Mon, 23 July 11:04am: Well, good news! Dr. Shinoura saw me an hour and a half ago. Liquids today, first meal tomorrow, amd I should be out the day after that! Mom will be coming in the early afternoon, with the two worries I mentioned earlier solved - at least for a month!

9:42 pm Mom brought Deathly Hollows - I've already finished it, if you didn't notice the title and subtitle that I'm using for a little while. I figure she must have had Mackenzie brain the editor, the book is all over the place at first read! But it's still good!

Tues, 24 July (Pioneer Day) 8:45am: Well, first meal today - and it was actually reasonable size, and not the "rice glue" I usually get for a first meal. He must think I'm doing better than usual. I got 2 half-inch thick slices of bread (they do NOT slice bread thin here, for those of you who haven't seen it!) a scoopful of scrambled eggs, a 6 ounce container of milk, some soup broth, some shredded veggies, fish, and tofy, and a cup of coffee (I DON'T drink coffee, for multiple reasons. They handed the cup to me before I could say no. The rest, I ate.) I got full before I finished the veggies, however. (A small appetite is reasonable after a week without food at all!)

Also talked to Dr. Shinoura this morning - he popped in after breakfast. We checked my weight (65.05 kg) so we could get an idea of whether to increase my Imuran dosage (We're going to - to 4 50mg pills a day, rather than 3) [FYI - That's a loss of over 8 pounds at least this week, and I got weighed AFTER I ate... so drop one more pound!) I should be getting out tomorrow, all things going well, which is why I didn't call in. If it was going to be too much longer, I'd have put something up Monday morning, but with the good news then, I decided to wait - calling in costs a little bit! Such is Pioneer Day for me!

Wed, 25th Jusy 12:20pm: I'm out! I wanted and needed to go in - but I'm still glad I'm out, even 8 full days and 272,258¥ later!

(Entry #2 of the "july-2007-hospitalization" tag. I'll type in a 3rd one tomorrow, and then I should be done.)

One of my family's friends commented I look ten times better than I did before I went in! I ended up losing 8 1/3 pounds during the visit, but I can afford to lose it.

Friday, 20 July 1:30pm: Tomorrow, Mom isn't coming here. She'll be too busy with Janell's play. (PS, support the organization that put it on, please! They're a great outfit!) She already came today, dropping off Dad's laptop so I can watch DVD's over the weekend. I'm getting into the usual "hospital pattern" - I just wish tsometimes my normal life was as well patterned. I am tired a lot, but that's to be expected. Got some old magazines read I had picked up a few weeks ago. Mom and Dr. Shinoura got to talk, so she knows what's up. I'll be here for most of the rest of July.

Sat, 21 July 10:30am: Well, today is my first oral prednisone dose... so now my only IV is the one in my chest (the central IV into my shoulder vein) - they took out my peripheral IV port (the one on my arm) yesterday evening. I'm on TPN bag #4 now. I'm taking 30mg prednisone and 150mg Imuran right now. A little frustration - when my sister packed the laptop, she forgot half the power cord, so I can't use it much! They aren't planning to come up today, either, due to the play today, but they'll be up here tomorrow.

3:40pm: Got ahold of someone from my church - he'll be here fomorrow, along with a few others at about 5:30 to 6:00 pm. Mom should be here about 1:00pm or so.

Sun, 22 July 1:38pm: Well, just switched TPN bags - now on bag #6 - more than half done,,, and I have to admit that I'd like to be able to eat soon... but it doesn't look like that'll happen until Wednesday or Thursday (It'll be Thursday if they figure on 7 days of TPN - I wouldn't mind making it 6!) Mom should be coming anytime now - I have 2 bags of books and magazines for her to take back, and a list of stuff for her to bring tomorrow. I've read a lot of books - but nothing interesting really comes to mind.

5:02pm: Well, Mom and my sister showed up at about 2:30 - they took back the laptop, but they said they'd try to bring it back for a day or two. My sister's done with "Deathly Hollows" - Mom's reading it now, and when she's done, I'll get it.

Well, I'm out of the hospital - I'll type in what I have so far - I was writing while I was in there... (ask me if you need to know what anything is, I'll tell you!)

Wed, 18 July 2007, 8:50 am: Well, day #2 of my stay, and this is my first entry. I got to thr hospital at 10, with the form filled out for admission, they got me weighed (68.85kg), measured (165cm) and the blood pressure (which is good, as usual) and temperature done amd then they brought me a note (written by someone who speaks better english - not all the nurses speak it well) that told me I had to wait until 2:00pm because there were no rooms available on the wing (6th floor, east wing) on the hospital I go to. I brought some stuff with me yesterday, including books to real, music, and a puzzle book, and Mom is bringing more stuff today to do. (I packed a few bags before I left)

I keep forgetting to mention this - I got the sticker from phinnia the Friday I was first in the new house! And yes, I do like it. I've just got to find someplace to put it now! [I think I'll tape it to my door for the moment.] No, the military and civilian postal minions did not eat it. (TMI: Our regular mail that is sent to us is handled by "civilian" - normal US Postal Service - minions until it gets to San Francisco, then it gets put on civilian or military aircraft and offloaded at either Kadena AB or Naha International Airport by military minions, and then taken to the base where our post office box is and sorted. If our mail never hits San Francisco (i.e. any other APO or FPO address), we don't pay postage, which can be quite nice. Think being able to ship packages home from Korea on a trip for free!)

10:20pm: Well, Mom gave me some bad news. I can't say anything about it here - but I want to go out and strangle somebody... a specific somebody. I already have good reason to strangle him - this just makes it worse. That and Dr. Shinoura decided to put the central line in - so I should be here for about 11-12 days, rather than 7. That has its good points and its bad points - this way, I get at least a week on NPO - and I want to get well enough to STOP the downhill slide, and if I need TPN and a week on NPO, I'll do it. I've read about 6 books, done some sudokus, listening to music, and the medical stuff. And writing this!

Thurs, 19 July, 7:50am: Well, I think they put the first TPN bad on at about midnight - I was out like the proverbial light! Got up at 3:15, took a while to get back to sleep, so a little groggy right now.

10:37pm: Had a CT scan today - just showed narrowing at the usual location, nothing more serious, and the bad news I mentioned earlier ended up being not so bad. Mom and I played cards for a bit. Slow day. Time to get to sleep.