TOTAL HOSPITAL BILL:

For the luxurious digs at Weiss Hospital, with the fine view of the skeletal in-progress parking structure and the oh-so-helpful nurse "Mary" with the fantastic "wash yourself" bedside manner and the neurotic young doctor who got down on one knee and apologized every time he ruthless dug into my arteries and splashed great rivulets of blood all over the bedding:

$27,318.58

Amount of piecemeal physician's costs still trickling in:

About: $1500

Amount I've spent out of pocket for medications to date:

About: $600

Amount of every check up with Doctor S., every three months for the rest of my life:

$178 (amount included in above total)

For a Grande Totale of:

$29,418.58

Or, roughly, about how much it cost me to get a Bachelor's Degree in 2001.

Not bad, for saving a life.

Still:

I've rather be living in Canada, thanks.

P.S. At least I know how much my book advance(s) need to be! Oh yay.

In Which the Protagonist Completes 20 Minutes on the Elliptical Machine & Doesn't Die

So, it turns out I can work out (you know, doing more than walking) and not die. Which should have been a no-brainer, but you know, after a lot of low sugar days the week before last, well, I was pretty primed for the possibility of failure.

I'm also really liking having biceps again. When my body was eating itself alive, the muscle was going right along with the fat, despite my regular morning free weights routine. I didn't realize just how much said muscle had been eaten until I posed the other day and discovered how kewl my biceps look.

Also: 68 pages of GW to go. When I have a fucking draft of this book, there's going to be a BIG PARTY.

I would invite you all, but I think we'd run out of beer.