I Woke Up With a Piano in My Left Abdomen

It is Wednesday.

My parents arrived last night in the midst of a torrential rainstorm. They stayed for only a few minutes before driving to spend the night at the home of some of their friends.

An hour earlier, my cousin Sue and Aunt Betty dropped by with a load of food from Elegante Pizzeria and Restaurant in Forest City. There is more than enough to feed our family, the Woodalls, my parents, and my two brothers (who will be arriving this afternoon).

Other folks are preparing food, which we are having to store in our pastor's extra refrigerator.

One of my college fraternity brothers, Larry, called last night. I was able to update him on my progress. He said he would let some of my other fraternity brothers know about my condition.

I had a painful night. My pain reached a level of 8 or 9 on a scale of 10. My wife had to call hospice. The nurse increased my dosage of morphine and also told my wife to give me two oxycontin tablets if the morphine did not help. After taking both medications, the pain subsided enough for me to sleep, but never really went away. I woke up this morning with a piano in my left abdomen (actually, it was a bad pain, but having a piano in my abdomen may explain the pain).

First thing this morning I recorded a book on tape for Isaac and worked on letters to share with my children on special events in their lives.

My parents arrived here about 10:00 this morning. The Woodalls left to do some errands and make some visits.

I received several e-mails from college fraternity brothers and enjoyed replying.

At lunch we talked about funeral plans and burial plots. Apparently there are some plots available in the Canaan Corners Cemetery in a section where my mom's parents are buried.

We just had a visit from the home health nurse. She flushed my port and increased the dosage on my fentanyl patch.

We continue to receive many nice phone calls, e-mails, and cards from friends who are praying for us and desire to be an encouragement to us.

Merrily is taking a well-deserved nap while my parents have gone to pick up our children from school.

The children are back from school. We are waiting for the Woodalls and my brothers to get here so that we can enjoy our Italian feast.