A Sore Backside

Thanks to yesterday's surgery, I have a very sore butt.  Dr. Pohlman did not perform the Seton cutting stitch procedure he had discussed with me.  He found that the fistula involved very little muscle, so what he essentially did was fillet the fistula, cauterize it, and then sew everything back flat and closed.  It is bleeding and draining, and sitting is not my favorite thing to do at the moment.  I have a Percocet (hydro-codone) prescription saying take one or two pills as needed every 6 hours.  So far, I took one last night at 9, and one this morning at 7:10.  It does take the edge off the pain. -  One nice thing is that Dr. Pohlman says that the operation he used yesterday has a 98% success rate. - and I know that my recovery time was a little weird yesterday - the alarms kept going off because my temperature, the oxygen content of my blood, and my blood pressure kept dropping.  Kathy said it seemed that she had to wait a much longer time before they brought her to the recovery room. Usually, they leave me in bed and just have me dress and leave.  Yesterday, they put me in a recliner and wrapped me up with warm blankets before allowing Kathy to come back.

Once we were allowed to leave, Kathy asked if I wanted to go straight home and get in bed, but I told her I wanted to go to the Dairy Queen and get a soft-serve vanilla cone first.  We both enjoyed one.  As soon as we got home, Nedi went under the bed; Mocha came out for loving; and Lovey took a good whiff of Kathy, and shrugged.  I guess she was thinking - it's the Auntie who visits occasionally.  We looked at the kitten and pit bull video set to "Live and Let Die", then I laid down, and Kathy settled in the reading chair.  She started reading the book she brought over, and I went to sleep.  When I woke up and went to the bathroom, Kathy was asleep.  We had "lunch" about 2 p.m., and I asked about travelling the airways (since I haven't flown since 1990).  Then we both read some more, and I handed her my copy of The Devil Colony  - she started reading it, and it went home with her.

Boo starts her 18 days of radiation therapy at CSU in Fort Collins today.  ...  Lynn, who adopted Dhisana, the kitten in Ohio , for $10 and who has since spent over $7,000 on getting her well, called me and said she has a new dog - a Havanese named Riley, whose previous owner abused him.  She wanted me to start caring for Riley yesterday, stopping by 3 times a day to give him love and affection and a human playmate.  I might start doing that on Monday, but not this week.  ...  Joel is playing the Wizard of Oz  in Louisville.  Nancy is directing Titanic: The Musical  here in Boulder at the Dairy Center.  Their son Max has two roles in Titanic, as the Captain and as Isadore Strauss.  I plan on seeing that this weekend.  ...   NBC will start showing Saratoga Springs thoroughbred racing beginning this Saturday, 23 July on weekend afternoons.  ...  And, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department Saltwater Cowboys will start rounding up the herds of ponies on the northern Virginia side of Assateague Island.  On Saturday, they will be herded down the beach at sunrise, and delivered to the Holding Pens, so that the veterinarians can check all the ponies, they can get their shots, hooves trimmed, and parents of foals identified for the auction.  All ponies will have a Coggins' test done, to insure there are no transmittable diseases in the foals that will be sold.  (I miss the smell of ponies, sweat, salt water, and the wonderful awful smell of Assateague and Chincoteague marsh mud!)

