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I’m back, and considerably sooner than expected. I had my final surgery on Thursday afternoon and this turned out to be a more minor affair than we thought it would be. My ileostomy is closed over and all is back to the way it was, normal as ever so far.

I was back on my feet far sooner than I thought. When the surgeon came in afterwards, he said I should start walking around any time. I did sit up a little bit the first afternoon and discovered that wasn’t as easy as one would consider. Having an incision at your belt line makes folding over difficult. However, by about 9 pm, I was interested in taking a little stroll outside to partake of a certain bad habit I readopted over the summer. I called one of the nurses and asked to borrow a wheelchair to go out for a smoke. I expected some degree of stern lecturing but all I got was a laugh… and a wheelchair. She asked why and I explained that since I hadn’t walked that far yet (it is a good distance to the smoking area, down the stairs and the other end of the hospital), I didn’t want to try it and run into difficulty in the evening. After all, who wants to be the subject of the question, “And how long has he been lying out there?” She, and my doctor the next day, thought my approach was rather sensible (OK, the approach was but the smoking, not necessarily).

By the next morning, I was walking that far. I trundled down to the cafeteria to get a good cup of coffee. I trundled down to get a paper. By Saturday, walking around gave me something to do and I came to understand the difference in degree between this surgery and the others. I was bored. When one of the nurses asked how I was on Saturday morning and I mentioned this, she said I would probably get out that day. Since I was supposed to be in for five days to a week, I was a bit skeptical. I should have had a hint when they took my pain-killer pump on Saturday morning, as well as my IV pump. Literally. They took it out of the room. This is a big thing as it takes some logistical planning to even go to the bathroom with a tube running to a tall pump on wheels that has to accompany you… and not get hooked on anything in the process.

When the surgeon who was doing rounds showed up on Saturday the first time, I was having a nap. I had popped downstairs later in the afternoon and he was just coming out of my room as I walked down the hall. He watched me come down the hall, asked how things were and then asked, “How would you like to go home today?” I got home in time to watch the last two periods of the first hockey game, although I did sleep through the last period.

So, all of my surgery is finished. All that’s left is healing up. My incision is small, less than 6 inches in length, and is closing over nicely. There seems to be no sign of infection. I still have some trouble sitting for any length of time, but other than that — knock on wood — there seems to be no problems at all. Yes, I still have a bit of pain, and I do miss my dilaudid, but it beats the stuffing out of the last two surgeries…

Jack Layton passed away early this morning with his family around him. His passing was described as “peaceful.”

I must admit a bit of shock to this. When I watched the press conference where he announced that he would be stepping down temporarily to fight another bout of cancer, I was amazed at how poorly he looked. That being said, I like many people believed he would, as he said, return in September for the return of the House. Jack was a fighter, and had always been through his political career. It was reasonable to assume that this was just one more obstacle that he would push through. And, despite how ill he appeared at that press conference, it was easy to believe that the opening of the house would include him.

 He was always optimistic and a tough debater and there are many in the House of Commons who have felt the sting of his educated and biting wit. Jean Chretian referred to this today as him bearing the scars on his backside of several tough debates with him.

His policies were always slanted to those most in need. His interests included increasing employment and protecting pensions. Public health care and protecting labour were also  keystones of his beliefs. He epitomized the “kitchen table” politician, willing to discuss and help anyone who needed it.

There are probably few words that best describe the country’s loss this morning. Shirley Douglas, daughter of Tommy Douglas, probably provided the best description, in that only death could stop him. Sadly, it has and we are a smaller country today because of it.

Today, in a demonstration of possibly the most arrogant act in Canadian political history, Stephen Harper announced the appointment of three senators. These were Josee Verner, Larry Smith and Fabian Manning. What was so arrogant about this?

First, considering the Mr. Harper has gone on record on numerous occasions against the actual existence of the Senate, he has appointed more members to it than any prime minister in Canadian history. Secondly, the three members appointed were people rejected by voters less than three weeks ago in the election. Basically, these nice patronage appointments were cheerfully handed out to “Capital L” losers.

Lastly, two of these losers’ names should be very familiar. Fabian Manning was elected to the riding of Avalon in Newfoundland in 2006, taking the seat formerly held by John Efford who had retired. However, Manning was beaten by Liberal, Scott Andrews in October 2008 and was appointed shortly afterward to the Senate by Stephen Harper. He resigned his Senate seat to run in the same riding in the May 2nd election, but was soundly defeated by Scott Andrews again. In short, Manning is a two-time loser who left his senate seat to get his arse beaten, only to be reappointed before his cushion even cooled off.

Larry Smith should also be familiar. He was formerly a defensive halfback with the Montreal Alouettes and eventually was hired as club president. He was appointed to the Senate in December 2010. His tenure was quite short, as he resigned his seat in March to run in the May 2nd election, as well. He, also, was beaten in the election but was reappointed to his Senate chair today. Larry Smith, of course, was famous for his remarks after his appointment in December that his Senate salary of $132,300 base was a hardship and he would find it difficult to live on that amount. I guess he’s just going to have to go back to biting the bullet again.

All told, with the salary (a large percentage of which is untaxed), the many perks, the guaranteed job security to age 75 and the gold-plated pension plan, no real Canadian wants to abolish the Senate. Why would we, when most of us would love to be appointed to it…

There’s nothing worse than having a whole list of plans for the weekend and being sick and getting to almost nothing. I’m getting really tired of this, no pun intended.

The current guess as to what’s wrong is an infection with the possibility of having mono… again. I really am not that worried about the infection business, but mono will screw up my knee surgery that’s coming up in June or early July and I don’t want that to happen. I had blood work done to tell for sure on Wednesday afternoon so I really should have heard by now. The lab is on site at my doctor’s office so I think that, if I had it, I would have heard by now. I’m figuring tomorrow will be  the last possible day to hear if I do.

So now, I get to compress some things. I have to get the motorhome ready as well as do some housecleaning for company coming next Sunday. I want to take the motorhome out a week from Wednesday night to make sure I get a good site. I may actually go out Tuesday if its ready and this will let me do a bit of commuting.

That being said, I have three people coming Sunday evening to do a read through for the play. There’s a dramaturg coming up from Vancouver sometime in June so I want a read through before the last editing before handing over to be sliced, diced and Julienne fried by the dramaturg. Or not. Hopefully….