Thursday, September 14, 2006
The First Day of My Future
Yesterday was the first day that something was done about the growth(s) on my throat. It was the day of THE KNIFE. We arrived at Medical Cities Hospital at 6:15AM and were promptly escorted to a hospital room. They asked me remove all my clothing and dress in a H gown and two white support hose that went up to my rear. That was new for me. I told Joyce that I might try out one of her hot dresses with those cute stocking.
My next step was a long ride on my bed to a room containing 23 other patients on their beds parked side by side with a curtain dividing each patient’s area I said to my nurse, “Wow, I am amazed how little space. there is between areas”. She explained that this is just a holding area for before and after surgeries: That each patient would go to individual operating rooms and return to this room after surgeries. I said, “Then this is a Halfway house!”
I was innocent. I had never been in an operating room. I have had three Cardio Conversions! That’s when the heart is rebooted, stopped and restarted, to correct an irregular rhythm. And each occurred in a similar room over in the “heart” building but the individual areas were wider. Each time I was there they made a sandwich of me by placing a rubber mat with wires attached on my chest and back, put me to sleep and flipped a switch for the shock. Fortunately, the heart did restart with normal rhythm which they informed me when I awoke. There are two other options: (1.) It restarts in irregular rhythm called Atrial Fillibration that makes one feel lousy, or (2) It does not restart so the game is over.
When I was wheeled into the operating room, I thought,…hey this is just like “in the movies” then I was asleep! The anesthesiologist had hooked me up with the little bag at the halfway house and the contents did their job by the time I was inside the OR by a few seconds. Someone made a 2-3 inch cut on my neck; I say “someone” because I never saw anyone in the OR. How much did they remove…I don’t know but I did weigh two pounds less today than I did two days ago.
The surgeon visited with Joyce immediately afterwards. Told her that everything went well and we would know the results on Monday after the Pathologist do their jobs. We meet with Surgeon on Monday at 11 AM and the Oncologist at 2:40 PM. The Oncologist will develop and implement a game plan to solve this problem. The Oncologist, Dr. Ron Kerr, was referred by our family doctor whom we really like. And we believe he is the same Dr Ron Kerr that we know well from being in the same Toastmasters Club ten years ago. Small World!
After a brief stay back in the Half Way house, they returned me back to our H room. They gave me my first pain pill. Joyce asked if I felt like going to my college blogging class at 1PM. She volunteered that the Surgeon had said I could do anything I wanted to except drive. I told her that I really liked that man.
We picked up the prescription pain pills and went to the three hour blogging class. I felt better than I had for several days. Those pills are great. Joyce stayed in the class…and really enjoyed learning about this “blogging”. It’s amazing what all one can do when blogging. Different people use it different ways. Currently, millions of people around the world have their own blog site similar to this one. There are many available features. One example, readers of the blog can make comments back to author simply by clicking on the “comment” button. The blogger has several options: 1. Comment back on the comment,2. Leave comment on blog for all to see, or 3. Click on trashcan that deletes comments. Everything is tracked including the number of visitors//readers. Some blogs have so many readers (over 1M) that they sell advertising. I haven’t learned what they talk about to attract so many readers! And amazingly…..it’s free. Some people maintain several different Blog sites for different purposes.
Last night was one night I will never forget. Thanks to the pain pills…I felt great but I could not go to sleep. I would close my eyes trying to sleep but every few minutes I would open my eyes and the clock showed time was moving slowly. Then I realized that I was sleeping some because I was having some amazing dreams and it seems as though I was awake and was observing what I was dreaming. I had some amazing observations. One time I was floating through the skies of Montana looking down into some rough country. A few times I became concerned for my safety so…..I simply opened my eyes and looked at the four large numbers facing me (my alarm clock) to remind me that I had control…that I was dreaming. Three times I got up to take my pain pills, etc.. Each time I observed how great I felt. I thought …WOW…this is neat but I really need to get some sleep or I am will feel like crap tomorrow. In early morning I was shocked when observing my dreams to see that I was being unbelievably creative in giving solutions to things that I had no experience, education, etc. to do so. I felt great! I felt powerful! I opened my eyes once again to stare at the clock and prove to myself that I was dreaming Then I quickly closed my eyes and continued feeling great. And I became amazingly smart on something else that was new to me. I was impressed with my brilliance ,,my creativity. I felt good….then suddenly I thought……this must be how Rush Limbaugh felt when he was on his pain pills. That shocked me…I opened my eyes for reality…the four numbers were still staring at me. I closed my eyes to observe…”what’s next?” I observed that I still had that good feeling…I was impressed with how my brain was being so unusually creative. THEN A BIG QUESTION FLASHED THROGH MY MIND…”How many of those pills would I have to take……to own a $26,000,000 home?” I opened my eyes and stared at the clock. I told Joyce about my dreams. I went to the bathroom and picked up the pill bottle and read “Take as needed for PAIN!”
