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It's taken me a while to get to this entry - it has a lot of pictures in it, from 3 different times.

This series of pictures was a walk I did in January back in Okinawa...

( Pictures (will check tomorrow...) )

And entry #4...

Wednesday, 19 December, 5:10pm

Well, I got told by Dr. Shinoura that Friday won't be possible last night, but that they may furlough me for at least an overnight again.  I hope I see him tonight so we can figure out when.  That and hopefully that means Monday (Christmas Eve Day) at the latest.

They haven't done the stitches yet, either.  I was able to get myself shaved (got the IV out of the elbow, even if they're gonna put it in tomorrow) for the first time since the surgery (was too sore the first few days, then they put the IV in an inconvienent spot in my right elbow, so that I would have banged it out if I had tried.)

Other than that, no news to report.

Thursday, 20 December, 11:04am

Mom is LATE!  (She said she'd be here between 10 and 10:30 so she could leave at 12:30 and get my sister and get their ID's for the last few months.)  And she missed some good news.  I'll be out Monday, all things going well. 

Thursday, 20 December, 9:15pm

She got there 5 minutes later.  Haven't seen Dr. Shinoura yet (it's the surgery wing docs that say I can go home Monday.)  I still don't have the central IV out, but it's currently running at 40 ml/hr (making the 1160 calorie bag last a full day and then some) and they didn't put the arm IV in, so I don't think they feel they need to put any more fat IV's on.  Maybe tomorrow I'll see him, who knows?  Mom should be here tomorrow at noon.

My current weight is 68.45kg (water weight, my mom figures. Some of it may be because I actually have food in my digestive system, too.  I've been eating full meals consistently since Tuesday now.) 

I've been listening to Christmas music, if you can't tell.  Haven't seen Dr. Shinoura, but last Thursday was his day off, so this one is probably, too.  Hopefully I see him tomorrow.

Friday, 21 December, 2:25pm

Well, finally saw Dr. Shinoura - he came by just after Mom got here at noon. The central IV is off this afternoon! Oh, frabjous day!  And everything going well, I WILL be home on Monday.  Mom won't visit tomorrow - she's gotta do Christmas shopping sometime! She'll come up Sunday after church, probably about 2:30 or so.  No furlough, but I can live with staying here until Monday.  Got some other news - turns out the surgery was better timed than I knew about when we scheduled it.  It was a miracle that the timing worked so well.

Friday, 21 December, 3:10pm

And then the surgery docs come by at 2:45!  Things ARE looking up, I've just got 72 hours to wait, and then all the follow-up visits will start, and we'll be bringing the prednisone down.

Saturday, 22 December, 4:50pm

Well, only 48 hours or less to wait now (I usually get out about noon, so really 44 or so)... you can tell I'm anxious to get out of here!  Nothing new going on. Just the usual personal care stuff, eating what they put in front of me, and finding stuff to do (reading, movies) until I go home.  Watched a "Greatest American Hero" episode - I'll have to watch the rest of that season when I get out.

Sunday, 23 December, 3:00pm

What is it about the nurses on Sundays?  Long weekend or something?  2 weeks ago I felt like a pincushion trying to get an arm IV in, and this week they not only forgot one of my medications (my prednisone, in this case) but tried telling me I was going home today.  I do have to admit, it took me 10 minutes after the nurse left to realize that they hadn't given me the prednisone, so it's not all their fault!  I had to have the doctors check that yes, it was tomorrow I'm going home, although I was going to take them up on it if they would have let me go home today!  (I had my two backpacks out and was changing into street clothing when they finally said yes, it is tomorrow!)  Mom is running late, as usual, (My sister has got her dog-walking job to do, some last minute christmas shopping, etc... she mentioned the possibility earlier) and I've got 3 grocery bags of stuff for her to pack home today - that way there isn't quite so heavy a load tomorrow.  21 hours or so now until I'm out of here. 

Current weight is 67.25 kg., which is back to where it was 6 weeks ago before Thanksgiving.

