News flash...

Surgery[sur-juh-ree] (courtesy Dictionary.com)
"The art, practice, or work of treating diseases, injuries, or deformities by manual or operative procedures.
Treatment, as an operation, performed by a surgeon."

That’s a word that is back in our vocabulary and will be taking place on Monday, May 17th. We have to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM so we can hurry up and wait. I have no idea why they feel someone should check into the hospital that early in the morning. On the plus side, if Ron is one of the first patients taken in, he has less chance of having a low blood sugar from lack of eating. “Nothing by mouth after midnight” isn’t so bad unless you’re diabetic and then you can go into a low blood sugar if it’s too far into the day without food. Ron has been in that boat before and then they’re scrambling around trying to figure out what they can give him to raise the blood sugar but not cause him to be sick later.

I'm honestly not thrilled with surgery, but with everything else going on, it's probably best. I haven't told the tornado story (I'm a bit out of order here) but once I get it written and uploaded, you'll see why I'm ready for the man to just get the foot fixed. We've got to have some relief here!

We spent most of yesterday at the hospital - early for the IV iron infusion and then the afternoon for the surgeon. The IV nurse couldn't find a vein. The first one she tried collapsed. The next one "blew" when she injected the heparin. The next one also blew when she injected the heparin. Finally, in his left hand she was able to get the IV done. If not, he would have had to do two four hour stints at the hospital to get the same amount of iron as that one injection. He was scheduled to go back on Monday but his plans have changed.

We got over to the hospital (which is across the street from the office where he got the injection - it's where his nephrologist and his surgeon are both located) just about lunch time. It was so crowded that we just ate and then went into the lobby to wait for his 1:15 appointment. Ron was so tired that he fell asleep very quickly in one of the cushy chairs. I set up shop to work and could not get Internet access. Bummer! Big time! So, I just sat. I didn't want to go off and leave him and I didn't want to wake him.

We got up to the wound clinic and waited from 1:30 until 3:30 to see the doctor. Ron slept. I played pinball on my phone. The surgeon had gotten called into a Level I trauma so was detained. A different surgeon from the same office is who came in. He said he has extensive training in diabetic foot ulcers (he's also a plastic surgeon) and bone infection. He took a probe and was able to feel the bone, which he said always 100% of the time indicates bone infection. There's no sure fire way to tell how extensive it is in a diabetic foot until you open it up. So, Monday could be good or it could be bad.

We're both just so over the waiting that we're ready to just move forward, no matter what that path might be. If we expect the worst then anything above that is good. Hopefully, Monday I'll be able to get connected to the Internet and I can work while he's in surgery and recovery. We'll see what transpires.

next, the tornado story...