Could Have Been Paralysis? Seriously?

It is 1351 on Friday (I think it is Friday) and Cha Cha is sleeping here in her hospital room. It has been a big day for her. Unfortunately, however, she has only done one of the four tasks she must accomplish before the dirty screws in here will grant her parole. She has not peed, she has not pooped and she sent pretty much all of her food back from both breakfast and lunch uneaten. They have been bringing her the same thing every meal. For breakfast she drank some of the hot tea and ate some of the three ounce frozen Italian Ice. She let me spoon feed her some of the chicken broth (maybe six spoonfuls) and she was done. I think she may have had two or three cubes of jello too. For lunch she had most of the frozen ice and that was all. So, eating is not a success in my opinion. She has not peed. She has not pooped. The only other thing she was fairly successful at was walking. We took a half a lap around the 12th floor here. We strolled very slowly down down the west wing (we didn't see President Obama) to the nurses' station, took a left, and came back down the east side of this wing. She had me holding her on one side and she held the IV tree with the other hand. The IV tree is kind of cumbersome, though on wheels, because it has two monitors on it now. One dispenses her nourishment and the other administers her pain medicine when she presses the little black button. It is limited to no more than one dose every 15 minutes so she cannot overdose. We still have a couple days before they will start to wonder what is wrong. The doctor today said that if she is not eating, walking, peeing and pooping by Tuesday he will begin to become concerned.

When I was in the family operation waiting room I was just sitting there minding my own business passing the time by: reading the sports page, texting Cha Cha updates, messing on Facebook, looking at the scoreboard that said where everybody was in their operations (like a board at an off-track betting facility - "COME ON #23") watching CNN, I began watching a movie on HBOGo until my phone battery was beginning to get low... As soon as I looked-up a MIDDLE-aged (I would guess a few years older than me) African American man named Derek came over and started talking to me. I am not sure what it is about me but I attract people who need comfort or counseling - I always have. Maybe it is my resemblance to Winnie The Pooh? Derek's elderly mother was having an operation for diabetes- she had almost died twice. When he was talking with me it seemed like his mama was gonna die but, I am not saying it is me being good juju or anything, he got a call and she was fine. I must have a kind face and I am always usually willing to talk with strangers (my parents are probably ashamed that I talk to strangers all the time). I like helping people and I am nosy.

The film I began watching on HBOGo was Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee from 2007. I remember going to the Black Hills as a kid and we went to Wounded Knee. It made a huge impact on me. We went on a lot of vacations like that when I was a young lad. Anyway, a line in the film ("an old Indian proverb") that really stuck me was, "It is easy to be brave from a distance." It really struck home with all of this hospital stuff this past month or so. I think Cha Cha has been very brave through this whole thing and she is up close - not "from a distance." Yes, she did not choose to be in her position but, she does choose to be brave. I guess, in a way, I have chosen that too. Some people in her position may have taken a coward's way out but she has fought this thing for almost as long as I have known her; I suppose we are going to lick this enemy together.

It has never made the blog until now because I was trying to keep you updated on the current things and continue the timeline in a sequential manner for the most part. One of the doctors told us a couple of days ago that if (we) would have waited much longer to come here (Northwestern) they may not have been able to do this operation and it could have led to paralysis. I cannot remember the exact date that we went to Proven Mercy Center in Aurora and we spent about five hours there without them treating Cha Cha and us having to just walk-out but that is precisely why they need to see people right away. This could have led to Cha Cha being totally non-functional physically. Just thinking about this infuriates me. I just tried to check and see the exact date that we went there but I do not see where they billed us for the $100 co-pay they swiped my card for. Maybe they were getting rid of the paper trail? I will find out when we went there - I know we talked about it on Dirty Laundry Podcast or I wrote about it in the blog. I will have lots of time on my hands playing nursemaid to Cha Cha and I will do this timeline and you will be exposed you irresponsible people (I had written something worse there but thought better of it). Bottom line is - even the bad things like Rush Copley piercing the artery near her liver and causing internal bleeding and Provena Mercy making her suffer in their various waiting rooms which made us leave without seeing someone and eventually going to Kishwaukee Community Hospital who sent her by ambulance here to Northwestern are done for a reason. That is the silver lining!

How about some paralysis? Just wait here!

Man, we haven't recorded a new podcast for over a month. Hopefully, soon we will be back with lots more life experiences to talk about.

Okay, I went off on several tangents so I will quit and be happy to be sitting here with a Cha Cha who is alive and getting well. Thank you, as always and I mean that, for stopping by. I appreciate you immensely (you allow me to stay semi-sane in this crazy mixed-up world).

This just in - Cha Cha peed 10 ccs. YEAH CHA CHA!!!