60th Birthday Surprise

          Slowly the improvements came.  Neil started walking for short distances and we both started learning how to look after his stoma.  A couple of times I commented on how his incision and the area around it looked too red.  It was very inflamed.  I was worried it may be infected.  One day he was having cold sweats again and I noticed a large red mark forming below the incision.  They did not seemed concerned though.  And like everything else with Neil, the red area just cleared up on its own by the next day.  Then his face swelled on one side for no reason and turned red.  Again, by the end of the evening it was basically gone.  I sarcastically told him to knock it off already, as though he had control of this. 

          Finally he started being given liquids, and eventually solid food.  He did not have much of an appetite but said food tasted so good.  He had lost 45 pounds since finding out about the cancer.  I told him to knock that off too, as I had a theory.  I told him I figured our world had a weight balance to maintain and every time someone lost weight, someone else had to gain it.  I am sure his weight loss was landing right over here onto me.  You see I tend to be a stress eater and for months now it had been nothing but stressful.  He laughed and rolled his eyes at me and told me he loved me just the way I was.

          The day had finally arrived.  Neil was being checked out.  Home we went.  The next morning I went to pick up some groceries and just as I was getting into the car to head home, I got a phone call.  It was Neil and he sounded very anxious.  I asked what was wrong and he told me he though his incision had split open as there was blood soaking through his abdominal  dressing.  I will be right there I told him and suggested he go lay on the bed until I arrived.  As soon I got there I took a look.  Yup, we were headed back to the hospital to the Emergency Dept.  His incision, right in the middle, had split open about two inches.  It just so happened that our surgeon was in the building on-call so he came to see us.  He looked at Neil and shook his head,  "we just can't seem to get rid of you," he said.  "We just sent you home and you're already back."  After a full examination, he said "your incision is infected.  I cannot reclose it now.  It will have to heal from the inside out.  It will have to be irrigated, packed and bandaged every day until it is healed.  We will give you a prescription for antibiotics to take."  My husband looked at me and said that I had been right, it was infected.  "I know," I said with a sigh.  "I just give up saying anything, they don't seem to listen."  So home we went again.

          I had to leave to go back to work out of town.  It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, leave my husband when he was not fully recovered.  Especially after all he had been through.  We decided to stay in touch every day. 

          When I arrived, I got settled in and returned to work.  Soon after my illustrator contacted me and let me know that she had finished the pictures for my first children's book and was now working on my second book.  In my spare time I actually found myself keeping very busy.  Finally, my first book went to layout.  I called my husband to tell him how excited I was that it would be out on market in late June. 

           Well my husbands 60th birthday was only a few days away.  He knew our kids and grandkids were going to take him out to dinner, but what he did not know was that I had invited five of his cousins to also come.  He had not seen them in a few years so this would be a great surprise.  I arranged to have a special cake made for the occasion.  Hopefully I am able to attach a picture of the cake so you can see it.  It's awesome.  The Theme of his party was our vacation to Europe which we still planned to go on.  The cake looked like suitcases with labels attached of each of the places we are planning to visit.  My daughter came up with the idea to have people give Neil Euro's in a card in place of gifts, I thought it was great. 

            The night of the party Neil called me.  He was very happy and surprised about the party.  He told me how great the cake was and seeing everyone was such a bonus.  I felt so bad that I could not be there, but my coming back to work was going to help us afford the trip to Europe that I had planned just for his 60th Birthday.  I knew we would be together soon.  Things were not back to normal yet but I had confidence that we were on the right track.  Our love was strong.