Well, it’s Christmas Day 2019. The tree is shining brightly and adorned with ornaments collected throughout the years. Many are handmade and each one holds a special memory for me and my wife. The TV is playing old Christmas shows one after another. I'm sitting in front of it with my feet up in my chair enjoying a hot cup of coffee. My wife is in her chair occupied with her phone waiting to see pictures of the grand kids and their presents. We’ve enjoyed a very quiet and peaceful Christmas morning.
Our kids are grown with families of their own, and they all live far away. I miss the tromp of little feet coming down the hall to get us out of bed so that they could open presents. I miss the sleepy eyes that brightened up when they saw their gift. I miss the rumpled hair, the scrambling around the tree, the squeals of delight, and all the commotion. Most of all, I miss them sitting in my lap showing off their present and the thank you with a hug attached. Those Christmas days were the best. For us they are gone now. I completely understand, but, I don’t like it.
Ahhh...the smell of giblet gravy simmering on the stove makes me sure that dressing is in the stove. There’s always ham, sweet potato casserole, peas, butter beans, corn, mac&cheese, rolls to go with the chicken dressing, and sweet tea or soda pop to drink...and then Mamaw’s chocolate pie, or lemon pie, or pecan pie, or various cakes...Mmmmm...wait, none of this is happening this year. For the first time in my life, there’ll be no family gathering and meal on Christmas Day. My mother is no longer able to host a big meal even when we all bring good dishes. I miss the meal and fellowship of my kin. I just don’t like it.
With age comes the realization that our children no longer need us in the same way they once did. I know that they still love us, but our position has moved from in the midst to the outside looking in.
We are now more peripheral and that’s difficult...especially for my wife. How many times a day do I hear her say “I wish they’d call me!”. I suppose every loving parent must accept this..and yes, we have the electronic solutions—FaceTime, Skype, Messenger, messages and all that. It’s just not the same. I don’t like it.
Now, having read to this point, one might think that I don't like Christmas! Not so at all, I love celebrating the birth of my Savior and all that goes with it. I still have visions of sugarplums, I adore the Christmas music, and, I am very grateful for all the Lord has allowed me. I look forward to many more. I know they will be different than what I long for, but, time has a way of changing things quite a lot. My life is now made up of more yesterdays than tomorrows!..quite a sobering thought! Getting old is not for sissies for sure! I don't like it!
May you all have a very blessed and merry Christmas with family and friends. Now, I Do like that!
Showing posts with label elderly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elderly. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
How I grow tomatoes, aka 'maters
For most southern folk, the time period between mid-August till early June is a little sad because we have to buy our tomatoes from a store somewhere. Although better than nothing, we enjoy eating them about as much as we enjoy going to the dentist! They are often tough skinned, bland flavored and the fleshy part is... well...it's just a sad time if you like tomatoes! Here's how I grow tomatoes every year.
I set my plants in basically the same spot of ground every year because it seems to suit them very well. Once every 5 years or so I cut in some lime. This helps prevent the bottom rot on the fruit. Other than that I just use commercial fertilizer (13-13-13) and ammonia (34-0-0).
I order tomato seed around the first of December each year. Better Boy hybrids are my favorite, but, Big Boy, Celebrity, Marion, and Early Girl are also good choices. Beefsteaks hold up good in hot and dry weather, but have too much of a stem core to suit me. Heirloom varieties are good too, but, my wife likes her tomatoes red! I plant the seed one at a time in seed trays about the middle of January to have them big enough to set out by March. It's trouble having to move the trays in and out from the cold and keeping the plants watered, but once they get two sets of leaves on them, they are ready to go.
Here in the deep south, the weather usually agrees and the ground begins to warm around the first week or two in March. Sometimes (as it was this year) I have to cover the plants overnight to keep frost from killing them but those that survive will produce by early June. In the meantime I fertilize them generously, set a wire and stick each plant. As the vines grow, I tie them to their stick with jute string and prune out every sucker branch keeping only the main vine climbing the pole. Tomatoes really like ammonia, so about every week and a half or so, I pitch about a table spoon at the base of each plant, but not directly touching the plant. Ammonia causes the stems to thicken which makes the plant much more hardy and it also causes the plant to produce more fruit. I use a garden tiller to keep the middles clean and an old fashion hoe to work between the plants.
