Back in the UCSF

Been away so long I hardly knew the place

Gee, it's good to be back home
Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone
I'm back in the UCSF
You don't know how lucky you are, boy
Back in the UC
Back in the UC
Back in the UCSF

A parody of the Beatles song which is in itself a parody of Beach Boys songs. A parody of a parody is a parody. We are back in the UCSF Mount Zion Hospital.

Yesterday was Day 1 and it went great. Gabriel was walking less than five hours after waking up. Familiar nurses compete to be in charge of him. Igal is here, he was at a conference in Stanford and is staying in San Francisco for a few days. Gabriel and Igal are walking a lot, two tall figures walking and talking about Economics is a first on the 5th floor.

On Day 1 a belly dancer came in to cheer patients up, Gabriel missed her by an hour, but I took a picture. Don't know what language songs she danced to, but ventral motions are a lingua franca, and ventral motions is what it is all about on the 5th floor.

Gabriel pulled-in his second surgery, so we are ahead of other patients we befriended back in December. By now we know some names, one is due in two weeks for his second round. There are though two names from before, probably and sadly still here since December, but these are speculations one makes in the hospital, a bastion of don't ask don't tell.

The best outcome would be to be discharged in 5 days. Why not. If the universe was created in 6 days, we could be done in 5 days. With insurance folks breathing down his neck God would have finished All Creation in 3 days. Not including two weeks of paperwork to get reimbursed. God's insurance covers only his days of creation, nights were a pre-existing condition.

As we close the books on Day 2 it was another great day at UCSF. An assistant surgeon stopped by, a new face for Gabriel who was under anesthesia the first time they "met". All in all the top surgeon and the nurses are the only invariants here. All other doctors changed in these two months. We get to gauge their game all over again. A fresh start can be good, because without anesthesia even doctors only have one chance to make a first impression.