Reporting In

The Cloud is back home, feeling somewhat dazed and battered and wondering in what direction this post will go ... if any at all. In my previous post, I chose to not reveal the reason for my absence but now confess that I underwent what Cathy has called male-specific surgery.

The event took place Monday morning at 8:00 AM, and they discharged me yesterday, Wednesday, at 3:30. PM. After spending two days catheterized with copious quantities of fluid dripping in and out of me, they unshackled me yesterday morning and sent me home in the afternoon once they were certain that appropriate bodily functions had resumed satisfactorily.

I was awake for the surgery. The spinal was all that was required to eliminate all feeling from the lower half of my body, and my iPod drowned out any and all concomitant surgery-related noises. Aside from some soreness from being catheterized for so long, I have felt no pain from the actual surgery. My back, however, suffered severely for awhile when the "freezing" was leaving me. The back and leg pain became so acute that I had to have demerol — right away, no faster! Yes, it was that bad. It seems that the needle going into the spine found and exploited all of the weaknesses of my deteriorated lower back.

But it's over, and I'm doing fine although this rather bare-bones report is about all that I can seem to force myself to write. I thought I might be able to summon some deep and trenchant observations, but alas ...