I'll actually make at least one New Year's resolution this year, and start it early: To restart my diet/exercise program as best as I can, with the surgery, the move, and everything else going on, and try to bring my weight down to 60 kg by June - at 1.62 meters, that's right in the middle of where I should be at.  I know I won't be able to walk 6 kilometers a day tomorrow, but even if I only get out for a half a kilometer, it's a start.  Hey, it's how I got started in the first place. 

I haven't made New Years resolutions in the past - I haven't wanted to make the effort to keep them!  This time, I do.  I actually WANT to look good for me, not for someone else, I realized last month.  (It's been a slow change, but it finally happened.)  That's been a switch from when the only time I wanted to keep my looks up was when I was dating or working.  And this will help.  There are other things I want to do, too... I've got dental work I want to get done one of these days (I'm letting the rest of the family take a crack at the dentist first, and I think most of them are done now), and I need to get myself some new eyeglasses (the old ones broke late last year after 4 years of on-and-off use) also - one reason is so I can be safe driving because without glasses, I have the depth perception of a piece of paper... but the eyeglasses will have to wait until I get back to the States and see if I can keep a job.

Monday, 24 December, 6:25am

Christmas Eve Day, and 6 hours left until I'm out.  Woke up at 3, and only got to sleep for about 30 minutes more, for 5½ hours of sleep so far today. Can you tell I'm excited?

Did I mention that I got the stitches out yesterday, too?

Current weight 67.10 kg. I'll try and keep track in the future.

Entry #3.

Thursday, 13 December, 1:00pm

The surgery went great, and the healing is going good. Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes sent my way.

Thursday, 13 December, 3:30pm

Well, I heard that after his base in Korea (a 1 year tour), my brother has a 3-year tour back in Kadena!  And now we're moving away!  Such is life. 

The surgery itself took 4 hours, I have an epidural as well as a hand IV for more liquids, antibiotics, and prednisone, in addition to the central IV.  I only woke up a minute before the surgery ended, and they only had to take out 10 cm of intesting because the stricture and fistula that they knew about were close together, and they found no others.  I was very alert coming out, my mom said.  I was surprised they took out the NG tube and cathether before noon and had me drinking a little bit of water at 1pm!

Friday, 14 December, 6:40pm

Watching AFN's "Holiday Notes From Home" special - makes me think of my brother that's in the Air Force (he's in Mississippi) that won't be here - but we have an address now, so I've written him something quickly earlier today with my news - I'll give it to Mom to send out when she sends him his Christmas package (which will have to be express mailed in order to get there on time now! If he had given it to us last week, we could have priority-mailed his package!)

Saturday, 15 December, 6:40am

Well, I ended up waking up at 4:30am, and at 5, I notice that there's a little blood on the sheets.  It turns out it's from the epidural, and they'll be checking it in just a little bit.  I'd like to keep it in, it's too nice.  It's why I'm not having much pain right now.  I'm a little sore, but not even 3 days after surgery, you expect to be sore.

Saturday, 15 December, 5:00pm

They had to take the epidural out before noon - I'm on a combination of 3 oral painkillers in order to keep me painless, sane, and awake...  I'm entitled to be sore right now!  Other than that, I'm all right today. All the shoulder pain that I had yesterday is gone, now I have stomach pain.  The surgery scar, of course.  That and they're slowly advancing my diet.  I'm on hard candy, meds, (6 different ones in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 3 in the evenings, plus one of the painkillers is PRN) and water only today, and the same tomorrow except for the sacrament.  Monday, if I have any gas or stool before then, I get to start eating.  Probably the rice glue, but it's something.  Current weight this morning was 65.85 kg. - I gained some weight because they flooded me during and after the surgery.  I only have one tube attached - my central IV! (they aren't worrying about the fat bags now, when I should be getting off the TPN early next week, hopefully.) [I had 5 immediately after surgery - an NG tube, a catheter, a peripheral IV, the epidural, and the central.]

I should be out of the hospital for Christmas for sure, unless I turn around REALLY badly (and I don't think I will.)  I was able to build up in multiple ways before this surgery, instead of it being on an emergency basis.  All that walking I did, for instance.  I was up to 6 km a day before the surgery, so I started at a higher point.  Then going in the hospital and being on TPN to give my intestines rest for 2 weeks, to build up my chances that way!  Doing the surgery now was the right time to do so, and the Lord is blessing me big-time for it!

