Category: The DayBook

No trip down to the Tidal Basin to look at cherry blossoms for me this year. But, we have cherry trees all over the place. These are outside the Central Library. Taken with the Panasonic Z15.

Mr C. was a little testy today. (And, I wasn’t exactly an angel of mercy!) I think this means that he is getting better. Tomorrow, it is off to see the plastic surgeon again.

It is tulip time. And I am not good at photographing tulips.

But, the surgeon just called. I was napping and Mr C had walked to the library – so, the message was left on the machine. Carlton’s pathology report came back and the cancer is apparently completely excised. (Pathology reports can be wrong – but we choose to believe this one.) So, Happy Day – no radiation. This makes the giant hole and the catheter seem like no biggie.

After about 2PM yesterday afternoon DH sort of went downhill. He developed “acute urinary retention”. You can imagine what that means. At 8PM yesterday evening we were off to the ER. A catheter was promptly installed and by 10PM we were back home. By 11PM we were back at the ER because DH started having some bleeding from the catheter site. He was told “not to worry” and we came home. Half way home, we realize that we left all the paperwork from the two ER visits behind. Back to the ER. Get the paperwork. It is now after midnight and I decide that I am not getting into my jammies, I am going to just sleep in my clothes. But, we didn’t have to go back to the hospital.

Oh, and did I mention have we could not get in touch with his surgeon? Hello, surgeon, if you get 3 calls from someone you operated on in the morning – maybe you could call back, would that be too hard? Heck my dentist calls me in the evening if he did something “serious” to me during the day. It’s just good business.

This morning he spent a couple of hours trying to find someone who will take the catheter out. And take care of him, in case he still has “acute urinary retention”. Found someone who is geographically undesirable who will do it on Thursday. Beggars can’t be choosers. He also developed a little fever. And, his surgical dressing is looking pretty sorry. His plastic surgeon will look it at wound tomorrow morning.

The patient has eaten a banana, a muffin, and a serving of mac&cheese with a sliced tomato and two big cookies today. And, he is walking around the building and reading his Kindle. We must have been a sight yesterday in the ER – each of us seeking to escape in our Kindles.

If you got frequent flyer miles for medical hassles – we would be well on our way to a first class trip to the Maldives!

But, the sun was out. It was toasty warm. I put on my shorts, grabbed my favorite camera, slapped an old 70 mm prime lens on it and went out for a walk.

Got Mr C home shortly before noon. He drank a cup of coffee. Ate a granola bar. Opened windows. Closed blinds. And took a nap. He is doing better than can be expected. That is the good news.

The bad news is that the cancer surgeon and plastic surgeon decided, whilst Carlton was “under”, that they were not going to close the excision site. The story is that there is too much exposed bone and “of course” a skin graft will not graft to bone. So, he is a little grumpy about that. So, in a couple of weeks – we’ll do the surgery thing again – and he’ll get sewed up. And, there is the hernia thing too. We’ll be regulars in the COPS (Center for Out-Patient Surgery) unit. Welcome to old age.

Tomorrow is Carlton’s operation. This isn’t one of his usual office visit, Novocain, snip snip, and sew up jobs. This is a real operation. Two surgeons, anesthesia, recovery room. Hopefully they will get enough of the cancer to give him 4 or 5 more good years.

We’ll show up at the hospital at 0600 hours. The operation is supposed to start at 0730. It will be over when it is over. Then I’ll bring him home.

I think Mr told his friends that I would report on his status here. And so I will. As soon as there is status to report.

Still waiting for warmer weather. But the early magnolias are loving it.

And there is more scaffolding around the Washington Monument.

These fotos were taken with “the camera the costs as much as a car”, my beloved but clunky Panasonic L1.

Sunny and 65° today. That’s more like it.

The Hospital called Mr C today and asked him when he retired and when I retired. Now what does that have to do with anything??? I am just bitchy enough to tell them that isn’t any of their business. But, he told them. Which, considering that they are going to be coming at him with sharpened knives, was the prudent action.

Yes, when I woke up this morning my computer weather announced it was 30° with chance of wild fires this afternoon. That sounds like some Miltonian version of Hades. Carlton’s cancer not withstanding, we came home 30 days too soon this year.

We are all chuckling about the boy tyrant in North Korea. We should remember that while pitt bulls are dangerous, chihuahuas with rabies are more dangerous.

One of the women I work with told me to just chill about Carlton’s attempt micro-manage his illness. The weather is sure helping with the chilling!

Mr C is pressuring his doctors to just cut out the cancer and sew him back up. The doctors wanted to cut the cancer out and leave him unstitched for a couple of days while they pondered the biopsy results. Mr C wasn’t having any of that. He told them to just sew him up. The doctors said – OK – we’ll do a skin graft so we can go back in easily. Today, Mr C decided that he didn’t want the skin graft either. He is fussing with the doctors about that.

I am just sort of exhausted. I have been trying to get him treatment for the last four months. He has been resisting for just as long. I am sure he is just as tired as I am.

Opening Day One – Nats Win! Good start.

Opening Day Two – Carlton’s surgery is scheduled for next Monday, April 8 at 0730. Time to get this show on the road.

PS – More on Easter. I got a couple of dark chocolate covered pineapple bunnies. When I bit the ears off, I felt very religious.

 

Just why is it that the Christians commemorate the Romans nailing a nice Jewish boy to a tree by having a white rabbit deliver colored chicken eggs to good little boys and girls?

Cold and damp again.

At long last – a nice warm and sunny day. It did wonders for my outlook. Nothing changed except the weather. But, I’ll take it.

Just looked out the window and noticed that the light was on the Washington Monument and it’s new scaffolding. It will be up for a year or so. It would be great if they light the scaffolding – but – I bet they won’t.

 

Not the greatest photo – Hand held, max zoom from the balcony…