5 years 2 months 16 days

Day 1903. Last night it was 1 am, when I went to bed. However, Emmy came and tossed and turned, keeping me awake for a long time. Then he returned to his bed and Tammy came, and she tossed and turned and kept me awake for a long time. Eventually I fell asleep, but it was late, and then Emmy came again, etc.

At 7 am my alarm went off; even Sammy hadn't stirred yet. I was so very tired and had no desire to get up. Both Tammy and Emmy were on either side of me. Emmy was up first. We stayed in bed a few more minutes, then we all got up. Randy had already made breakfast for them. I went to the kitchen to make sandwiches for them, either for lunch or dinner, and got everything together I needed to take to the hospital. Then I got the kids ready, and at 8 am we left the house.

We took the subway downtown, then the tram. But when we got to the tram stop, it was a 12 minute wait; that was pretty long. It finally came and we got off by the hospital, then walked to the hospital and to the station I had been told. Green elevators to the 16th floor, station E. We walked to where the nurses were, and I told them I had come to stay. We all went to the waiting room right there to wait. The kids were all on their tablets. I had some papers to fill out. After a while, the nice nurse that took care of me all day showed us to my room - room 8.

There were two beds in the room, and the other bed was occupied, but the occupant not there. The nurse then came to measure my blood pressure and do an ECG. While she was doing it, my bed neighbor arrived, but left the room again. A while later she returned and sat down on her bed. The kids tried to talk to her, but she didn't want to talk. She was dressed in street clothes and was gone for good a while later.

At 11 am I suggested Randy and the kids go home, eat lunch and come back later. What was the point of them sitting in a hospital room all day playing or watching on their tablets. So Randy left with them at 11 am.

And then I was all by myself. I was very tired after the short night and lay down to sleep. However, I had somewhat of a hard time sleeping. I never went into deep sleep, but did get some light sleep, but not that much. It didn't take long for me to get somewhat bored, but I didn't want to get my computer out (yet).

It was 1 pm, and I was getting hungry. At about 1:30 pm they brought my food. It was quite a big portion of cremed spinach, potatoes, an omelett, pea soup and a vanilla pudding.

And then a young, male doctor came to see me. He talked about the operation, said my blood test results had been good, and told me my operation was the very first one at 7:30 am tomorrow morning. He also said if what they found was very bad, then the option was also on the table that they were NOT gonna remove the (what my papers say) tumor. Everything is up in the air, and I'll find out what happened, when I wake up.

He also told me I was not gonna eat again before the operation and that I was getting a laxative to clean out my colon and a colon cleanse in the morning, just in case my colon was affected by the tumor. I had no more questions, and the doctor left. After a while the nurse came to give me the laxative to drink, and she also took my blood and left the needle in for my IV that I'll need in the morning.  It was a LOT of disgusting powder I had to drink, dissolved in water, but I managed, and it took quite long for it to have an effect.

Randy had called me a few times and Sammy talked to me on the video call. I was wondering what took them so long, but at about 3:15 pm they finally walked back into my room. They were happy to see me. Half an hour later my long-time friend Renate arrived who had accompanied me to the hospital twice in the past few weeks. It was great to see her. She prayed for me for the operation, we spent some time talking, and the kids had also fun with her. Then she left.

The kids all lay down in bed with me, though they were on their tablets a lot. But they all wanted to cuddle. Sammy also likes opening and closing doors and did that for a while with the bathroom door. It's a good thing I'm alone in the room right now. They ate their sandwiches, then Randy and the kids prayed for me. At 5:30 pm I suggested it was time to go home. Tammy was really sad, and so was Sammy, but we said our good-byes. I told them we could do video calls tomorrow, and on Tuesday morning they're coming back to visit.

And then I was all by myself again. I'm pretty tired, so I'm probably gonna go to bed much earlier than usual tonight. However, with the needle in my arm, I'll have to be cautious how I lie to sleep. When I get woken up tomorrow morning, it will be for a colon cleanse, and then I'll be taken to the operating room.