I may not have much of a Christmas dinner, however.  Mom is starting to stock up on chicken soup and puddings and otherwise easy stuff to eat and digest.  I may have soup while everybody else has the ham, but if that's what keeps me healthy, I'll do it!

Monday, 17 December, 8:55pm

Well, I had one turn around. Not a bad one, however. I'll be eating again tomorrow.

I was a little surprised when they started me eating for Sunday lunch - I had had gas about 2 hours before, which is one of the "good signs" after this kind of surgery - it shows that the resection is healing - but I was hungry enough to take advantage of it.  [I'd like to ask how many of YOU would want to not eat for 20 days - even with IV nutrition!  Any takers?]  The problem was, not all of my body had voted for food, and my ascending large intestine (the section that goes up the left side) was in opposition!  It apparently wanted to rest a day or two longer - and expressed itself at 3am Monday in quite a painful matter when what I had ate reached it.  (I had 3/10 pain and it was looking like I was blocking... my large intestine was not wanting to start moving "food" again.  No fun.)  I took some codeine they gave me (which surprisingly got things MOVING - usually codeine is a constipator) and skipped breakfast like they told me to.  Ate lunch, but still had a little (soreness to 1/10) pain, so they didn't give me dinner.  Haven't had any ascending colon pain since 4pm, and I started GOING (so I'm NOT blocked - it just wanted to) at 2pm and have been going about once every 80 minutes or so since.  Diarrhea for the most part, but that is much better than not going at all. 

Once I can tolerate food for sure (and actually going, even diarrhea, is the good sign for that) they'll take my IV's out. They added a peripheral IV again Sunday morning and are running 500 calorie fat infusions once a day at 30ml/hr - which makes them take 8 hours.  8 hours of being careful is no fun, but at least they haven't had to replace the peripheral IV yet.  I think I should be out on Friday (I was thinking Thursday pre-blockage) if they take the IV's out Tuesday afternoon.

Mom went without visiting today - we chose the best day for it, apparently.  She needed to catch up on some stuff around the house.  Got some of it done.  She'll be coming by around noon tomorrow.

As for Sunday, both my home teachers came by - it's the first time they've been able to get together since they were assigned early last month, because one or the other has been on short-term deployments.  No, not Iraq. Stuff like South Korea, mainland Japan, or the Phillipines (we train with them, even if we don't have any bases there now) for training.  I asked them when they were going to get out and see my family!

Yes, the scar is sore, and going does not help that any, but I'm on Tylenol and a Advil-relative (maybe it IS Advil, I'll have to look up the pill when I get home.) (No, try Etodolac instead. It is an NSAID, however.) to help with that so I'm only sore, rather than painful, and I assume that will continue for the near future - like the next week or two.  I'm under medical supervision, so a lot of the rules they put on the non-perscription drug packages do not really apply (they can do blood tests to check and see if the Tylenol is killing my liver function, for example) and I'm certain that either now that they've taken out the problem section of intestine, Advil is not the problem it normally would be for me, or they've decided the benefits are worse than the risks, one of the two.  (Advil and its relatives, the NSAIDs/COX-inhibitors, are normally banned for me because they IRRITATE the digestive system, and mine is already irritated enough - or was)

Tuesday, 18 December, 4:30pm

Well, today has been a good day.  I've been eating well, and there has been no pain.  I should find out absolutely by about 8-11pm tonight on that score.  I asked about the stitches (only just thought about when they come out at noon today), they come out tomorrow.  Unfortunately, they want to see 3 days without pain before they take the central IV out, so it won't come out until Thursday, and neither will the arm IV.  Friday is still a possibility for going home, I think, as if the IV's and stitches are out, and I've been eating for 3 days, what reason would they have for keeping me here?

In the bad news department, I got the bill for the November part of the hospital stay - ¥194,381 for 5 days.  So less than $400 a day.  Problem is, I'll have 20 more days at least before I get out.

Entry #2...