The next thing to consider is bug control. In my little piece of the world, I must defeat aphids, white flies, spider mites and horned worms. Aphids are stem and leaf suckers while white flies and spider mites ruin the blooms. Tomato worms consume the leaves and stems. Later on in the summer we are beset by stinkbugs. You can buy various products that supposedly will control each pest, but, that can get expensive and may or may not control them. You also must be a little concerned about consuming the chemical products, so, be sure to read the labels! I discovered by looking at a label for a certain pest control product that it contained 95% canola oil and sold for $16.95. Well shoot, you can buy a jug of canola oil for less than 3 bucks, so I bought some and found that if you mix a cup of canola oil to a gallon of water and spray it as needed, it will keep these pests off. I still use Sevin dust for the worms and I've also found that dawn dish wash soap mixed in water kills stink bugs. So there you have it.
This year I have around 225 tomato plants in my garden. I am getting some fine tomatoes now and I have about 90 plants that are just getting big enough to stick. A home grown tomato tastes nothing like one bought in a store or from a green house. The flavor and acidity make all the work worth while. We eat them every day while we have them fresh from the garden. Two pieces of loaf bread with mayonnaise and a big ol slice or two of fresh cold tomato will make a fellow want to slap something!
They are also delicious as sides for other meals. Sometimes we just peel and slice one, salt it a little and just eat plain tomato! Green tomato slices coated in meal and fried in hot grease are plumb sinful. They make salads taste totally different and tomato juice keeps several years in mason jars, so my wife puts up a lot of juice each year to make stews and soups for all my family.
It does take a little hard work and time spent to have good tomatoes, but, in the end when you taste one you will be glad. I also very much enjoy giving some away to my neighbors. Most all of us love tomatoes but not all are able to grow their own.
If you can keep the plants watered and mostly free of bugs, they will make until frost so, set out some tomatoes around your house somewhere and enjoy the fresh juicy taste of a home grown tomato. I promise there's nothing else like it!
I set my plants in basically the same spot of ground every year because it seems to suit them very well. Once every 5 years or so I cut in some lime. This helps prevent the bottom rot on the fruit. Other than that I just use commercial fertilizer (13-13-13) and ammonia (34-0-0).
I order tomato seed around the first of December each year. Better Boy hybrids are my favorite, but, Big Boy, Celebrity, Marion, and Early Girl are also good choices. Beefsteaks hold up good in hot and dry weather, but have too much of a stem core to suit me. Heirloom varieties are good too, but, my wife likes her tomatoes red! I plant the seed one at a time in seed trays about the middle of January to have them big enough to set out by March. It's trouble having to move the trays in and out from the cold and keeping the plants watered, but once they get two sets of leaves on them, they are ready to go.
Here in the deep south, the weather usually agrees and the ground begins to warm around the first week or two in March. Sometimes (as it was this year) I have to cover the plants overnight to keep frost from killing them but those that survive will produce by early June. In the meantime I fertilize them generously, set a wire and stick each plant. As the vines grow, I tie them to their stick with jute string and prune out every sucker branch keeping only the main vine climbing the pole. Tomatoes really like ammonia, so about every week and a half or so, I pitch about a table spoon at the base of each plant, but not directly touching the plant. Ammonia causes the stems to thicken which makes the plant much more hardy and it also causes the plant to produce more fruit. I use a garden tiller to keep the middles clean and an old fashion hoe to work between the plants.
The next thing to consider is bug control. In my little piece of the world, I must defeat aphids, white flies, spider mites and horned worms. Aphids are stem and leaf suckers while white flies and spider mites ruin the blooms. Tomato worms consume the leaves and stems. Later on in the summer we are beset by stinkbugs. You can buy various products that supposedly will control each pest, but, that can get expensive and may or may not control them. You also must be a little concerned about consuming the chemical products, so, be sure to read the labels! I discovered by looking at a label for a certain pest control product that it contained 95% canola oil and sold for $16.95. Well shoot, you can buy a jug of canola oil for less than 3 bucks, so I bought some and found that if you mix a cup of canola oil to a gallon of water and spray it as needed, it will keep these pests off. I still use Sevin dust for the worms and I've also found that dawn dish wash soap mixed in water kills stink bugs. So there you have it.
