Yikes, it’s been a while since I’ve added any updates, let me explain – “no, too much, lemme sum up”…
October 18-21, 2006
I was at home for 3 days following the first surgery, feeling pretty good and starting to enjoy all the food everyone was bringing over. But I spent Saturday night feeling completely blocked up and bloated, fighting it by running circles through the downstairs rooms through the wee hours of the night, to no avail. By early Sunday morning, I woke up Andrea and we called in – “get thee to the ER”, we were told. Back into the fire.
October 22, 2006
I checked in and threw up. :> The next order – get a new CT scan to see what was going on. The conundrum – LITERS of some barium-based contrast. I tried to patiently explain that I understood the need to drink massive quantities of this vile liquid, but unfortunately my digestive system was not going to be up to the task, since IT WASN’T WORKING. Sigh. My cries fell on deaf ears – the CT scan had to go on. Three huge glasses would be required. One glass of cranberry-juice-tainted contrast went down, and somehow stayed. A second glass, imbibed with Coke, went down and came pretty much right back up. The nurse explained “OK, we’ll need two more now”, as if I was a grade schooler who had just put a tack on her seat. Ack! I can’t even remember what the third glass was poisoned with. I took it slooooowly. I sipped the fourth glass even more slowly, so slowly that I actually wore out their patience, I think. By the time I reached the CT scan, I still had a third of a glass, and the blessed CT scan technician mercifully threw it out for me. I survived! :>
October 22-31, 2006
According to Dr. Cline, the CT scan showed that part of my small intestine had kinked up under my large. I was back on the tube. I even remember throwing up through the tube at one point. Again, not recommended. To make a long story short (too late), I was on the tube for a few days until it was obvious I wasn’t going to unkink, and then it was back to surgery on Oct 26. Dr. Cline basically reseperated the intestines, small from large, and said he placed some kind of “floating fatty layer” in between them. I need to read his notes, they are usually more telling than he is in person. Anyway, after 10 days of tube, it came out again, and I started to move. Misery followed by bliss, I guess that’s a fair deal. :>
November 10, 2006
By now, I am fully over the surgery and home and loving it. I am lifting dumbbells and walking the dogs and… most importantly… eating like an elephant. I hit a low of 160, I’m in the mid-160’s now, and ready to actually start exercising. That is, if I feel up to it before the cancer treatment hits me too hard… But at the moment, life is sweet! Thank you God.
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