Thursday, 6 December, 10:40am

Haven't heard from the surgeon yet... am a little tired.  One of my neighbors left the radio on all night - good thing I had earplugs, but even then, I didn't have the easiest time getting back to sleep.

Current weight is 66.05 kg. - so I'm losing about 3-4 pounds a week.  That's fine while I'm in here.

I should get the lipid IV any time now, too...  Found Notepad++ on the thumb drive - I like it better than regular Notepad.  (I had installed it from PortableApps and hadn't used it much.)  Now if only I had the regular installer so I can put it on the laptop permanently. (No internet access, of course!)

I'm basically stuck in the room until I DO hear from the surgeon, because I want to get this SCHEDULED!  Maybe he'll come around during rounds (which are usually around 11-11:30am for the doctors I see.)

12:35pm - The surgery team just left (GI team came by right at 12) and talked to me.  They're talking next week, which would be great, but they haven't decided yet whether to do it!  Lipid IV went in at 11:30.  Difficult, as usual.  I have my left arm hanging down in order to get it in.  I can do THAT for 2 hours.

Friday, 7 December, 2:30pm

Well, just got an ECG done and a pulmonary function test about a half hour ago - it looks like this surgery is going to happen!  Current weight is 65.8 kg.  Dr. Shinoura, Mom and I will be talking tonight, and hopefully they'll be deciding on a date for the surgery.  I keep hearing next week ("the week of the 10th", I'm calling it, figuring on sometime between the 10th and the 14th.) Last night they did a nose swab, this morning was a urine test - all the little things that have to be done before a surgery are happening.  I'm having little odd aches and pains in my abdomen DESPITE being on TPN and 40mg prednisone, and that is helping plead my case for sooner rather than later.

Saturday, 8 December, 1:30pm

Last night was GREAT news!  They've scheduled the surgery for the 12th, so I'll be "no assistance required" as far as flying out is concerned if current schedule (early February for flying out) is kept.  I'll move to the surgery wing on Monday.  I've got almost everybody contacted that needs to be.

Monday, 10 December, 3:15pm

Well, I'm now in the surgical wing.  Moved all my stuff over like 30 minutes ago.

Current medical status: They decreased me to 30mg prednisone on Sunday morning (although that'll go back up) and started giving me a higher-calorie TPN bag this morning (instead of getting 820 calories every 10-13 hours, I get 1160 calories every 11-14 hours, to end up with a 2400-2600 calorie a day "diet", as opposed to 1800-2000 before) - maybe they want to build me up before the surgery, maybe I'm losing weight a little too fast, maybe both.  My current weight is 65.35 kg., so I've lost one pound since Friday, and over 7½ pounds in 2 weeks.

Mom and I asked how they handle the post-surgery pain (she knows this is painful), and they give me a spinal block before the surgery and will leave it in for 5 days to a week unless it's threatening to get infected.  If that happens, then morphine sulphate in the peripheral (arm) IV will be used instead.

Lipid IV's the past few days have been fun, to say the least!  They had to switch the IV port locations both yesterday and today (the spots that they used yesterday and the day before aren't the safest ones for somebody who's up and about...). Sunday, they had lots of trouble finding a spot that worked.  They used 5 different needles, and 3 different nurses tried.  "Call me pin-cushion-san" I almost said to the nurses.  Today, it started slow, then went so fast once it DID get going (it took an hour instead of the usual 2-3) my arm was sore for about an hour and a half afterwards.  I needed it to go fast, I wanted to get showered and shaved and all that before the wing transfer, and before my family decided to come up and visit.  (They came up at about 12:30)

They had me carrying my normal TPN bag during the transfer between wings (since I could walk, the nurse pushed a cart with my records and my stuff on it while I held my bag in my left hand) and when we got to the wing... uh-oh.  Backflow in the central line.  (Meaning there's blood trying to go INTO the bag.)  Not a BIG no-no to have happen, but a no-no, just the same, as far as I know.  I got moved to a side room and sat down for 5 minutes while they turned the flow up and made sure there were no problems.

Mom and I are having fun playing Canasta - and we've only started since I started this hospital stay, and we're getting pretty good at it.  Sometimes we play 2 player, sometimes one of our friends comes up with Mom and we play 3-player.  Haven't brought up enough people to play 4-player yet.

