Gratuitous

Date: May 22, 2007
Time: 23:20
Place: Still in this vale of tears.

I realize my course work is over, but the last few days were pretty bad and the grace note was struck today. All the following details are true.

On Friday, I went to the surgeon in Boston. He said the cancer wasn't that bad, he predicted a full recovery. He'd just cut out a chunk of the jaw and replace it with a graft from a tibia, a bone in the leg which he held in low regard as a leg bone, but a wonderful source of grafts. While it was blending in with its new surroundings, I would accomodate it by breathing through an esophageal airway and eating through a tube in my nose for a week or so in order not to disturb it.

I was expecting arthroscopy. I had to ask the guy to shut up because I was about to faint. Apparently, its quite a common phenomena. I always thought that "make sure you're sitting down" stuff was pure sit-com, but it's true, the nurse said particularly so among big guys like me. It's a fight-or-flight thing. I could feel the blood drawing deep into my body away from my skin.

So, anyway, as I'm enjoying my one pleasure these days, my bike ride home, a pigeon craps square on my forehead as I cross the Welfare Island Bridge.

That's gratuitous.