June, July, August… :P<\/p>\n
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:<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n
September 12, 2007<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Can’t resist ending with one last dose of black humor<\/a>… :><\/p>\n March 13, 2008<\/p>\n My second semi-annual scan, cancer-free! Thank you God for all my blessings. :><\/p>\n
![one last dose of black humor<\/a>… :><\/p>\nMarch 13, 2008<\/p>\nMy second semi-annual scan, cancer-free! Thank you God for all my blessings. :><\/p>\nPrevious<\/a> | Home<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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 … Continue reading Done With It!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":194,"menu_order":24,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-253","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9M0Zg-45","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":195,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/colectomy-surgery\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":0},"title":"Colectomy Surgery","author":"m","date":"November 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"October 12, 2006 Read \"remove part of my colon\" surgery. Ugg. The cancerous tumor was big enough that my appendix and a section of my ascending colon (on the right side) had to be removed. While you won't get a lot of chatter out of him, Dr. Cline is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Life"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":215,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/next-curve-ball\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":1},"title":"Next Curve Ball","author":"m","date":"December 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"December 29 Andrea and I got up at 5am to meet with Dr. Levine at Winston-Salem Medical Center today. The first order of business was a fresh CT scan - man, my insides have been gawked at a lot lately. Then a visit from another doctor (an intern?). Then finally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Life"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":205,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/wheels-grinding-into-motion\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":2},"title":"Wheels Grinding Into Motion","author":"m","date":"November 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"More information, yippee! It's funny, looking back, it seems like ice-age-worthy eons of time have passed waiting for more information to come trickling in. But it has only been a week since I went to Duke to see poor Dr. Morse - I must have sent him two dozen phone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Life"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":196,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/the-initial-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":3},"title":"The Initial News","author":"m","date":"November 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"October 10, 2006 Seems impossible. I eat as low on the food chain as you can get. I exercise and try to take care of myself. But about three weeks ago I lost my appetite and started having pain in my abdomen. I thought OK, maybe I have appendicitis. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Life"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":217,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/a-case-of-ketchup\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":4},"title":"A Case Of Ketchup","author":"m","date":"January 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"OK, I lost a couple weeks somewhere along the way... in a bit of a daze... hence the case of catch-up... and it's not even very tasty... oh well. :> Jan 17, 2007 I've been busy dealing with the chemo as the side effects seem to be cumulative - my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Life"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Life","link":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/category\/daily-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":226,"url":"https:\/\/bitpost.com\/blog\/big-stories\/the-cancer-battle\/good-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":5},"title":"Good Times","author":"m","date":"February 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"February 2, 2007 OK, my mum insists that I keep her updated. So... here we go again... :> The last couple days have been great. The fewer the good days, the sweeter they are. 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