Feliz Cinco de Mayo

It wasn't quite the Cinco de Mayo we had in mind. Up early for a long drive to Birmingham. The Birmingham VA Medical Center (BVAMC) to be more precise. A day at the BVAMC is always a long one. We never sleep well the night before, and we need a day or two to recover afterwards. At least I can always count on some good knitting time. I knit the whole way down while Bruce drove. The patterning in the sock yarn was revealing itself, and Bruce decided that the colors suit him and that the socks will be his. This makes me happy.

Bruce has had some trouble with his gall bladder in the past. He has recently had more flare ups of what seem to be more gall bladder trouble. Previous testing has been inconclusive, so he was scheduled to have a HIDA scan. That's what we did with our Cinco de Mayo. I sat in the Imaging Department waiting area for three hours and knit. This is a picture of what I worked on while I waited. Things did not go well. Two hours into the process someone comes out of the Nuclear Medicine door to be sure that I will drive home. They say they are having trouble finding the gall bladder and that they are going to do something with morphine. I didn't get the details about what all they intended to do before she disappeared behind the door again. An hour later, a disheveled Brucie staggered out into the imaging department waiting area. Apparently this morphine business isn't something they do too often and they were hesitant to do so then. They all gathered about and discussed the possible things that could go wrong. Bruce has quite a sense of humor; he believes that the folks working in Nuclear Medicine has either had theirs removed or just nuked to death. He jokes around with everyone, including medical personnel. So when they pulled the crash cart up next to him (just in case) he said that he usually didn't get the morphine until after he'd been jumped off. All of a sudden, they declared that they could find the gall bladder, and that they didn't need to administer morphine. Hmmm...we'll see. Bruce partly wished they had given it to him anyway because they caused him plenty of pain. They got the gall bladder good and angry and his digestive tract is still upset. I still ended up driving home because he was just so exhausted. We were parked on the eighth level of the parking garage and I did manage to snap this terrible photo of part of one of the socks and Vulcan off in the distance. Of course my driving meant no more knitting for awhile. I did knit when we stopped for lunch, though. I made good progress on the socks and nearly finished another chemo cap. I used the Odessa pattern again, but without beads this time. I was able to finish it later on Friday night.