About my second hospital stay ...

One of my Doctors wasn't very good about giving me the details about what my treatments were going to be.

Before my first round of Chemotherapy he said it would be like 4-5 days in the hospital. Turned out to be 8 with a 24 hour infusion of drugs for 7 of the 8 days.

The second visit, I was better prepared. Heck the hospital even called the night before and told me where and when to show up. Having the advance notice helped me to pack, but, it didn't help to forestall the boredom. I was bored within hours of starting this round.

This time, I had a compatriot in long hospital stays. It was a gentleman named Gordie, who was staying just down the hall for several weeks. One day I had the opportunity to ask him how he coped for such long stays when just a few days drove me stir-crazy? He said the secret is to make the hospital room as "home like" as possible, have a coffee maker, serve donuts, be able to walk around like a normal person (i.e. no IV post), and keep your wits about you. Gordie had a very very very very low white blood cell count as a side effect of Leukemia and even though he had run of the building, he couldn't go home. So, he'd have visitors and non-hospital food brought in. At least once someone brought his dog over for a visit in the grassy knoll near the parking lot. When he told me about how his dog had been dressed in scrubs and a mask ... it's a great image.

We'd visit for a few minutes each day and he made a darn good cup of coffee.

I wonder how he's been.

Well, now that that's all said and done ...

It's now been two weeks since my latest surgery which removed the tumor, and ulnar nerve from my right forearm. The sutures have been removed and I've been given the ok to do fun things (like go swimming).

Darn it, I'm tired. I was talking to Dave the other day about how I'm just tired. It's because we've been running with this for so long and now that we're done, the adrenaline rush is gone and the exhaustion has kicked in. I can cope.

Follow-up care is regular MRI's and CT Scans for the next couple of years. It appears that we're going to be keeping with my arm surgeon for the follow-ups. It's a good thing I like my arm surgeon.

At last ...

So tomorrow is the big day. Yes, THE day. Met with my Dr. in town, told me what was going to be done, options for tomorrow and yikes.