It's raining it's pouring...

Surgery and Camping

So tomorrow is my next surgery (check-in at 12:45 with surgery to follow probably around 1:30 or 2PM).  It is a good thing… surgery that is… in fact it is amazing.  I welcome it; I wish it were today.  And yet, this particular one has more than its share of potential complications.  In a world where we can see the procedure on youtube before we actually have it, and where we can read the “reviews” of other people who have undergone it, we have a different type of knowledge about these things than patients did 10-20 years ago.

This surgery will leave parts of my scalp, neck, shoulder, and face with numb skin (permanently).  Apparently I’ll have to use an electric razor now because I won’t feel a normal one and would easily cut myself.  I won’t be able to turn my neck without physical therapy, and I guess the pain will be much worse than my previous surgery.  One of my buddies who is a surgeon affectionately called this procedure “the big whack”.  J  Thanks for that.  J  Actually, it didn’t bother me, just made me laugh.  I’ve told the kids that they’ll cut my neck off and sew my head back on to my shoulders…they still laugh when I scrunch up my shoulders and try and show them what I’ll look like.  Other possible problems include an inability to lift my shoulder, problems smiling, and even partial paralysis of the tongue.  Which of these end up happening, we shall see but I can live with any of them…(easy to say now)

Realizing that my summer plans of golf, backpacking, and house projects might be changed to lounging in lawn chairs and getting worked over by a physical therapist, I fast forwarded some plans and spontaneously went backpacking to the Olympics.  After two days and two nights of solitude at 6300 feet, I was joined by River for two more nights.  River was amazing.  He had to walk in (with Jamie) for almost 6 miles, climbing 3800 feet while carrying a 17 pound pack.  Together we summated Mount Buckhorn on a day hike climbing up to 7000 feet (Mount Olympus is 8000) and several times walked 40 minutes each way to replenish water from Camp Mystery below Marmot pass.

We camped in a meadow 300 feet up a ridge from the summit of Marmot pass, enjoying 360 degree views of mountains, Puget Sound, Hood Canal, Whidbey Island, Mount Baker and the Cascades.  At one point River hiked for about 45 minutes on his own from a lower meadow up to our camp and back, traversing a steep ridge that looked on one side down into the Dungeness River Valley and on the other side toward the Sound…it wasn’t a big deal to him, but for me it was quite a moment.  I was able to see him most of the time, and we could whistle and wave, but there was a short period where he was on his own.  Ah the process of letting go and watching a boy mature in front of your eyes…

More Drama

Today we went to Children’s hospital.  Truss has had a fever for 6 days in a row now, and it is time to start looking at things like E coli or something else very similar.  He’s lost 10% of his body weight in 6 days, and Lord knows he didn’t have any extra flesh to lose to begin with.  I hope that Truss and I aren’t spending nights in different hospitals at the same time, for now he is on the couch after having had a large dose of antibiotics…Jamie is dealing with everything with her normal grace and poise, but I think we’ve had enough stuff right now to last us for a decade…when it rains it pours…or as Lenin said (and what blog is complete without a quote from Vladimir) “There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.”

There is much more I want to write...but I want to get this post out and it appears that right now I have to take Truss back into Children's to get an IV in him...  Cheers all.