Dancin’ With Mr. C: Dr. Ferguson Cuts In

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©2017 by Lee Frederick Somerstein

(Author’s note: This is the last in my series, “Dancin’ With Mr. C,” at least for now. I hope this was as enlightening for you as it was for me. Do know that your Good Vibrations worked, I know they did!)

Let’s get it out of the way, okay. I am officially a cancer survivor, at least for now. Pathology returned from my prostate surgery shows nothing escaped. “The best outcome possible!” exclaimed one doc. They’ll check my PSA number in three months. I am making no assumptions.
We weren’t certain of anything at 7:30am April 25th when Dr. Jeffery Ferguson moved swiftly across the dance floor.
“Excuse me, may I cut in?” asked Dr. Ferguson as he tapped on Mr. C’s shoulder and grabbed him around the throat. Even while Mr. C did his best to keep me between he and the Doc, there was no getting away from the determined Surgeon. He went in there like a man on a mission. Even as Mr. C’s grip on me tightened, Dr. Ferguson thrashed away like a mad man.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic but the doc was relentless.
I was on the operating table for four-and-a-half hours for what should have been a 90-minute scope job. Dr, Ferguson had that much scar tissue from my 2005 abdominal surgery to cut away before he could even start on the main event. My last memory before going under is that of an OR nurse grabbing, no, squeezing my ass under the gown. Anesthesia hallucination? I guess we’ll never know.
The next thing I remember is slowly waking up in my hospital room with a hazy bustle of caretakers buzzing around me. There was not much pain….yet. I lolled in and out of consciousness for the next couple of days, the conscious moments punctuated by excruciating abdominal spasms. Please pass the Percocet.
By Day Six after surgery my emotions are overtaking the physical nature of recovery and that’s good news; I’m wearing my Bad Ass Coffee Company hat again. I’m writing and my sassitude remains strong.
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I’m certain I haven’t felt the full emotional brunt of what’s just transpired but I do know I’ve morphed yet again. Certainly it’s a feeling of joy mixed in with relief and gratitude but there’s more. It’s almost like a filmy curtain is opening and I see with tremendous clarity all the possibilities before me. I just don't know what they are yet.
Bring it!

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