This year I have around 225 tomato plants in my garden. I am getting some fine tomatoes now and I have about 90 plants that are just getting big enough to stick. A home grown tomato tastes nothing like one bought in a store or from a green house. The flavor and acidity make all the work worth while. We eat them every day while we have them fresh from the garden. Two pieces of loaf bread with mayonnaise and a big ol slice or two of fresh cold tomato will make a fellow want to slap something!
They are also delicious as sides for other meals. Sometimes we just peel and slice one, salt it a little and just eat plain tomato! Green tomato slices coated in meal and fried in hot grease are plumb sinful. They make salads taste totally different and tomato juice keeps several years in mason jars, so my wife puts up a lot of juice each year to make stews and soups for all my family.
It does take a little hard work and time spent to have good tomatoes, but, in the end when you taste one you will be glad. I also very much enjoy giving some away to my neighbors. Most all of us love tomatoes but not all are able to grow their own.
If you can keep the plants watered and mostly free of bugs, they will make until frost so, set out some tomatoes around your house somewhere and enjoy the fresh juicy taste of a home grown tomato. I promise there's nothing else like it!
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Scary Moments
I realize that with age health issues may arise. I just expected that I would be the first to go down with something...not my wife! We both had colonoscopies at the recommended ages. Mine was clear but she had polyps. We were informed by the doctor that there are two types of polyps. The normal polyp grows outward from the colon wall and is generally benign. He removed them easily with the endoscope. He called these "tree" polyps. The other polyp grows laterally within the wall of the colon and because of this, he called it a "flat" polyp. These are more difficult to detect and remove than the others. My precious wife had one flat polyp and a couple of tree polyps. The first time, the flat polyp was small enough that he was able to remove it somehow with the scope. I was told to have another scope when my insurance allowed, but, because of the flat polyp, my wife needed to be checked in a couple of years.
Time passes quickly and my wife goes in for her second colonoscopy. This time the doctor finds more tree polyps and wants to see her again in a year. I remember my wife saying, "I must be growing a forest in my colon!". We are concerned , but, the doctor assures us that all is well and she just needs to be checked within the next year. Ok...it is what it is.
The third colonoscopy revealed that she had two almost nothing tree polyps and another flat one. While waking up from the anesthesia, she overhears one of the nurses say "She'll need to see a surgeon." This scares my wife to death even though she's still not completely coherent from the anesthesia. While she's waking up, the doctor comes and informs me that she has one "unusually large" flat polyp that has grown so deep in the wall of her colon that he could not remove it with his instrument safely, so he marked it with blue dye and a gold marker. He assured me that it didn't look cancerous but he biopsied it just in case. At this point we get a medical term for her condition..."tubular adenoma". "I want to see her in two weeks." he said. Two weeks pass..two weeks!...and her doctor knew the day of her colonoscopy what we would be up against. Why he did not inform us that day is beyond me...makes a body wonder if he simply didn't think it urgent enough or knowing we were at his mercy, maybe he wanted a little more money before he turned us over to the next guy! Surely it was the former...still? *scratchin my head*.
Again at this visit, the news almost blows my wife away. The doctor tells her that he must refer her to a surgeon for a colon resection operation. This is startling news as she has no symptoms whatsoever! He explains to her that the polyp has grown deep into her colon wall and removing it by surgery is the only way. He then told her that the biopsy showed the polyp benign at the moment but it was precancerous and had to be dealt with. Six inches to a foot of colon would have to be removed. I suppose he saw the shocked, frightened and then despondent look on her face, then he told her, "Don't worry...Don't worry! You have plenty of colon. You won't even miss it!". If he thought this would calm her down he was badly mistaken! Now I'm scared too!
