I occasionally visit Sipsey to see what's up with brother Holder and his gang.
Had thought this was Vanderboegh's problem but it's the Dutchman.
Well, I read a little more and it appears that Vanderboegh is the Dutchman.
He's been documenting his travail with the "alien" or "softball" in his gut for
the last couple of weeks. Day after tomorrow they get down to the cutting.
He's asking for prayers and I'm going to comply.http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2012/03/sitrep-gist-of-it.htmlSITREP: the GIST of it. Well, that was interesting. Had a long chat with my new surgeon (who actually I had met before when I was going to the wound care clinic for my foot) and tells me I have a Gastrointestinal stromal tumor, or GIST for short.
Bottom line: 1 in 5 chance of not surviving the surgery and convalescence. Will involve at least a partial gastrectomy with possible involvement in the pancreas, spleen and the main artery that serves the spleen. Minimum hospital stay two weeks. Maximum, two months, if I make it. The Doc led Rosey and me in a prayer at the end of the visit, which I appreciated greatly.
There is also a designer drug for GIST, Gleevec, which the Doc says I must have but is more expensive than my divorce. That will be required post op and for a while after discharge. Lord knows how we're going to pay for that, but then it is all in His hands anyway.
Things like this remind you of what you haven't gotten around to, and how much you need to. For example, Rosey and I still don't have a will, so we'll have to see to that in the next couple of days. Stupid, I know, especially when I never expected to live past the mid-Nineties. We've never had much of anything, especially since I had to quit work with the congestive heart failure, but we still need to do it, and quickly. Same for a power of attorney.
While I was writing this I just got a call from the surgeon's office telling me my cardio guy wants to put me through some kind of stress test to see if I'm okay to go under the knife, which sounds to me like they're trying to kill me off before I get to the OR. Anyway, if everything works right, I'll be admitted to the hospital on Monday and cut on Tuesday. So now you know what I know.
I want to thank all of you who have had me on your prayer list and humbly and gratefully ask you to continue to keep me and my family in them. I'll continue to post as I can.
LATER: So, cardiac stress test arranged for tomorrow and so it will likely be Tuesday when I'm carved on. And in answer to the comment below, yes, the PO Box still works for that. May God bless you all.
