The last few days are drowsy, but I thought I would recap them.
We went Wednesday to see the Thoracic (now I know what that means) surgeon. For some reason we thought he was going to knock out the lung/breathing issues that day, but it turned out it was just a surgical consult, and that I would be going in the next day for surgery. They were going to attempt a procedure where they put talcum powder on your lungs to make them seal up and prevent fluid from collecting. However, this didn't work as expected. So, plan B was to put a catheter in my lung that allows us to get rid of the fluid ourselves, in the comfort of our own home. I guess we just add that to the weekly chore list?
Anyway, we spent a day or so in the hospital for that. In the middle of a rush of some 100 people that came in and out of the hospital room, we had one nurse, Angela, who really did seem like an angel. Once, as they were wheeling me down the hall for something, she took my hand and whispered, "Highly favored! Highly favored!" She stood by the bed as we were about to go home, with tears streaming down her face, talked for ten minutes about the importance of each day. I said to Melanie afterward, that I thought I had read a lot of books to get try and understand what Angela learned from living and loving. Her last comment was, "Now, go comb that hair. It looks bad, and you don't want to go out of here looking defeated."
There were a number of skilled and helpful people who tended to us. You hope for a certain skill level when someone is opening any portion of your torso. Angela just stood out because she also offered us her presence, and we knew that we were on her mind (just like so many of you have shown us). That just helps us carry along.
So, recovery this weekend, then we see Dr. Posey again on Monday to get some sort of line on the chemo schedule.