Oct 9 - operation successful

What great service. They even took her 1.5 hours early. By a little after 11am the doctor was showing me photographs of the rock but of course Sandy was still not coherent. They came and got me a half-hour or so later when she was almost ready to leave, had already used the restroom or bed-pan three times and was relaxed and smiling. After the paperwork was complete and I signed the form acknowledging that I'd been given and understood all their instructions, I headed out to get the car while, of course, they wheeled her to the entrance. We were back home around 1:15.

She's still sore from the operation, cutting or no; that will gradually go away. We have an appointment to go back next Tuesday -- bonus -- to remove the stent, so we'll probably head north on Wednesday. That's a week later than the original plan, but hey -- it's good that this happened while we were down here. It would have a) been complicated and b) taken longer to resolve, had all this happened while we were in Canada. We'll have to remember that when we're scheduling our illnesses.

It will be a quiet afternoon. I have nothing planned; Sandy will likely rest off and on. She's already had a little food and coffee (it's 2:25 now).

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We had triggerfish that we'd bought the day before. It is a very good fish -- flaky, semi-dry, firm and mild. Oven roasted potato fries and beans completed the picture. Sandy ate dinner with no ill effects from the anesthetic. She drank water, staying clear of wine for a day.

The main problem with the stent seems to be an urgent need to pee every half-hour or so. Today might be better, we'll see. As a result of the operation, peeing is quite painful as well, that should improve today because that's simply due to the irritation. There is also some blood in the urine -- all of these symptoms were expected; nothing unusual. We laughed a bit about the stent -- the doctor had told us that it could stay in place up to three months but that it would produce this urgent need ... can you imagine traveling like that ? We'd have to either travel in an RV or be pulling off at every exit !

The stent itself is an interesting thing. I'd envisioned something an inch or two long but it is a thin tube over a foot long with a thread at the end. The nurse showed us one. I guess that the thread is what they use to retrieve the stent when it's time to take it out. Removing the stent is a simple process with a local anesthetic, not a general -- presumably they use some instrument to grab the end of the thread and pull ... but I'm not sure about that. The thread may be cut off after insertion. I was just looking online and see that the stent actually runs from inside the kidney into the bladder. There was no thread in the picture. The article also said that the irritation goes away "a few days after the stent is removed". If that is the case then it could be a slow trip north. Whatever.

I read an article on cnn.com about "most hated words" -- and "whatever" topped the list. It seems that people don't like that verbal shrug. Ha. Saying "that's life" or "C'est la vie" isn't quite as obnoxious.

It's 7:02 and I detect a faint lightening of the sky. It's time to get organized for my bike ride. I'll double check now, but when I looked last night the wind was going to be from the southwest ... so I'll ride south for the first time in a long time.

Onward.