Meds Please, part 2

Well, it is finally done. The old gallbladder is out of there! Let the healing begin!

Not going to lie to ya, I’m never going to have that done again! The first day went wonderfully the first few hours before the surgery. Up at 4:30, showered, scrubbed down with special antibiotic soap, padded dry just like the instructions, dressed with loose clothes, sweat pants and my best Hawaiian shirt and new Skechers. I must say, I looked marvelous. We were out the door by 5:00AM.

At the surgery center 15 minutes early, 5:45, just like the instructions. Waited at the door until 6, when they open. Still don’t know why they wanted me there before they opened . But it is surgery, they will be sticking me with needles and cutting me with very sharp knives, best that I do exactly as they say. Don’t ask unnecessary questions.

Sarge, my nurse, that’s what I call him, directs me to strip off everything but my socks and put on the gown, open side in back. Raise your hand everyone who has stood naked in a cool room with nothing but socks on. That always spells trouble, discounting perhaps your wedding night. I finally get the gown figured out, the tie strings finally tied but no matter how I tie them, my ass is still hanging out. Now I understand why they want you to put them on backwards. Oh well, its surgery, let the gown and everything else just hang. They’ve surely seen everything anyway. Obviously, Sarge doesn’t care.

“Are you changed yet?” A woman’s voice.

“Yes, come on in.”

She is taking my vitals. Heart rate, O2, and blood pressure.

“Everything is a little high today..”

“Yaaa! Sarge is on the other arm trying to stick me with a couple needles for the IV! Ouch! Sorry Sarge.. I’m a little tense today.”

Sarge says “Be still and could you please keep your gown closed, I told you open side to the back!”

Sarge is a little tense today, too. Like I said before, it is surgery, keep your mouth shut and don’t say anything unnecessary.

I don’t remember much after that. Just the ride to the operating room, sliding onto a very uncomfortable table, a mask over my face and “Sweet Home Alabama” playing in the background. Just what I needed, Lynyrd Skynyrd fans for a surgical team. It is surgery, I hope I kept my mouth shut.

It has been two days, I still can’t get that damn song out of my head.

Such is the life of John

 

 

Meds Please

The other day, yesterday, or was it a couple of days before? I woke up and could not move my right leg. I had a terribly sharp  pain down the side of it. I was howling, I admit it, howling. My pain threshold is like that of a two week old kitten. Very low. I’m crying for mommy at the first twinging.

As I was limping around feeling sorry for myself,  I received a call from my doctor’s nurse, I call her Nurse Ratchet. She is the Fastest needle shover on the planet. She had finally received the results of my gallbladder test of Tuesday. In medical terms she said,  “It ain’t workin’ “. Nurse Ratchet always gets right to the point. She told me it has to be removed. She told me to do two things, 1) report to the surgeon’s office at 10:00 AM next Tuesday and 2) don’t try to remove it myself. She knows me well and knows that I’m a DIY kind of guy. She knows that I will try anything to get out of going to a doctor’s office.

Even though there is probably a YouTube on the subject out there some place to guide me through the procedure, I think  I will wait and first see what my Surgeon’s options are on Tuesday.

Such is the life of John

Oh, the leg, I still have it, maybe when I crawl into his office to see him Tuesday, he’ll have some suggestions…..meow….

We the People, We Who Remember

“It seems our leaders need reminded, there are those that don’t seem to remember.”  John

Reposted again for the July 4th.

Tradition, this is only one of just a few traditions that I observe each year. All year I feel so fortunate to have been born here in the United States of America. Each year there seems to be something or someone intent on bringing our democracy down in the name of some unseeable and only imagined greatest of the past. Only if we remember that the greatness of this country is not only in the past but in our future and in the now. Our greatness is in us, we the people. Not in a foregone well fought war, foregone well funded economy or foregone experience as a childhood remembered big top tent circus.  What we remember is us and the ideals we held and hold. We still hold those ideals, we have not changed. Our greatness is us, we are still here! We have never left. Only Foul lies from our leaders can make us believe we have changed. We the people, in this wonderful country, are our greatness. We were once all exiles.

WE THE PEOPLE

We the People, we who remember.
We are the pushed, the shaken and the torn.
The good are taken from us,
some taken to lead,
some to do our bidding
some to succeed,
some to die.
We the People, we who remember.
We are the hard-working and the builders,
the unspoken, the wholehearted.
We the tolerant, the patient, the taken advantage of.
Quiet with ideals too hard to express,
We the People, we who remember
the good of every man, of every good cause, of every dream.
We, the Children of the Mother of Exiles,
the mother who speaks with silent lips.

DSS  7/4/2011