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dcnovice -> DC Update: "Will I wake tomorrow...?" (8/1/2014 3:21:30 PM)
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August 1, 2014
“Will I wake tomorrow…?”
Dear Ones ---
Will I lose my dignity?
Will someone care?
Will I wake tomorrow
From this nightmare?
That trio of questions, sung by HIV patients in Rent, has lodged in my brain lately. The third query particularly haunts me.
It’s a cliché, I know, to talk about waking from a long nightmare, but part of me does feel I’ve been sleepwalking through a hellish dreamscape, with a single question in mind: Will this ever end?
Not quite yet, alas. I met with my plastic surgeon on Tuesday. The news was largely good: My wounds are healing nicely, and there’s no sign of infection. But I still can’t sit for more than two hours total on any given day. And one opening on my bottom may need some coaxing to close, since the flesh was damaged by radiation.
One tool for said coaxing may be hyperbaric oxygen therapy. That would involve my spending two hours a day in a pressurized chamber, breathing pure oxygen. Treatment would take place five days a week for a month or so. As you can imagine, my feelings about this are mixed. Obviously, I want to do whatever will heal me fully. But I hate the thought of yet another obstacle between me and the finish line. I’ll see the plastic surgeon again this coming Tuesday, at which point I’ll get her recommendation.
Or maybe I’ll wake tomorrow, my innards and my life intact, and marvel at what a long, strange trip it’s been.
Cheers,
DC
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