The LeROY HEALTH WATCH

Friends, we're at it again. Suzy got jealous of all the attention I was getting, so she just had some more surgery.

Not as simple as that, of course.

Last Friday we had our regular "Chat With the Board" meeting, where the Park's Board of Directors meets with any park residents who care to come, the Directors share what's been going on, and the residents have an opportunity to make announcements or bring up issues. Shortly before the meeting, Suzy told me her stomach was slightly upset. By the time the meeting was over and the visiting was done, she was really in pain. We called our AARP RN nurse service who advised a visit to the local ER.

Benson Hospital's ER is very small, not equipped for anything terribly serious. They learned by X-ray that Suzy had a bowel obstruction, and shipped her off to Northwest Medical Center in Tucson. She left by ambulance at 10:15 pm. I went home to pack up some stuff and get a little sleep, since I recognize I'm not the world's greatest night driver. (Have you noticed that dark is getting darker these days, and oncoming lights are shinier and more starry-looking? Who caused that to happen?)

Mid-morning, Dr. Burpee, the surgeon who had done her bariatric surgery a year ago, popped in. He was on call this weekend and had two surgeries scheduled, but he had not been notified until morning that Suzy was here. He sent Suzy for a cat scan, discovered that a loop of bowel had twisted itself around and folded over on itself. He told me that that the bowel would begin to die if not repaired and that he was moving her directly to the operating room for surgery, which he would perform.

The surgery amounted to a bowel resection: Dr. Burpee cut out and discarded a section of the bowel and sewed the two ends together. The surgery itself took less than an hour, but that left me in the waiting room for at least three hours, although it felt like three days.

I spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights at a motel in Tucson, the days at the hospital. I had taken my laptop, even the keyboard and mouse that I use regularly, so I could stay in touch. Unfortunately, I didn't bring the far end of the two-piece power cord, so I was out of touch.

We came home Tuesday to hear two rumors. In the first one, a friend came and said, "Oh, it's such a shame your bariatric surgery failed!" Well, that surely would have been a shame, if that had been true, but this had nothing to do with the other, except that the same surgeon did both surgeries. As soon as we got to our home, a visitor announced that she had heard Suzy had had a heart attack, from taking care of me after mine! We live in a microcosm of the larger world, and we have the same type of gossiping and rumors that every other place has. It's just a whole lot closer, and the rumors fly faster!

So now here at home, Suzy is recovering well, feeling fine except that she is understandably tired and sore. The afternoon we got home, our next door neighbors brought us a a meatloaf for dinner. Thursday a couple stopped by with a complete meal: two quarts of a delicious vegetable beef soup (marvelous flavor), a big green salad with cheese and tomatoes on the side, a loaf of homemade bread, and four slices of bundt cake! Before we had a chance to eat that, another lady stopped in to promise us another meal to be delivered Saturday! We hardly know these two ladies, but there they were with food!

Why all the largess? The SKP Saguaro Co-op, our home here, is a community built on volunteerism. Escapees are known by a phrase, "Escapees care and share." The park has a committee called Helping Hands, who will help anyone who needs it, with a meal, with assistance in shopping, cleaning, laundry, or a host of other duties -- for a limited period. This is our home, and we love it.

On the weather picture, to look a different direction, we have been having the coldest weather in 39 years! Our nighttime temperatures while we were away got down as low as 12 degrees! Fortunately, we knew it would get to a hard freeze while we were away, so I turned off the water at the pedestal before I left. When a friend called the next day, I asked him to come by and disconnect the supply hose. We still live in an RV, although it hasn't moved in nearly four years, so we have to be careful with our water supply!

So that's it for us. We are trying not to make a hobby of hospitalizations. We hope to have a happy story for you in the next episode of ... Our Life on Wheels.