Origami Cranes

An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone that folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy beasts , and is said to live for a thousand years. Over the past year Duke patients and families enduring the journey through the cancer experience have joined together to bring the 1,000 paper crane project to life.  To date over 3,000 cranes have been folded and are on display as a sign of encouragement. This joining of forces shows us that we are not alone.  Mine and Joe's sister-in-law, Sandy Okazaki, folded 25 cranes in Las Vegas and sent them to us to hang for Joe.  Each of the cranes has his name on them and they now join the other cranes in the lobby of the 9th floor which is the cancer floor.  Thank you Sandy, your love and caring for Joe is so greatly appreciated.

The cranes are so delicate and lovely.  Especially the ones made with the patterned paper.

Joe has been completely removed from all his tubes as of today.  No IV, no folley.  His pain level has increased, but most likely due to the fact that it has now been over 24 hours since the epidural was removed and his only relief are the 2 pain pills every 4 hours.  We walked a lot of laps around the floor this evening and he is currently sitting on the side of the bed tapping his feet.  Even after surgery, he can't keep from tapping his feet to the music in his head.  There are rumors that he might be allowed to go home tomorrow, but we are trying not to count our chickens before they hatch, so we will just wait and see!