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Fri Mar  1 08:19 EST 1996
Weekend predate (Leap day 1996)

For those of you who have already heard, my wife Joy went into
emergency surgery last night to remove ovarian cysts.  It was
laprscopic surgery so she will be coming home this morning.  She
was fine when I left her last night.  (I'll try to define fine.)

For those of you for whom I've given enough information, you can
delete the message now.

Yesterday, Joy experienced some sharp pains on her left side.  The
pain stayed with her most of the day but became less intense from time
to time and she had hoped it would just go away by itself.  We expected
company last evening and she was preparing lasagna.  (Mind you, she'd
told me none of her pain until I discovered her on our bed bent over
trying and failing to get comfortable.  And we had talked plenty
since I got home from work.)  We called the doctors, they told us
to get her to the emergency room.  We did (around 5:30).  The lasagna
was made and just needed to be heated, and the company was coming.

They gave her some pain medication (IV drip) but the first stuff wasn't
helping so they gave her something else.  That only worked a little.
The did an ultrasound to discover the cysts (they saw two, but surgery
uncovered three.  The decision was made that it wasn't medically treatable
and so we prepped for surgery.  Joy went into surgery around 8:30 and
had a procedure called a laproscopy (a triangulation of fiber optic
devices to get to the problem through three half-inch incisions).
The surgery took longer than I anticipate (almost three hours) but I
was told everything went well.  We got the telephones humming,
notifying the appropriate people.

The surgeon came in around 11:30 pm two sheets of four phtotos each of the
internal organs of my wife.  SHe explained the surgery in stages, going
through the storyboard.  Two of her cysts were white and one was a purple
egg (which was the one that gave her the most trouble because it had
folded over on itself and caused a stabbing pain.  (My wife said that
the painwas worse than any of her four childbirths.)  The surgeon
lances eand drained each cyst and took a look around (nice organs)
before finishing up.  Joy now has three band-aids after surgery.

SHe'll be well enough to come home this morning but will be
taking it easy for the weekend.  I asked about our planned
trip to the West Coast next weekend and the surgeon said that
she shouldn't, so I have to rearrange some plans and itinerary.

I'm off to pick her up and bring her home.  I hope that I'll be able
to steal some time and grab some paperwork I left at the office.
We'll see.  Thanks for your support in prayer and otherwise.

Mark
Cadence Design Systems, Inc.   ^`.                 o   Sometimes you eat;
270 Billerica  ^_  Road MS04   \  \              o  o  sometimes you get
Chelmsford, MA \ \             {   \             o     eaten.
          02184 {  \           /     `~~~--__
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   .|\.                           /   /            / /  Mark Metcalfe
                                 '._.'           _/_/   Tel: (508) 446-6451
                                                ';|\    Fax: (508) 446-6351