Last Friday I had the loose screw in my hip removed. Not without complications. I arrived at Beth Israel at 9:15, 2 hours
before a scheduled 11:15 surgery. But
when I arrived, I was informed the surgeon was dealing with an emergency, so my
procedure was postponed until 2:15.
Since not eating anything since midnight was part of the deal, this
might have made for a hungry patient. We
didn’t want to sit around the hospital lobby for an extra 3 hours, so we went
to Brian and Bridget’s house in Jamaica Plain.
When we arrived there, I called Dr Rodriquez’s administrative assistant
to confirm the arrangements. She
contacted Dr Rodriquez, and found that the emergency was dealt with much more
quickly than anticipated. So, I was to
return to the hospital as soon as possible.
We got there quite quickly, and I was ushered up to the 7th
floor for surgery. They prepped me as if
this were a major event. There was lots
of paperwork to complete, and I signed my life away. They marked my right hip with magic marker to
make sure they cut into the correct limb.
They took blood samples to check among other things if my INR was low
enough to enable them to proceed. I
never found out what the results were, but proceed they did. Unlike my original hip surgery, I was aware
of getting into the operating room. But
that was about it. They did put me
completely under, in spite of what Dr Rodriquez had said on Tuesday. I woke up after the procedure was complete in
the recovery room. They did save the
screw so that I could have it as a trophy.
I would include a picture of it here, but it appears we left it in New
Hampshire. They gave me some
instructions about how to care for the bandage on the hip, but frankly, I don’t
remember what they said, other than I was to keep it dry for 48 hours.
Once everything was OK, we took off for New Hampshire. I have very little recollection of the trip,
as Barbie was driving. I was out for
most of the drive. Both boys (and their
families) had been recruited to help us close up New Hampshire. Brian and Bridget drove up Friday night, and Andrew,
Jess, and Tyler drove across from Vermont Saturday morning. Andrew was given last minute instructions
about what to pick up at the hardware store, as there were still projects in
mid-flight that needed additional supplies.
One of the projects was to rake out an area of the soccer field that had
been dug up by some critters – skunks looking for grubs? – crows mining for
worms? – and then reseeding it. The
grass seed container specified that fertilizer should be applied at the same
time, so Andrew picked up the fertilizer.
The big task for the afternoon was putting the sailboat to
bed. This involved sailing it to Harilla
Landing, putting it on the trailer, pulling it out of the water, stepping down the
mast, and storing all the sails and rigging.
The boys and I got to sail it to the landing. It was blowing a gale! Instead of sailing directly for Harilla,
which is behind an island, which breaks the wind somewhat, we sailed around
Sandy Island, which took us out into the broadest part of the lake. The wind was both strong and gusty, which
made for an exciting sail. That part of
the lake is open for several miles, so there were significant waves. Since there were no women aboard, the sails
were not reefed, and we did get the rail wet. It never went under the water, but it did come
close.
After we got back from putting the sailboat away for the
winter, the boys went windsurfing. In
the immediate vicinity of Cow Island, the wind was not so good. But out in the broads, there were big
whitecaps. Unfortunately, they got blown
around the corner of Cow Island, so we could not see them. It was quite late in the day, and the
daylight was waning. Still no sight of
the boys. Brian had taken the motorboat
out, presumably to tow Andrew out to better winds or upwind since Andrew was
not accustomed to Brian’s sailboard, which has a very small keel. At any rate, they were out of sight, and we
could do nothing because we didn’t have a boat.
When the sun actually went down, I called Barbie’s brother Jim to ask if
we could go out in his boat to see what the boys were doing. Jim agreed immediately, but by the time we
got to his dock, we could see one windsurfer and two boats. One was our boat. The other looked like a cop boat. It turned out that the marine patrol was
telling Brian, who was on the windsurfer, to call it a day, as watercraft
without lights are not legal after sundown.
But Brian wanted to get around the corner of Cow Island, and he needed
to do a tack out and back to do that.
Eventually, he took the sailboard in to Bob and Dowie Seaman’s
place. Andrew took the motorboat in as
well. That was a mistake, as there are
several shallow rocks in that part of the lake.
The propeller hit a number of times, which resulted in enough damage to the
propeller that we (or the boys) will have to replace the propeller.
Sunday was the real close-up day. Barbie did lots of cleaning in the
house. The boys got all the waterfront
materials into the waterfront shack. We
watered the sections of the soccer field that were reseeded. Actually Tyler did a good deal of the watering. It was quite warm up on the field, as the
wind, which made it quite cold on the water, was not a factor up on the soccer
field. The net result was that Tyler
ended up naked enjoying the watering.
Eventually, all systems except the water system were shut
off and put to bed for the winter. The
water system will be dealt with by a plumber who stands ready to repair
anything that fails as a result of improper draining. There is an issue of whether we have left
enough information for the plumber to turn off the new water system coming from
the lake, but I’m pretty sure that will work itself out.
Both Monday and Tuesday were recovery days from the
weekend. Yes, there was lots of help,
but somehow I still overexerted myself to the degree that my back was really
quite sore. My right hip, which had the
procedure done on it on Friday, had every right to be a problem over the
weekend. But it never was a
problem. Instead, I was able to walk all
over our property without feeling any particular strain on the right leg. Instead, it was my back that complained the
most. Most of the heavy lifting was done
by the boys, but just being on the scene to point out what went where kept me
active enough that the back was still complaining Tuesday evening.
This coming weekend is the Lexington High School Class of
1962 50th reunion. Medical
events have been put on hold until that is complete. Next week the Multiple Myeloma campaign
resumes with a series of tests to determine if my underlying systems are robust
enough to withstand a stem cell transplant.
I assume that my body will pass the tests. If not, I certainly intend to talk my way
past the tests. Then October 3rd
I go into the hospital overnight for the start of the stem cell harvesting
process. They give you a dose of
Cytoxan, a fairly strong chemo therapy drug.
Then they send you home for 10 days of self-administered shots of
neupogen, the drug that causes some of your stem cells to leave the bone marrow
and go into the blood stream. So, by the
middle of October, they should be harvesting my stem cells. I can’t wait.
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