Another couple of weeks before we see the surgeon gives us time to research the operation. We find that most are done with a scope and hospital stay is from 3 to 7 days. This is a MAJOR surgery. A section of the colon is removed with instruments that reach through small incisions rather than a single large incision. Because of this, recuperation time is much shorter...supposedly. We proceed to the surgeon's office for the initial visit and he begins to explain the operation. He says he plans to start with the scope, but, it might be necessary to open her up. It would depend on what he found when he got in. An x-ray had been sent to his office showing the location of the polyp in her transverse colon, but he had not looked at it yet, so, his explanation as to what he would do was not explicit at all. He told us that if the adenoma was left of her center line, he would take a 6 to 8 inch section out. If the adenoma was right of her center line, he would take her entire colon from the spot down to her appendix, then stretch the two sections together attaching the small duct at the head of the small intestine to the large intestine. The only other option was to plug out the spot, but, this would risk having to go back in with a much more invasive procedure should the polyp show cancer. Well?...what can you do? We set the date for her surgery on December 28 with the assurance of the surgeon that he would do whatever was necessary to make sure all areas that could be cancerous are removed. He tells us not to worry, he has done thousands of these operations, he is confident that he can fix her completely with no leaks. His confidence that all will go well gives us some peace of mind. He tells us that 3 to 4 days in the hospital after surgery is the normal because it takes a while for the colon to "wake up" after such trauma. Still, you can't help but worry.
During the time till surgery date, my gritty wife develops the "Well...the thing has to come out, so, let's get it over with!" attitude and I assure you that many prayers were offered by each of us and our immediate family. As the word got out to her friends and the community, she began to hear from some of them that they had undergone the same surgery. This eased her mind greatly that everything would be alright...mine too. Our church family gave us great support and encouragement and their prayers were truly felt. Now it's just count the days till the 28th. One bottle of magnesium citrate and a light dose of laxative is all the prep required on the 27th and she's good to go.
The day of the surgery arrived and we were to be at the hospital at 6AM. We park in the parking garage and walk down to admissions pulling and carrying luggage enough for a 3 or 4 day stay. We spend the next 20 minutes or so standing in line waiting to be admitted. A wristband is applied and we're off to the same day surgery center of the hospital. The nurse at the desk takes her papers and whisks us off to a room where we are told to wait till the surgeon and operating room is ready. She gets her hospital robe on and climbs up in the bed. Shortly a nurse comes in and after several questions about previous surgeries and medicine allergies etc, my wife is given a saline drip for hydration purposes. We are told that it shouldn't be long, so, the wait begins. Next comes the anesthesiologist who explains how she would be put under. He was impressive with his plan and we were satisfied that he knew his business. About 45 minutes later and after we had dragged her drip line and bag to the bathroom about a dozen times, *whew*, she is given two valium tablets. I know now that it won't be too long before they take her back. Within ten minutes she is really...I mean REALLY relaxed. She thinks that she can't open her eyes, so she jabbers with her eyes closed. She tells everyone that speaks that she loves them..even total strangers! My two daughters who were there with us told her afterward, "Mama, We've seen you on drugs now!".
Soon she is wheeled back to the operating room and I am told to wait by the phone to be updated as needed. About 30 minutes pass and at 10:35AM, the nurse calls and tells me they are about to start. She also tells me to expect an hour to hour and a half operation. I spend the next 20 minutes or so notifying friends and family via text message that the operation has begun. An hour passes and no word yet. I'm a little worried, but there's still a half hour to play with. Another 30 minutes pass and still no word...now I'm getting scared. "Something must be wrong!...What if they can't stop a leak?...What if he has to take the entire colon and build a colostomy? (He had assured us that no ostomy would be needed unless something went wrong)...What if she died!" are things that run through a semi-panicked mind. Finally within the next few minutes I get the call that they are finishing up and it went well. I am relieved of course but still wonder why it took so long. After several minutes the doctor comes in and tells me that he removed about 6 inches of the transverse colon. He said that it took longer because in the time since the last colonoscopy, the blue dye and marker had been lost, so he had to use the x-ray and pinpoint the lesion by measurement. Once the position was located, he found it difficult to reach due to scar tissue from previous hysterectomy and tubal ligation surgeries. He said he had to move a "lot of stuff around" to get to it and finally could not get the section out with his instruments. He explained that he had to expand the primary incision just slightly so that he could get his fingers inside her enough that he could get the section out. Once that was done, he said the rest was a "piece of cake" and that the polyp did not look cancerous to him or his associates at all. I asked if he had removed lymph nodes also. He said there might be two or three along the section removed, but he deemed it unnecessary to remove any others as he was confident that there was no cancer. The section would be sent to pathology for testing to make sure and we should hear from them in a few days. Great news!
