7:00 leave house
11:45: first appointment MRQ very close to three hours dang near. A full hour on the table. :( I took an Aleve prior to ward off the back ache. Yeah. Didn’t work but it kept me to where I wasn’t in super pain till the last 15 minutes. I also got sick with the glycogen they shoot you up with. I think I didn’t react last time as I got it in the IV. When you get it in a port it’s straight into your system. Made me flush and nauseous. Yuckie. And you have to have it twice. Once before you go in and once about the 45 minutes mark. Barf!! I didn’t but there for a minute I thought I would. Good thing the feeling wears off in just a few minutes!!
2:50: CT I swear 5 minutes in the tube and GONE. Whoop!
And all this time I am fasting. No food before MRQ for four hours. I didn’t eat breakfast - not thinking. Nerves? Not hungry? Unknown!
THEN CT said nothing to eat two hours prior. Funny. I didn’t finish the MRI until just before the CT time. The funny thing is I had water - lots of water and was fine until about 2pm then started getting hungry. So on the way to the hotel I got a cheese burger happy meal and I was... well....happy :)
About 6:30 we headed out and got a proper dinner at Millers Ale House. I had their dinner special of 35 fried shrimp. Butch got steak. I had 15 shrimp 1/2 a potato and a few bites of steak from Butch. Urp. I was stuffed!!
Wednesday
8:30 and 8:40: fasting blood draw and urine sample. I had said I wasn’t going to use the port. I used the port. Ha!!
After blood I got to eat in the cafeteria for the FIRST time. Really. Since July I haven’t eaten at the Mayo. I watched Butch eat there while on Optifast. Yeah. That was fun. Today I got a made to order omelet - YUM!!! I got ham with spinach, black olive, and cheese. And it was delish!! Butch had one with bacon and something. I didn’t pay attention - I was off getting tea while they cooked both of ours. All in PLENTY of time for my next appointment!
10:00 - barium enema X-ray. Ok that way freaking COOL. Ok not the enema and me freaking out prior (babbling and telling them to be nice to me and my gut - ha!) however watching the fluoroscope in action was awesome!! I’m a medically curious person and should have stuck to the medical field in my youth! So that said I didn’t dribble all the way to the bathroom - bonus. I only (?) had I would consider slight lack of control. Yay! I’m seeing some hope in that. What scared me was a consistent narrow spot a few inches into the bowel and not near the surgical sight from what I could tell.... but I’m not a doctor so we shall wait to see what he says.
12:00 pre-admit basically paperwork. Simple Simon. Got it done then we took a ride.
We drive south quite a bit and saw some HUGE beautiful beach mansions!! Looked them up on Zillow after. There is this one that I love.
Bwahahaha
Or this one. (Not for sale currently)
It’s a little further south where my more acceptably priced house is.
You have to admit this one is CUTE!!!
Ok done drooling.
No one more!!
Because who doesn’t need a house with a Harry Potter size chess board outside. Right??
Also seen on the way back. An alien.
Oh disregard!!
And the perfect license plate on a Tesla
I even got a short nap as we dropped by the hotel. Zzzz. It was lovely!!
3:30. Dr Landmann, surgeon. Answers today. Open does not mean surgical cut it means they will go through the Stoma. He will then do a purse string leaving it open to continue to heal. Ok. Relieved!! I didn’t want a center cut - not sure why. Not like I’ll avoid a scar. There will be one where the Stoma was. Oh well.
Not a lot of questions other than how he would be closing it up. He’s confident I’ll be just grand as I could hold water fairly well. Me too honestly!!
It will take some time but I know this game me more hope for normalizing fairly quick. Then I messed myself (with a pad) on the way to the hotel later - hahaha. Oh won’t be perfect at first!
The downside to this appointment was he did a flex sigmoidoscopy. Basically a short flex colonoscopy only looking at the lower parts of the colon and you’re awake. So. Now Liz and Bitch have both seen my colon and the doc was nice enough to let me get up on my elbows and see the repair in the screen. Nice little round scar tissue where he joined me together. He was quite proud of his handiwork as I’m clenching my cheeks trying NOT to shoot that took across the room. Ha!!
I told Angela she is the only one not to witness my colon. She needs to see it next - hahahaha. Yeah, she said no. Ingrate. I was going to let her in the colon club.
My schedule for colonoscopies is one year, then three, then five after that for life. Ok. I can deal with that.
4:00 appointment with nurse at Colorectal Group. Going over preop stuff.
4:30 appointment with preop group to get EKG and go over orders for surgery date. All is well on the EKG. And we are DONE for the day. Whooo hooo!
Out by 5:00
Headed to the hotel to hang loose and relax a bit.
At about 6:30
We headed out to dinner. We chose Ted’s Bison House. I had the meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes and squash casserole. I liked the meatloaf and potatoes but wouldn’t have the squash casserole again. Butch had a bison steak with asparagus and baked potato. He wasn’t impressed with the steak :(
The off to the hotel and settled in for the night. Zzzzz
Thursday.
Up LATE. Dragged bootie. I then took a LONG time getting ready as I did a bag (flange) change as well. Finally out the door at 11 ish. We got a car wash thanks to the berry eating birds. Yuck!! The headed to lunch after a drive to the beach - frustration and long story. We went to Tazikis for Mediterranean food. Yum!! Gyros and hummus. Butch was under the impression my appointment was at 3pm. I was wondering why he was “wandering” earlier and debating full restaurant food. Nope. I have to go get stuff done. Really, I could probably be late it’s just blood work. I got that done at 1pm. We tried to sit outside:
Too windy and cold!!! Burrrr. We went to the car to nap and wait out the 3pm visit with Mody in oncology.
3:00. Talked with Mody. His recommendation is conservative and he would like me to scan (CT) at 6 months rather than 12. Protocol states 6 to 12 months. We will go with his protocol. He is sending orders to Sumrall and we will set that up with them.
So. NED (no evidence of disease) the official “remission” of cancer.
I should be thrilled but I’m still cautious and scared as there were no symptoms the first time. BUT I’ll be scanned and watched. And I can be scanned and watched locally. Bonus. I will switch to Dr Brewer who is a Colorectal specialist here. And stay with Sumrall at the cancer center here for the rest.
So. Next up. Reversal!! 6 Feb. less than two weeks away. Eeek!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment