I WILL Be Back... Sooner Than Later... I Hope

To make a long story short, I’m going to have cancer surgery at UCSD La Jolla on December 11th. In case you missed last week’s announcement, here are a few particulars... 

UPDATE:

• January 2, 2021- Just got out of the hospital yesterday. The cancer surgery went well, the reconstructive surgery not so much.

• My posts on the site may be irregular at the start, but I'll get stronger as the days go on.

Back to the original post....

Here’s what may be happening: “Total pharyngectomy, possible tracheal resection, possible surgical esophageal resection, possible closure of tracheoesophageal fistula.”

One surgeon will remove the cancer, another will put me back together in the hope that I’ll be able to eat real food and make noises that sound like speech.  They tell me they won’t know exactly what will happen until they see the cancer during the operation.

My reconstructive surgeon says I’ll be in the hospital from 10 days to 10 weeks; the cancer cutter thinks it will be more like a week.

So, stay tuned. I’m figuring this is a “holiday break.” Jim Miller, who shares this space with me on Mondays, will be back after New Year’s after next week’s column.    

A COUPLE OF TECHNICAL ISSUES: Comments on this blog were temporarily shut down on Dec 10th, as well as postings on our Facebook page. Obviously the mailbox will go untended for a while, so if I’m on your media list you might want to pause those press releases. I reserve the right to make obscure references and wiseass remarks on Twitter as soon as I can get to my phone.