The reason I didn't type anything for Sunday is because my Mom brought up one of my Christmas presents Friday night - my brother figured I could use some more stuff to stave off the boredom... so he got me the "Sid Meier's Civilization Chronicles" set, which includes all 4 Civilization games [but not "Call to Power"] and all the expansions for the first 3 games, as well as a DVD and a card game.  Well, even a small Civ3 game can last for hours, and I had set it for medium size so I could get one game in before I went under the knife!

This should be a ¥1,000,000 ($10,000) hospital bill this time for sure [The time I went in for a month last year was in the ¥900,000 range], with a surgery being added, and I wouldn't be surprised at half again or double that.

Mom's been bringing the newspapers every couple of days, and Mizzou got a decent bowl this year, if not one of the "BCS 5"... Such is life.

Tuesday, 11 December, 3:10pm

Well, everything is happening today. This time they put a 500 calorie lipid bag on instead of a 220 calorie one. Weight is basically the same (actually went up .05 kg., but that's day-to-day variation can do that!) I'm taking a quick course of Flagyl and Kanamycin, and I drank a bottle of laxative this morning. Between the antibiotics and the laxative, I had predictable results I don't think I need to mention here!

Called my friend back in the states - talked to him and his daughter. They'll be praying for me, they say. (Things just HAVE to go right when you have a 6-year-old [I think she's 6] specifically saying she'll pray for you! ☺ )

They've had 3 people coming in doing different parts of explaining the proceedure (since I can't read Japanese, either in romanji or kanji, it's verbal explanations.) - it helps that I've read up on it before.

Wednesday, 12 December, 9:50am

Well, all preparations have been done, and now I'm anxiously waiting for the surgery and trying to relax. Of course, it's not so easy as that!

Last night I signed all the consent forms with all the worst-case scenarios - and some of them have happened to Mom (her 2004 surgery had a few problems!) I had another blessing last night, and part of the promises are that those worst-case scenarios won't happen, that I'll be healing quickly, and that the surgery will not be a reason to worry. So that's NOT what I'm worrying about. I'm anxious to get the surgery over with so I can deal with the other things that I DO need to worry about - the move, for one. I'll be "light duty" for this move (I really can't carry much more than a normal-size scripture set as I'm typing this in [Saturday, December 15th] without pain, for instance.) But at least I'll hopefully be out of the hospital and not flaring for it! (I had a light flare during the move off-base that didn't put me in hospital, but was darned inconvienent.)

Here's the first entry of 4, I think, about the November/December 2007 hospitalization/surgery.  Underlined weights can be "hovered over" to get a conversion to pounds, at least in Firefox.  I'll take a break, more will come soon.

Thursday, 29 November 2007, 8:00pm to 9:00pm

If there's a holiday you can imagine me using as a swear word, it's Thanksgiving.  You're expected to overeat, and that means guaranteed trouble with the Crohn's.  The question is, how much trouble?  Well, Thanksgiving is over... has been over for a week now (as of when I was writing this) - but why so long posting?  There's only one good reason - the trouble showed up in spades!  I ended up going into the hospital the next Monday...

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I ended up having the first warning - I was nauseous half the day, depsite being back up to 20mg prednisone... it seemed like I may never get off that drug.  Thanksgiving, after the main menu, while I was playing cards with a family friend, I had a gas attack, and while I had a respite for the next few days, I ended up being woke up in the middle of the night (10 minutes before 3am) with a vomiting spell that was productive on and off until after 10am, and heaving until 4pm [I had called Doctor Shinoura at 9am, since I had an appointment with him at 11:30], and he said to get admitted instead. I got to the hospital at 11am (I was still having the heaves occasionally - no fun while I'm dealing with the paperwork!) The fact that I was having repeating spells in short order was getting to be too much, even if the individual spells weren't enough to put me in.  (I was also having a cold that had hung on for almost the whole 2 weeks since I had last seen him to deal with.  One major disadvantage of being on an immune-system suppressant drug like Imuran - infections are more severe and/or take longer to go away.  It's been a good thing I've been generally healthy in the past in that regard.)

