10 Dec 2004, 18:40, JIM HOLSONBACK (1:123/140), wrote to MATT MC_CARTHY:

Hi JIM.

 MM>>   I let it dry for a few
 MM>> hours while I napped, then put it all back together.

 JH> Yes, naps come easy while recovering from major surgery.  

Naps have always come easy for me, all I have to do is sit still for a
moment; mow I've got to watch that I don't doze off walking to the front
door!   :-)) 

 JH> You'll soon feel more back up-to-speed than you really are. I 
 JH> recommend you be careful to not overdo it.  I may have done so, and I 
 JH> now have two small hernias - - one on each side of the incision scar.  
 JH> They sometimes pop out, and I just push 'em back in and keep on going.  

Mine began with the hernias, one of which I've had for the past 33 years
from simply laughing while at a party, the second was from jacking up
sidewalk slabs here about four years ago.  

The hernias were the prime reason I've enjoyed swimming and waterskiiing so
much, as the water pressure was the perfect balance for keeping the hernias
in without having to constantly pop 'em back in manually.

This past summer while I was repairing my daughter's car, I was spending
more time laying down playing with the hernias than getting work done, and
the wife talked me into finally getting them patched.

That part was simple enough, outpatient surgery, back home the same day. 
On my followup though, I was told that I had excess internal fluids
indicating something else was wrong.  More CAT scans, Ultrasounds, X-Rays,
Isotope traces, etc., led to finding I had a hugh solid mass in one kidney,
and a suspect lump in my liver.  The surgery got the kidney out, confirmed
liver was OK, found appendix a foot long and ready to go, so they took that
out also.  Lab results confirmed Renal Cancer, no spreading, margins clear,
and all other systems previously checked out good.  

If I had not procrastinated and had gotten those hernias fixed at the time
they happened, all of this would not have shown up back then, and I could
be dead in a year and never have known what hit me!

 JH> I may someday need surgery to fix one or both of those, but I'll live 
 JH> with them for now, not being a bit eager to have another trip under 
 JH> the knife.

The wife is not so lucky.  While I was going through this, she flunked a
routine annual blood test for her shrink.  Analysis and tests confirmed
advanced Pancreatic Cancer and she has only a few months to go.  :-((

This has been one hell of a summer...


     Good luck...  M.

--- Msged/386 TE 06 (pre)