Today's Good-Bye: Day 5

I bought a fancy liquid vitamin for me to take while in the hospital. There are a few odds and ends I need to buy, nothing extravagant, but the suddenness of the surgery caught Pooky and I at one of our most penniless moments. Weighing the pros and cons, the liquid vitamin is worth every penny if it helps me heal faster. They don't automatically give you nutrition or vitamins in the IV bag, not even if I request them. I had one surgeon say to me that given me IV nutrition/vitamins was a waste because no medical study had shown it to make a difference. If the government says we need 1500-2000 Calories a day, plus the recommended allowance of vitamins and minerals, it would stand to reason that in a healing state the body requires even more to carry out repairs. But for him the standard saline solution was sufficient. He was a real prick of a surgeon to say the least. Rotten bedside manner.

Now Dr. S on the other hand has so far proven to be a jewel. If I had known him from the beginning I wouldn't have become jaded by surgeons. Surgeons are a strange animal. Anyone who can cut into another person and still eat meat amazes me. My belief is that inside of every surgeon is a twinge of Hannibal Lecter, kept tightly in check. (My theory is based upon my one quarter of human anatomy dissection in naturopathic school and seeing what the body looks like underneath our skin.)

Today feels like a hurry up and wait kind of day. I discussed with Pooky where I might have my "last supper" before switching to the liquid diet on Monday. I'm not really craving anything in particular, but would like to feel full after eating. I need to find a greasy, down-home tasty barbecue joint that has AYCE rib night. My luck I'll find such a place and the AYCE night is on Tuesdays. That won't help me. We figure my last supper will have to be tomorrow night since Pooky works Sunday night and will be adding on Monday night so he can take Tuesday and Wednesday nights off.

Normally I turn to steak or beef for a final meal, but that doesn't have its usual appeal for me. I also am thinking the more I eat, the more I eventually have to poop out. What I'd really like to do is fly back to Pennsylvania and eat msyelf silly with all of the favorite foods that we regularly enjoyed. The pizza there and in New Jersey was REAL pizza. The Chinese food back there was far better than what we can get here, though we do have Thai food which almost makes up for it. Up in Buttzville, NJ, is a little roadside place called Hot Dog Johnny's and I'd do anything to get a pair of dogs with a glass of buttermilk or birch beer!