I was not even sore by Tuesday morning, and the cold finally disappeared Wednesday afternoon or so - but they're trying something new... they're giving me powdered medications (a second antibiotic and my Imuran - I take the usual IV antibiotic and steroids right now, as well as 100ml/hr bags of alternating D5LR and plain LR.) - they think pills might get caught in my intestines, so I'm only drinking 6 ounces of water a day and the only thing I take is the two powders.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll have another central IV put in (what's that, 3 in 2 years? I'm getting used to it by now.) I'll have it for a week, and by that point, I'll know about surgery for sure.  That'll improve my diet for a while. (I calculate I've been on 350-500 calories a day for the last 3 days, a central IV will let me do 1500 calories a day or more.  I should be losing weight, but having 2 to 4 liters of water will slow that down!  That's all right, I'll lose it once the operation happens, if it does.  [I'm currently at 68.8 kg. - was at 67.15 kg. before the prednisone got upped again (my weight had been as high as 71.05 kg., and I'd like to be at 60 kg as an appropriate weight for my body style and height.  Yes, I'd like to lose a few pounds, and I had started before this problem showed up.])

Yes, I may be having surgery soon.  They're talking about it again.  I'll know in a week or less.  And I actually WANT it at the moment.  Not that I'm in pain, but so that I don't have to keep bouncing back and forth into the hospital - this is admission number 3 this year, and while I had 4 longer ones last year, it is irritating not being able to HAVE a life!

The issue with scheduling surgery right now is something that has both good and bad points - We will probably be going back to the States soon. (95% chance that it'll actually happen, I think.) Dad's sent in his resignation (apparently his bosses are unhappy with him at the moment) and asked for February 2nd as his last day. Hopefully he'll be able to sell his vacation time back instead of making him take it... that way we'll have extra money for the trip back.  The question is, where will we end up?

The reason that it creates a problem with surgery right now is that the surgery itself would not be until about December 7th or 10th or so - and THEN the 4 to 6 weeks that I couldn't do much would start. I'd be in the hospital for 2 of those weeks or so. I'd only be able to help with the last 2 weeks of the moving process.  And that's if he gets the date he asked for.  If he has to leave sooner, I'm going to HAVE to put off the surgery, because I won't have enough time to get healed up before the move and the flight across the Pacific that's involved with that! (I almost forgot about that flight until 10 minutes ago.)  Flying is hard enough on me - the stress of a cross-Pacific flight is equivalent to a "yellow-to-red class"* meal or two - I've blocked up (and therefore, had to deal with severe and repetitive vomiting) during the flight across before due to the stress. (I'll be bringing Elental packets to eat instead of the airline meal - and I'll be flying by myself, because my flight back will not be paid for, unlike my family's.  I will have somebody at the other end to receive if I have problems, and if the surgery is too close, I'll be requesting wheelchair service this time.) If they set his last day any earlier than January 15th, I will NOT have the surgery here.  I'll go and do it in the States instead.

At least I have my working (Dad's old) laptop to listen to music and play DVD's on while I'm here in the hospital. That'll help keep things less boring.  That and I can TYPE my journal entries, even if I can't necessarily post them right now.

I'll be NPO for at least another week.  [Well, by the time I'm able to post this, I'll be off NPO and had a decision made on the surgery.]

* My internal classification for foods and meals goes like this: Green is like oatmeal and fish - foods that have anti-inflammatory properties. White is next - that's stuff that's ok, doesn't do much for or against.  Then yellow (can't do it very often - sodas, for instance), red (don't dare do it, I'll throw it up), and black (check me in to the hospital now, because I will block up! Basically, I'm completely banned.) Nuts are red-to-black, for instance, because they're too hard to digest.  Even including popcorn. Burnt and fried food is moved at least one class toward black.  (I was highly suspicious about a split-pea soup that got burned at the bottom as helping kick in Wednesday's nausea spell.)  Thin, non-spicy soups are white, so are scrambled eggs, chicken and turkey, and most pasta dishes.  Examples of some yellow foods are red meats, gas-producing vegetables, and corn.

