Surgery on Monday..........During the night on Monday, I became aware that I had a tube stuck through my nose and down my throat and I had a catheter. The throat tube was giveing me a sore throat, I didn't feel or wasn't aware of what the catheter was doing. On Tuesday morning someone came in and pulled out the throat tube and the catheter. Very uncerimonious ... and briefly painful. On Tuesday I rolled out of bed, VERY PAINFULL, stood up and waltzed one time around the nurses station with my IV pole. I had been told by a friend to get up and walk walk walk as soon as possible. I was not to have ANY food or drink until Wednesday evening. When you are being continually fed by an IV 24/7 you have to pee about every 2 hours. When they remove the catheter you then have to either roll out and sashy to the toilet or pee in the plastic bottle they supply (10% into the sheets!). I got up 4-5 tiimes each day and forced myself to walk around the hallways. You realize that the only person who really understand you is your 70-something roommate who is just as miserable as you. We could joke back and forth all night.
By Wednesday night I was watching movies on my laptop supplied by Roberta's son Clay. Black Sheep (vampire mutant sheep was a good gruseome comedy filmed in Australia). At 2:00 Man from Planet X ( a 50's black and white) got me back to sleep. I got out on Thursday morning. Taking my first shower, I could finally see that I have a stapled incision that starts high on my stomach, runs down about 6 inches, curves around my belly button and continues staight down another 2 inches. They've installed a sanitary pocket so that I can pretend to be Napolean next Halloween! (not). My wonderful oncologist came by on Wednesday and pronounced that the pathologist had been happy and that the preliminary diagnosis is Hodgkins Lymphoma. Roberta and I spent the night in Albuquerque with family and returned to Pagosa on Friday, July 3rd.
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