The college girls were on Spring Break this last week.  Miranda, who
will be 21 this Saturday (4/7) went to Florida and spent the week with
two of her friends.  Jessica spent the week at home and we had a good
time just having her around.  She helped Joy out a lot.  Joy's
mobility and comfort had steadily decreased over the past few weeks,
waiting for the scheduled surgery that happened yesterday.  I'll get
to the surgery later in this journal entry.

Winter still is sucker punching the Northeast.  We got a nasty few wet
inches that strained the backs of Emily and Jessica on Friday.  It
recoated our lawn which hadn't yet shed all of its whiteness. We're
lucky though, because many people are dealing with flooded basements.

On Saturday, Dad's Taxi was put to hard use, taking Andrew to his
school, then Emily to her school so that they could catch separate
buses to the same place for a regional band competition.  (They won
the silver medals.)  After dropping Emily off, I zoomed down to Logan
International Airport in Boston to retrieve a somewhat more tanned
daughter so that she could come home and spend a day withthe rest of
us.  Later, I returned to the two schools to get my bemedalled
younguns, and considered (with empathy) what many soccer moms already
endure.

On Sunday, I rushed the kids in the morning to get to church by 9AM
only to learn (or to remember) that I didn't have any music
responsibilities that morning!  I apologized to the kids. 

Many of you asked how Joy was doing.  I asked her myself later in the
day to tell me how I should respond in her own words.  She said to
tell people that she was doing "fine."  I gave her an incredulous
looks and she said, "do you want me to tell them that I am miserable?"
I said, "well, that's what I've been telling them."

Warning: if you are squeamish about reading about female anatomy, you
can skip the rest of this journal entry.

Joy began her pre-op process after Sunday dinner, drinking a nasty
lemony solution to clean her out.  It worked like a charm.  The next
step was no eating, and then no drinking after a certain time on
Monday morning.  I took the day off on Monday and we did a few easy
errands in Pepperell in the morning, then back to play Dr. Mario
(video game) to take our minds off of things until it was time to go
at noon.

We arrived at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center on time and they
soon took her in for final prep. They tried three times to put the IV
in her hands; she has had bad luck with getting IVs into her.  But
once the IV was in place, we were set to go.  A bunch of people came
and went and I was constantly in the way.  When they came to wheel her
away, I told her that if she saw David Copperfield and a box to saw
her in half, she should ask for a second opinion.

As they took her to the operating room, I headed off to get a meatball
sub and to get my new car examined at the dealership.  An SRS light
was showing up when it shouldn't.  They will order a new part.  

I got back to the waiting room with plenty of time to get a bunch of
work done on my laptop.  The surgeon showed up after 5PM, so the
surgery went for about 3 hours; a little longer than first
anticipated.  However, the surgeon was very pleased by the results; a
routine operation.  It seems the operation was happily unremarkable.

Joy's left ovary (and its troublesome cyst) was removed.  Her uterus
was also removed; it had caused her much of the trouble she has had
over the past five years.  Joy lost about 400ccs of blood ("less than
a unit").  The uterus was described as "boggy" (a distinctly
non-medical term).  As I understood the explanation, glands that line
the uterine wall likely grew into the muscle, causing the trouble.
The surgeon said that pathology would tell us more accurately what was
going on inside my Dear One.  The bottom line is that a mass of flesh
that caused her trouble was removed from her body.  Her right ovary
was "beautiful" according to her surgeon and it was left in to provide
her with plenty of hormones for some years to come. In effect, once
she recovers from surgery, Joy should feel better than she has in many
years and return to a normal life in every way.

Joy looked good to me after the surgery.  She was on pain medication
to keep her comfortable but she was aware enough to respond to
questions.  I stayed with her until 8PM.  On Tuesday, she goes off the
IV pain medication and to oral meds.  Now begins the long, slow road
to recovery.  I anticipate the hardest part will actually be in a
couple of weeks when she starts to feel a bit better but should not be
doing anything.  We'll have to work hard at keeping her down.  Easy
for me to say, I know, but I am greatly relieved to be on this side of
the operation.  And I know Joy is too, although her relief is really
still weeks away.  We have longed for normalcy, and not mere episodes
of normalcy.  I think when she is fully recovered, we'll be due for
another honeymoon.  It will be fun to plan.

Mark 

P.S. I talked with her on the phone this morning and asked her what
she'd like to tell people about how she's doing.  She responded, "Ow!"
But I think she is in pretty good spirits and so am I.  We are very
grateful for all the well-wishes and tangible expressions of love that
people are giving to us.  Thank you!