Day 21 of my Kill or Cure cycle ... looking forward to 7 days of recovery
Ps 139:13 "fearfully and wonderfully made" ... indeed I am
the first new post I see is one by you - just the person I have been thinking of today. All the best for your next period of recovery.
I have just arrived home (had to wait about two-and-a-half hours for transport!) after surgery under local anaesthetic. I am so grateful to you for so strongly recommending it and I shal now be in the ranks of those who highly recommend it too. I'll send a pm later on.
I may have mentioned before that lymphoedema is the booby prize handed out to people who think they've got away with cancer.... I have just put my effing back out in the worst way in years. I did this wrestling with the effing hip to toe compression stocking. The effing stocking is for effing lymphoedema which is the result of removing all the effing lymph nodes in the effing right groin. The effing lymph nodes were removed because they were full of effing cancer from effing melanoma and now I am effing crippled, eating meals and working at the computer standing up until the effing pain subsides. Happily, tomorrow I am due to talk to a first year university medical class about being a cancer patient, and believe me, they are going to hear about it. Thank you for your kind attention.
Stercus Tauri, I applaud your restraint. Really commenting to say that I am glad that you have the opportunity to speak to them and hope that it goes well. If my dad were still alive, he would want you to use those words when you speak to them and let them know that the patient needs to be the one to determine how things go - they should never presume. Good luck with the stockings and the nasty lymphoedema.
That sounds really grim. Even having once or twice had to wear those white stockings they put on you in hospital for a short period, I can't begin to imagine how you manage the ones you have to wear.
I hope you will say how the talk to the students went.
O those effing (indeed) stockings! Mind you, when I had to wear them in hospital, I at least had the kind ministrations of a lovely Bulgarian nurse, who was Most Concerned about my swollen toes......
She could speak English, Russian, Bulgarian, and Greek. She studied, and gained her nursing degree, in Athens, and could therefore write and think in 3 different languages and alphabets (Roman, Greek, and Cyrillic).
And yet - bless her with manifold blessings! - she was concerned for my swollen toes.
Thank you! My wonderful internist checked the results and texted me: "MRI brain looks fine. Blood seems reasonable too. How feeling?"
I told him I'm still feeling a little woozy. I hope the oncologist can figure out what's going on.
Meanwhile, I have a regularly scheduled ScanFest™ on Monday: I'll go in and receive a radioactive shot for the bone scan (which takes several hours to percolate), then have a CT scan, then have lunch; then I'll return for the bone scan proper.
It's actually pretty cool: you lie there while your skeleton scrolls out before your very eyes. Normal bone is grey; cancer is white. I can always tell that the cancer has spread before anyone notifies me officially. It was stable for the last one, in February; I'm hoping that it (and the cancer in my liver) has remained that way.
That's good to know, Ross. You have been much on the minds of so many people lately.
I was talking to the first year students this evening, thinking that I can say anything I want - it won't mean anything to them until they've been there up close. Hearing from a cancer survivor is a small part of a much bigger story that they still need to hear. But they also invited an 18 year old girl to speak, who had been in that class, and who was just half way through her own chemo. She was wonderful and stole the show! It was worth being there just to hear her.
It's actually pretty cool: you lie there while your skeleton scrolls out before your very eyes.
Yes indeed. I've found my regular MRI scans to be quite entertaining, in a funny sort of way, with the noises sometimes seeming to be an amalgam of music by Arvo Part and a heavy metal band.....
Captain Pyjamas had an MRI when he was a very very tiny person and somehow managed to sleep through the noise .
(I deeply regret not taking his picture. To make babies stay still during this type of procedure, they swaddle them in bandages from head to toe. He looked adorably like the infant Jesus.)
Daughter-Unit used to have bone scans for her tumors! It was fascinating to watch her skeleton appear, just like Rossweisse says! I used to have a print of her bones, but my son 'borrowed' it. *sigh*
Continued prayers for all you who are, or have, battled this evil disease!!!
I've had bone scans when I had extreme inflammation and I tried not to look at the images as I found it quite upsetting to see all the fiery colours all over my knee.
All the best to those who need them!
In France I didn't get to see what was happening when the MRI scan happened...just lying face down with my breasts slotted into handy holders! Really a bit odd!
Still rooting for you all. Prayers said in the American cathedral in Paris with PB Michael Curry on Sunday.
