Just Say No

I made it through today drug-free. No immodium, Prilosec, Vicadin, or anything. Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, but wanted to see where I was. It went really well, I'm obviously healing up from the chemo and radiation pretty well. We'll see how the weekend goes :)

Better and Better

I've been off treatment now for about a week and a half. Every day I feel stronger and more myself. I'm not taking near the amount of medication I had been taking.

I'm now in the phase of waiting for the surgery. Surgery will happen some time in late February. I'll be in the hospital for 5-7 days, then some recovery time at home until I'm able to get back to work. The amount of time depends on how long it takes me to recover, so I'm eating better, trying to get into shape a little bit, and just get healthier. Hopefully that will make recovery all that much easier.

I'll post the actual surgery date as soon as I know it. But for now, I'm just happy to be feeling normal again.

More of the same

At this point I'm wondering just how long it'll take for things to get somewhat normal. I still have severe diarhea, and plenty of pain. Vicadin and Immodium help some. Doc said it could be "a week or two" before I return to normal, it's only been 4 days. I guess I shouldn't complain too much, it could be a lot worse.

On another note, I'd like to thank everybody who's been monitoring this blog. Knowing I have your support means a lot to me, I truly appreciate it.

Darkest before the Dawn

Today I finally got my last radiation treatment. The machine was broke on Friday when I was supposed to get it. So now all I have to do is hang out for 6-8 weeks until the surgery.

This last weekend was spent mostly in bed. Severe diarhea and general laziness. Slept through most of yesterday, with regular trips to the bathroom every couple hours. I did find out that Vicadin (sp) helps a lot. Wierd thing is though, I woke up about 3am and felt really drunk. I think I'll be taking it easy on the Vicadin :)

On the up side, most of the side effects of the chemo are gone, and other issues I'm having should all start to improve. I expect by this time next week I'll be feeling better than I have in a long time.

Weekly (almost) Update

OK, I've been lazy. I haven't kept up with the blog like I should. So here's the last week in a nutshell:

• December 25 - Christmas day, the kids had a lot of fun. I didn't feel real great, so I slept a good part of the day. Chemo was unhooked at about 10:00.
• December 26 - Was still feeling tired and lazy, but had to get ready for Saturday, had the whole family coming down.
• December 27 - Big party at the Moor house. My whole family made the trip, everything went really well. No fights, the food was great, everybody had a good time.
• December 28 - We all took the day off, kids played with their new toys, mom & dad hung out and didn't do much.
• December 29-30 - on vacation, nothing major going on. Ashley and Julie went up to Detroit to go shopping with mom and Rachelle. Then they went to see Wicked. I stayed home with Gloria. Gloria got to go with me to several doctor's appointments.
• December 31 - Drove up to Angola to have dinner with Julie's family. It was nice to see everybody, drove back that night and had friends over for New Year's Eve.
• January 1 - Watched football, started getting persistent diarhea again, oh joy.
• January 2 - First full day back at work, so that's good. Today was supposed to be my last radiation, but the machine is broken, so it'll be Monday. I have a tremendous amount of Immodium in my system, but it doesn't seem to be helping much. It's been a rough day.

Merry Christmas

Today is Wednesday, Christmas Eve. I've been back on treatment since Monday, 24 radiation treatments down, 4 to go. The lips have healed, I'm feeling much better. Everything is back on track.

To all who have been following this blog, I wish you and yours the very best Christmas ever, and a very Happy New Year!

Al

Minor setbacks

Starting on Wednesday of last week, I started experiencing some of the chemo and radiation side effects that I have been managing to avoid. The first was a drastic drop in energy level. It got so bad on Thursday that I took half a day off and went home to sleep. That was the first time I've not been able to work due to sickness since I don't know when. Also on Thursday, I noticed my lips were numb.

On Friday I toughed it out at work, but pretty much went to bed when I got home.

Over the weekend, I had fairly debilitating diarhea. This is caused by the radiation. Basically my entire digestive tract is inflamed. It's also very painful to go, this is due to the tumor being in the way, and is the original symptom that started this whole thing.

On Sunday my lips erupted in a series of cold sores. Not too bad, but very annoying. On Monday when I went in to get my chemo hooked back up, I knew I wouldn't be going to work. Unfortunately, the cold sores are a show stopper. They won't provide treatment unless they are completely healed. They also won't continue the radiation until the diarhea is under control. On the up side, I'd lost 8 pounds in a week. I'm sure it's only temporary, and fat as I am, hardly noticeable.

So here I am, it's Tuesday evening, I haven't eaten a full meal in probably a week. I've got enough Immodium in my system to float a battleship. I think the diahrea is under control, but that's still iffy. The cold sores have spread to the inside of mouth and the tip of my tongue. Makes it hard to talk. My energy level is a bit better, been drinking a lot of Gatorade.

The doctor says they won't do anything until next Monday. All this stuff has to settle down before they'll continue treatment. I've taken this week and next off from work to try to rest up and heal and get back on track. This will be the first time in a long time that I've actually used my vacation time around Christmas.

Despite all the whining and complaining you've just read, spirits are good, the outlook is good, the battle continues.