The end is near.

[Oops, I almost capitalized the title and that just might have sent the wrong message.]

Nothing much happened from the beginning of May until the end of June. Oh, the feeling in the last two fingers of the left hand improved, but my typing hasn't. The only symptom that I am even vaguely aware of is the insidious lack of sensation in the left thumb, which, now that I've had the surgery, may or may not go away.

Anyway, June 25 Sharon and I went to the Dr. office for pre-op consult. Yes, we're into doing this on the following Monday. Yes, we'll go up to the hospital on Friday for all of the pre-admission stuff (blood draw, x-ray, EKG, the same questions asked over and over, etc.) and we will.... WHAT?!!
"You're going to quit smoking, right?" He says in his quaint accented English.
Well, you coulda heard a pin drop.
I mean, yeah I've had this urge to quit for a coupla years [like ever since I started again about 25 years ago], but the urge to light up trumps the urge to quit every time. I have been able to go long periods without my nicotine fix, which usually only requires one drag on the non-filtered Camels anyway. But now, quit, cold-turkey, without any warning. Aaaaagh!
Oh and the alternative: "if you won't quit, I don't do the surgery." And this has been laid on both Sharon and myself. Seems that smoking interferes with the bone graft. And second-hand smoke is just as bad. So she, who has never quit before, and I who have quit numerous times [the last time was 25+ years ago and I stopped for six years... don't ask!!!!] are suddenly faced with a serious dilemma. What do we do with the 6-pack of lighters we just bought?
Of course we agreed to quit. It isn't even lip sersvice either. but the suddenness was just a little bit too much. We finished up at the Dr. office got in the car and I at least waited until it was back on the street before I had my next cigarette. I didn't enjoy it any more than hundreds of previous cigarettes. Cold turkey my a**, I'm gonna wait until tomorrow. So I mad it through the rest of Wednesday... evn cut back a little, bought some patches and stocked up on Gummi-worms.
Meanwhile Sharon altered her routine. She cut way back, hides, so I don't observe her smoking, Heck, she's hidden her cigarettes, or at least they're not in plain sight. Not that it make any difference to me. I'd have to be pretty darn desperate before I'll break the filter off and smoke one of hers. I really appreciate that any of the smokers I know are going out of their way to avoid smoking around me.
So Thursday morning I slap on a patch. Left arm, right arm, decisions, decisions... smoking was easier. Now the immediate question is what about all of the other things besides nicotine that signal me to light a smoke? Well, I guess I've handled that because it's been over two weeks. The patches only lated about four days because I didn't put one on the day I went to the hospital or the next day. By that time I figured that if I can go two days without them, I don't need them either. Besides I was running out of places to put them.

So, that's the story of how I quit smoking and I'm sticking to it.

Seriously:
The surgery went fine, if a little longer than anticipated. I've managed so far to avoid the use of any pain medication right from the get-go. I believe I mentioned before the discomfort from the lack of solid food for what like seemed forever after the operation. Oh, and the the throat discomfort from the tracheal tube the anesthesiologist used. But everything the first team did seems to be just dandy.
I go back for the follow-up post-op in a month. By that time I should be out of this horse collar.

Now wait until you hear about the flood!!!