…but posting blog entries! A big thank you to all who offered their thoughts and prayers on my behalf – I’m told yesterday’s surgery went well and as expected. Not that I remember any of it, mind you. But saying prayers for all those who I knew who were praying and thinking of me helped relieve some of the stress and the fear I felt going in.

The last thing I remember was just after kissing Tracey being wheeled towards an operating room door. I never saw it open, I was out that quick. The surgery lasted three hours, and then I was in post-op a lot longer than expected – nearly three hours – supposedly because of pain and nausea but I don’t remember much of that either. I can’t say enough about the care I received at Banner Desert Medical Center: everyone there was top-notch.

And that was before ObamaCare! 🙂

So here I am, officially in recuperation stage. For the next week I’ll be on a clear diet, have to drink a minimum of two liters of water a day, and walk a minimum of one mile every day. Right now I’m set up in bed with William Faulkner’s Flags In The Dust, a bell to ring Tracey whenever I need assistance being moved or having my apparatus changed, and all the water I can drink without ever having to get up to go to the bathroom. I mean, how good is that?

Because we’ve really no yard to walk a mile in, I’m left with having to walk around my subdivision. Because of the catheter I’ll be wearing for the next week, the only comfortable clothing is my bathrobe, so here’s a message to all my neighbors: get used to watching a guy walking gingerly around in sunglasses, moccasins, and a bathrobe. Heck, they’ll probably think the neighborhood is going Sun City (without the golf carts, of course). Me? I’m thinking if it was OK for Brian Wilson to spend his zonked-out years in his bathrobe, I can do it for a week. It might even be good for my image – my neighbors will think I’ve gone eccentric.

Again, thanks to all for the positive thoughts and prayers, it really helped. Keep ’em coming, as I will for y’all.

—

Pool temp: 86 degrees