I was so happy to hear Dr. Saba say today"See you in March". That may not seem so far away to most people, but the idea that I am sort of "free from worry" till March is amazing to me. He was really pleased about the outcome of my surgery and that the chemo evidently worked. In March, I will have CT scans on my lungs again and sometime around then Doc O will order a scan on my leg. In the meantime, all I have to do is heal and have a normal life! He heard a little fluid around my lower right lung but since I have no fever he was not concerned. I think it does mean I need to be moving more, so I was up and moving around most of the day today. I am headed to Publix (by myself) tomorrow if I can, but can only buy really light things since I can't lift much. So I will do a little "light" shopping and go for short walks in the neighborhood. I may even get my nails done!
I am still hurting a good bit but got a new batch of pain meds today. Susan took me out running errands with her today for a while this afternoon and that was a good way to get me moving. By 5:30 this afternoon I was beat.
I am trying to do a little holiday shopping via the internet. We cannot take much over to England as we have a comuter flight with weight restrictions from London down to Cornwall where Bob's mother lives. That makes it really hard to bring gifts so we will shop once we get there. And that really is a shame since prices are much better here and the value of the dollar to the British pound is just awful.
Other than that I am just trying to heal and get better. Hopefully that will not take much longer, and I can get back to work soon. I have not had the ability to concentrate and read all this time, and I am really missing that. I have a long list of books so I am going to try to get started on that and see how I do. I have no other doctors appmts till Dec 19 so there should really be no news till then. I do promise to keep blogging every few days to keep you up to date my progress. I hope it does not get too boring for you to read -- actually, I hope it is the most boring thing you ever read. Boring is good!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Hanging in there
Each day seems to get a little better but I am still pretty uncomfortable. I've worked my way through the real heavy duty pain medication. They only gave me about 5 days of that along with what they call "break through" pain medicine. You take that along with the heavy duty stuff for when that is not enough and for after heavy duty stuff is gone the "break through" is what you take for regular pain meds. I am not sure what I was thinking, but I hoped I would only need one prescription of that. Boy was I wrong! I am going to see my chemo onocologist Dr. Saba tomorrow, so I am hoping he will just refill it. If not we will have to go over to Dr. Miller's office and pick up a prescription.
As you may remember, I saw Dr. Saba after I got the PET scan results. He told me I could wait a couple of months to have the lung surgery if I wanted, but that we would not know what the lesions were till they were surgically removed and biopsied. When he knew I was having the surgery, he told me to set up an appointment with him for a week after surgery. I suppose this was to set up post surgical treatment, if necessary. At that point we would be discussing if I would need more chemo, radiation etc. While I was in the hospital, one of the nurses, Marva, from the chemo center came to visit. She brought Dr. Saba's new Nurse Practioner, Felicia with her. It was so nice of them to come and see me. I asked Felicia if it was still necessary for me to see Dr. Saba after surgery since the lesions were not malignant, and she felt it was still a good idea. I am assuming the only "treatment" is going to be repeated CT scans every three months to make sure the lesions, malignant or not, stay away. Dr. Saba had already set up CT scans for January anyway. It will be nice to see him and be able to celebrate the fact there was not cancer in my lungs. He gets a lot of credit for that since he prescribed the chemotherapy treatments before and after my lung surgery.
I am not sure who is "in charge" of me now. After my leg surgery, Doc O (leg surgeon) said he was my gatekeeper from then on, and he would be ordering all scans. When the Oct scans showed the lung problem he sort of turned me over to Dr. Miller (the lung surgeon) and I set up no further appmts with Doc O. Now Dr. Saba has ordered the lung scans, but I know in Jan I should be having a scan on my leg too. Who orders that? Hopefully tomorrow I will learn "Who's on first?"
However, I do know my real "first"is Bob. He came through for me once again-- as always! When I left the hospital they asked if I had someone who could take out the staples from my chest/side area so I would not have to come back to the doctor until a month after surgery. I am pretty sure they thought I knew a nurse, doctor friend, who could take the staples out. When I told them my husband could do it they asked me his background. When I told them he was an engineer they looked at me like I had 2 heads. I explained all the stuff Bob had had to do for me the last 10 months and that we had a lot of nurse and doctor neighbors if we had a problem. I am not sure they had the same level of confidence in Bob that I did but they gave me the staple removal kit none-the -less. Bob took them out last night with no problems. He is ready to perform heart surgery now.
