Week # 4

Well if I thought week # 3 sucked..this past week I don't have any words to describe it.  It started off bad, got worse and now I'm just tolerating it.  I developed a fistula, a hole in the wall of my colon and vagina,  I leak fecal matter out my vagina all day...all night . I know it sounds gross and it really is.  The cure to this is to have an colostomy, something we were trying not to have happen.  I have an appointment with a colon-rectal dr next week to go over what is going to happen.  We are not sure if he will try and remove some of the cancer or just leave it alone.  There are so many questions that need to be answered and hopefully he will have the answers  I'm terrified of having this surgery, and wish there was some other way to take care of this, but this is how they fix it so......I've finally got my pain somewhat under control.  Taking 2 pain pills every 4 hours keeps it manageable.  I've been trying to get up out of bed for a few hours every day, but usually find myself laying on the couch.  Abby & Bob have been such wonderful caretakers of me.  Abby usually spends thursdays with me and the past two weeks she's been in a baking mood.   She has baked 120 cupcakes, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin cookies!  I haven't been much help to her, but we enjoy spending the time talking while she's mixing away!  Bob has been unbelievable with getting my medicines and running to Kroger everyday, there's always something that I need to have!  So............I keep hoping that one of these weeks I'll have some good news but for now it looks like were going backwards and not forward.  Chemo continues on tues and have a cat scan on wed.
                                     
Peace & Love

Week # 3

Well week 3 totally sucked in more ways than one.  I did well with the chemo and smoking the pot..didn't get sick so that's a small victory.  However things went all to hell later in the week,  Saturday morning I woke up to discover that I was bleeding vaginally, which shouldn't happen since I have no parts there to bleed from.  Called the Dr.  He was concerned, but thought it might just be a clot that broke away etc..He said I could go to the ER, but they would just put me thru a lot of useless tests and the call was up to me.  I said I would lay down for awhile and see if it stopped and get back with him.   Of course it didn't stop so I ended up in the ER where they did some blood work and found out that my hemoglobin was low and that I needed blood transfusions.  The ER Dr, called my Dr and he admitted me to spend the night and have exploratory surgery in the morning.  I didn't get any sleep that night as the nurses were in and out of the room with the blood transfusion going on.  Abby spent the night sleeping across the bottom of the bed and her head on one chair and feet on another.   Surgery went well, the Dr isn't really sure what the problem is, the wall of my rectum where the tumor is is very thin and he thinks the fluid is leaking from the tumor into my vagina,  Know it doesn't make much sense, but he put a "patch" on my vaginal wall where it is thin.  Not sure if the tumor is shedding or what.  Guess this might not make much sense, but if you ask me, bob , abby and my mom who were there we would all come up with something that does make sense.  So needless to say I have to be extremely careful to not become constipated and tear the rectum, or I will be back in for a colostomy.  So now I'm home from the hospital and have a day to rest before starting chemo up again tomorrow.  Let's hope this week is a good one.

                                Peace & Love