Just a note to bring everyone up to date since Houston. Compared to the cancer surgery in late 2007, this wasn't too bad but it still knocks you down a bit. I believe I was off work approximately six months after my cancer surgery and it has only been two months since this last surgery and I have been working again the last four or five weeks. The first month I had a pretty constant awareness of the surgery as it hurt almost every time I moved. Just as things were starting to get a little better I developed another very sharp pain in my lower abdomen that pretty much made it impossible to work or do anything. I finally got to a doctor and I guess I have another - new - hernia (at least one) in my lower abdomen and groin. If you've ever had a really bad tooth ache and you just can't get away from the pain and you think you're going to go crazy if you don't - that is what this is like.
I guess the radiation I had in Houston, and maybe the chemo, pretty well destroyed a lot of the tissue that holds everything together. Whenever I take something out of the microwave and see how the solid matter has been changed into a bubbling, gurgling liquified mass, I think that this must be me after radiation. However, I'm not complaining! I guess any other course of action - or maybe a course of inaction, and I wouldn't be here to complain. I'll just hang around and complain for as long as I can.
When I finally hurt so bad I decided I would go to a doctor, I discovered my primary care doctor was on vacation. So, I was scheduled with a substitue doctor I had never met before. This doctor was a female doctor - which I wasn't prepared for. I am, after all, still an old fashioned male chauvinest. Under normal circumstances I would have left, but I was hurting so bad I stuck around. I was reluctant to have any doctor exam my lower abdominal area and groin - let alone a female doctor, but I was hurting so bad I didn't really care at the moment. She said I definately had a pretty bad hernia and maybe more than one.
I really didn't want to go back to Houston again for another surgery because of the expense of just going down and staying there, plus the time involved. I had several conversations with the surgeon's office in Houston and they agreed it would be alright for me to have this surgery in Albuqueruqe. After all, they wouldn't be replacing the lining in my entire abdomen as the did in Houston - at least I hope not.
The hernia or hernias I now have are no major thing. A lot of people have hernias like this and it is no big deal. However, regardless of how bad it is, the pain was driving me crazy - in fact I almost went to the emergeny room one night before I saw this doctor. The doctor who examined me referred me to a surgeon who is supposed to be very good and I went upstairs to make an appointment and learned he is booked up for almost a month. I am scheduled to see him on June 25th. This is just for an appointment to see him. The surgery will be sometime after that. The doctor did get me a very uncomfortable belt to wrap around me to reduce the pain and that helps some. Now I have a body wrap from my chest down to my hips from the first surgery and I have this other belt to strap on. I feel like I am wearing a suit of armor. If I happen to catch a stray bullet I know it will just bounce off. I can barely bend over to pick anything up if I drop it.
I have had a lot of luck and many blessings, and one of the blessings I have had is the fact that I work at CarMax. I know they have been listed as one of the top 100 companies in the nation to work for by Forbes Magazine for five years in a row. While that sounds nice, and it really is nice, it never had the impact on me that I guess it should. But now I know. They allow me to come in when I feel like it. I am not even on the schedule. I can't really do anything physically (my wife and son keep reminding me that I am not supposed to lift anything over five pounds), and it is painful for me to get into and out of cars - so I really can't demonstrate a car to anyone, so they have me just sitting in an office answering the phone and emails. They have a great web site which shows every car we have in the country - between 20,000 and 25,000 cars, and people look at this web site and see a car they want that is in Nashville, Baltimore, Orlando, Las Vegas - or anywhere else, and they call or email us and we transfer the car in for them. I do all of that and then hand the customer off to someone else and they take care of actually demonstrating the car and selling it when it comes in. I get half the sale for that and the other sales associate gets half. The only problem with this arrangement is that we have a lot of half cars running around Albuquerque. I try to always get the front half because in New Mexico you don't need a license plate on the front end of the car - just on the back end. It is kind of funny seeing a half a car driving down the freeway though. The poor guy with just the back half doesn't even have an engine to propell his car - but he has lots of luggage space. The strange thing about this arrangement, you would think the other employees would be resentful because I am getting some kind of special treatment. They all go out of their way to do anything they can to help me. None of them have objected in any way. I do make a little money, but I work there because it is a really neat place to work. It's like another family.
To add to my current discomfort, I got up the other morning and opened up some of my mail. There was a bill from my insurance company stating that the cost of this little procedure in Houston was $23,706. The surgery only lasted four hours! But I guess they did put me up in the hospital for a few days, gave me a CT Scan, some medicine and pain medication - and I almost forgot - this wonder elastic thing I have to wear around my body every day. In addition to that, our out of pocket cost - just for going down and staying through the whole thing was close to $5,000. But the part of the bill that got my attention was the last column that said my part of the bill was going to be$11,303. My coffee wasn't black enough to get me through that little shock. I called the health care plan and got a very nice lady - but she did not speak English very well - and I was concerned that she wouldn't even understand what I was talking about. I surely didn't understand much of what she said. But, she did act interested and kept excusing herself to go look at my records and finally excused herself to go speak to her supervisor. Finally she got back on the phone and said; "No - No, you no have to pay that much. You pay two hundred fifty dollar - you okay." I asked if she was sure and she assured me she was - so we will see.
We had a nice visit from our oldest son, John Leslie from Dallas and he wife Leslea and two of their six children, Emily and Andrew, this past week. He came back to Albuquerque for his 30th class reunion - I think. This is the first reunion he has attended and I don't think either of our other sons have ever gone to a high school reunion. I guess when you have seven or eight hundred people in your graduating class it doesn't mean as much as it does when you have 33. And, I guess, I have only been to three reunions myself. One for every eleven people in my class. Anyway they all had a good time and we enjoyed them and Scott and Sheri who came up to visit with them. For some reason, when JL comes over here - which isn't often, he loves to go out and work in the yard. He and his mother and Andrew spent two solid days really shaping up the yard - cutting bushes I didn't want cut down, trimming shrubs more than I liked, and otherwise just taking control of the whole yard. Seriously - they did a fantastic job and I really do appreciate it. Mary enjoys working in the yard but she has had to do everything by herself since my surgery. I am not even allowed to push the power mower. I really do feel guilty watching her work very hard out in the yard while I sit in a chair on the patio.
Hope to get back to normal soon, but in the meantime I appreciate how lucky I am and am just thankful that everything has turned out as well as it has so far. We will be in touch soon.
ALBUQUERQUE AL
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