Postponed

Blaine was scheduled to have surgery today. (Keyword: was) In his normal operating mode of two steps forward, one and a half steps back, this surgery was to correct a complication from his last surgery. The inside of his upper lip adhered itself to the graft they did in his mouth, and now there is not enough room on the gum for the prosthodontic device they will use to give him teeth. Since getting teeth has been his goal since the beginning, it’s something we need to fix. They are going to have to cut away the lip from the gum, take a skin graft from his leg to stretch it out, and put an abutment in his mouth to hold the two pieces apart while they heal.

First, however, they needed him to drive to Ft. Gordon last week and have impressions made of his mouth so they could make the abutment. The guy has had more impressions made than anyone I’ve ever known, because after every surgery, the inside of his mouth, gums, palate, etc., is a different shape. So they keep doing them, over and over and over. Just remembering the one time I had them done, and how that disgusting gooey stuff leaked down the back of my throat but heaven forbid you cough because you’ll shoot those trays right out of your mouth …. pretty much makes me want to gag. In fact, I’m gagging now, right here at my keyboard, just thinking about it.

Gag.

But! Blaine caught some kind of flu bug last week and was sick for three days. Lay in bed, alternately shaking with chills, then sweating with fever, throwing off the covers, huddling under the covers, then yelling at me to turn on the heat, turn off the heat, turn on the heat, why is it so stinking HOT in here -- kind of sick. And he was physically unable to make the six-hour round-trip drive to get the impressions made.

(FYI? I caught the same bug on Monday; in fact, am probably the one who gave it to him. The difference is that mine lasted twelve hours and I was up and around in time to make dinner. Him? Three days in bed. So either his body is completely worn down from all this treatment and is just not bouncing back like it’s supposed to, or he is the world’s most typical MAN.)

But, no impressions? No surgery.

We had already flown my mom here to watch the kids while we were gone for the surgery. Now, with the surgery postponed, and Blaine and I still in town, she and I have decided it’s our responsibility and American duty to spend as much of that time eating out and shopping whenever possible. She’s here, after all; hate to waste a perfectly good mini-vacation.

As for Blaine, they wanted to reschedule the surgery for mid-May. However, we’re going on vacation the first of June, and taking our BIG vacation the end of June. And considering how none of his surgeries seem to go as planned, and every procedure has a complication, and every complication has a set-back, and every set-back has a difficulty, and every difficulty hits a snag, and I have no doubt that the surgery he has planned will most likely devolve in a bizarre series of events and complications, and before we know it he’ll be having a hysterectomy or something, we decided …………… um, no.

That’s just not enough buffer time between the surgery and the summer vacations we have planned, and which we have looked forward to for so long. Our first vacation is a family vacation to the beach with The Lighthouse Organization. It is such a special, quality family time, that if Blaine couldn't take part in certain activities because he was still physically recovering from surgery, or giving himself IV antibiotics, or whacked out on narcotics, then I would pretty much have to kill him. And since Lighthouse is Christian retreat intent on helping families through the mental and emotional tolls of cancer treatment, I imagine killing one's spouse while on a Lighthouse vacation would be frowned upon.

So, in a nutshell, Blaine is taking a few months off. He’s going to spend the next six weeks resting, and recuperating, and healing before our vacations. He’ll schedule everything for when we return, and in the meantime, our plan is for him to feel better, and enjoy our summer together as a family. He's never had this long between surgeries and/or procedures, so it's almost like a mini-vacation for him, as well. Wish us luck he doesn’t step on a rusty nail, because I have no doubt that would lead to tetanus, and lock-jaw, and two months in full-body traction at the local hospital with me feeding him soup through a straw and cursing under my breath the entire time.

In the meantime, I have to go. My mom and I have some shopping to do, and then Chinese food is calling my name.