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The view from the SkyBridge from the Hickel House to the hospital.

Me on the patio outside the Hickel House.

Common kitchen in the Hickel House

Dining and living rooms of the Hickel House.

Our room.

The Hickel House

Sorry about the lack of postings recently, but I haven't had much to say until today. Chris flew home on Sunday, which was sad. My mom arrived last night though. This morning, we called up the Hickel House at the Providence Alaska Medical Center, and they had a room for us. Marika has been a wonderful host, but we've been at her place for over 2 weeks, and if guests begin to smell after 3 days, I can only begin to imagine what it's like after 2 1/2 weeks! So my mom spent the morning packing up my stuff for me. It's very frustrating to not be able to do simple things like that for myself.

Then this afternoon, I had my weekly ob appointment. Everything continues to look fine. The good news is my doctor said that I can now liberalize my activity a little bit. I can go for car rides, we can go out to restaurants to eat or go to a movie! She also said that I can try walking a bit more, for up to an hour at a time. I'm probably going to take it slow at first, and slowly start walking more and more.

Later this afternoon, we moved our things over to the Hickel House. My mom had to lug all the luggage around and unpack all my things for me (again, very frustrating!). This is really a very nice place. Our room looks basically like any hotel room, but the common areas are really lovely.

Here is my new mailing address, in case anyone has any huge desire to write:

Walter J. & Ermalee Hickel House

ATTN: Kathryn Brigham, Room 207

3967 Piper St

Anchorage, AK 99508

We also have a direct line and voicemail in our room, and can be reached at 907-212-4207. But we also both have our cell phones and can be reached with those as well.

After we unpacked, we explored the area (which is when all the above pictures were taken). Since I'm now allowed to walk a bit more, we walked to the hospital via the SkyBridge and got a piece of chocolate pie for dessert later tonight.