June, July, August… :P
Sorry i haven’t written in so long. I guess I just got burned out on repeatedly writing what felt like a lot of whining. I’m in a lot better shape now, so no worries! Quick recap:
The only remaining significant problem is pain and bloating after eating a small amount of food. I have to eat 6-7 small meals a day (which is a better way to eat, anyway). I saw my general physician, my oncologist, my IPC surgeon, my GI doctor, my original colectomy surgeon, and my physical therapist within the span of a couple weeks – it’s great to have such a well-rounded and talented team helping me, and Aetna has been great with coverage so far. My general physician, Dr. Josh Bloom: “exercise is good, use the blender a lot”. My oncologist, Dr. Campbell: “I recommend physical therapy if it’s OK with Dr. Levine”. My GI doc: “let’s schedule an endoscopy”.
The night before the scheduled day of my endoscopy with Dr. Miller, I had another GI backup relapse, and instead of the endoscopy that next morning, I ended up with a(nother!) cat scan, and an emergency trip to Dr. Cline, where he suggested that I have another small bowel surgery, that very night – he was going out of town the next day and it was then or never. For some reason, even though the pressure was on, I bucked everyone’s advice. I just knew things were going to work through, even though Dr. Miller’s cat scan diagnosis was a “complete small bowel obstruction”.
Later, after I made the call to hold off on the surgery, I got Dr. Levine on the phone, and he agreed that a complete obstruction was not likely, given that I was not throwing up and things were at least partially moving through. Whew, dodged a bullet! So instead of the surgery, my plan was to take it easy, eat small (even thought I am always hungry), and jump into physical therapy.
It was a good move, the PT was really really helpful. The PT, Jennifer, helped loosen the facia that was “stuck” to my internal organs, worked on the scar area to reduce its scope, and did general work on muscles like my hip flexors and my whole abdominal area. I always felt loosened up after the sessions. I started at two sessions a week, which kept me in pretty good shape, and then went down to one a week.
While it always helped, the PT was still not a full cure for the eating volume problem. So I rescheduled the endoscopy with the hope that I could figure out why my stomach capacity was so small. The endoscopy provided nothing but a day of amnesia during which I lost my wedding ring. The drugs that they give you do not fully knock you out, but they do enough to give you total amnesia of the whole affair. So I don’t know how my ring came off or where it went. It was not expensive, but it was VERY valuable – Andrea and I picked them up on the Royal Mile leading away from Edinburgh Castle, very cool and very romantic. The hospital is going to keep an eye out, for what it’s worth (not much, probably, unfortunately).
The good news is that Dr. Miller prescribed a drug for me that is supposed to soften the GI tract, and the stuff has worked miracles for me. I can now eat a moderate-sized portion of food, and once it’s moved through my stomach I am good to go.
So there you have it, dear readers. For those of you who stuck it out this far, congratulations, you made it to the end. Hopefully I will never have to write here again, but if so, I look forward to all the support from all you wonderful people once again. Peace and God bless!
September 12, 2007
It’s official, I had a CT scan today and Dr. Levine declared me tumor-free, 5 months post-op. 5 months down, 6 years 7 months to go! :> A very happy day.
Can’t resist ending with one last dose of black humor… :>
March 13, 2008
My second semi-annual scan, cancer-free! Thank you God for all my blessings. :>