Chemo Sucks

It's Thursday. The chemo infusion was removed yesterday morning. I've been sick since Tuesday night. I have that wonderful combination of nausea and diarhea. I've lost 10 pounds in two days. I'm sure it'll all come back once I've rehydrated, but man, I hate this feeling. It's that shaky in the hands, wobbly knees thing. Right now I'm in the office working, trying to choke down enough animal crackers to get rid of the shakes and drinking a lot of water.

This too shall pass.

Back on Chemo

Started back on the chemo (FOLFOX) yesterday. The cold sensitivity came back almost immediately. I can't touch or drink anything colder than about room temperature. If I touch a can of pop, my finger tips immediately feel like they're asleep. If I'm stupid enough to hold on to it, the feeling intensifies until it's almost electric shock intense. Really sucks for somebody who likes beer the way I like beer :)

The chemo will be administered every other week for the next 24 weeks, shouldn't be too horrible, at least I'm past the surgeries and everything is healing fine as far as that goes.

Recovery

It's been 6 days since the operation, and I'm still wiped out. I don't know if this recovery is harder, or if maybe I expected it to be easy and it isn't. In any case I'm still spending too much time sleeping, and am tired all the time. The pain comes and goes, so I'm still taking Percocet. That may have more to do with my tiredness than anything.

The other night Gloria, my youngest, was goofing around on the couch and body slammed me on my left side, opposite the incision. I thought I was going cry it hurt so bad. Just a little reminder that there's still a lot of healing left to do.

On the up side, I've managed to avoid the more hideous side effects that were possible from this stuff (incontenence being the big one). So the outlook is still optimistic, I just need to be more patient.

Done With Surgery

I am home now. They released me from the hospital yesterday at about 9:00am, less then 48 hours after the surgery. I am in some discomfort, the incision is pretty tender still. The Percocet prescription helps, but puts me in a bit of a fog. My plan is to stay foggy today, and back off the stuff in favor of Motrin/Advil by the end of the week.

Everything is going great, I start chemo on Monday, the surgeries are completely done. It's good to be coming down the home stretch.

Greetings from Miami Valley Hospital

It's Sunday afternoon, surgery was yesterday. Everything is going as expected. I was done with surgery and awake by about 3 in the afternoon yesterday. I spent the afternoon on bed rest, alternating between sleeping and watching the NFL draft. Julie and the girls had a very busy day yesterday. Ashley had a track thing she had to do. She helped out at a 4th grade girls track meet. Then they went to a friend of ours' daughter's first communion. They didn't make it here to the hospital until after 8pm. Then they were all so tired they only stayed an hour or so. That's ok, it's pretty boring hanging out in somebody's hospital room.

Today, I got the catheter out, so I can now walk around. I've taken a couple walks today, which has really aggravated the pain. It's not too bad, though. My surgeon (Dr. Paul Connover, the absolute best rectal surgeon in the region) stopped in today, checked out the incision. It's a horizontal scar about 3 inches long about where an appendectomy scar would be. Looked pretty good to me.

I'm very optimistic about my recovery, we're just waiting now for my digestive system to wake up and start functioning. Once that happens I can eat regular food. Right now I'm still on a liquid diet; Jello, pudding, tomato soup, fruit juice.

This surgery is so much less of an ordeal than the last one, it's not even funny.

OK, so it's been awhile

Today is Monday, April 20. Since my last post I've healed pretty well. The area of skin around the stoma developed a pretty nasty sore due to an improperly sealed bag. It took over a week for me to get that to heal, but it's ok now. I'm really glad the ileostomy is temporary, it's a daily hassle. If it were permanent, I would be dealing with:

1. Expense. The bags run anywhere from $5 to $10 each, depending on brand and quality. You need to put on a new bag every 3-4 days, so figure 100 per year. That's $500 to $1,000 a year just in supplies. Some insurance covers it, some doesn't. Mine does, but I have to submit the claim after paying for it myself.
2. Skin care. You have to be super careful to properly fit and place the bag on. If you don't, liquid may seep under the pad onto the skin next to the stoma. Due to its high acid content, it causes open sores, which hurt like Hell. Then, to add insult to injury, some of the caulk-like stuff they use to seal the pads has alcohol in it. That'll get your attention. I think I said "ouch" or something like that :). Some people even get to the point where the skin is cracked and bleeding. My sympathy goes out to anyone who has had to deal with it, I know how much it must hurt.
3. Limited Activity. Maybe this is just me babying it, but I can't work out, can't jog or do anything like tennis or racquetball.
4. Itchies. The damned thing itches all the time. This is probably just me not doing something right, but it's annoying. I think it's because I'm a fairly hairy guy, and the hair grows underneath the pad. Try this: shave a spot on your belly, then put a 4"x4" square of duct tape on it and leave it there.

This week is filled with doctor appointments and preparations for Saturday's operation. This morning they filled my colon with barium and took pictures. It actually went really well, I got to watch the video. No leaks, looks like the plumbing is in good shape. I also feel pretty good about being able to evacuate the barium normally. Everything seemed to work pretty well all things considered.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with my oncologist to discuss follow-on chemo. Then in the afternoon I have to go to Miami Valley Hospital and do the pre-admission testing, which consists of blood work, an EKG, and some blood work. Then on Wednesday I meet with the surgeon to go over Saturday's activities. On Saturday morning I have the surgery to undo the ileostomy. I'll be in the hospital a couple days, to make sure everything is working properly. I'll work from home next week while recovering.

Everything is on schedule and going well. I still bitch and complain about stuff more than I should, but things could be a lot lot worse.

Recovering

I'm at home, watching the NCAA tournement (and Notre Dame in the NIT). Recovery has gone pretty well, I've alternated between feeling fine one day and sleeping the next. The incision has just about healed, I can finally wear normal pants and it doesn't hurt. I haven't taken any pain killers at all for about 2 days, so that's not a worry at all anymore. I was always afraid I was going to be an oxycodone addict, I guess that fear was a good thing, it motivated me to switch to Advil.

I'm having a little trouble coming to terms with the ileostomy, it's hard to deal with. It connects above the belt line, then hangs down about 10 inches. So the waistline of pants goes right over top of it. I'm always afraid it's going to come off or start to leak or something. It's also pretty disgusting. I know, too much information...

I'm looking forward to getting back to the office on Monday, I've gotten lazy sitting around the house for the last week.