Cats and Dogs

It's cooler than it was yesterday, but there's more humidity... Rosie and Remy have been super. Remy hasn't eaten his breakfast for the past week for his owners - ground rabbit and flax oil - , so this morning I broke the rabbit up into small chunks, then added in a half-cup of his dry kibble plus the flax oil. He ate every bit and wanted more.... Why? Just because I added the kibble? Or because I broke up the rabbit? I have no idea. Tugger and Sasquatch are also doing very well. Both of them enjoy my company while they are eating, and then I read to them and play with them before taking off again. Their folks are due back Sunday afternoon, while it seems that the Rs' folks will return Saturday evening. - It's all fine with me.
My kits seem to be missing me when I reappear at home. I'm not sure if it's because I'm an easy mark for getting treats, or if it's because they get to go outside when I'm at home... But they all want to be cuddled and loved - Nedi, Lovey, and Mocha. I made four large batches of brownies last night, and they are all gone already; the RTD bus drivers devoured them as if they hadn't eaten in weeks. (It was kinda scary...)
Since I'll need a ride home this Tuesday from the hospital, I asked my sister if she or her hubby could pick me up and drive me home. Turns out she's got Tuesday off, so she wants to come and sit with me. That means I'll have to clean the house up to her standards, or I'll have to listen to lectures on recycling, dirt, germs, and how I'm pathologically dirty.... Oy, vey! But it will be an incentive to get things tidy before I get "put to sleep," I guess....

Last Day of May

It's the last day of May, and temperatures are supposed to be in the upper 70s today, and in the low 90s the first two days of June. That's good and bad. It's good, because we need some sunshine and warmth - most days in May were either overcast or rainy, and we needed the rain. It's bad because we (in the South Platte River watershed) have our snowpack at 313% - once that snow really starts to melt, we'll have flooding. Of course, we already have flooding in several counties, but this flooding is likely to rival that of the Missouri, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers... oh, my. Hopefully, the sun will slowly melt the snow so that Boulder Creek doesn't flood; my possessions are few, but they are dear to me - books, photos, the kits, and my genealogy records. I do have the PC hard drives up on stands 5 feet above the floor, but Boulder Creek has been known to flood (where my apartment is located) to 70 feet. (Please, not while I live here!) In any event, the kits are outside in the sun and newly mowed grass, and are so happy to be out, after I kept them inside yesterday. Brandi seems to be doing very well, considering her age and illnesses - we slept together last night.
And, after having multiple conversations with MDs and the folks at Medicare, I have finally been informed that once the surgery for my fistula fails three (3) times, I can get a second opinion that Medicare will pay for - and that once the surgery fails after 3 times, they would have the surgeon do some other type of procedure. Apparently the government (via Medicare) believes that "the third time's the charm." We'll see. I certainly can't afford the out-of-pocket expense of a second opinion - it's been quoted to me as "about $2700 to $3000" - by another physician in Boulder. - The up-coming PowerBall drawing is supposed to be worth about $200 million this time around - maybe I can win and get my nether regions repaired....
I sat and stood outside the apartment from 7 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. yesterday, yelling for the participants in the Bolder Boulder. The apartment driveway where I stand is 1/4 mile from Folsom Field; once inside the stadium, they have to make one lap of the track inside and they hit the finish line. I'm rotten, I guess.... I stand there and yell that there's only "a quarter-mile to go!" and "You can do it!" I was shocked that over 50 people stopped by (after they had finished their run) and thanked me for cheering them on - a lot of the women racers hugged me, and many said they don't think they would have finished if they hadn't heard me yell that there was only a quarter-mile left. My psychiatrist ran yesterday, and remembers hearing me yelling; I saw both Jim and Kathy run by; and the entire Chandler family went by as well.... other than that, there were ROTC squads, a herd of Chick-Fillet cows wearing "Eat Mor Chikin" signs, several parrots, a wonderful Uncle Sam, Batman and Robin, men in kilts, men in sequined majorette uniforms, several men in towels (with Run Naked painted on their chests and backs), a red devil, a Jesus, a gorilla carrying a man in a cage, several bananas, Pac Man, ballerinas, mariachis ... it was quite an entertaining crowd. More than 58,000 folks entered the race, and almost 54,000 completed it. The fastest running time was by a young man (28) from Evergreen, who finished the 10 K run in less than 30 minutes and 30 seconds.
Heading back to Brandi in a few minutes.... Enjoy your week!

