Bleaery-Eyed But Happy

Not much to say here that isn't said over there on the left side. The waiting is mostly pretty easy for me. And we're fortunate to be in the Longwood Medical Area, home to more medical professionals on earth than even prime time TV can throw at you. (Jean's a big fan of E.R. and Gray's Anatomy, for some morbid reason.) I'll try to provide more observations in the future. And I'll try to make them interesting. Meanwhile... yawn...

Change Is Upon Us

If you click on PMC above, you'll be taken to my Pan-Mass Challenge site, where you'll learn about the 200-mile bike ride I'll be doing in August for cancer awareness and research - and what you can do to help.

Wait. I'm bicycling 200 miles?!

All right. Who talked me into this?

I don't even own a bike! (Yet.)

Clearly I'll have to put more thought into this. :-)

Another Day of Normal

Jean is back at Mt. Auburn. She had nausea and de-hydration yesterday, signs of a stomach flu, probably. Given her medical history, her doctors didn't want to take any chances and admitted her overnight. She was feeling better after they hooked her to an IV that gave her the fluids she needed. She'll be discharged today, tonight, or if they're feeling very cautious, tomorrow.

With the complications that Jean's had from multiple surgeries, radition, chemotherapy, Erbitux treatments, and of course her upcoming kidney surgery, none of her doctors are taking anything for granted. They're looking at possibilities of partial bowel blockage (nothing too serious), hydronephrosis of the kidney (maybe infection of some sort), and anything else within reason.

Frequent flyer membership at Mt. Auburn has its privileges. Jean's on her usual floor, with a nice view of the city and the Charles River outside her window. Actually, getting the room has more to do with being a patient of Dr. Nauta than our frequency of visits. Most of the nurses recognized us. We knew her first shift nurse, Susan, by name and she remembered Jean's case.

Even the residents are familiar faces. Dr. Steigman, one of Dr. Nauta's staff, ushered Jean through two of her previous stays. Talking with him was like shooting the breeze with friends. "We'll do, you know, the usual." When the residents gathered around her bed last night, our conversation could've been at a bar down the street.

Head Resident: "She shouldn't get food tonight. Just fluids."

Me: "What if we say, 'Pretty Please'?"

Head: "Hmmm, yeah. I'm gonna say, ah, no."

Looking over the residents, I said to Jean, "Remind me to tape 'Scrubs' tonight." They got a laugh out of this. One of them asked me, "So which one of us is Dr. Dorian and which is Dr. Cox?"

Jean and I watched 'Scrubs' before I went home for the night. One of the characters on the show said, "I like Grey's Anatomy. It's as if they took our lives and just put it on TV." Indeed.