My Operation: Part 2
By Ernest Winchester
Copyright: 2010 by Ernest Winchester
Well, I definitely owe everyone an up date to my earlier missive ‘My Operation.’ I said that if anyone showed any interest I would update it once I returned home. I can’t begin to express my gratitude to everyone who reviewed it with so many encouraging thoughts and words. But I’ll get to more of that in a bit.
First, I guess, is the update. I returned from the hospital yesterday so I’ve been home less than a full day. The scar that I had assumed would be to the left side, instead runs straight up the middle for eight inches, veering around my navel, and crossed with short strips of tape that the doctor says will curl and fall off in a week or two. It looks like a broad zipper that I hope will never need to be opened again. (Technically, I guess, it’s not a scar just yet—only a wound.) The pain level was controlled throughout my eight-day stay and was managed with a morphine drip added to the other fluids that kept me hydrated. I don’t know what morphine would be like as a recreational drug, but it worked wonders controlling pain. I didn’t realize how wonderful until the IV was removed yesterday morning. Within an hour I was calling the nurse for the pain pill she had offered me when the IV was removed.
The doctors and nurses were most attentive, although being awaken from a sound sleep at midnight to check my ‘vitals’ was sometimes annoying (Even if it was by a pretty nurse.) The overall prognosis is excellent. No chemo or other follow-up needed. I say thanks to my VA physician for ordering the routine colonoscopy last spring, which I thought at the time, was only going to be a nuisance. So I add my voice to all the others and say, “get screened.” I had no indications or symptoms that anything was wrong and wouldn’t have known until it may have been too late.
Okay, enough of the gory details. Now to the thanks. I’ll start with the first review, ‘ackleybj.’ I don’t know if the reviewer is a he or she, but thanks for being the first of a long list of people who offered kind words and encouragement. (Would I sound sexist if I were to assume ‘she?’ After all, the distaff side of humanity is generally considered the nurturing half.) Thanks Cindy Winchester, (my sister-in-law), Shawn, and others who sent word outside the normal Smashwords.com review channel, Mark and Troy. Of the sixty plus down loads that didn’t leave a review, I would like to assume most were pulling for me.
And a special thanks to Janice Daugharty, whose many e-mails were much appreciated. She went beyond the call and provided me with a picture to attach to this posting, assuming I can figure out how to do it.
And one last time, to all, Thank You!
Ernie