And finally, we were able to set up a time to go to England to see Bob's family! We have not been in year since we missed our regular summer trip there. We are going at the end of December. I will only be gone about 10 days(I've got to get back to a normal working life!) and Bob is going to stay on a couple of weeks more so he can spend more time with his Mother and kids. We have both been looking forward to going for so long. I had hoped Bob could have gone late this summer, but we had to put that off when my leg wound was not healing as quickly as we'd hoped and I got the wound vac etc. He is still having to pack my leg wound each day but it should be closed up in the next week or so. Anyway we are excited about the trip. We could not get it scheduled to be there for Christmas, but we won't miss it by much. We've been spending the last few New Year's Eve in Sarasota, and we will miss that, but we are delighted to be able to ring in the new year in the UK. Actually, I am delighted to be able to ring in the new year anywhere --and especially to not be in the middle of chemo treatments while doing it!
I am now ready to get into the Hanukah/Christmas spirit! I have a lot to celebrate.
PS Just a reminder -- if you sent a comment to the blog I have no way of responding to it personally to you as they do not give me your email address. So if you've commented and not heard from me personally that is why. I have heard from so many folks-- and many I have not seen in years -- and I am so appreciative.
As you may remember, I saw Dr. Saba after I got the PET scan results. He told me I could wait a couple of months to have the lung surgery if I wanted, but that we would not know what the lesions were till they were surgically removed and biopsied. When he knew I was having the surgery, he told me to set up an appointment with him for a week after surgery. I suppose this was to set up post surgical treatment, if necessary. At that point we would be discussing if I would need more chemo, radiation etc. While I was in the hospital, one of the nurses, Marva, from the chemo center came to visit. She brought Dr. Saba's new Nurse Practioner, Felicia with her. It was so nice of them to come and see me. I asked Felicia if it was still necessary for me to see Dr. Saba after surgery since the lesions were not malignant, and she felt it was still a good idea. I am assuming the only "treatment" is going to be repeated CT scans every three months to make sure the lesions, malignant or not, stay away. Dr. Saba had already set up CT scans for January anyway. It will be nice to see him and be able to celebrate the fact there was not cancer in my lungs. He gets a lot of credit for that since he prescribed the chemotherapy treatments before and after my lung surgery.
I am not sure who is "in charge" of me now. After my leg surgery, Doc O (leg surgeon) said he was my gatekeeper from then on, and he would be ordering all scans. When the Oct scans showed the lung problem he sort of turned me over to Dr. Miller (the lung surgeon) and I set up no further appmts with Doc O. Now Dr. Saba has ordered the lung scans, but I know in Jan I should be having a scan on my leg too. Who orders that? Hopefully tomorrow I will learn "Who's on first?"
However, I do know my real "first"is Bob. He came through for me once again-- as always! When I left the hospital they asked if I had someone who could take out the staples from my chest/side area so I would not have to come back to the doctor until a month after surgery. I am pretty sure they thought I knew a nurse, doctor friend, who could take the staples out. When I told them my husband could do it they asked me his background. When I told them he was an engineer they looked at me like I had 2 heads. I explained all the stuff Bob had had to do for me the last 10 months and that we had a lot of nurse and doctor neighbors if we had a problem. I am not sure they had the same level of confidence in Bob that I did but they gave me the staple removal kit none-the -less. Bob took them out last night with no problems. He is ready to perform heart surgery now.
And finally, we were able to set up a time to go to England to see Bob's family! We have not been in year since we missed our regular summer trip there. We are going at the end of December. I will only be gone about 10 days(I've got to get back to a normal working life!) and Bob is going to stay on a couple of weeks more so he can spend more time with his Mother and kids. We have both been looking forward to going for so long. I had hoped Bob could have gone late this summer, but we had to put that off when my leg wound was not healing as quickly as we'd hoped and I got the wound vac etc. He is still having to pack my leg wound each day but it should be closed up in the next week or so. Anyway we are excited about the trip. We could not get it scheduled to be there for Christmas, but we won't miss it by much. We've been spending the last few New Year's Eve in Sarasota, and we will miss that, but we are delighted to be able to ring in the new year in the UK. Actually, I am delighted to be able to ring in the new year anywhere --and especially to not be in the middle of chemo treatments while doing it!
I am now ready to get into the Hanukah/Christmas spirit! I have a lot to celebrate.
