Don’s operation is still a go for Friday the 20th, and I guarantee that he is more than ready to get it over with. In fact, as I told a friend, he’s about ready to dig out his innards with a spoon. I’m sorry it’s come to this, but I’m also relieved that something definitive is being done at last.
This morning Don and I went to the hospital for his “Pre-op Training”. This is a consultation with an R.N who tells you everything you need to know about getting ready to have pieces of your innards removed, actually having your innards chopped, and what will happen post-chop. This is not our first rodeo, to say the least, but this is a different type of operation than he has had before (well, he had a bowel resection back in 1965, but they used stone instruments. They do it differently these days.) He has to do a liquid diet on Thursday, drink the Dreaded Golitely [sp] on Thursday afternoon, and fast after 11:30 p.m. rather than midnight, because the operation is at 7:00 a.m. and he has to be there at 5:30.
She told us that they will get him up out of bed the very day of the operation, and by day 3 he should be taking a walk every hour or so. Even since his operations in 2009, they do post-op a little differently.
My neck, which I complained bitterly about last week, is much better, thank you. We spent much of the week visiting doctors for pre-op testing. The appointment with Don’s surgeon went well, except that it was scheduled for 11:45 and we didn’t get in to see him until after 1:00. The doc was very soothing and comforting, then spent 15 minutes telling us all the hideous stuff that could go wrong. After which we had to go for more lab tests and fill another prescription. Didn’t get to eat until 2:00. The next day we saw his cardiologist for clearance, and that appointment went very well too (except we had to wait an hour AGAIN). Somebody will come in to the OR and stick a magnet on Don’s defibrillator implant before they cut so that it doesn’t fire and electrocute the surgeon during the operation.
We’ve both been listening to healing tapes in order to get ready, and we have a Reiki master friend who is going to give Don a pre-op treatment on Wednesday.
We’ve been told that he’ll be in the hospital for 3-5 days, maybe as much as a week, depending on how much the surgeon has to do. I’m trying to get a few things taken care of before Don’s operation this Friday, such as stock up the larder, clean the house, do the wash. This includes sending the press my 250 word synopsis for the new book.
Earlier this week I was notified that my sixth Alafair Tucker mystery, The Wrong Hill to Die On*, has been scheduled for publication in October, 2012. I still have some rewriting to do, and a few weeks before I must have the perfected manuscript in. I have already received the multipage author questionnaire many presses ask their authors to fill out with detailed information about the book, the author, publicity plans and ideas, and lists of institutions, groups, and people who may be interested in receiving an advance copy of the book for review.
I have no idea what will happen with the operation so I’m waiting until after that happens and we find out if there’s anything hideous going on before I make promotional plans for the new book. But, in my head, everything will go wonderfully and Don will be back to his charming self after they remove the sore spot, and I will do more traveling and promoting with this book than I have since the first two. My new one is actually set here in Arizona in 1916, so I plan on doing most of my promoting out west. I’d like to do some California this time, and Colorado too since I have relatives there. But we’ll see. If all goes well I’d love to go to Bouchercon, which is the premier mystery conference in the United States. This year It will be held in Cleveland in October. The timing is great. But we’ll see.
Am I desperately frightened or nervous about Don’s surgery? Right at the moment, I don’t feel much of anything. Rather numb, I think. Experience tells me that I won’t feel quite so calm on the day. So many friends and relations are undergoing troubles right now, or have borne the unbearable, that I cannot by any stretch of the imagination feel that God is picking on us. John Donne knew whereof he spoke when he told us for whom the bell tolls. Every human being eventually comes to this place.
I have hope that all will be well. All will be well in the end, no matter what happens.
And I’ll do my best to let you know what that is as soon as I can, Dear Readers. Thanks for all your good wishes.
___________
*Thanks to Denisa Nickell Hanania for the great title.
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