The Good, The bad, and the curmudgeonly

It's been an eventful few days.

Monday:
Went to Broome Oncology to have blood tested. After my appointment, I popped upstairs to the cardiology clinic to make sure everything was all set for my appointment set for thursday and the wolf parkinson white surgery. It was important to have the surgery done this week, as I am REALLY healthy right now--we'll talk about that later--and I start chemo at roswell again next week. So I Talked to the head cardiology nurse. Sbe said there was "no way," as the doctor had to see me first and, anyhow, the surgery generally took a about four hours and the doc's time had to be scheduled ahead of time. I asked if maybe I could get the appointment moved up. The head nurse said she would page the doctor.
Five minutes later, they called me out of the waiting room, and started an EKG. Dr. Rehman, my cardiac Doc, weas across the street at wilson and would be right over. Within fifteen minutes he was knocking at the door. Two minutes later, he asked. "So, do you have any objection to having the surgery today," and I said no. Apparently Monday was a good day for him to do the ablation. After explaining this to me, he called up the catheterization lab, where the surgery is done, and asked if they had time for a WPW operation. Surprise! A window! He told me I would be staying overnight, and told me to hurry over to Wilson, as they would be waiting for me.
A chest X-Ray, a new IV, two Xanax, two Benadryl and about an hour later I was gowned up and on a gurney at wilson, in transit to the catheterization lab. Though I was awake for the entire surgery, they had drugged me in what they called "Conscious Sedation," so I wasn't totally lucid. But this is how the surgery went, according to the docs: a wire was inserted into each one of my groins. The wires were fished through a vein (left groin) and and artery (right groin) until they reached the inside of my heart. An electrical map of my heart had meanwhile been made from the extensive electrodes attached to my chest and back. When they figured out which nerve was the extra one, the doctor used the wires to cauterize, or ablate, the bad never in my heart with what he called microwaves.
I don't remember all of the surgery, but I rember Diane, my Mom and Dad being in my room in the hospital after the surgery at some point. I unfortunately remember my curmudgeonly roommate , who is an entire additional tale but who enjoyed heating the room to 80 degrees and was loudly debating the effects with the night nurse of a certain new medicine on his bowel movements.
I was quite glad to be discharged by 10:30 Tuesday.

Tuesday:
Dr. Rehman visited me about 8:15 while I was munching on my omlette. He told me I could go home any time I wanted. So, I started looking for my clothes and paged the nurse to take off all the heart monitor stuff. Well, she said, there would be a delay, as the Dr hadn't signed off on all my prescriptions....many of which turned out to be scripts written in buffalo that had nothing to do whatever with the heart treatment. ARGH! Because of that, I had to tolerate my cranky roomate, his crankier adult son --who yelled so loudly at staff that I could hear him in my room all the way from the nurses station, and who filed a formal complaint that completely embarrassed his dad. I also had to tolerate waiting for more than two hours for no good reason. On any other day, that wouldn't have been such a big deal.

Missing Cat!

So, I found out tuesday just before my operation that my cat was missing. (FYI: Star was staying at my parents house due to worries that Cat germs might not be so good for the Cancer Patient). The timing wasn't my mom's fault. I called her as soon as I left the cardiology office, but before I could tell her about the ablation she told me that Star had gotten out late sunday night as dad was letting Jake (their 1-year old dog) back in the house after a walk. The cat hadn't returned, and extensive attempts to locate her without luck. She and dad felt terrible, of course. Frankly, (and I told her this at the time) I just couldn't deal with it right then. But tuesday I was itching to get out of the Hospital to look for the cat, and I went right over as soon as I was discharged.

Though she's gotten outside before, Star's never been away this long, and I think she might be afraid to go back to the clover drive house by now. Nonetheless dad printed up hundreds of fliers and climbed up pierce hill looking for her, and Mom called around to all the animal care shelters and veterinarians and asked if anyone had turned in a rather unusual-looking calico. Kathy Malloy and Pam Travis (my Mother- and Sister-in Laws)helped me flier mailboxes in two whole separate neighborhoods. I placed an ad on Petfinder.com and my mom put an add in the Press and Sun classifieds, so we'll see.

It would be so easy for someone to find Star and just want to keep her, she's that nice of a cat. I really hope that doesn't happen.

Some Good News:
Looks like the latest Bone Marrow biopsy has shown some progress. Dr. Wang, who performed the procedure --with great skill and very little pain on my end, to my great surprise I might add -- called on Friday to report that my Biopsy showed "no signs of disease. According to Barbara, my research nurse:
"In our world, saying "there was no evidence of disease" essentially means that you are in a complete remission... The chemo is working, and you should continue with the current treatment plan."
Sounds like good news to me, what do you think? However it won't prevent the three intratecal (into the spine) chemo treatments I am looking forward to in October. But at least treatment hasn't been a waste of time....

Anyhow, that's what's been happening.