Uncle Leona's Day Camp

So far, so good

Well, that was an interesting week. It's a good thing I have one more week off of work to relax. I'm not sure that's the opinion of those still at work, but them's the breaks.

Dad's surgery lasted a long time, 9 hours, which was exactly what we wanted. There was one nervous moment when Mom was paged to the front desk after about an hour--that was the point when they would have let us know that there was too much cancer to operate on or not. The message: "They opened him up." That was the best news of the day until the surgeon talked to Mom 8 hours later to let us know that everything went well, and that they removed all of the cancer. Along with his pancreas, spleen, gall bladder, and duodenum. When you get a good news, bad news report like that ("the cancer is gone, but he's now diabetic"), you take it.

Dad, as always, was a stud throughout this thing. In the ICU a couple of hours after surgery, he's telling his male nurse that my nephew's girlfriend is "eye candy." He was bickering with Mom in no time, too. We were given an estimate of 10-14 days in the hospital. Dad was home after 8. He's supposed to see his endocrinologist today to get the whole insulin dosing plan set up (the surgeons weren't as good at this as they could have been). So far, he's adjusting to the changes pretty well, and so is Mom. I have never been more proud of the guy.

As for me, I was a wuss and only had one organ removed. Other than my surgeon running three hours late, everything went well. I was home three hours after coming to in the recovery room. Only needed Percocet for three days, and that was mostly for sleep (rolling over had a tendency to be a bit iffy at times). I could do without that laxitive, though. I know that they didn't want me straining, but the sudden announcements from my colon that "you better find a toilet, and fast!" annoyed me to no end. I stopped that stuff yesterday after 5 daily doses.

I do have 6 refills, though. Just in case.

The biggest issues to date are itch-related. I know that the damn incision is healing, because I can't stop itching the belly button. Very, very annoying. And then there's that little lady problem I always get with a few doses of antibiotics....

Thanks to the friendly pharmacist at my local Walgreen's, I self-prescribed one pill to get rid of that little issue. Perks of the job.

The unsung hero in this whole saga is my brother. The guy deserves a medal (or a least a few rounds the next time I see him). Not only did he stick out Dad's surgery in the waiting room, but he came back here one day after going home to stick out mine so that Mom didn't have to leave Dad's side. My day in the hospital was 9 hours long, and it took 14 hours to see Dad. Nearly a day in waiting for my brother.

He's a stud, just like Dad.

Oh, and the knitting? Take a good look at the equilateral vest in progress--it's made of multiple triangles built into hexagons. That's "hex," which I learned as a math major in college means "six." Look again.

Did I catch this after taking the photo? You could say I did, but it was about 20 more triangles after. I'm now back on track.

I would like to take this time to apologize to my geometry professors at Miami University. It seems as though I didn't pay as much attention as I should have. Or the practice of medicine has made me stupid.

It's surgery for everyone!

Well, the clock is ticking down to Friday, when Dad goes in for his big pancreatic surgery. The specialist at the Cleveland Clinic (who sounds like he does these things in his sleep) will be doing what's called a Whipple procedure, in which they remove the head of the pancreas, the gall bladder and bile duct, and part of the intestine, then reattach everything so it all works again. It's going to take 8-10 hours.

Lots of anxiety and lots of knitting is in store for me.

Dad, as always, looks and feels great. He just wants to start fighting--this waiting game has been agonal. Mom is a basket case, but that's to be expected. Deep down, I'm feeling good about this whole thing--it's my glass half-full mindset, I think. Doesn't mean I'm not worried, too, but I need to try to remain calm for Mom's sake.

My surgery is scheduled for Tuesday.

Mom's nervous breakdown is scheduled for Wednesday.

In my case, the doc is taking me to the OR at 7:30 AM. At that hour, they may not need much anesthesia. They're planning on letting me hang out in the recovery room for a while and eventually go home that day. Worst case scenario is that I spend the night in the hospital and go home in the morning. Not bad for having an organ sucked out of your belly button. Of course, this plan is all contingent on Dad doing well. My uterus can always wait. It ain't going anywhere.

So, there will be knitting to be done over the next couple of weeks while Dad and I are recovering. I will be getting started on Lucy Neatby's Venus Rising Cardigan on Friday. I'll be using this shade of Kauni, which I got for a great price with rocket fast shipping from Gail's Yarns:

The sweater is knit on size 11's. To do this with a fingering weight Kauni, the yarn is Navajo plied as you go to allow you to knit with three strands at a time off one skein. I saw Lucy do this at a class I took with her last fall--it's very easy, and very cool. It's also knit side to side with short row shoulder shaping--should take my mind off waiting, don't you think?

As for the present projects, things are coming along. The cardigan is in sleeve purgatory (sleeve 2). I also have a Lucy Neatby Equilateral Vest started up:

I'm using the same Plymouth yarn I used for the cardigan, just in a different shade.

Yes, it's purple. Yes, the Kauni is purple. Cut me some slack. My family is having organs removed.

As for the garden, the weather insanity has seemed to take a toll on my cucumbers. The leaves are yellowing up, and the yield is way down. My tomatoes are still producing, though:

That's about half of what's in the freezer right now. I'm guessing on one of my recovery days, the kitchen will be producing a large amount of tomato sauce. I already cooked up three pints of salsa on Monday:

5 cups of tomatoes, 5 cups of onions, 2.5 cups of peppers, 10 cloves of garlic, and a few other things--all the veggies came from the garden! The recipe I used also called for a dozen jalapenos--I used 2.

And one habanero.

And the stuff is bordering on too hot. Yum. The only issue is for the next two days, my house smelled like the Old El Paso test kitchen.

I have also chowed down on the first acorn squash--baked with brown sugar and butter. Mega yum. Looks like there will be at least three more, if not four. My Thai peppers are starting to turn red today--they will eventually be dried for future use. My habanero plant has a couple dozen more peppers on it--once they ripen, they will be canned for future use.

Then there's the tomatillos. I have started picking a few of those, but I think the lion's share of them will be ready for salsa production in two weeks. That will be an experience. I probably have a bushel of those things on the plants.

Not sure how much that is, but it makes me sound like a farmer, so I'll go with it.