I’m Back…

I’ve been totally remiss about posting to my blog lately, primarily because although I’ve been back at work lately, the last thing I want to do is get back on the computer when I get home.

Time for an update though.  I’ve started my second round of chemo treatments and the regimen this time is for me to receive two types of chemo: oxyplatin and 5FU.  I get a three-hour dose of oxyplatin once every two weeks at the cancer center and then I get a back of 5FU to carry around for 2 days.   The side effects from the 5FU are the same as before: burning hands, mouth sores, and nausea.  However the side effects from the oxplatin are extreme sensitivity to cold on my finger-tips and toes, tingling in the same, and nausea.

The first treatment was on the 14th of September and  by Sunday evening, I was nauseated like I’ve never felt before.  I didn’t go to work on the following Monday because of the nausea.  I went to work on Tuesday but Marcia called the cancer center and told them I was still pretty sick so they had me come for a couple hours of IV fluids.  The rest of the week was pretty difficult as well because of the nausea.

This past week (Wednesday?) I developed some severe rectal pain and the swelling in my incision/abdominal area increased dramatically overnight so we called Dr. Anderson and he wanted to see me right away.  Got in on Thursday and after an exam, he wanted me to have a CT-scan on Friday because he was concerned I might have another obstruction.   However, the results came back negative, which was a huge relief.

Dr. Huff postponed my chemo treatments until next Friday to give me a chance to heal a little longer.

Finally – An Update

Okay, I’m finally online again and am recovering slowly at home still. To say the last six weeks have been a blur would be an extreme understatement, and I’m not sure where to start.  First off, I have to say that I had no clue about the seriousness of the surgery (first one) and I clearly underestimated my recovery time.  Marcia kept trying to tell me that I wouldn’t be back to work as soon as I had kept telling everyone that I would be.

So a quick review is in order.  I went in for my colon resection and  as everyone probaby knows, the day before I was due to get released, I had a couple episodes of my tachycardia, and they ended up keeping me a few extra days.  Went home and had to go back on Thursday for my heart ablasion to fix the tachycarida, which was outpatient surgery, so I was home that evening.

The following Sunday is when I my colon burst and I was rushed back for emergency surgery.  The pain was something that I’ve never felt and I hope to never feel anything like that again.  So I have a colostomy but the plan is to reverse it in about 6 months or so.

It’s been painful to sit in front of a computer for more than a 20 minutes or so, hence the reason I haven’t been online.   I plan on going back to work next week, assuming all goes well this week.  I’m still rediscoverying the kinds of foods I can eat and dealing with nausea more often than not, but I’m getting my strength back.  And I can’t believe I lost 25 pounds!

I need to say THANKS for all the cards, letters, emails, books, and magazines everyone has sent.  Your correspondence means everything to me and I really appreciate it.  And though it may sound obvious, I have to publicly thank my family for being there every day at the hospital keeping my spirits up.  Sadly, I discovered that there are lots of hospital patients that don’t get visitors at all.  And finally,  Marcia has been my rock in all of this as she has had to deal with all the stress of trying to take care of me and still dealing with day-to-day job and home issues.  We’re still learning how to change my colostomy bag, and she’s changing my incision dressing  every other day as well.  I can’t imagine dealing with this without her.  She means everything to me.

Update on my dad

Hi this is Kelly again.  Just wanted to let everyone know that he is now at home again. He is doing better this time around.  He now has a colostomy bag he has to wear for six to eight months.  After that period of time he will have to go back in and have surgery to once again repair the colon.  Thanks again for all of your support, we will keep you updated.

Update for my dad

Hi my name is Kelly I am one of Dale’s daughters, and I just want to give a quick update on his situation.  He was admitted to the E.R. on Monday and had to have emergency surgery.   This was due to the colon bursting.  He is back at Penrose Main and is currently doing better, he should be there for roughly one week.  Thanks for your support.