A few minutes later a nurse tells me to gather my bags and report to room 336 in the hospital and wait about an hour for her to come out of recovery. I tell all our folks who are waiting in the lobby and proceed to the room. Finally after two solid hours they bring her up to the room. She is still under the effects of the anesthesia and pain medicines, so, she still loves everybody! I'm so glad the operation is over that I just about can't stand it! She shows us the incisions and I count 4 staples just under her breast bone, 16 holding together the larger incision from just above her navel to a couple inches below and small taped puncture wounds on either side of the center line of her abdomen. She says nothing hurts and she thinks this won't be as bad as the hysterectomy. The first afternoon and night were good. She slept from the medicines she had been given. I tried to sleep on a cot provided but wound up just sitting in a very uncomfortable chair thinking what in the world would I do if I had lost her.
The next day she began to hurt...not so much a continuous pain, but sharp pain when she tried to move. Moving from one side to the other hurt her, the process of sitting up on the side of the bed hurt her etc. A morphine pain pump had been supplied for her to use as needed but she determined that she would not because she was afraid it would make her gag and heave. That would really hurt. She bore the pain till the end of that day. Finally her nurse asked her about pain and she explained that she feared the morphine. The nurse said "We can give you Norco ( hydrocodein) tablets for the pain. This was great because she had used them before through the years with no side effects. Also her mouth was dry as a desert because of the nausea patch that had been applied on surgery day. The nurse removed it and promised to bring some kind of lemon flavored swab to help the dryness. Things like this are available to surgery patients, but, the average person(like us) wouldn't know to ask! Not long after the pain pills, she sleeps all night. I am exhausted by now and the body reaches a point where it has to rest, so, even on the most uncomfortable cot in the world, I slept most all night too. During the rest of our stay, short naps were all we could do.
Her doctor checked on her promptly at 8AM each day and told us everything looked good. All she needed to do to go home was have a bowel movement. Finally on the 4th day, New Years eve, we are allowed to come home. Yesterday we heard that the pathology was clear and no cancer was present. The cells tested precancerous as they had before. We still have a follow up visit to attend, but she's now on the mend. Perhaps this story will help prepare someone who is about to undergo a colon resection surgery. There will be some scary moments, but, the choice of not seeing a gastro specialist for a colonoscopy and winding up with colon cancer is much scarier! Get your colon checked..it saved my wife from the horrible experience of cancer treatment. It can save your life!
Praise the Lord who watches over us all!
Time passes quickly and my wife goes in for her second colonoscopy. This time the doctor finds more tree polyps and wants to see her again in a year. I remember my wife saying, "I must be growing a forest in my colon!". We are concerned , but, the doctor assures us that all is well and she just needs to be checked within the next year. Ok...it is what it is.
The third colonoscopy revealed that she had two almost nothing tree polyps and another flat one. While waking up from the anesthesia, she overhears one of the nurses say "She'll need to see a surgeon." This scares my wife to death even though she's still not completely coherent from the anesthesia. While she's waking up, the doctor comes and informs me that she has one "unusually large" flat polyp that has grown so deep in the wall of her colon that he could not remove it with his instrument safely, so he marked it with blue dye and a gold marker. He assured me that it didn't look cancerous but he biopsied it just in case. At this point we get a medical term for her condition..."tubular adenoma". "I want to see her in two weeks." he said. Two weeks pass..two weeks!...and her doctor knew the day of her colonoscopy what we would be up against. Why he did not inform us that day is beyond me...makes a body wonder if he simply didn't think it urgent enough or knowing we were at his mercy, maybe he wanted a little more money before he turned us over to the next guy! Surely it was the former...still? *scratchin my head*.
