11/28/09 Saturday update, from Joe

[Joe Haldeman]

Yesterday got up at 4:30 to be at the hospital by 6:00 for a routine procedure, 
removing a tube that drained the pancreas and replacing it with a smaller tube. 
 The predictable happened -- I lay in a hospital bed for hours (having had nothing 
to eat or drink since midnight) and finally was wheeled into the operating room 
at 10:30. Wheeled out at 11:30, after a five-minute procedure. Lay in a room 
for another hour or so, but a kindly nurse brought me an 8-oz. Diet Pepsi and 
some graham crackers. 

Gay fixed me a huge leftover turkey sandwich when I got home, though, followed 
by a slice of Becca's good peach pie. So even though I had a new bag depending 
from my abdomen, to match the ileostomy on the other side, the world became 
all right. 

I mostly slept the day away, still fuzzy from the sedatives they gave me for 
the procedure. Roused myself around dinnertime for one of my favorite meals 
-- post-Thanksgiving casserole. Joel had bought the DVD of Sergio Leone's epic 
Once Upon a Time in the West, the director's cut, almost three hours long. 
 I had a hankerin' for it, as we aficionados say, and because I'm sick the others 
went along with it. 

PS from Gay:

The doc wants us to stay here another two weeks, bummer.  Then I think he'll let us go.  Joe really isn't strong enough for much travel yet anyway.  Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  We did, with much to be thankful for.

Love, Gay