June 7-11, 2008

Well, I did what they told me to do: I waited til about ten minutes to 8:00a.m. and then called the hospital because I didn't hear anything.

The nurse said "Oh, your surgery is going to be at 9:30, we need you in right away!"

I was thinking to myself, "Gee, nice of you to let me know! It's a good thing I live less than five minutes away!"

So I rushed to the kitchen door, flung it open, and stopped Wessy from taking Kasey for her second morning walk. We went up to the second floor of AAMC and registered me for the surgery. I went into the back and told Wessy he didn't have to sit around waiting for me. He went home and would come to pick me up when I called him.

Surgery was closer to 10:00a.m., but I was a last minute add-on so I can't really complain. Yes, I know I was just there less than thirty-six hours ago, but what good will it do anyone to bring that up? I was really upset when the nurse read the consent and it said "placement of perma cath" before "revision of a/v graft," though!

When Dr Martin came in, I asked him if he was going to try to fix the graft before he decided on a catheter and he assured me that was the plan. YES, I asked a second time, "Now, you ARE going to fix the graft, right?! Not put a catheter in?" Yeah, I give him hell. Every time we run into one another at the hospital I say "Hey, Trouble!" Hehe The luxury of having long-standing relationships with your doctors.

Wes took me home around 1:00p.m. and I went to bed. I got up that evening and chatted with some friends, but I went back to bed Saturday night and didn't get out of bed until 6:00p.m. Sunday. Uncle Wes even came into my room to check on me, something he hardly ever does, because I spent so much time in bed. I was just so wiped out after not sleeping well three nights in a row, I went back to bed by 9:30 Sunday night and slept off and on until I had to get up to leave for dialysis at 2:00p.m. Monday.

I finished three books over the weekend, including my exchange book from Terry. While it was an entertaining book, I didn't like the amount of gore in it. It was just a little too descriptive of the blood and guts for me. Also, it wasn't the first in this series and previous events were mentioned but not explained. I was disappointed in the supposed romance, too, because there wasn't any. Even the back of the book said that two of the characters were going to get involved, yet it didn't come to fruition in this book. It didn't even go into their history, really, which the back cover mentioned in more detail than the actual pages of the book itself. And if this book were made into a movie, it'd be one of those rated R horror ones, so beware! I think I'd have to start this series from the beginning to really get a handle on everything, but the publisher/editor really misrepresented the tone of this one, I'm sorry to say.

Terry, I hope you're not upset with me about not liking it too much, but I want to thank you again for being my partner in this exchange! Every book we read teaches us something new (hopefully) either about ourselves or about the world around us, so reading is never a waste of time! And I still have the wonderful bookmark you sent to me! Thank you!

By the way, thank you for not cyber-smacking me with the bookmark! I wasn't insinuating anything about your age or your eyesight by sending that magnifying bookmark to you! Sue hit me with hers!! Hehe!! I instigated it, though. The conversation went something like this after I gave it to her (I found it on my explorations of Manteo, NC, when we went to Nag's Head):

Sue: "Is this a hint?"

Me: "Well, you ARE the one that bought the 3.5x magnification reading glasses!"

Sue: "Smart Alec!" *SCHMACK* with the bookmark on my arm.

Luckily it wasn't a magnifying glass! I just thought they were neat, because it's a magnifier and a bookmark. How perfect is that? I should've gotten more because I could use one every now and then!

As of Monday, I still hadn't done any stitching. My arm was just too sore.

I told Uncle Wes that I was going to try to go to my Heirloom Stitchers Meeting on Tuesday, though. I woke up in plenty of time to arrive by the 6:00p.m. start, but half way there I had this sick feeling that I had the wrong day. I pulled into the parking lot at 5:30, went inside and returned a whole bag of books and books on CD. I never got to listen to them, but I wanted to return them before I forgot and had to pay late fees. I also had three books from other counties and wanted to continue with the series I'm reading, so they had to go back before I could get more.

Since I was so early, I walked over the the 7-11 store and bought a sandwich. I left the house without eating and knew I'd need something later. That sandwich came in real handy around 8 o'clock! There were only four of us at this meeting and we were chatting as usual. All of a sudden, it sounded like the noise level in the room dropped 30 decibels! In case you don't know, that's one of the things that happens right before you pass out!

So I just put my stitching aside and let Carol, Kathy, and Katie know that something wasn't right. I told them what was going on and Kathy said "That's okay, we have Carol here!" Carol B. is an EMT and was sitting facing me. They asked me what I needed to do and I said "I'm going to drink this iced tea and eat this sandwich and just sit here until I feel better!" So that's pretty much what I did until 8:30 rolled around and it was time to leave.

I raced home to beat a thunderstorm that was omniously shooting lightning all over the sky behind me. I thought I got home just in the nick of time but we never got any rain. Kasey was wired for sound when I got home, too. I know lots of dogs are scared of storms, but she learned from my Saluki to go out on the porch and watch them, so Kasey gets excited when they're near! Crazy girl!

My arm was pretty sore from driving to and from the meeting, so I didn't do any more stitching. But there's some progress! It's not much, but it's something!

I had some problems getting good blood flow through one of my needles at dialysis on Wednesday, but I was able to get my treatment. I to tell the nurse right away that I didn't feel well. I told her that I couldn't tell her exactly what's wrong, but I knew something didn't feel right. She asked me why I didn't go to the ER and I told her it was because the attending physician at the ER once told me "You're case is too complicated for someone who doesn't know you to take care of." Not something to expect from an emergency room doctor, is it? I told her they wouldn't find anything and won't listen to me, but I thought I may feel better after my treatment. I also pointed out that there was no way they would be able to get an IV in me at this point, so going to the ER for bloodwork was useless. Besides, today was the day they were going to draw all my bloodwork anyway, so it was just better for me to go to dialysis rather than the emergency room.

I was on the money about something not being right! I'm pretty sure I had a blockage in my small intestine. I have so much scar tissue in my abdomen, it sometimes wraps around the intestine and blocks it. Typically it fixes itself and that is what seems to have happened today. I started to feel better almost right away, but it took a while before my abdomen felt normal again. Unfortunately everything coursed through me because it'd been held up by the blockage and I spent most of the evening drinking as much as possible to avoid dehydrating.

My arm is still sore, and just to give you an idea of what it looks like, I took some pictures tonight. There is nothing gorey, but I didn't want to upset anyone with a very sensitive system. Rather than put the picture itself here, I've placed a link to a Webshots album (cuz I just figured out how to do it!). Anyway, there are two one-and-a-half inch incisions now. The first is at the lower end of the graft and is close to the crease of my elbow. The other is at the upper end and is just under my arm pit. The sutures are clear, so they're not visible in the pictures, but they come out next week. Now you can see why I call that arm my Cyborg arm.