Good afternoon everyone,
Sorry for the long delay between updates. Since coming home from Vancouver and the Hyperbaric treatments my health has been up and down as has my outlook on things.
Today is Good Friday and Dolores and I are starting to get ready to go to Vancouver on Monday (April 25). We will stay the night in Williams Lake and continue to Vancouver on Tuesday. On Wed. the 27th we have an appointment at Vancouver General Hospital, Pre Operation Clinic at 9:00 AM where we are briefed about the surgery and go through the pre-op tests. At 1:00 PM I'll have my J-Tube replaced with a more permanent one and then we'll go back to the Jean C. Barber Lodge (604-879-9131). We are to report to VGH at 5:45 AM on Thursday the 28th for the surgery. I am scheduled as one of the first patients that day.
I must admit that the prospect of the surgery (5 1/2 hours) has been daunting and has weighed heavily on my mind these past few weeks. I was back in the hospital in Vanderhoof with Aspiration pneumonia earlier in the month and it took some time to get over that. I have had trouble with vomiting at night since we came home from Vancouver and we don't know why that is. Maybe the new J-Tube will help. We have also been tweaking the meds I take to try and stop the vomiting. I think it is triggered by coughing spells and I have gone back to sleeping in my chair in a more upright position. It seems to help.
Dolores is going to ask the surgeon (Dr. John Yee) if he can arrange to get me back to the Vanderhoof Hospital by Air Ambulance. It would be so much easier on me than the two day drive home. While we know that the re-cooperation time in the hospital after the surgery is 7 to 10 days we have not been told how long I will have to convalesce at the Lodge in Vancouver before we can drive home.
I will ask Dolores to keep the blog up dated while I am in the hospital.
That's it for now. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Love and hugs to everyone,
Rick
