I picked up the new smart phone this evening and gave Severn a call. I won't transcribe the conversation or the puns that drifted through it, but there were many and various. I winced several times through conversation - in the first few minutes as we spoke, as he was apparently coming out of a "twilight" medication from a procedure, he was still tossing puns around.

The first night in the ICU was awful because a woman in there (apparently demented) kept screaming "Help me! Help me! Save me!" and occasionally "Thank you, Jesus!" in a way that was very unsettling. He was glad to be out of there, as the medical staff apparently were ignoring her and anyone in ICU had to listen to it.

He said had an MRI yesterday and "they found a mass around and in my heart (and I'm not even Catholic)." They don't know what it is, and while he wonders if it is a lymphoma or sarcoma, I reminded him that it might also not be one of those, it might be benign. One must always keep that as an option! He was told they would give him results tomorrow.

He described a procedure they did, taking a vein from the groin and snaking it up to the heart to increase blood supply, and apparently at the same time they took samples of the mass. I commented that it sounded like the team included a plumber. He said that luckily they didn't use any Drano.

He wants people to know some good news - that his daughter brought him a Kindle, so he's going to play with that to find some books to read while he's there, and he expects to be there for several days.

To the secret santa folks, he didn't have an opportunity to open the gift sent to him. He was at the local hospital on xmas eve, and they flew him to the Baltimore hospital without stopping at his house to get that gift.

This is a summary of an hour's conversation, and for anyone tempted to feel instant alarm as two cancer survivors discuss the possibility of a couple of types of cancer now, you have to understand that cancer (the Big C) is survivable, and those of us who have been through it before know better than to fly off the handle at the possibility of such a prognosis. Severn was speculating in a general sense, but no rubber will hit the road until he knows what the doctors think and he and others can research what the options are.

After all, it could be that the giant squid (from the Mudcat Tavern) has managed to snake in an arm (heaven knows how - through an orifice?) and give his heart a squeeze. I know a lot of Mudcatters will want to give Severn a virtual squeeze (or at least a hug) and that phone number that Bruce posted earlier is a direct line to his room.

SRS