Well, as some of you may know, Mallory had major back surgery on December 5. Everything went very well--Mallory was driving the car by the 18th. What follows is a digest of a long story.

The crap hit the fan--or rather it didn't. Mallory started having more and more pain and by the time Christmas came he was in misery. A call to the surgeon indicated that his bilge probably needed pumping. A dose of some terrible tasting stuff cleared that out. But still the pain continued. By New Year's Eve he had a fever and was in a real mess. The surgeon couldn't see him until the 3rd. When we arrived in his office, he took one look at Mallory and sent him directly to the emergency room saying he'd rarely seen anybody quite so sick. That's what we'd been saying on the phone.

Every test in the book was taken: Low, very, low blood pressure, high white count--in fact everything that was supposed to be low was high and vice-versa. Finally they took him to Intensive Care (a pig sty, by the way, and this in what was supposed to be a fancy West Hollywood movie star hospital). I stuck to him like glue, although they tried to get me to go home. No way! It turned out that I was with him for over two weeks, emptying his bucket and fluffing his bedding. After several days they decided he had a staph infection--which they got under control--but the pain hung on like pirate on a gibbet.

Finally they said they didn't know why he was hurting and sent him home! The idea was that he could be in pain at home as well as he could in the hospital. So he's home now, still feeling terrible. He's slightly better than he was, but still needs to stay in his den with only his den mother taking care of his needs.

We truly appreciate all the good words, thoughts and special vibes. We'll get through this and Mallory & McCall will be up and singing soon. But for now, all I can say is

Cheers?

Jan