Failed Surgery & a Murder

It is now a fact that my surgical repairs on Tuesday did not work... so I get to visit Dr. Pohlman this Tuesday, to try and decide on the "next step." There are several more options available - so I'll just have to see what he suggests and is willing to do. Ugh. I hope this next time will work; I'm tired of taking time off and having to curtail my walks and eating a lot of soft foods only. - I walked to the bakery this morning in a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers; it was a little chilly, but not bad. What seemed so strange was to look up and see the entire Indian Peaks area covered in snow, and to see patches of snow above the Flatirons and on Flagstaff. I do realize that we had snow early yesterday morning, and that our temperatures have been in the 60s and 70s, but sometimes that bright snow against the blue sky just looks impossible!
The area west of Broadway (14 blocks west of my apartment) and opposite the CU campus is known as "Uni Hill." Uni Hill has all sorts of funky little shops and bodegas that cater to the CU students, and it also has a great number of apartments and shared housing. There was a huge party on Uni Hill for Saint Patrick's Day Wednesday night and it went over into the early hours of Thursday. According to our local newspaper, the party ended in a riot - students ganging up against the police who were trying to shut the party down between 1 and 3 a.m. - I really haven't read all the copy about the riot. This is also Spring Break week at CU, and kids have friends visiting from everywhere... A football player for the University of New Hampshire was visiting a friend here in Boulder. The UNH student was walking a new female friend home from the St. Patrick's Day party. The couple was stopped by a man wearing a black bandanna; he had a gun. He demanded their money and keys. The girl pulled the covering off the robber's face, and the robber shot the gun into the air. The robber then shot and killed the UNH football player. The search is still on for the killer - he was wearing an extremely popular snow board brand of a black hoodie. The police stopped 4 men wearing the same type of hoodie that morning, within 20 minutes of the shooting. It's very sad...
Lovey has been all over me this morning, while Nedi has been chasing the squirrels. And I have to admit to a bit of bad taste: After my surgery Tuesday, I slept fitfully during the night. I was awakened by the upstairs neighbors' bed banging against the wall at 1 a.m., and the accompanying sounds were very specific. It happened again at 6 a.m. - both times made it Wednesday - "Hump Day." I put a yellow Post-It note on their door that read: "Happy Hump Day (times two!) - Please move your bed away from the wall! - Thanks!" I heard the bed being moved around noon - and have not had to listen to the banging since..... Have a good weekend!

Too Much Information!

Oh, my gosh... What a day in the news business. Between the huge earthquake in Japan, and the resulting tsunami waves in Japan and Hawaii and on the US west coast - and then our own little wild fire here in Boulder... I don't know which way to look next. It is so hard to grasp that the earthquake was so large that it moved the entire land mass of Japan eight feet to the east. And watching the film of the tsunamis was like watching the original Poseidon Adventure in miniature, but at the same time, hugely magnified.....

We've had high winds forecasted for today since last Sunday - and the winds have been about 25 to 35 mph, with gusts up to 63 mph, all day. Some idiots just west of Lyons decided to go on ahead with a "controlled burn." Within 15 minutes it was an un-controlled burn, and it currently covers over 300 acres to the northwest of us. So far, no structures have been damaged, but 223 homes have been evacuated. And the fire has ended up in the northeast corner of Lefthand Canyon. Now, Lefthand Canyon is a long, meandering, multi-branched canyon,and if it sounds familiar, it's because that's where the big fire that started 9 September 2010 was located. Of course, this is about 7 to 10 miles to the northeast of the first fire, but it's still poor old Lefthand Canyon.

I saw Dr. Pohlman this morning regarding my fistula. I'm having surgery on Tuesday morning, so I've already informed Lucy's and the Rs' owners that I won't be out walking their doggies on Tuesday and Wednesday. Dr. Polhman says I should be absolutely OK for walking by Thursday. I'm currently at Lynn's house, playing with Tessa and the three kits, and looking at the smoke to the northwest.... Hopefully, this weekend will be a little less eventful for the whole world!