September 7

I received a note back from Michelle letting me know that she forwarded my e-mail to all 3 doctors as I requested. Dr. M responded last night:

Hi Cathy,

All great questions. The reason to remove the dead tissue is to avoid infection. If the wound stays open it will continue to leak saliva and the neck will never heal. It's a tough situation that is being exacerbated by your thyroid being under active. The chest muscle flap will essentially plug the hole and prevent this from worsening. I would still anticipate that once it does heal you will be able to eat and talk.

This is not nearly as big a procedure as you went through before and I do think its necessary.

Also, I just heard from the OR and they said that there is not availability on Tuesday, so we are hoping to get this done Monday afternoon. Not sure what instructions you got about calling on Tuesday, but I will have them contact you monday morning. In the mean time, is there a number I can call you guys at over the weekend to chat a bit more?

Feel free to email me any time.

M

I am SO glad to have an e-mail contact and even better it's with the doctor that I have the most rapport with! He rocks. :-) Here's the response I sent him:

Hi Dr. Miller,

Okay. So, you're going to take pec muscle and fix the flap and then what exactly are we doing about the neck wound? Are you going to do the skin graft thing on Monday afternoon as well? Are we talking an all in one shot this go around? And Monday afternoon definitely works for me. The sooner we do cleanup, the sooner I can get down to business with this healing stuff.

Scott's cell phone number is XXX. He will be hanging with me until 5:30 tomorrow (Saturday) evening. You're welcome to call him even if he's not with me and he can pass along any info you deem necessary. He'll also be the one I'd like you to follow up with after the surgery to let him know I made it. :-)

If it's a smaller procedure, what do you expect the hospital stay length to be this time around? I like to give my house/pet sitter some kind of time frame.

Thanks so much for e-mailing me. In one of the flyers the hospital handed out to me they talked about how frustrated I would feel about not being able to talk. I can kind of see what they mean. I'm usually asking a hundred billion questions about everything going on around me because being in the know makes me feel more confident. Being mute has curbed that to the extreme!

Cathy

So once again, I'll keep you posted on what I hear back. Moving on to other sundry stuff..........

Yesterday was a busy, busy day! I got up and did my 2 hour morning prep routine with the animals, and my health needs. Then I got my butt in the kitchen and started prepping a chicken cordon bleu casserole. As I was finishing up with that Jer popped over to say 'hi'. He and I hung out for a bit and he kicked my ass at some cards. Did I mention that H had kicked my ass at cards the day before that? And that babydoll was kicking my ass at cards the day before that?? Not a good week for cards for me. Oh! But don't tell Karen that...she'd be over here damaged wing and all to take advantage of it!! Anyway, after Jer left I only had 15 minutes to kick around before Kunkel showed up to gossip with me. Earlier this year she decided to volunteer for an organization called Four Legged Friends. The stories she gets out of being involved with that group are hilarious! After she left I took a nap and then popped din-din #1 in the oven. Sandi and Terri arrived around 3:30. We had a good visit and T let me feed her so I was in second heaven. I also sent home leftovers for her dad and her hubby and her son. No sooner did they leave and I popped din-din #2 in the oven and babydoll arrived home a few minutes after 6:00. Had a good visit with him over dinner and then we retired early to watch some TV and screw around on our iPads. It was a good, good day.

Sammy sent me a care package that was an absolute blast! She send a beautiful infinity scarf, a couple of scarf hangers (she so knows my OCD, these are great!!), a cute hat, some motivational stickers/sign, and just because she's also a wiseass, she sent me a candle snuffer. LOLOLOLOLOL! I love that woman!

Meanwhile, my electric candles arrived from Amazon yesterday and I tested them out last night. Yeah, no. They're very pretty but still not enough light. Babydoll is just going to have to suffer through the light going on once a night. I draped a blanket over my lamp again last night before turning it on and babydoll slept right through it. It wasn't until I was climbing back in bed that he actually woke up.

Some of the scarves I ordered have started to arrive. And JBB sent me a great link showing the different ways you can tie scarves. I'm going to have some fun with these! I also started doing a little sifting of my wardrobe yesterday. All turtlenecks have now been purged from my closet. I tried putting on a crew neck sweatshirt yesterday as well and that didn't really work either. So a definite closet purge will be needed eventually. 

Dr. Gonzo performed wonderfully again last night. He said that my gaping wound is even looking better. He said the edges are looking pink and healthy instead of brown and crusty. Did I mention that he read somewhere that aerosols are bad for people with stomas so he switched out the deodorant that he keeps here at my house? It's the little things that say 'I love you' so loudly. <3

I was up at 2 AM this morning with my G-tube twitching so I went ahead and fed myself a CBD. Seemed to go well so I'm in business as far as supplementing my Jevity diet.

 That's about all I have to report today. Babydoll is eating some breakfast and then we are off to do some shopping. I only have one nightgown that buttons down the front to accommodate an IV line while in the hospital so we're headed out to see if I can pick up a couple more for my upcoming stay. Gotta love a little retail therapy on a Saturday morn!