December 28th, 2013

The sound of the siren kept waking me from my sleep induced by blood loss.  It was surreal, having never been in an ambulance with one going off like that.  The young lady who inserted my IV needles had to have worked in the Marines. Quick but rough! Arriving at SJMC and taken to room 5519, high in the sky and no view except into other open windows.  I wore only a long sleeve T-shirt and sweat pants when they took me into the ambulance. I didn't really feel like packing a bag before I went. Ha! Lifted up and onto the bed I assessed my surroundings and deciding escaping from the fifth floor wasn't an option.  Losing blood rapidly is a frightening feeling.  Your mind wants to work but just doesn't. Everything is in slow motion.  HC Blood count was done and came back as 8.4.  An endoscopy was immediately scheduled and performer and some acid reflux was all it found in my esophagus.  Next came the lovely lovely huge box of lemon flavored juice, try it you'll like it.  Eight glasses later I felt like a beach ball and nothing as of yet was stirring.  Remember I was losing blood as well. Now I am going to do a total body flush.  She told me to put toothpicks through my eyeballs to ensure they stay in place.  Hospital humor is well received by people who have no choice.  I asked the nurse wasn't that a lot of fluids to be leaving my body at the same time. I mean, how much blood do we have in our body?  To make this part short because bowel movements are not something you read about except on bathroom walls, I will just say it worked well. I felt like a new Mercedes, all nice and shiny inside. .

Off to the colonoscopy. The nicest nurse asked me if I wanted warmed blankets and of course I said yes.  I remember this feeling in my mothers womb,  She was asking me questions and the next thing I remember hearing was the doctor say we needed a surgeon and the word cancer.  Remember I was groggy and out of it. Not what you want to hear or have heard as the doctor later told me.  Since my wife wasn't with me I had him call my wife and explain what he had seen.  He was very patient.  The next issue was to insure it hadn't spread outside the colon walls and into the lymph nodes. A colorectal ultrasound was performed and gave positive results.

OK, you have just heard the word Cancer, you shudder, you cry, you want to say why me but for some reason I didn't.  I just sat there and asked whats next.  Get it done, I am needed in Florida. Beaches are missing me and calling my name. Gruel landlady is snickering to herself that now I can double dip, take his money and rent it again for the same price to someone else.  Common common practice in Florida.  The power of social media is about to be shown!

I had a little red haired nurse named Dominique who I just clicked with after she found out I had coached baseball at Bethel College.. She was a graduate from Bethel's School of Nursing. She ran track and cross country for Tony Natalie.  She was the one who finally told me what was happening. She put her arms around my neck and she prayed with me.  For the next three days she was my nurse and we became quite close.  A pat here, a hug there, we prayed together, and her smile is what kept me going.

The following morning my family doctor came in and again told me everything. But this time he stopped and told me his prostate cancer was still an issue and that he was told he had ten years and he already had a headstart into that ten years. Doc and I are friends, not your typical doctor/patient relationship.  We both love Jimmy Buffett. Back when he was down from finding out about his cancer I bought him a Jimmy Buffett DVD/CD set of three discs.  I was discharged on New Years eve with so many papers, appointments, that it overwhelmed me.