Quick Update

I’m home from sugery. Was released on Saturday after spending a day and a half in the cardio vascular unit because of a couple of episosdes of tacychardia. In fact I have to go back tomorrow for an outpatient procedure to fix the problem. Still very sore, but everday gets a little better.

Dale’s co-pilot

This is my first entry to Dale’s journal. I am Marcia, his wife and adoring fan. I will be keeping you up to date on his progress after surgery . I’m not a writer but this is really important to both of us so here goes…:)

Well it’s FINALLY D-day!!! I can’t say that I’m not nervous, but we’ve been waiting for this moment since March 9th when Dale got the diagnosis… I m so very proud of him, he has walked through this journey with unwavering determination to beat this. He has suffered through the chemo and radiation with hardly a complaint to me or his kids… The surgery will be at least 3-4 hours long starting at 1:30 this afternoon. The positive thing is that they can use his port to access IV’s and blood draws (last time they couldn’t find a vein and ended up sticking him three times before putting the IV in a precarious position by his thumb). I will do my best to write again tomorrow to let you all know how the surgery went and how he’s doing. Thanks so much for your love and support it means so much to Dale and I.

Love, Marcia

Surgery Tomorrow

Wow. I didnt’ realize it had that long since I posted an entry. This past weekend was really rough (as was today) because the nausea hit me extremely hard, then the rectal pain. Saturday was a blur because I spent most of the day laying on the couch.

But tomorrow’s the day I’ve been looking foward to. I have to be at the hospital at 11:30, and the surgery is scheduled for 1:30. Wish me luck!

Met With Surgeon

We met with Dr. Anderson this morning, the surgeon who will perform the surgery on me on June 20th. He asked how I’ve been feeling and I said I felt pretty good and that I turned the corner with the rectal pain I’ve been having. He then said that after surgery, the rectal pain will get worse, and instead of coming and going, it will be fairly constant for 4 to 6 weeks. Ouch. He said it was because once he removes part of the colon, there will be exposed nerve endings in the region where the radiation was applied and that those side effects will start all over again.

But he did say that once I get past this set of side effects, the rectal pain will go away permanently. Can’t wait. Even though I haven’t taken any prescription pain medication so far, he said that will change because I’ll need to manage the pain so that I can heal better. Oh well, it’s part and parcel of what this trip is about and I need to look at where I’m going to be by the end of the year, and that’s cancer free!

Quick Update

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted and I apologize for that, but I got tired of writing about the pain quite frankly, and it (the pain) was wearing me down quite a bit. It feels like I’ve turned the corner finally because I haven’t had any significant rectal pain for a couple of days now. It’s still there, but I’ve accepted the fact that I’m going to be living with some sort of pain the rest of my life and I just have to deal with it. I had a bout of nausea today for some odd reason, but it only lasted about an hour or so.

Something strange last week as well. Whenever I put my head down, and lifted back up, I was completely dizzy for about a minute or so. I came home that afternoon and bent down to pick something up from underneath the couch and when I got up, I felt like I was drunk, and I was stumbling around trying to find a wall. Only lasted about a minute, but it scared me. Called the doc and they said I’m probably dehydrated, but I’m still pounding down the water, so that doesn’t make sense.

16 days until surgery and I’m chompin’ at the bit to have it.

Rough Week

I was really hoping the side effects would have started wearing off by now, but that’s not the case. Today was a really bad day and it started around 8:00 this morning with the rectal pain and didn’t subside all day. I’m tired of writing about the pain, but it’s a part of my life right now so I need to share what I’m feeling. It’s very hard to describe, but I’m going to try. Imagine having the urge to have a BM and you head off to do your business, but you can’t. Nothing there. But in the process there is very deep rectal pain that just feels like it goes to the core of my insides. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. And this went on all day, about every 20 minutes or so. But I made it through the work day and have felt somewhat better this evening.

But I’m looking forward to the weekend because it means that there are three more days between me and my last radiation treatment!