Saturday, 1 December, 1:25

We're going to do the surgery if they'll let us.  I'm supposed to tell the doctor on Monday.  Dad says to go for it because it looks like he'll get the day he asked for.  Now if only I can get under the knife soon enough. ["Soon enough" as in this month, and preferably early in it - if they won't do it until after Christmas, I'll be checking with my family, as I'll need 4 weeks of healing time or it's a no-go, and at that, I'll be doing wheelchair travel on the airplanes.]  I've called my best friend back in the States - he just moved - not very far, however, and his wife is expecting number 4 now.  Taking a break from watching Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer at the moment. (Watched "Cats and Dogs" earlier in the week - was pretty good. 7 out of 10 or so.)

They put in the central IV last evening, and hooked up the first TPN bag at about 10:00 last night.  It's running a little slow, it looks like, (it should have been done by now and it looks like it has 2-3 hours left on it) but it's running fine. Had to have an insulin shot an hour ago - they tested my blood sugar and it was 156 (when you're first on TPN here, they monitor the blood sugar and it's supposed to be between 80 and 150 - less and you get a glucose IV, more and an insulin shot is prepared.)

Good news, my weight is now 67.05 kg. - that's less than it was the last time I was weighed before Thanksgiving. 15 more pounds to go!

Some friends from church came by last night, too.  Dad is supposed to be coming up today to give me a blessing sometime.

Sunday, 2 December, 10:15am

Well, the central IV needed cleaned and now it's running fine... just a sec. (going to scale) 66.90 kg. now.

Monday, 3 December, 10:15am

I'm off the IV antibiotic. Weight is 66.55 kg. now.

Monday, 3 December, 11:47am

had to switch iv to right hand. turns out fat IV is every day, not every 3. but it hurt when they started at at 11:15, so they switched it.

[side note: Now you see what happens when I had to type left-handed into notepad.  Turned on "StickyKeys" later on.]

Tuesday, 4 December, 5:40pm

Mom should be coming anytime - she had Japanese kids today and yesterday, so she didn't come yesterday. I'm having her bring up a list of stuff.  She had rented "The Island" for me - that is a VERY good movie, and it makes you think - as well it should - about the ethics of human cloning and ESCR (which I am avidly against, by the way.)  You might think with me having to deal with as much medical stuff as I do, I'd be for it, but it'd be "fruit of the poisoned tree" for me. It'd be like trying to earn money to pay off my debts by gambling.  ("Fruit of the poisoned tree" is what the reason is called as to why you can't use stuff found in the course of an illegal search. It's the idea that something was wrong in the doing, and so everything involved is tainted and can't be used.)  I'll have to check if lifesitenews.com did an article on it when I get back to the house.  At any rate, watch the commentary on that DVD - the director makes some of the same points.

Dad came and gave me that blessing Sunday afternoon - and I talked to Dr. Shinoura about getting that surgery scheduled.  I haven't heard back from him yet... but I've told Mom I'm setting a few parameters.  (It's my body, even if I take my family's advice on medical stuff)

If I get scheduled for December 17th or earlier, positively great! No issues.  After that until December 31st, I'll take it, but I'll have to ask the airlines to provide wheelchairs at the transfer airports, (They do that if you ask, if I recall correctly) and also provide a note from my doctor for mixing my Elental (which could look quite terroristic if I don't warn them.  It might be a good idea to have the flight attendants actually do the mixing and hand it back to me... I'll ask.)

Until January 7th, I'll delay my flight out a week and stay with some friends at this end. (I may not have to stay that long, it'll take a FEW days for my family to get packed and pulled out.)

Tuesday, 4 December, 8:00pm

Well, at least Mizzou should still have a decent bowl! Just read the newspapers from Mom and found out that they lost. Grrr...

I'm going to nap out for a while... If I don't finish this, I'll do it tomorrow.

