Update

Well, I'm home from the horsepartial. After two nurses quit and a phlebotomist complained so vehemently that if he were to have to go back into Room 640, he would tender his resignation at once, the VA administration decided that they could do without my presence any longer. Just because I may have accidently questioned one or another's professional abilities, manlihood, or parentage, the individuals in question decided that enough was enough. Some people are so touchy...

Anyway, I've been home for nearly an hour and my wife has already decided she 'needs to go to the store', which is Weezie for 'I'd rather not kill you this afternoon'.

The good news is that I'm sore from the laporoscopy but otherwise unscathed. The bad news is that I've been diagnosed with colon cancer and will have to go through another round of chemotherapy starting some time within the next several weeks. There's talk of a vena cava filter and a 'auto-cath' which, as I understand it, is a subcutaneous catheter that will allow them to stick me and suck out bodily fluids (or add various poisons) to my blood stream without having to stick me thousands of times. Of course, this is alright by me because I'm basically a wuss.

But, after four days without eating, the food they bestowed upon me in my two meals today tasted wonderful. They had all the food groups represented in their attempts at a balanced diet; something from the yellow group, a green, a baby-shit brown, and several from the not-quite-red-but-certainly-not-rose-or-crimson variety. Of course, it all tasted pretty much the same since it was cooked in a pressure cooker until any semblance of texture was gone, but I expected that so it didn't surprise me. I know the VA's budget is decreasing, so I guess they had to make cuts somewhere. They certainly haven't cut their ability to give good care. The doctors, nurses and technicians who put up with me went out of their way to make sure that I was as comfortable as possible, that I understood each step that was undertaken and why (at least to the level that my pusilanimously-puny ability to understand would allow), and I'd rate my care right up there with the most expensive private hospitals anywhere in the world. So, if you want to bitch about the VA, you better take it somewhere else, because if you say it to me, I guarantee you, we're gonna fight.

I do want to thank you all for your many phone calls, comments, e-mails, and other expressions of support, and I can't tell you how much they helped me. I'm looking forward to the fight to come and I want you all to know that I may lose, but I won't go without a fight. You're all in my prayers, as I hope I'm in yours.

Bob