Well, actually, I’ll be flipped over on my front, kind of suspended from the table, for surgery in the morning – an endoscopic procedure to find and remove a blockage in the bile ducts near my liver. It’s normally an outpatient procedure, but the hospital may hang on to me for a day or two just for observation since I’ve got a more complicated profile than most people. smile All expectations are that it’ll go smoothly, however.

That’ll pave the way for treating the more serious problem, the FSGS infection that’s damaging my one working kidney. The liver blockage needs to be dealt with so that in a couple of weeks they can start hammering me with heavy doses of steroids. Now, I’ve been on low doses of steroids as an immunosuppressant for 20 years, with a number of odd long-term side effects – steroids are powerful, and very odd, drugs. But a concentrated dose like this is a whole ‘nuther matter. Hopefully I can tolerate them without too much trouble (eg, getting very sick, having severe hallucinations, and other various strange risks). We’ll see. My hope is to be able to recover from tomorrow’s procedure quickly enough to have a couple weeks’ window to line up housing. That would be a huge relief.

On that score, many thanks to the folks who’ve PM’ed or left messages with suggestions. We’re following up as best as we can between the medical traumas. It’s been that kind of month. October’s gonna be better, though, right?

Oh, and: I love the rain!