On Friday, 9/9, I walked the mile from my house to the Surgery Center of Long Beach, checking in just before 8 am for a procedure scheduled for 9 am. Got all prepped and then spent a bit longer than I liked lying in bed waiting for Dr. Warden to finish the operation scheduled before mine which apparently went into overtime. I was finally wheeled in, administered my happy juice, and before I knew it was waking up. My mentor, former boss, and great friend Lynn Winters was there, having volunteered to shuttle me home as she has on a couple of other occasions. I didn’t have a chance to talk to the doctor as he was already working on his next job, but he did tell Lynn that my operation was rather difficult due to a pin that kept popping out. I will be seeing Dr. Warden for my first follow-up on this coming Friday and plan on getting more information then. For now, I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything worked out okay in the end and everything stays attached.

The word that I had from the doctor before the operation was that I would be spending six weeks in a brace. Right now the brace is rather cumbersome as I essentially have a splint over the surgical dressings, and I am hoping that once those dressings come off I will have something a bit less onerous. For the time being I have been being a pretty good boy, spending a lot of time on the couch watching the French Open, soccer games, and episodes of the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live that have been piling up on my VCR. I have a pretty nifty cold therapy machine that I am supposed to be using to ice the arm, but between the thickness of the splint and the bandages the cold does not really get through. Pain is manageable, and I have only taken pain medications at night. Haven’t gotten much in the way of sleep, but have been at least able to rest reasonably comfortably. I did take a short excursion yesterday, walking to the Fox Coffee House for my espresso and Albertson’s for provisions. This morning I got back into my usual Sunday morning route by taking the bus to breakfast at George’s 50’s Diner and then walking here to DRNK Coffee House. Need to keep connected with my people! In a bit I will be catching a bus back towards home for more relaxing.