Wednesday, 5 December, 8:00 pm

Well, I heard some hopeful news... Dr. Shinoura popped up an hour ago - he talked to the surgeon and it sounds like the surgery can be scheduled in a few weeks.  I'm hoping that means the week of the 17th and not the week of the 24th - although I don't really expect that.  Either way, I would not be HOME for Christmas (I'd have a week on TPN post-surgery, whatever date I did the surgery, and then they'd want to cautiously re-introduce drinking and eating normally again.  Realize that I haven't eaten anything since about 10pm November 25th and drinking anything other than "pill water" [i.e. 1 cup of water a day or less] since 10am November 26th, and at that point, it'd be a month or more since I've done much of either.)

Yes, that long.

But since they put in a central IV, I can be on TPN for long periods of time, so I don't HAVE to eat or drink.  (I have to ask, can't they keep central IV's in for months if they clean it every few days?)  The way they do TPN here in this hospital is in 2 parts.  (Until this visit, I thought it was all in one bag because they had to mix a bag that comes in 3 sections, and Mom told me that there were 3 parts in separate bags for her) The main part is a [for me, 820 calorie, 1000 ml bag that takes 10-12 hours to finish] bag of carbohydrates, animo acids, vitamins, water, and a little bit of oil that goes into the central IV in my subclavian vein (in my right shoulder).  That bag runs continuously.  The other part is 200ml (220 calories) of fat ["lipid"] solution that is pure white and goes into a normal IV in my arm for 2 hours a day and is problematic to get started to go in.  It's the only reason I HAVE an arm IV at all, I get all my meds by mouth at the moment. [A 1 gram antibiotic powder - Bactrim, my doctor says it is, 40mg prednisone, and my usual doses of Imuran and Pentasa in the mornings and Pentasa in the afternoons and evenings is what I currently take.]

So I'm getting about a 1900 calorie a day diet, full nutrition, the equivalent of a 3/4 of a gallon of water a day, and it doesn't even taste at all, much less taste good!  (IV fluid has to be set to be salty, or it'll pull salt out of the rest of the body into your blood, and you need some of those salts just to move... they're required for your nerves to work.)

9:00pm

I'm watching Bridge to Terabithia's extras now - since I have the case for it and not for Pride and Prejudice, it'll take up space here until I send it home (and I have LIMITED space and my sister wants to see it again), so I'm watching it first.  The commentary with the two kids in it is fun!  I've got Windows Media Player's mini-screen running below this as I'm typing and headphones on.

Yes, I brought a bunch of movies and a few TV series DVD sets.  I may have my family bring up my Lord of the Rings sets next week if the surgery is going to happen.

One of my mom's friends came up with her today and she said I looked the best I had in quite a while - I assume since before the July hospitalization (I've had 3 this year, July, September, and this one (November/December) - well, last year had 4!  Being on TPN and bowel rest does improve things!  I'd have to actually look back at my records, but I got to over 60 hospital days last year - I don't think I'm quite up to 30 yet for this year, although I'm pretty close.

My sister has a choir concert tomorrow night - I keep missing concerts while I'm in the hospital!  She knows I like to hear her sing, but she understands.  Mom was worse a few years back, if you recall.  She also has another set of Japanese kids tomorrow, so next time she comes up will be Friday.

I've got a 1 GB thumb drive here with a few extra games and programs and OpenOffice on it. (The PortableApps people did a good job, but OOo is slow to start, so I type this in Notepad - they can't help that much, OOo is just too big for a laptop that's old enough to only have USB 1.1 plugs...  Once I get to the states, I may have to get a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card for this thing!)

Weighed myself this morning - 66.45 kg. (I had gained a bit between Monday and Tuesday morning, but lost it and then some.)

It's almost 10:00pm now, so I'm going to stop again.  Have more to say, and will have yet more tomorrow, but gotta go to the bathroom!  (You would, too, if you drank most of a gallon of water/liquid a day and that's all you did!)  I go 12 times a day!  (I'm supposed to keep track of how much I put out, so I KNOW. I write it down!  It all comes out.)

Well, I just got back home 10 minutes ago... just in time for Christmas! (It's Christmas Eve Day here.) Entries will be coming over the next day or so, watch for the "december-2007-surgery" tag. The surgery went great (I had my brother post the last entry announcing it, I had no Internet access) and I'll be checking my e-mail, as well.