I have a soft tissue scan of me somewhere done with a machine similar to a DEXA scanner as part of an academic study into fat deposition - but it really does show all the soft tissue so I have to stick a little pair of paper underpants on it if I want to show anyone!
But back to Fuck Cancer! Sadly photographer, photography writer and journalist Roger Hicks died on Sunday of pancreatic cancer, a very short time after diagnosis. I corresponded with him a couple of times on forums, and found him utterly charming - though by goodness he didn't suffer fools gladly.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the worst. That's a real loss.
I got some good news from yesterday's ScanFest: The bone scan is stable - no new hot spots! - and the cancer in my liver has actually receded a bit. A precancerous something spread through much of my upper right lung (which was somehow not communicated to me) has also receded. My hair has not died in vain, and I should be around to annoy people for longer than originally expected.
My pelvis and hip still hurt like hell where they're broken, and I have massively swollen legs, especially for someone my size. But I can deal with that.
Agreed; and may I add a bit of my own? Post-op check today. Cancer gone, no need to go back, except for regular six-month checks. Take changed pills (something beginning with E) for five years. I said I'll be delighted to do that - - I'd be 88 by then!
Comments
#teamGalilit
Prayers of course @Rossweisse
I have just arrived home (had to wait about two-and-a-half hours for transport!) after surgery under local anaesthetic. I am so grateful to you for so strongly recommending it and I shal now be in the ranks of those who highly recommend it too. I'll send a pm later on.
Thank you Landlubber.
All the best to Rossweisse.
Thank you all!
Prayers ascending for you, and all others on this thread.
No Sweary-Words™ are too strong.
That sounds really grim. Even having once or twice had to wear those white stockings they put on you in hospital for a short period, I can't begin to imagine how you manage the ones you have to wear.
I hope you will say how the talk to the students went.
She could speak English, Russian, Bulgarian, and Greek. She studied, and gained her nursing degree, in Athens, and could therefore write and think in 3 different languages and alphabets (Roman, Greek, and Cyrillic).
And yet - bless her with manifold blessings! - she was concerned for my swollen toes.
And Amen.
I told him I'm still feeling a little woozy. I hope the oncologist can figure out what's going on.
Meanwhile, I have a regularly scheduled ScanFest™ on Monday: I'll go in and receive a radioactive shot for the bone scan (which takes several hours to percolate), then have a CT scan, then have lunch; then I'll return for the bone scan proper.
It's actually pretty cool: you lie there while your skeleton scrolls out before your very eyes. Normal bone is grey; cancer is white. I can always tell that the cancer has spread before anyone notifies me officially. It was stable for the last one, in February; I'm hoping that it (and the cancer in my liver) has remained that way.
#teamRossweisse
I was talking to the first year students this evening, thinking that I can say anything I want - it won't mean anything to them until they've been there up close. Hearing from a cancer survivor is a small part of a much bigger story that they still need to hear. But they also invited an 18 year old girl to speak, who had been in that class, and who was just half way through her own chemo. She was wonderful and stole the show! It was worth being there just to hear her.
Yes indeed. I've found my regular MRI scans to be quite entertaining, in a funny sort of way, with the noises sometimes seeming to be an amalgam of music by Arvo Part and a heavy metal band.....
(I deeply regret not taking his picture. To make babies stay still during this type of procedure, they swaddle them in bandages from head to toe. He looked adorably like the infant Jesus.)
Continued prayers for all you who are, or have, battled this evil disease!!!
#teamRossweisse
All the best to those who need them!
Still rooting for you all. Prayers said in the American cathedral in Paris with PB Michael Curry on Sunday.
But back to Fuck Cancer! Sadly photographer, photography writer and journalist Roger Hicks died on Sunday of pancreatic cancer, a very short time after diagnosis. I corresponded with him a couple of times on forums, and found him utterly charming - though by goodness he didn't suffer fools gladly.
AG
I got some good news from yesterday's ScanFest: The bone scan is stable - no new hot spots! - and the cancer in my liver has actually receded a bit. A precancerous something spread through much of my upper right lung (which was somehow not communicated to me) has also receded. My hair has not died in vain, and I should be around to annoy people for longer than originally expected.
My pelvis and hip still hurt like hell where they're broken, and I have massively swollen legs, especially for someone my size. But I can deal with that.
Deo gratias, and thank you for your prayers!
#teamRossweisse
#teamRossweisse
#teamOrnery
You've got it covered!
PM me about the operation if you have time
Happy spring to all of you!