole foods: fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh healthy meats (especially fish), and comforting rice and potatoes
+ Mild to moderately spicy foods
+ Soft textures
+ Warm food (not too cold or too hot, just right!)
+ Comfort foods, including cottage cheese, apple sauce and jello.
+ Meals that are brought prepared or ready-to-assemble
- Not too spicy, not too acidic, belly-pleasing foods

Please be in touch if you would like to bring a meal or other food to Chester. Many thanks!

Chrys Curtis-Fawley

From the New Digs

Hello all you floaters out there,
Sorry for the delay in posting updated information, but this past week has been one of extreme activity. On Tuesday Chester was discharged from the hospital, and we floated on over to his new apartment. As you can imagine, the place had a stove and refrigerator, even a dish washer, accessible sinks - but no furniture. By the end of that day, he had a bed, lamps, his computer, dishes and various other important items to make the place 'home' as much as possible. There were a few glitches, like the safety bars on the side of his bed being impossible for him to safely lower by himself without the danger of falling out of bed. That ability comes in handy when he has to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. A temporary solution was found and a different style bed is being ordered. Same problem with the wheelchair - too small to be a comfortable as it could be and is also being replaced. There are no dates on those being replaced as of yet.

All in all, it is a wonderful recovery space. The concrete floors give him free gliding in the chair and he walks confidently. The phone was installed yesterday, but as of yet there is no internet hookup, that will come on October 14th. That is one of the reasons there have not been any postings, since we have been there, setting things up and no internet access to let others know what is going on. Chester is doing well, and at this point, having another person be there is an important safety factor. He can use assistance in certain circumstances, but the reality is that he could do practically everything himself. Like he said today, something that took the two of us 30 seconds to do would have probably taken him 45 minutes to accomplish. But most of the time he prefers to do it himself.

He had his first session with the therapists from Rehabilitation Without Walls, and they have set up a schedule for Physical, Occupational and Speech therapy. Yesterday Chester climbed 18 stairs up and back down again. And for the first time since surgery, the therapist had him on his belly, and then on all fours, and putting weight on the arm and leg. He was ecstatic. So his accomplishments keep growing by leaps and bounds. His hair is starting to fall out, in a three inch band across the top of his head, ear to ear. Its an interesting look.

We are putting out the call for meals, people who are willing to stay overnight with Chester, and those who are able to take him to his daily chemo/radiation treatments. I'm going to find an online site to have a calendar (I believe Jay told me Yahoo offers that service) and we will have people sign up for meals on that site. The meals will be for two people, for Chester and the person staying with him. His food is covered till sometime next week thanks to Dane, and I'm sure I'll have the calendar in progress by then. I will post more information on this soon, but if you have a burning question (not food please) you can e-mail me at buttbreath@sbcglobal.net

Chester is really excited that he is going to be teaching the deep tissue massage class with Body Electric November 5 - 20th. He is saying that it might be his last class to teach, so if you are interested in one more class with Chester, call or notify Body Electric.

I have to check with Chester before posting his phone number and new address here on the blog. Keep in touch for more information soon.

Love, Marilyn

Outtage

If you've visited the blog in the past 24 hours, you may have gotten some strange errors about the server not being available. The site's provider had an outtage on two clusters of servers. As a result, we'll get a few free months of hosting for the trouble.

My apologies for the inconvenience. The trouble should now be over.

Jay