Update on Roberta

Today I took Roberta to Memorial Sloan-Kettering for her pre-op testing and the details will follow this short missive: I will try to not go all Philip Roth on you but please note that I am beyond tired and am completely annoyed with a few dear neurotics who believe they either know more than anyone else about hospitals and surgery or need to be more informed before anyone else. Really folks; what part of "we do not know yet" do you not understand! Note to all: I am pushing sixty years on this planet and despite what your opinions may be; I have the necessary skills and physical ability to wipe my own ass, feed myself and care for my wife. Also, I no longer participate in oral quizes. I didn't like them when I was a school-age child and I like them even less now, especially with the added pressure of this situation. So take this into consideration and I'll thank you in advance.

Since it's President's Day the Tarrytown Station had free parking and we got a spot to the immediate right of the train station. Talk about making the trip easier!

At MSK the staff drained Roberta of massive amounts of blood and did a lung function test after which she filled out medical proxy forms and corrected our address in their records. The good news is that she's got 100%+ lung function so the staff is very optimistic about her surgical outcome. Which is funny because I never thought her lungs were very spectacular in the first place. It was her smile that first attracted me in that blizzard 33 years ago.

Roberta's surgery is set for March 2, 2012 and she is expected to spend four days in hospital regardless of the outcome. The surgery will take a little over two hours. We do not know if she has lung cancer. We do not know what time the surgery will be. On March 1st we will get a telephone call from the admitting surgeon who will give us an arrival time dependent on the day's planned traffic through the operating room. Those that need to know will be informed on March 1. Please do not quiz me for more details. And if you don't know why, you just flunked the Reading Comprehension part of the test so go back and re-read the first paragraph of this post.

When in surgery the doctor will make a small incision and separate a couple of her ribs. Then they will preform a biopsy of the nodule in her left lung and send it Pathology for testing. If it is cancer they will remove a quadrant of her lung and a few lymph nodes. If it is only an infection they won't. After surgery she will have a drain tube and be on antibiotics for an extended period.

We appreciate all of the well-wishes and concern. Thank you all.

BTW - After the hospital visit we went to the Oyster Bar in Grand Central for cocktails but it was closed. I don't know if they were closed for President's Day or just every Monday; something that needs to be looked into! So we had Margueritas and a Quesadilla Pollo at a little Mexican hole-in-the-wall bar deep in the recesses of Grand Central. Also, while waiting at MSK I read Elmore Leonard's latest book Raylan: A Novel, cover to cover. I'm still trying to figure out what it is about but I'll save that journey for another post.