A Musing About Modern Medicine

I’m listening to The Tarantula on vinyl, an old musical and sonic favorite, as I load my Questyle QP1R with music for an upcoming journey.  I think the choice of this record was at least partly inspired by a wish to turn the clock back to the days when I first discovered it and it would transport me to another world.  It’s doing pretty well, but not quite there, despite sounding as good as I can ever recall having heard it.

Next Tuesday, I will have a cancerous tumor removed from my small intestine and then I face a recovery period of somewhat vague length and difficulty.  For reasons that are a little gross to discuss here, this is not laparoscopic surgery so I’ll be in the hospital for three or four days.  Following that, I will have some recovery period the length of which is a little hard to determine.  The good news is that all the doctors involved have pretty much assured me this will rid me of the disease and there will be no more action needed to make me 100% of what I once was, for better or worse.  I’ll take that, for sure.

There will be several milestones in this experience for me.  First general anesthesia, first time having surgery, and longest time away from Ultra Fidelis since I started the business.  It’s the last that is most often on my mind.  I don’t take long or many vacations, or absences for other reasons, but this one is being forced on me.

We are a small organization, as you probably know, and I realize, with all due humility, that I am instrumental to the operation.  This means things won’t be the same, for a while, as what we are all used to.  The doctors seem to agree that I will be able to sit in a chair at the store for a few hours a day starting around September 27th, but what follows in terms of recovery to full ability is a little harder to determine.  And that still leaves two weeks of no me at Ultra Fidelis in any form.  I really wanted that to be because I was with my girlfriend at the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix, but such is life.

I’m asking for your understanding and patience during my absence, and, following my return, with my recovery.  Bob will be there, of course, and Kaitlyn has agreed to assist him by spending as much time as she can there while I’m gone, for which we are extraordinarily grateful.  And I will have my computer and phone, especially accessible once I am released from the hospital.

I expect nothing but good outcomes to follow, and I am already looking forward to getting back up to speed, in fact beyond where I have been in the last year plus as this undiscovered tumor had been wreaking havoc in my life in unexpected ways.  It will be very good to be rid of it.

I thank you all in advance for your help and understanding as we work toward my wellness, and now I’m going to put The Tarantula away and finish charging my Questyle.  I’m glad I’ve got a pair of NightHawks to join with it as I recover.  Music is the best medicine.