Peanut Butter?! R U Kiddin' Me?!

For the last several days, JoAnne has been confined to her room waiting for the planets to align so she could undergo a biopsy. If the infections could be controlled, if her platelets could be increased to acceptable levels, if it wasn't the weekend, if there was a surgeon available, if the pathologist was on duty and if there was a spot on the schedule, JoJo could look forward to going under the knife. It was all going to happen at 2 PM today. They even took her to Pre-Op early so she would be ready to go at a moment's notice.

During the last minute consult, the Anesthesiologist was going over his check list and asked if she'd had anything to eat. Everybody knew she was supposed to be NPO or no food by mouth after midnight, however she had a half teaspoon of peanut butter at 11 AM. One of her antibiotics must be ingested with fat in order to work properly so a little bit of Skippy was included. When the Assethesiologist heard that, he immediately cancelled the case. Fear of aspirating the food. It didn't matter that it is ok to take all her pills and was more than 3 hours before the case. What was going to make all the difference in his mind was a dab of peanut butter. Cripes! With all due respect to the anesthesiologists out there, my bet is the guy had a tee time.

It is the 8th day in the hospital, and you are waiting on an unsettling surgical procedure to gather life altering information while confined to your room. Such a seemingly petty decision can make it very hard to maintain one's good nature. To her credit, JoJo has again responded in admirable fashion...........after she took a few minutes for a personal emotional event. This has not been an easy week for her. I am continually taken aback by the resilience that JoJo demonstrates each and every day. Sometimes it is easy to forget that the foundation for all that I have been writing about for the last year is the unrelenting persistence of our girl JoAnne.  She just keeps chuggin' along whether days are uphill or down. Now that I think about it, there haven't been a lot of downhill glides lately, which only goes to further emphasize my point. 

So, they will give it another shot tomorrow at 10:30. Everybody, except the Gas Passer, feels terrible, but stuff happens. It is the first time we have had something go wrong during the entire time we have been here, so it is hard to complain for more than a few minutes. Plus, if they did the procedure and she choked to death on a glob of peanut butter, we'd really have something to whine about.

Looking out the window, it is a shame to waste such a beautiful day in the hospital. We are practicing delayed gratification with the goal of getting JoJo many more of these to enjoy in the future. In the meantime, make sure you get out there and make the most of it. And take a minute if you will, to say a little prayer for our JoJo.

Cancer Sucks