Sunday, September 9, 2012

That takes a lot of gall...

Lord have mercy. IT WAS NOT AN ULCER. I just returned from a long weekend at the hospital, because I have somehow developed GALL STONES. I need to get my gall bladder removed.

Are you kidding me?

This isn't even related to cancer, just a neat coincidence! Just a chance for me to spend more QT at the hospital. Say hi to some old friends. Check out the updated cafe menu.

The pain I have been feeling for the last few weeks was a large gall stone making its sluggish, clumsy, jagged attempt at exiting my body. The GI doc said my bile duct looked like a freight train ran through it. I'm pretty seasoned and stoic when it comes to pain, but this experience was up there among the most challenging. And, I'm a lovely, jaundiced shade of yellow as a result.

Normally, a person with this condition would be forced to part ways with the offending gall bladder immediately. But I have "special circumstances" (not my words). I have to wait SIX weeks, until the chemo drug Avastan is no longer in my system. (Avastan makes you prone to bleeding. If you're a bleeder = No chance at surgery).

So in my 12th consecutive month of chemo, I now look ahead to gall bladder surgery. I say, if you're going to get medical procedures, go big or go home. Pile 'em on, high and deep. And who knows what next month will bring. Appendicitis? Root canal? Giardia? Tapeworm? Dengue fever?

I may just get rhinoplasty for the hell of it. I think we just might have hit our insurance maximum by now, anyway.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Oww

For the past several weeks, I've been having these stomach pains, on and off. The type that will land me flat on my back for 5 hours. Burning, intense, relentless. Where you can't get comfortable, no matter how you move. Oxycodone doesn't even help a bit. Then, the pains finally go away, and the next day I feel fine. What? So, Neil and I are putting me in the hospital today to figure out what's going on. I am pretty sure I have an ulcer. I have all the signs.

My mom moved up her Seattle visit two days and is flying in today-- she changed it at a moment's notice, aren't mothers great like that?-- and she'll be here for almost two weeks. The guest room is still a wall of boxes. Alas.

My doc says until we get this figured out, we will hold off on chemo. YES! (But at the same time, no! I need that, don't I?) I am also supposed to be getting a scan any day now (insurance...ptth) to see if the cancer is in fact gone.

I'll trade the cancer for a bleeding ulcer, anyway.

Off to my son's preschool orientation, then, the hospital! I'll let you know what it turned out to be when I get back.