Aug 18th Tuesday

We were up way tooooo early, to head to Indy. I had been taking pain pills all night long because of my gout kicking up all of a sudden. I took another one just before going in to see the Dr. just in case it hurt taking out the stitches.

The Dr. felt the scar was healing nicely but I do have some swelling high on my shoulder that he said should go down now that he took of the bandages. He has advised me that I will need radiation for 5 or 6 weeks. He has referred us to a Dr. in Fort Wayne that he works with all the time. We thought we were going back to the same Dr that did the chemo, but he said he favored this Dr's ability to do radiation. I will be going out to Lutheran Hospital which is much further but the same place I go for my diabetes.

I've talked to some people about radiation and it doesn't sound near as bad as the chemo. Sometimes you get like a sun burn, but they have good creams etc. for when that happens. It about the same as the medicine they have for nausea when your getting chemo.

Back to the Dr. office and my scar. Once he told me what I would have to be doing he said he would send someone in to remove the stitches. I was so excited to hear that. He comes in with an industrial set of wire cutters and I decide it time for me to lay down. He actually thought I was going to sit there and watch him remove over 6o f+++++ stitches. It took about ten or fifteen minutes to pull them all out. There were three or four that gave him some trouble and hurt, but other than that it was not as bad as I thought. when he took the all out he then put these little thin bandages across the scar to keep it from opening up. He said I had to keep them on until they fell off on their own. I can shower but not swim for at least 5 days.

It is a little easier to maneuver with the bandage off, but it's also a little scary to know the scar could pull apart if I'm not careful. I did eat my lunch and dinner with my left hand today, so that is easier, but not perfect yet. I still can't turn it all the way to get it into my mouth like before. I'm sure it will come.

After the appointment we went to Sharon's favorite place for breakfast, Denny's. She got her Grand Slam Breakfast with pancakes. She was so full she had to leave me at the table and go outside and walk it off. We then went to meet Cate and look at condo's.

We saw only two condo's. One was bank owned and the other was private sale. The bank owned was a 3 BR 2-1/2 B with a double car garage. The other one was the same size but one garage. The second one was lived in and had a nice paint job. The bank owned had new everything but basic paint job. The difference in the price was over $10,000.00. Guess which one we put a bid in on? You got it, the bank owned condo. We should know in a day or two what they will do. We low balled the offer to see what they will counter. It's an end unit and has a great deck and back yard. Cate brought her current roommate with her and he liked it a lot. She is lucky that he wants to move into this place with her when their lease is up. She now only needs to find one more person.

It's now 11:06 and I'm tired and going to bed. More later! Tom