Again at this visit, the news almost blows my wife away. The doctor tells her that he must refer her to a surgeon for a colon resection operation. This is startling news as she has no symptoms whatsoever! He explains to her that the polyp has grown deep into her colon wall and removing it by surgery is the only way. He then told her that the biopsy showed the polyp benign at the moment but it was precancerous and had to be dealt with. Six inches to a foot of colon would have to be removed. I suppose he saw the shocked, frightened and then despondent look on her face, then he told her, "Don't worry...Don't worry! You have plenty of colon. You won't even miss it!". If he thought this would calm her down he was badly mistaken! Now I'm scared too!
Another couple of weeks before we see the surgeon gives us time to research the operation. We find that most are done with a scope and hospital stay is from 3 to 7 days. This is a MAJOR surgery. A section of the colon is removed with instruments that reach through small incisions rather than a single large incision. Because of this, recuperation time is much shorter...supposedly. We proceed to the surgeon's office for the initial visit and he begins to explain the operation. He says he plans to start with the scope, but, it might be necessary to open her up. It would depend on what he found when he got in. An x-ray had been sent to his office showing the location of the polyp in her transverse colon, but he had not looked at it yet, so, his explanation as to what he would do was not explicit at all. He told us that if the adenoma was left of her center line, he would take a 6 to 8 inch section out. If the adenoma was right of her center line, he would take her entire colon from the spot down to her appendix, then stretch the two sections together attaching the small duct at the head of the small intestine to the large intestine. The only other option was to plug out the spot, but, this would risk having to go back in with a much more invasive procedure should the polyp show cancer. Well?...what can you do? We set the date for her surgery on December 28 with the assurance of the surgeon that he would do whatever was necessary to make sure all areas that could be cancerous are removed. He tells us not to worry, he has done thousands of these operations, he is confident that he can fix her completely with no leaks. His confidence that all will go well gives us some peace of mind. He tells us that 3 to 4 days in the hospital after surgery is the normal because it takes a while for the colon to "wake up" after such trauma. Still, you can't help but worry.
During the time till surgery date, my gritty wife develops the "Well...the thing has to come out, so, let's get it over with!" attitude and I assure you that many prayers were offered by each of us and our immediate family. As the word got out to her friends and the community, she began to hear from some of them that they had undergone the same surgery. This eased her mind greatly that everything would be alright...mine too. Our church family gave us great support and encouragement and their prayers were truly felt. Now it's just count the days till the 28th. One bottle of magnesium citrate and a light dose of laxative is all the prep required on the 27th and she's good to go.
The day of the surgery arrived and we were to be at the hospital at 6AM. We park in the parking garage and walk down to admissions pulling and carrying luggage enough for a 3 or 4 day stay. We spend the next 20 minutes or so standing in line waiting to be admitted. A wristband is applied and we're off to the same day surgery center of the hospital. The nurse at the desk takes her papers and whisks us off to a room where we are told to wait till the surgeon and operating room is ready. She gets her hospital robe on and climbs up in the bed. Shortly a nurse comes in and after several questions about previous surgeries and medicine allergies etc, my wife is given a saline drip for hydration purposes. We are told that it shouldn't be long, so, the wait begins. Next comes the anesthesiologist who explains how she would be put under. He was impressive with his plan and we were satisfied that he knew his business. About 45 minutes later and after we had dragged her drip line and bag to the bathroom about a dozen times, *whew*, she is given two valium tablets. I know now that it won't be too long before they take her back. Within ten minutes she is really...I mean REALLY relaxed. She thinks that she can't open her eyes, so she jabbers with her eyes closed. She tells everyone that speaks that she loves them..even total strangers! My two daughters who were there with us told her afterward, "Mama, We've seen you on drugs now!".