PS Just a reminder -- if you sent a comment to the blog I have no way of responding to it personally to you as they do not give me your email address. So if you've commented and not heard from me personally that is why. I have heard from so many folks-- and many I have not seen in years -- and I am so appreciative.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Just amazing
I don't think I even yet recognized the magnitude of what happened this week and how lucky I am. That this "lung thing" (I do not know what else to call it) was not cancer is something short of a miracle. Bob probably told you that Dr. Miller said only one other time in 20 years had he seen my same situation turn out as lucky as I was. All others (and this is basically what he does a for a living) had been malignant. Thanksgiving certainly takes on a whole new meaning for me this year.
I still feel pretty uncomfortable. I am sitting up better, but am living for my pain medication. I have about a 6 or 7 inch incision. I feel like someone kicked my in the side of my rib cage and slit me open with a knife. That is pretty much what happened. I can't really lift anything, and it is hard to reach for anything more than about 6 inches away(expecially dishes, laundry, etc). I do feel a little better each day but sometimes the slightest movement the wrong way really does hurt. This is my first time to even type, but Bob promised I would blog today and so I am!
And although I hurt like crazy, I could not be happier! I am so thankful and happy that I really do not care about about the pain. It will go away!
We cannot thank you all enough for everything you all have done for us the last several months and especially for your prayers in recent weeks! They worked, and we are so grateful.
I am about out of gas today so I am going to sign off until next week. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was just amazing!
I still feel pretty uncomfortable. I am sitting up better, but am living for my pain medication. I have about a 6 or 7 inch incision. I feel like someone kicked my in the side of my rib cage and slit me open with a knife. That is pretty much what happened. I can't really lift anything, and it is hard to reach for anything more than about 6 inches away(expecially dishes, laundry, etc). I do feel a little better each day but sometimes the slightest movement the wrong way really does hurt. This is my first time to even type, but Bob promised I would blog today and so I am!
And although I hurt like crazy, I could not be happier! I am so thankful and happy that I really do not care about about the pain. It will go away!
We cannot thank you all enough for everything you all have done for us the last several months and especially for your prayers in recent weeks! They worked, and we are so grateful.
I am about out of gas today so I am going to sign off until next week. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was just amazing!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving Day
Geri came home yesterday afternoon. She is spending today resting uncomfortably. She says it only hurts when she laughs, coughs or breaths. Also, she has laryngitus which means I can''t hear here her when she shouts at me.
We wish you all a very happy thanksgiving. We are truly thankful for all the kindness of friends, family and neighbors who have supported and helped us through this year, and for the the medical professionals who have provided the care and expertise to get Geri to this happy point.
Geri promises she will do the blog tomorrow.
We wish you all a very happy thanksgiving. We are truly thankful for all the kindness of friends, family and neighbors who have supported and helped us through this year, and for the the medical professionals who have provided the care and expertise to get Geri to this happy point.
Geri promises she will do the blog tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Tuesday evening
The second chest tube was removed today and the epidural. Now I only have the two central IV lines in my neck. I don't have the sharp pains in my chest now just a level-6 dull ache and I still have the jitters. As the epidural drugs wear off the pain could increase and the team may address that with some IV pain killers. Dr. Miller has just been in and said I may go home tomorrow if the pain is manageable and I'm comfortable. Yipee!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Making progress
I got one of the chest tubes out today and the catheter. I had hoped that removing a tube would help the back pain but it has not. The pain management team went back & forth as to whether they should change my drugs but in the end left things as they are. Should get the the other tube out tomorrow and the epidural. I'll be surprised if I get home before Thursday. I'll keep you posted.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Sunday Evening
I am feeling better today, although I still have shoulder pain and the jitters from the pain medication. I walked to the nurses station twice today, although I had to use a walker for support. It looks like at least one tube will come out tomorrow, maybe both if the Dr. is happy. If both, they will also remove the epidural line. I need to be here for at least 24 hours after the epidural is removed to see if I can handle the pain without it. Dr. Miller says I'll be here till Wednesday or maybe Thursday morning so the trip to the beach for Thanksgiving is off. We will do it another time.
I have slept better the last two nights with benedryl, although they wake me up to take vital signs, draw blood and do breathing exercises every 4 hours. Of course, they all come at different times so I'm lucky if I get two hours straight. Looking forward to anothers good nights sleep tonight, and I'll see y'all tomorrow.
I have slept better the last two nights with benedryl, although they wake me up to take vital signs, draw blood and do breathing exercises every 4 hours. Of course, they all come at different times so I'm lucky if I get two hours straight. Looking forward to anothers good nights sleep tonight, and I'll see y'all tomorrow.
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