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The insurance adjuster came at 9:00 for the toilet leak yesterday. He was quite generous with his calculations, and gave us money to replace the ceilings, plastering, painting, cleaning the rugs, etc. The amount was much more than what I expected.

While he was checking the basement damage, I heard a strange noise from our ejection pump, which we installed last year after the basement flood, in order to pump out the underground water before it reaches the basement floor. The pump had been on for a few days because of the spring thaw.

When I took a look at the pump, it looked a little strange. While the pump should be installed flush with the basement floor, it now was protruding at an odd angle. Is it because it is pumping a lot of water now? I was not sure if something was wrong with it, and forgot about it for a while during the daytime.

Before going to bed, however, I started worrying about the loud sound of the pump and the odd angle I had seen in the morning. I asked my son to take a photo and send it to Mark in Japan, so that he could tell if anything is wrong with the pump in the morning.

Alas! Mark called me at 3:30 in the morning, unfortunately just about the time I awoke from the very bad dumping syndrome, totally drenched in the sweat, and at the time I was trying to sleep so that I could sleep off the pain. I could barely reach the phone due to the pain.

"It looks very bad to me. You should call the plumber right now! "

I understood why he called; he was concerned of another flooding. But I needed to sleep very badly then, not only because of the pain, but also because I had to get up early to drive down to the Boston immigration office to get my green card renewed the following morning.

Since the esophagectomy, I have been suffering from insomnia, and taking anti-anxiety medicine to fall asleep every now and then. Because of the phone call and the pain, I could no longer fall asleep and it was too late to take any medicine because I had to drive next morning.

At 4:50, still wide awoke, I called him and complained, ? Why didn?t you call me in the morning?? I am very sure he felt justified why he called, but I was feeling too miserable.

This morning when I woke up after the shallow sleep, I still had a dumping syndrome and was still panicky. Without eating or drinking anything, I hopped in the car and drove to the immigration office at about 75miles/hour.

At the office, against my expectation that I would receive the new card right there and then, I was told that it would take over a month for the card to be mailed. Because I am leaving on 4/11 to Japan, I have to go to the different immigration office tomorrow to get my passport to be stamped "under process." It means that tomorrow will be another wasted day.

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After I left for the immigration office, the plumber came and gave a temporary fix to our pump. (Fortunately my son was still at home.)

The underground water level increased so high, the bucket in which the pump sits floated up. The plumber created a new bucket with many more holes temporarily, and now the pump is working properly.

One thing after another...