Soon she is wheeled back to the operating room and I am told to wait by the phone to be updated as needed. About 30 minutes pass and at 10:35AM, the nurse calls and tells me they are about to start. She also tells me to expect an hour to hour and a half operation. I spend the next 20 minutes or so notifying friends and family via text message that the operation has begun. An hour passes and no word yet. I'm a little worried, but there's still a half hour to play with. Another 30 minutes pass and still no word...now I'm getting scared. "Something must be wrong!...What if they can't stop a leak?...What if he has to take the entire colon and build a colostomy? (He had assured us that no ostomy would be needed unless something went wrong)...What if she died!" are things that run through a semi-panicked mind. Finally within the next few minutes I get the call that they are finishing up and it went well. I am relieved of course but still wonder why it took so long. After several minutes the doctor comes in and tells me that he removed about 6 inches of the transverse colon. He said that it took longer because in the time since the last colonoscopy, the blue dye and marker had been lost, so he had to use the x-ray and pinpoint the lesion by measurement. Once the position was located, he found it difficult to reach due to scar tissue from previous hysterectomy and tubal ligation surgeries. He said he had to move a "lot of stuff around" to get to it and finally could not get the section out with his instruments. He explained that he had to expand the primary incision just slightly so that he could get his fingers inside her enough that he could get the section out. Once that was done, he said the rest was a "piece of cake" and that the polyp did not look cancerous to him or his associates at all. I asked if he had removed lymph nodes also. He said there might be two or three along the section removed, but he deemed it unnecessary to remove any others as he was confident that there was no cancer. The section would be sent to pathology for testing to make sure and we should hear from them in a few days. Great news!
A few minutes later a nurse tells me to gather my bags and report to room 336 in the hospital and wait about an hour for her to come out of recovery. I tell all our folks who are waiting in the lobby and proceed to the room. Finally after two solid hours they bring her up to the room. She is still under the effects of the anesthesia and pain medicines, so, she still loves everybody! I'm so glad the operation is over that I just about can't stand it! She shows us the incisions and I count 4 staples just under her breast bone, 16 holding together the larger incision from just above her navel to a couple inches below and small taped puncture wounds on either side of the center line of her abdomen. She says nothing hurts and she thinks this won't be as bad as the hysterectomy. The first afternoon and night were good. She slept from the medicines she had been given. I tried to sleep on a cot provided but wound up just sitting in a very uncomfortable chair thinking what in the world would I do if I had lost her.
The next day she began to hurt...not so much a continuous pain, but sharp pain when she tried to move. Moving from one side to the other hurt her, the process of sitting up on the side of the bed hurt her etc. A morphine pain pump had been supplied for her to use as needed but she determined that she would not because she was afraid it would make her gag and heave. That would really hurt. She bore the pain till the end of that day. Finally her nurse asked her about pain and she explained that she feared the morphine. The nurse said "We can give you Norco ( hydrocodein) tablets for the pain. This was great because she had used them before through the years with no side effects. Also her mouth was dry as a desert because of the nausea patch that had been applied on surgery day. The nurse removed it and promised to bring some kind of lemon flavored swab to help the dryness. Things like this are available to surgery patients, but, the average person(like us) wouldn't know to ask! Not long after the pain pills, she sleeps all night. I am exhausted by now and the body reaches a point where it has to rest, so, even on the most uncomfortable cot in the world, I slept most all night too. During the rest of our stay, short naps were all we could do.
Her doctor checked on her promptly at 8AM each day and told us everything looked good. All she needed to do to go home was have a bowel movement. Finally on the 4th day, New Years eve, we are allowed to come home. Yesterday we heard that the pathology was clear and no cancer was present. The cells tested precancerous as they had before. We still have a follow up visit to attend, but she's now on the mend. Perhaps this story will help prepare someone who is about to undergo a colon resection surgery. There will be some scary moments, but, the choice of not seeing a gastro specialist for a colonoscopy and winding up with colon cancer is much scarier! Get your colon checked..it saved my wife from the horrible experience of cancer treatment. It can save your life!
Praise the Lord who watches over us all!
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