Hello family and friends,
Once again, thanks so much for your thoughts ans prayers. It seems that the last several days at least, I have needed your thoughts and prayers more more than usual. Spring fever; not the easiest thing to deal with, especially when thoughts of the open road with the rumble of a V-twin sending the thrill of the oneness of the road and the ride as you cut through the fresh air enjoying the sights, sounds and smells that surrounds you as the road ride even runs through your veins. Truly, that's what I would rather was going on with me lately, but life did send me a path a bit harder for me to hike with each day that pasted more painful than the day before.
The past four days has been especially difficult for me with those days was shared with pain far above that that has become part of this fight against cancer and the sickness that chemo gives. The pain is similar to the pain in your side when you run to far and to fast, or that from doing to many sit-ups in to short a time. You know, the pain that grows just below your ribs in the front, usually on both sides but in my case it's just on the left side. The pain is greatly increased if I try to bend over and while in the process of sitting down or getting up from sitting and especially when I try to get into bed and lay flat on my back. Getting into bed and laying down takes me a couple of minutes and then several more to actually rest my legs and lower my legs from my knees high and the soles of my feet flat on the sheets. Rolling over in bed latly has been an adventure and a whole new experience that I hope will find it's end soon.
About 8:30 pm last night and with much prompting from Sue, I finally called the VA Hospital nurse advice line, after a long wait on hold I finally got to talk to a real person (in Dayton, Ohio) she told me to go to the Emergency Room, NOW. So off to WRJ, Vt. I went. I got there and received care just moments after arriveing. After an IV hooked up to my arm and blood drawn, the count showed my white blood count was 18K ( higher than normal) and the excruciating pain was narrowed down to be radiating from an enlarged spleen (not a good thing). The ER Doctors wanted to admit me for pain management and an emergency ct-scan, but because of the med (metformin) that I take to control my sugar diabetes, a quick ct-scan would be out of the question and would have to be delayed for a minimum of 12 hours from my last dose, pushing the soonest ct-scan to 3 to 4 am. On top of that, I would have to cancel my PET scan scheduled for Monday at the New Haven, Ct VA Hospital. I was relieved that the pain wasn't related to a more serious problem and decided to leave and go home insted of getting admitted to the hospital. I was told several things to be aware of and if several different things showed their ugly head I would have to get back to the hospital asap. I agreed and headed for home about 1 am.
I still am in quite abit of pain, but I don't want to miss my Monday PET scan. My biggest reason for my decision to go home was, my next 3 day treatment of chemo (March 7, 8 & 9), hangs in the balance of the report and results of the PET scan. I am somewhat surprised with myself, because the truth is, I would never wish chemo on anybody, but here I am, hoping that next chemo treatment isn't canceled or delayed. Go figure !! lol
When I got home I took a couple of pain pills (the big guns) and waited for them to cut the pain down enough for me to actually lay down in bed. That took about 2 hours and the motion of laying down still hurt enough that it took 3 attempts over a period of about 15 minutes. Once down I did finally fall to sleep until about 5:30 am. At that time I took another of my heavy duty pain pills and got back into bed slowly and painfully.
Right now I'm kicked back in my living room enjoying the comfort of my recliner. I made it through the night and tomorrow I'm going to head down leisurely to New Haven and stay at a hotel just down the street from the VA hospital that will do the PET scan on me at 10 am on Monday. The weather report shows the ride down to Conn. will be at the end of one snow storm and the return trip home will be during the next snow and ice storm. So, I'll be driving down and back in my 4X4 truck, not as comfortable as my van but much safer with the weather report given.
I will then have to wait for the results of the PET scan while hoping that the New Haven VA Hospital communicates are better with WRJ, Vt VA hospital than the Boston VA Hospital is. Sometimes the wait for test results causes as much or maybe even more anxiety than that of the daily count down to the launch of my next chemo treatment. What a Pandora's box,at least that's the way this all seems to me at times, like now. lol Like a game that I would never volunteer to play, yet here I am, willing to jump in for "my turn", hey, it's my turn. lol How did this happen? It really doesn't mater. The fact is, it did happen and now it has become my fight against cancer and my fight for life. So, I fight as best I can, but all the while I now it's out of my hands. Yet, I do know that I'm in good hands, much better than my own. And, now I say thank you very much for your thoughts and prayers because without which my demise could have already come and gone, but I live on.
With my warmest regards
Dad Sam chappy friend
Author
Topic: I might be down, but I'm not out! (Read 249564 times)