dcnovice
Posts: 37282
Joined: 8/2/2006 Status: offline
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Thanks. everyone! Here's my latest update: Oct 18 | Messy Divorce She’s gone. During a ten-hour operation on Monday, Dr. John Marks and his team, including a massive robot, evicted MiMA from my rectum and rerouted my plumbing. I awoke Tuesday morning with a temporary colostomy that will handle waste disposal as my revamped exit route heals. I’ll likely have it at least three months. I won’t sugarcoat things: This recovery will be long and hard.. My innards have been massively reconfigured, and my abdomen—the equatorial region, as Woodrow Wilson would call it—hurts quite a bit. But the docs and nurses say I’m looking good and progressing appropriately. I finally ventured out of my room yesterday, with the aid of a walker. Made it about halfway down a long hall toward a window that promises enticing views. Reached 75 percent this morning. Actually gazed out the window this afternoon. Quite a comedown from the “death march” DC tours I once offered to friends and family! Around tea time, I was moved from the ICU when a bed finally opened up elsewhere. Hopefully things will be quieter. I’ve been struck constantly during this year’s hospital stays by how things seem almost designed to shatter patients’ opportunities for what Florence Nightingale identified as the primary key to healing—sleep. Sleep deprivation, the worst helplessness of my adult life, and the weary, unending struggle to navigate medical bureaucracy have rubbed me almost raw. So has pain, of course. I try not to inflict my low moods on my amazing parents (who have been love itself through this whole ordeal), but I don’t always succeed. Apologies, Mom and Dad! I’ve been buoyed by the love and support folks have given me, and I especially appreciate the ones sent via the Lankenau website (I think), because Mom kindly taped them to the wall opposite my bed, so I’m constantly reminded of folks’ loved. Replies will take a while, so please be patient. Thanks! Lots more to say, but no energy for saying it now. Stay tuned. Love to you all! Xxoo DC
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No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up. JANE WAGNER, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
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