Yesterday was the first day that something was done about the growth(s) on my throat. It was the day of THE KNIFE. We arrived at Medical Cities Hospital at 6:15AM and were promptly escorted to a hospital room. They asked me remove all my clothing and dress in a H gown and two white support hose that went up to my rear. That was new for me. I told Joyce that I might try out one of her hot dresses with those cute stocking.
My next step was a long ride on my bed to a room containing 23 other patients on their beds parked side by side with a curtain dividing each patient’s area I said to my nurse, “Wow, I am amazed how little space. there is between areas”. She explained that this is just a holding area for before and after surgeries: That each patient would go to individual operating rooms and return to this room after surgeries. I said, “Then this is a Halfway house!”
I was innocent. I had never been in an operating room. I have had three Cardio Conversions! That’s when the heart is rebooted, stopped and restarted, to correct an irregular rhythm. And each occurred in a similar room over in the “heart” building but the individual areas were wider. Each time I was there they made a sandwich of me by placing a rubber mat with wires attached on my chest and back, put me to sleep and flipped a switch for the shock. Fortunately, the heart did restart with normal rhythm which they informed me when I awoke. There are two other options: (1.) It restarts in irregular rhythm called Atrial Fillibration that makes one feel lousy, or (2) It does not restart so the game is over.
When I was wheeled into the operating room, I thought,…hey this is just like “in the movies” then I was asleep! The anesthesiologist had hooked me up with the little bag at the halfway house and the contents did their job by the time I was inside the OR by a few seconds. Someone made a 2-3 inch cut on my neck; I say “someone” because I never saw anyone in the OR. How much did they remove…I don’t know but I did weigh two pounds less today than I did two days ago.
The surgeon visited with Joyce immediately afterwards. Told her that everything went well and we would know the results on Monday after the Pathologist do their jobs. We meet with Surgeon on Monday at 11 AM and the Oncologist at 2:40 PM. The Oncologist will develop and implement a game plan to solve this problem. The Oncologist, Dr. Ron Kerr, was referred by our family doctor whom we really like. And we believe he is the same Dr Ron Kerr that we know well from being in the same Toastmasters Club ten years ago. Small World!
After a brief stay back in the Half Way house, they returned me back to our H room. They gave me my first pain pill. Joyce asked if I felt like going to my college blogging class at 1PM. She volunteered that the Surgeon had said I could do anything I wanted to except drive. I told her that I really liked that man.
We picked up the prescription pain pills and went to the three hour blogging class. I felt better than I had for several days. Those pills are great. Joyce stayed in the class…and really enjoyed learning about this “blogging”. It’s amazing what all one can do when blogging. Different people use it different ways. Currently, millions of people around the world have their own blog site similar to this one. There are many available features. One example, readers of the blog can make comments back to author simply by clicking on the “comment” button. The blogger has several options: 1. Comment back on the comment,2. Leave comment on blog for all to see, or 3. Click on trashcan that deletes comments. Everything is tracked including the number of visitors//readers. Some blogs have so many readers (over 1M) that they sell advertising. I haven’t learned what they talk about to attract so many readers! And amazingly…..it’s free. Some people maintain several different Blog sites for different purposes.
Last night was one night I will never forget. Thanks to the pain pills…I felt great but I could not go to sleep. I would close my eyes trying to sleep but every few minutes I would open my eyes and the clock showed time was moving slowly. Then I realized that I was sleeping some because I was having some amazing dreams and it seems as though I was awake and was observing what I was dreaming. I had some amazing observations. One time I was floating through the skies of Montana looking down into some rough country. A few times I became concerned for my safety so…..I simply opened my eyes and looked at the four large numbers facing me (my alarm clock) to remind me that I had control…that I was dreaming. Three times I got up to take my pain pills, etc.. Each time I observed how great I felt. I thought …WOW…this is neat but I really need to get some sleep or I am will feel like crap tomorrow. In early morning I was shocked when observing my dreams to see that I was being unbelievably creative in giving solutions to things that I had no experience, education, etc. to do so. I felt great! I felt powerful! I opened my eyes once again to stare at the clock and prove to myself that I was dreaming Then I quickly closed my eyes and continued feeling great. And I became amazingly smart on something else that was new to me. I was impressed with my brilliance ,,my creativity. I felt good….then suddenly I thought……this must be how Rush Limbaugh felt when he was on his pain pills. That shocked me…I opened my eyes for reality…the four numbers were still staring at me. I closed my eyes to observe…”what’s next?” I observed that I still had that good feeling…I was impressed with how my brain was being so unusually creative. THEN A BIG QUESTION FLASHED THROGH MY MIND…”How many of those pills would I have to take……to own a $26,000,000 home?” I opened my eyes and stared at the clock. I told Joyce about my dreams. I went to the bathroom and picked up the pill bottle and read “Take as needed for PAIN!”
