I had a slight setback, but I'm good now, and I'm full of a hunger to live -- to really, really live.
Shortly after finishing my most recent blog post, Post-Op, I collapsed at home. My brother was visiting, he called 911. I went back into the hospital then, Saturday afternoon, and got back home again today, Monday morning. It was only a temporary setback. My overall progress is very good.
Friday night, I had made the wrong choice in pain meds, taking an NSAID, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Now I know: I should never take an NSAID again, ever. I should never take a medication without first being sure that it is not an NSAID. At first, the NSAID gave me great pain relief; but by Saturday afternoon, it had caused my blood pressure to plummet, which caused me to collapse.
I'm all better now: the NSAID has been completely flushed out of my system, my kidney function has been returned to normal. My pain level drops noticeably daily. The doctors tell me to walk. I'm walking more than they've asked me to, and they're good with that too, and working hard is speeding my recovery.
On the coming Friday, August 10, I have an appointment with my general practitioner. Monday, August 13, a week from today, I have an appointment with the urologist who performed the surgery. Either on the 10th or the 13th, I will find out more about what the chances are that I am now completely cancer-free.
My brother and I have interacted more with each in the past 48 hours than in the past 5 years before that. He and I have really drifted apart, but it seems that both of us want to change that.
Even before my recent stays in the hospital -- ever since first watching Zoolander a few months ago, in fact -- I've been working on singing the song "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." So far, I haven't been able to sing it all the way through without breaking into full-on body-shaking sobs. Here's my advice: if you and a loved one have drifted apart, don't wait for something as drastic as the threat of cancer to make you try to patch things up.
Showing posts with label surgery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surgery. Show all posts
Monday, August 6, 2018
Saturday, August 4, 2018
Post-Op
The earliest thing I can remember after I gained consciousness coming out of surgery on Wednesday was that I saw a lot pagan deities involved in some sort of struggle with the hospital staff in the crowded, bustling post-op ward. The deities looked just like regular modern men and women. After a while I realized that I had just been hallucinating, and that all of the men and women bustling about were hospital staff.
When you have a kidney removed, you're going to have to deal with some pain. My pain didn't become really severe until around midnight, on a second, less-crowded post-op ward. My surgery had begun at 11:30 AM, and before surgery they had given me a nerve blocker in my abdomen. They said the nerve blocker would last about 12 hours. I assume that my severe pain was a result of the nerve blocker wearing off.
On Thursday they said I was going to stand up, go to the chair beside my bed and sit down in it. I couldn't believe they were asking me to do that, and when I did it the pain was truly horrendous. But they said that it would get easier every time I walked, and that I should try to walk farther each time. And it is getting easy. For a while it felt like the pain would never decrease, but it has.
Standing up and sitting down are very difficult. Going from sitting down to lying down is worse. Even harder is picking something up off of the floor. The books I'll be browsing will probably be at chest level or higher for a while. Before I was discharged, an occupational therapist at the hospital gave me a device with which I can pick up articles of clothing, making dressing and un-dressing much easier.
I have 4 surgery incisions, 1 huge one, 4 inches long or more, going between the halves of my main ab muscles. 3 smaller ones where there used instruments to come at my kidney from different angles. The one just to the right of my main ab muscles hurts often and severely. The huge one hurts less often and less severely.
When you have a kidney removed, you're going to have to deal with some pain. My pain didn't become really severe until around midnight, on a second, less-crowded post-op ward. My surgery had begun at 11:30 AM, and before surgery they had given me a nerve blocker in my abdomen. They said the nerve blocker would last about 12 hours. I assume that my severe pain was a result of the nerve blocker wearing off.
On Thursday they said I was going to stand up, go to the chair beside my bed and sit down in it. I couldn't believe they were asking me to do that, and when I did it the pain was truly horrendous. But they said that it would get easier every time I walked, and that I should try to walk farther each time. And it is getting easy. For a while it felt like the pain would never decrease, but it has.
Standing up and sitting down are very difficult. Going from sitting down to lying down is worse. Even harder is picking something up off of the floor. The books I'll be browsing will probably be at chest level or higher for a while. Before I was discharged, an occupational therapist at the hospital gave me a device with which I can pick up articles of clothing, making dressing and un-dressing much easier.
I have 4 surgery incisions, 1 huge one, 4 inches long or more, going between the halves of my main ab muscles. 3 smaller ones where there used instruments to come at my kidney from different angles. The one just to the right of my main ab muscles hurts often and severely. The huge one hurts less often and less severely.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
surjree 4 munkee
On July 13, 2 weeks ago, I went to the emergency room with an unknown ailment. 3 Days later, July 16, I was released, still sick, the cause unknown. Finally, yesterday, July 25, I felt 100% again. I feel very healthy right now, very strong and vital, the way people sometimes feel after recovering from an illness.
