Hospital Time Warp

If you've had a loved one in the hospital for any length of time, you know that a hospital operates on an entirely different dimension of time.

• The test that is scheduled for 2:00 pm might be done by 4:00 pm.
• The surgery that must be done by 6:00 am that morning may be bumped to the next day, due to surgery for someone with a more urgent need.

In Steve's case, the case manager’s hurry, hurry, hurry yesterday to get him discharged and home today, (because the insurance company doesn't want to approve any more days) turns into doctor's orders...he's not weaned from IV drips, so he won't be discharged until it will be a smooth transition. THANK YOU! It is a monies game when it comes to healthcare...and this is without Obama-Care! Oh, if Steve were in his right mind...he'd have something to say about this; he's an avid FOX News-O'Reilly-Glenn Beck fan!

Bottom line, Steve is not coming home under hospice care today, but most likely tomorrow. We are on God's path of life and time table for Steve.

"The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly of the Lord [even the events that seem accidental are really ordered by Him]." Proverbs 16:33 Amplified Version

Irony

Picture taken October 8, 2010, less than a month from when we learn he has a sarcoma mass the size of a small cantaloupe in the upper lobe of his right lung. Here, a cantaloupe from our garden. Ironic.

Everything Changed

November 1, 2010, everything changed for me, and my husband Steve. The severe pain that warranted an emergency room visit that day, revealed a large mass in his right lung and on his left adrenal gland.

• Two-and-a-half weeks later, he has lobectomy of right lung.
• Two weeks later, a mass on the head of his pancreas is discovered, blocking his bile duct.
• Four days later, diagnosis is a rare lung sarcoma.
• A week later, surgery removes cancerous: duodenum, stomach, pancreas, gall bladder, spleen, and left adrenal gland.
• Scan of head, three weeks later, suspicious of metastasized to the brain.

Eleven weeks and two days from first ER visit in November, he's coming home on Hospice, January 18, 2011. The odyssey continues.