Flying Sucks

Let me just say, flying when you have digestive issues is a huge hassle. I took the 6:50am flight from Dayton to Philly this morning. However, ever since the operation that removed 2/3 of my rectum, I've had a constant problem with regularity. The last time I was "regular" was after the chemo/radiation ending in January, and the surgery was done in March. Since then I cycle through constant bouts of diahrea followed by constipation. Travelling would be ok in a constipation phase, but I nearly missed my plane this morning due to a very necessary bathroom stop.

Here's another very annoying thing: I've been telling my doctor about the whole diahrea thing for months. On Friday, he said, "oh that's normal for people who have a portion of their colon removed. Try this...". He could've let me in on the little secret 4 months ago. Basically, it looks like I'll be taking Metamucil twice a day for the rest of my life. If it stops the insanity, I'm all for it, it could be worse.

Another very annoying thing: Apparently they've been testing my "cancer markers" every time they draw blood, which is with every treatment. Nobody has bothered to tell me the results or that they were even doing it. My nurse happened to mention it at my last treatment, so of course I got all worked up about it. I'm thinking "what if there's more cancer?", "what do they do if the markers are high? Do I have to do a lot of testing?". So at my doctor's appointment on Friday, he says, "Oh yeah, the markers are at 0.6, we don't worry about it unless it's over 2.5. We test them every time". It would have been good if he'd have let me in on that little bit of information. By the way, 0.6 is considered "normal". People who've never had cancer will register some level of markers.