Over!

Hello, friends and family! It is my pleasure to first off thank you all for your prayers and comments! In the days after my surgery, my giddy mood at having the surgery over with slowly wore off, rubbed away by the after effect pain along with the nuisance of having to wear a catheter and take groggy-inducing pain meds. Your comments and prayers lightened the load and kept me upbeat. Thank you!

Today I was able to rid myself of my catheter. I am a free man again! My catheter was quite literally like a ball and chain you would see on some tough-luck prisoner . . . only it wasn't attached to my leg. I loathed the thing! Truthfully, that little unknowing hose and bag was just doing its destined task of helping me recover, but my appreciation for it was about the same as could be expected for some horrible, bulbous, parasitic blob that had latched on to me and didn't want to let go. I am glad it is gone! And I can't help but smile darkly as it comes to my mind that a week from now it will be decaying in some landfill . . . Just saying. :0)

In general, the days after the surgery went fairly well, but Tuesday, the first day after the surgery, was probably the hardest. I felt up to doing little other than lying lethargically on the couch all day. The rest of my family was off at the Puyallup Fair, so I was alone all day. It was rather depressing. :0(  I did have the company of a good book, thankfully, and hosted a private Lord of the Rings marathon. I made it through the extended version of The Fellowship of the Ring, got tired of my lonely viewing party, and slept most of the day away. It would have been a pretty boring day to write about had it not been for some "company" I received, much to my chagrin. Who knew that Tuesday was to hold an event that would jump to near the top of my "most embarrassing moments" list? I suppose I will share that ill-fated moment with you all (why do we like to tell these stories after the fact?), but no laughing! :0)

I was sitting in this same seat I am sitting in right now, staring at the Microsoft Document of one of the stories I have been writing, willing myself to lift my hands to the keyboard and actually do some writing. But alas, my dulled, sedated brain would not let me. Then the dogs started barking, incessantly. I ignored them at first, not having enough will-power to even shout at them, but they kept their racket up. Then I heard the car engine. My interest piqued enough to override my lethargic haze, I decided to investigate—carefully, of course, not letting any would-be visitor know that anyone was home. The last thing I wanted was to entertain someone in my weak, embarrassing state.

I crept down the stairs with yellow bag in tow and peered out the window. No one. Feeling bolder at this realization, I decided to tip-toe out into our garage and get a better look (while still remaining unseen, of course).  I quietly opened the door to the garage and issued out into it. It was then, to my sheer horror, that I was discovered. Peering at me from the window of the door leading out of the garage was my former baseball teammate and friend Timmy Allen. He had a big smile on his face and raised his hand when he saw me. "Kyle!" he called happily to me through the glass.

My unbelieving stare showed that there were three other guys behind Timmy, all of them former teammates. I promptly retreated back into the house, slamming the garage door. I knew I couldn't leave them now that I had been discovered, though, so I tried to regain my composure and force something like a smile on my face as I prepared for utter embarrassment. When I reached the front door, they were waiting for me. "Oh, hello, guys, good to see you." I said something lame and untruthful like that as I opened the door.  

It seemed as if in one accord their eyes fell to the hose sticking out of the top of my pants and the bag of yellow liquid attached to the other end of it. "Uh—well—hi, Kyle," Timmy stumbled. 

"We came here to sell discount tickets for our football team," Logan, one of my favorite former teammates, quickly added as if suddenly their presence begged a good explaination. To prove their point, the group held up the coupons and nodded rapidly.

"Well, You kinda caught me at a bad time . . ." My voice trailed off, and I went on to explain that the rest of my family was gone at the fair. "I would be with them, too," I finished, "but I had to have a surgery." I nodded at the tube and bag.

The guys were quick to understand, and wishing me a collective "get better soon", they all but fled as our awkward conversation came to an end. Poor guys, they didn't even get to sell any of their coupons for their trouble.

(Hey, you promised not to laugh!)

Despite the few days of being constrained to my ball and chain and that one embarrassing moment, I am glad to be healed and look forward to actually being able to pursue my "normal" life again without having to spend an hour in the bathroom to empty my bladder. If you wouldn't mind, friends and family, please pray for me still as it will probably hurt to relieve my bladder for the first few times without my catheter. Also pray that I will not have this delicate problem again (the doctor said there is about a 30% chance of having another problem). The last thing I want is to have to deal with this again! Thank you!