However, in the hospital, while trying to figure out what was making me feel sick, one of the tests they did found something completely unrelated: a CT scan of my abdomen revealed a tumor in my right kidney. In fact, my right kidney is now more tumor than kidney. The tumor shows all of the signs of being cancer.
The good news is, there is no sign of cancer anywhere else in my body. On August 1st, I will go back to the hospital for surgery, to have the kidney removed. The hope is that once the kidney is removed, I will be completely cancer-free.
Still, I am under no illusion about the fact that I may die soon: the surgery will be pretty major, with all of the risks of any major surgery. And maybe the cancer has already spread beyond my kidney.
But, to my surprise, I'm not afraid of dying. I had often pictured being confronted with a potentially fatal medical condition, and the thought had always frightened me. Now that I actually know that I have cancer and am going to have a kidney removed, I'm not afraid. I'm going to do the best I can to follow all of the medical advice, and hope for a complete recovery and a long life after that, but if things don't turn out that way, well then, they don't.
Again, let me emphasize: the hope -- no, the expectation is that this surgery will leave me cancer-free. Also, the surgeon, when he and I looked at the CT scan together, said that my left kidney is "perfect. This is exactly what we want to see." His exact words. So, you know, things could be a lot worse.
I'm expected to stay one or two nights in the hospital after the surgery. When I'm back home, Meals on Wheels will look in on me. I just got off the phone with the insurance company, arranging transportation to and from the hospital. I think I got all the details pretty much handled. I'm ready to go and do this thing and get it over with. The main thing that's bothering me now is them telling me that after surgery, I'm not supposed to lift 10 pounds for 6 weeks.
I may be a Great Big Fat Guy -- in fact, there's no maybe about it -- but a lot of that fat is muscle, and I tend to absentmindedly pick up objects weighing 100 pounds or more, carrying them around and stacking and un-stacking them and so forth, without really thinking about it, the way that some people stretch and yawn. The thought of 6 weeks without doing even 1 rep of 1/10 of that is disturbing.
Imagine if your doctor told you that you were going to have to go for 6 weeks without stretching and yawning.
Oh well. I gotta do what I gotta do cause that's what I'm gonna do cause I gotta and I yam what I yam. If I don't make it through the surgery, go out and stomp the living crap out of the Republicans in the November mid-terms in my name. Avenge me! #HugeBlueTsunami If I do come through the surgery just fine, which is very likely, of course, I may have some interesting things to tell you about surgery.
However, in the hospital, while trying to figure out what was making me feel sick, one of the tests they did found something completely unrelated: a CT scan of my abdomen revealed a tumor in my right kidney. In fact, my right kidney is now more tumor than kidney. The tumor shows all of the signs of being cancer.
The good news is, there is no sign of cancer anywhere else in my body. On August 1st, I will go back to the hospital for surgery, to have the kidney removed. The hope is that once the kidney is removed, I will be completely cancer-free.
Still, I am under no illusion about the fact that I may die soon: the surgery will be pretty major, with all of the risks of any major surgery. And maybe the cancer has already spread beyond my kidney.
But, to my surprise, I'm not afraid of dying. I had often pictured being confronted with a potentially fatal medical condition, and the thought had always frightened me. Now that I actually know that I have cancer and am going to have a kidney removed, I'm not afraid. I'm going to do the best I can to follow all of the medical advice, and hope for a complete recovery and a long life after that, but if things don't turn out that way, well then, they don't.
Again, let me emphasize: the hope -- no, the expectation is that this surgery will leave me cancer-free. Also, the surgeon, when he and I looked at the CT scan together, said that my left kidney is "perfect. This is exactly what we want to see." His exact words. So, you know, things could be a lot worse.
I'm expected to stay one or two nights in the hospital after the surgery. When I'm back home, Meals on Wheels will look in on me. I just got off the phone with the insurance company, arranging transportation to and from the hospital. I think I got all the details pretty much handled. I'm ready to go and do this thing and get it over with. The main thing that's bothering me now is them telling me that after surgery, I'm not supposed to lift 10 pounds for 6 weeks.
I may be a Great Big Fat Guy -- in fact, there's no maybe about it -- but a lot of that fat is muscle, and I tend to absentmindedly pick up objects weighing 100 pounds or more, carrying them around and stacking and un-stacking them and so forth, without really thinking about it, the way that some people stretch and yawn. The thought of 6 weeks without doing even 1 rep of 1/10 of that is disturbing.
Imagine if your doctor told you that you were going to have to go for 6 weeks without stretching and yawning.
Oh well. I gotta do what I gotta do cause that's what I'm gonna do cause I gotta and I yam what I yam. If I don't make it through the surgery, go out and stomp the living crap out of the Republicans in the November mid-terms in my name. Avenge me! #HugeBlueTsunami If I do come through the surgery just fine, which is very likely, of course, I may have some interesting things to tell you about surgery.
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