I’m heading over to St. Vincent’s Hospital in just a little while. This time it’s for out-patient surgery to have a “port-a-cath” installed in my chest so they can administer the chemotherapy more easily. For whatever reason, I’ve been pretty nervous about this procedure. The idea of having a longish tube running from my collar bone up into my neck and down into [...]
Archive for August, 2009
“Port-a-cath” (part 1)
Posted in Journal Entries on August 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Meeting with a Surgeon
Posted in Journal Entries on August 14, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I had a much better day today. Although it started out a little rough (had to give myself an enema upon waking in prep for the Flexible Sigmoidoscopy, then had some anxiety when we were kept waiting in line at “registration” for half an hour past my scheduled appointment time – I imagined Dr. Rajput’s [...]
Rollercoaster Continues
Posted in Journal Entries on August 13, 2009 | 2 Comments »
It seems the ups and downs of this rollercoaster ride are getting more dramatic. Yesterday, I was feeling mostly “up” - even after a very full and somewhat overwhelming day at the Cancer Center. Today - well, not so much. This morning, I was smack in the middle of writing a very upbeat post for the blog about yesterday’s “Good News” [...]
Prayers
Posted in Journal Entries, Misc on August 11, 2009 | 5 Comments »
In early summer, when I first had symptoms severe enough to send me to a doctor (who then recommended a colonoscopy), I let a few of my dearest friends know I was beginning to have concerns about my health. Right away each of them, in their own way, said they would keep me in their [...]
PET Scan
Posted in Journal Entries on August 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I won’t have the results of Friday’s PET scan for a few more days, but my intuition tells me it’s not going to reveal anything that we didn’t already know. Had last week’s ultrasound found more lymph node involvement, I might have been concerned about the PET scan finding cancer in some other organ, too. Since they couldn’t say for sure that any [...]
The Rainbow
Posted in Journal Entries on August 7, 2009 | 4 Comments »
It was raining lightly as we got in the car and headed out to the Opera. About twenty minutes later as we approached the entrance, I saw the sun emerge through the clouds near the horizon. The Santa Fe Opera is a gorgeous open-air theatre with a huge panoramic view to the west and north, and I was thinking how nice [...]
Back to Plan A
Posted in Journal Entries on August 6, 2009 | 6 Comments »
I’m beginning to realize that this journey will often feel a lot like a roller-coaster ride. Tuesday’s experience had me pretty down. Then, after expressing my disappointment and anger in yesterday’s post, things slowly began to look up again. Dr. Fekrazad immediately made time for me to come in to see him. Tasya was able to drop everything and meet me at [...]
Stage 3
Posted in Journal Entries on August 5, 2009 | 6 Comments »
I came home from UNM in despair. I was still drowsy and feeling the effects of the sedation, but I was alert enough to be despondent. The entire experience at UNM Hospital was upsetting and unpleasant. So far I’ve been pretty happy with my health care experience in Santa Fe. I’ve gotten personal attention by people who seemed genuinely concerned [...]
Change of Plans
Posted in Journal Entries on August 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
This morning, just as I was getting ready to have my first bite from a nice bowl of fruit and yogurt, I got a call from Debra at Dr. Prosher’s office at UNM. She wanted to know if I could possibly come for the ultrasound on Tuesday (tomorrow) instead of Wednesday. I quickly realized that agreeing to move the procedure [...]
Calm Before the Storm
Posted in Appointments, Journal Entries on August 2, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I’ve just gotten a few friendly messages along the lines of ”more blog posts please” and “ok, how are you doing now?” I was about to reply that there isn’t much to say as I’m currently in a kind of calm before the storm – but I guess that’s exactly the thing to write about. It’s been about ten days since my [...]
