Okay. After a fairly full day on the phone, including waiting, etc., here's where things stand:

Dr. Oram, the vascular guy, who said two weeks ago that he would fax his approval of Tom's surgery to Dr. Zeitels' office hadn't. His surgical coordinator got on it this morning, and he dictated it today. She will have it in 48 hours (with luck, on Wednesday) and she will immediately fax it to Dr. Zeitels' office. Christine did not know what is in this report, so neither, of course, do I.

Ultimately, the decision isn't so much with Dr. Z as it is with the anesthesiologist at Mass General. We KNOW there is risk. There was risk during the surgery in October. There was risk during the biopsy in September.

Meanwhile...Nancy at Dover Rehab got Tom an appointment with Dr. Mendoza for 10 tomorrow morning. This is the infectious diseases guy who is in responsible for the antibiotic treatment. There is also now a question of some infection at the site of the PICC. (Are these people idiots or incompetent or what? Do we need a lawyer?!?)

I'm going to call Kim at Dr. Z's and let her in on what's going on. After that, there is nothing else I can do about any of this today.

The rain, warmer temperatures, and fog are melting the snow at an incredible clip, but the ice around the stacked wood and the care is treacherous. Fortunately, I have a lot of wood ash. (But with the rain I have to keep applying it.) Went out a little while ago to pick up a couple prescriptions and get some spaghetti so I can have the white clam sauce I really wanted for dinner last night. Already grated the parmesan and have a bottle of white wine left from Micca's visit.

In between phone calls, I managed to get some papers archived in my yearly scrapbooks of our musical and other adventures and bake a chocolate cake. (I NEEDED a chocolate cake!!!) Still have to grate zucchini for the zucchini bread I probably won't get made until Wednesday and to put in the freezer for the next batch.

I'm emotionally drained, but I've been able to put some nervous energy to some positive uses.

Linn