July 8 - Morning! Medical stuff: The plastic surgeon had to re-wrap my left hand yesterday so I got a brief glimpse of the whole missing vessels, skin graft site. Um, ew. That's all I'm saying. I had to look away before I tossed cookies that I didn't even eat!

Last night with the trach gone was a living hell. My nose is all stuffed up and I can't blow it because there's a feeding tube stitched into it, so I can't breathe through my nose. More than half my mouth is filled with "tongue" so getting my mouth open far enough to breathe is hard work. And the slit in my throat is now plugged and half healed. The anti-anxiety meds were useless and I got NO sleep. Gonna be a fun day!

Meanwhile, I had an elevated temp yesterday and this morning I'm sneezing (ouch!). So, looks like I'm getting sick too. Can you tell it's going to be a glorious day for me today??

I'll leave you on a fun note though. There is a board in each patient's room where the nurses can list your goals for the day (like getting a trach out, or eating ice chips). A couple of days ago I swiped Hannah's dry erase marker and listed a goal of winning the lottery. She swiped it back and added "and share with Hannah". Last night she came on shift, wasn't even my assigned nurse, but popped in to say 'hi' to me. She then grinned and slid a scratch off ticket across the table to me. How bleeping cute was that?!? What an absolute doll! Erika's out, Hannah's in. ;-)

July 7 - The days start early here in the hospital. It's only 7:21 AM and already my drain was removed and my trach was taken out. I now have another long day of lounging around and healing to do (maybe I can find a hot tub around here somewhere...). Doc said he's going to try me on ice chips tomorrow and evaluate on Monday if the feeding tube can come out or not. That's all the good medical stuff....moving on to fun stuff.

I've had lots of visitors which has helped alleviate the boredom. Big kisses to all who have come to suffer through the loveliness that is currently me. Some of you have even come twice (and your names have been noted for the sick voyeurs that you are). ;-P

Lots of flowers, gifts, magazines....everthing an inmate could possibly desire! Unfortunately, the very first gift I was given was "lost" while I was down in ICU. I am now not keeping anything of value in my room. No cell phone, no kindle, nothing. Hence the spotty contact and part of my boredom. I hope my Words with Friends games aren't auto-resigning!!! My apologies if they are!

Chuckle for the day: JT, Scott, and Leo came in to visit. Not 20 seconds after they left, the nurse on duty came flying into the room asking who all those hot men were! Two other nurses wandered in a while later asking the same thing. I laughed my ass off. So hey, if any single dudes out there want an intro, there are a ton of available cuties working here!

Allright back to my room, I think I'm due a feeding in 15 minutes. Yesterday was a marathon of "World's Deadliest Catch". Kind of a cool show. Wonder if it's on, on Saturdays........

July 6 - It's me, it's me! I believe I managed to hack a pc in one of the visitor's lounges! I'm always surprised to find the depths I will sink to in order to get my 'word in edgewise'. So surgery. Boy, that was just a blast and a half, let me tell you.

Woke up Monday night and the dirty deed was done. Turns out JT totally knew what he was talking about with the trach thing. This thing is freaking me out! I haven't really needed any pain meds (granted I HAVE taken some, simply because they're available) but it turns out what I really needed was some anti-anxiety meds due to the trach. I didn't sleep the first 24 hours b/c I was so afraid of choking! Luckily, it should be coming out tomorrow so I won't have to worry about it much longer.

Meanwhile, I'm up raisin' hell in the hallways, all seems to have gone well. Pathology on the tumor came back today. Doc said he doesn't recommend radiation lightly but based on its size, he's definitely recommending it for me. He said he's 100% sure he got all the cancer out and 80% sure it won't come back. Having radiation makes him 100% sure it won't come back.

OK, I'm keeping this short 'cause typing with one hand sucks plus I think Hannah is going off shift and I want to see who is replacing her. I have a total girl crush on a nurse names Erica, I hope it's her! More to come.....

From JT:  I went in to see the Q with a few others today.  She's looking real good and seems to be in good spirits.  When we arrived she was in a chair playing cards with another coworker (who is on vacation, not playing hookey).  She's not being much of a talker though.  Apparently it has somehting to do with a tube in her neck!  Tomorow they are going to try and get her talking, I guess she has a little plug she puts in the trach.  Should be interesting.  I didn't get a good view of the tongue as there is still a lot of swelling but I was amazed at how good it actually looked.  She also showed us the patch on her leg they took to repair the arm, that looks nasty.  Not in an infected way, it's just a big red patch.

It sounds like she'll probably be going home on Monday, which I'm sure will make her happy!

From JT:  An update from Scott who just called the hospital: Cathy is doing fine and will be moved from the ICU to a standard recovery room tonight or tomorrow.  If I find out anything else I'll let everyone know.

I just got forwarded this info from Patty:

The nurse asked Q if they could talk to me – guess she said, “yes!”   I didn’t ask about the face splitting thing, but the nurse said the surgery went as planned, that they’ve had her up out of bed and walking around a bit today, that she is in very good spirits and coming along nicely.  She’s not on a morphine drip, but can request morphine as she needs it.  They will be doing some tests tomorrow and she suspects she may be assigned to a regular room either tomorrow or the next day.

From JT:  I just got word from Scott that she is out of surgery and everything was successful.  She is recovering in the ICU.  Despite what some people told her, she was insistent on the ride in that the doctors said she'd be in the ICU to recover and she was right.  Why would anyone doubt her?  I plan on visiting her on Thursday so I will have more info then.  If I do find out anything sooner I will let everyone know!

From JT:  I just dropped the mighty Q off at the hospital.  She was kicking and screaming and wouldn't get out of the car so I just had to brace myself against my door and use both legs to push her out.  I think a couple of orderlies picked her up off the pavement, but it was hard to see in my rear view mirror as the parking lot was twisty and I didn't want to get into an accident as I sped away.  They should be able to fix any broken ribs during the surgery.

Okay, so maybe that's not how it went down.  Q was in good spirits, except for the fact that her Kindle broke this weekend, and wanted to go in by herself.  I was hoping to use her as an excuse to delay coming back to work, oh well.  I think she's handling this very well and she will do awesome in recovery, she doesn't take any crap from anybody or anything!

I'll post an update as soon as I hear anything, which probably won't be until tonight.

P.S. Don't worry about her Kindle situation, she already ordered a new one and it will be waiting for her when she gets out of the hospital.