What a summer!
The scary month of May (here's that story in case you missed it) gave way to a blur of June, July and August recovering. In September, I went back to work knowing that I'd need to do "something" in the future but had hoped to avoid surgery. In early October it became clear that to finally put an end to this mess, I would need more surgery, so back to the hospital I went. Apparently, I like to have my surgeries in pairs (though I don't recommend this strategy to others) because again, after the first surgery complications necessitated another. My body must also be in tune with the calendar because I also managed surgery on Mother's Day and twice the week of Ingrid's birthday. I may be in a little trouble for that.
November has been much better! I've been back to work this past week and today the last of the tubes was removed. Now I can focus on getting back my strength and endurance, getting caught up in the office, and spending some fun time with family. Several people have told me I should write a book. Don't know if anyone would read it but I did learn a lot - and much of what I already knew was reinforced. Like the value of having a physician who listens...stuff like that.
Recovery from the surgeries in October was painful and it took until last week to get off of all the pain medication. I was so excited to get back to work that I had trouble sleeping. I hate lying in bed (did a lot of that this summer too) so Wednesday morning I got up about 3:00, showered and went to the office. It was so quiet - and so nice to be back - I got a lot done early that morning. I sent a bunch of emails and got several responses that day asking why in the world I was working at 4:00 AM. It's great to be back!
While I was out of the office, Sherri, Dr. Schrader, our wonderful office staff and Dr. Martin - the latest addition to our practice (more on that later) kept the office humming and patients well cared for. Many patients sent cards or letters, visited me in the hospital, brought food to the house, helped Ingrid with errands and watching the kids...and some did all of these. One patient and his wife stood in line for 12 hours to get me a signed copy of George Bush's new book. Thank you all for being so generous and caring.
Seeing friends (patients) this week has been wonderful. I'm blessed that I get to take care of and advise such wonderful people. We've gotten the hospital bed out of our house, all the tubes are gone and we are packing up the medicines and paraphernalia. Getting that stuff out of the house and getting back to work some this week has made life feel much more normal.
So this Thanksgiving, the Yates family truly has many things for which to be thankful!
Posted by: Scott W. Yates, MD, MBA, MS, FACP
