First Followup

Yesterday I had a follow-up colonoscopy. It was performed by my surgeon, Dr. Conover. Everything looks good with the exception of some excessive scar tissue. He said that will improve over time, we'll check again in a year and see. In the meanwhile it just means that things don't pass as easily as they should, no big deal. He also took some tissue samples from the colon lining to test for different kinds of colitis. I'll get those results in the next week or so.

Another Hospital Visit

Julie and I were out on Sunday Christmas shopping. We stopped to have lunch. About an hour later I started to get the familiar sharp pain in pit of my stomach. I took some Malox Ultra, which usually does the trick, but the pain kept getting worse. We went to Toys-R-Us, I stayed in the van while Julie went in to shop. The pain got worse, so we decided to head home. About half way I had Julie pull of to the side of the highway so I could throw up. That seemed to help the pain a little bit. We continued home. After being home about an hour or so, I finally had Julie take me to the hospital. Sure enough my intestines had decided to stop functioning again. This time was easier though because it was "just" constipation. It was wierd though because I hadn't had any indication there was a problem. No bloating, no cramps, no discomfort at all that would lead me to believe I was constipated. Anyway, they gave me morphine and a laxative, let me stay overnight for "observation", and everything cleared up. I was back home by noon on Monday.

On the chemo side effects front, the neuropathy continues as before. My feet are still as numb as they were two months ago when I had my last treatment. It feels like the balls of my feet and my heels are swollen. They tingle with everystep. My hands if anything are worse than they were. My typing is a lot more error-prone, I hit multiple keys a lot. My fingertips down to about the second knuckle are numb/tingly. The other side effects (random pains, insomnia, nausea, cold sensitivity, etc) have all improved a lot.

All in all, things are going pretty well.

Merry Christmas to all...

Update

It's been around 3 weeks since my hospital stay, and over a month since my last chemo treatment. My feet and fingertips are still numb, and my bowels are still inflamed/irritated, but all other side effects have pretty much faded. I'm feeling pretty good these days, my strength is coming back little by little.

My doctor thinks I've developed lactose intolerance, which is causing my bowel issues. I think that's definitely possible, as both my brother and my dad are lactose intolerant. So, I've cut out milk and milk products. I'm going to go pick up some Lactaid pills today. We'll see.

On the weight front, I know weigh 162 pounds. I started out a year ago at 233. I hit my all time low a couple days after my last hospital stay at 158. I'm hoping the holidays will bump me up to around 170, which is where I'd like to stay.

Home Again

Got released from the hospital yesterday morning. 8 days in the hospital for a bowel obstruction. All they really did was pump me full of pain killers and wait. I guess that's better than an actual operation. All I know is that it was a really boring week, daytime TV sucks. I'll be back to work on Monday.

Still in the Hospital

It's day 4 of my hospital stay. As fun as it's been, I'm ready to go home. Took a small step towards that goal about an hour ago. Had a small bowel movement, which means the Ileus is (healing?). In any case, doc said today that once things are moving, it'll still be 48 hours before I could go home. So I'm looking at heading home on Wednesday, providing everything progresses well.

Back in the Hospital

On Thursday night around 9:00, I started to get what I thought was bad case of gas. You know, that sharp pain in your gut and bloating. So I took some Gas-X, which usually does the case. It didn't. The pain kept getting worse regardless of what I tried: milk, Malox, Tums, toast, more Gas-X. I was up all night pretty much writhing in pain and feeling sorry for myself. It was the worst case of gas I'd ever had. It even made me throw up a couple times. Odd thing was, throwing up didn't help the pain.

Julie got up at 4:00 to get ready for work but instead wound up taking me to the emergency room. They pumped me full of pain killers, which helped a BUNCH. I could actually breathe normally. They then did a CAT scan on my abdomen and sent it to Australia for a doctor to read there (due to time difference). The results came back that I had a bowel obstruction, a collection of fluid outside intestines, and an abscess near my large intestine. They contacted my surgeon and arranged for me to take a ride to Miami Valley Hospital.

Once at Miami Valley, they took some X-rays of my abdomen, started me on a pain regimen of Palladone (a morphine derivative) and Toradol. I checked in at about 10:30 am on Friday. I didn't see my doctor until about 6:00pm. I was getting pretty pissed about that until I talked to him. He was busy in surgery. Plus, it turns out the Australian radiologist didn't have it quite right.

What I actually have is an Ileus. Basically part of my intestines have shut down, causing a "blockage". There isn't anything physically blocking the intestines at all. The accepted treatment is Tincture of Time (my surgeon's term). Basically wait for things to start back up.

So here I am, sitting in a hospital room watching football. It's Sunday afternoon. I haven't had anything to eat or drink since Thursday. I'm only allowed ice chips to keep my mouth moist. They have an IV keeping my fluid levels up. The doctors won't give me an estimate of how long it will take to get "right" again. I'm getting the distinct impression it could be awhile.

As it so happens, my doctor stopped by while I was writing this. He wants to wait until Wednesday to do anything more than just wait. Then we could start talking about surgery. Problem is, by disturbing the intestines with surgery you increase the chance this could happen again.

On the upside:

• It's not life threatening
• I'm fairly comfortable, just bored
• The hospital has 30" flat screen TVs with HD

Last Treatment

Yesterday I got my last dose of Oxaliplatin and hooked up the pump for the 5-FU infusion. I'll get that removed tomorrow at 11:00am and I will be done with the post-surgery chemo treatments. Yesterday was about the worst I've felt on treatment day. Today is better, though. And tomorrow will be better yet. By the end of next week I'll start to feel a little normal. By Thanksgiving I hope the side effects will be just about gone.

On another note, I've managed to get a handle on my bowel issues. Through a combination of high fiber diet, fiber supplements, and immodium I'm able to maintain an almost normal schedule. Hopefully I won't need the immodium after the chemo effects go away. It's not good to be on a regular schedule of opiates (yes immodium is an opioid).

There will be a "Not Dead Yet" party, looks like somewhere around the 5th or 6th of November. Far enough out from today that I can eat/drink what I want :). If "Not Dead Yet" is too morbid, maybe we can call it a "Survival" party. I don't know. Everybody said I should have a part, so we're having a party.