I had intended to start adding to this blog again last year, but life sorta got in the way... lol.. as it often does for so many of us.
Anyway things in my life have changed fairly dramatically since then and rather than keep updating all the lovely people, who have been kind enough to express an interest in my current situation, by individual email or Face Book etc. I've decided to do it here..
If anyone has any queries about more detail for any of the following stuff please feel free to contact me.. additionally, all readers are more than welcome to add a comment here in the blog... I'll respond as and if appropriate..:-)
It all started when I had a nasty cough and cold, before Christmas 2010, and went to see the Doc. He gave me some anti-biotic and the cold went, but the cough remained.
In January, at my lovely wife's insistence.. lol... arm up my back, yeah I'm a stubborn old fool..:-)... I went back and the Doc decided to give me an Xray on the spot. He saw from the Xray plate that there was something he didn't like on my. right lung. He said he was sorry to have ruined my day and although he didn't actually say the 'word' it seemed clear he figured I had Cancer.. He referred me to UNC Hospital at Chapel Hill NC.
Personal reactions were surprising.. I even surprised myself by how calm I felt...
After reflection, I guess I was looking at it on the basis that when you're born the good news is 'You're alive' and the bad news is that 'You'll die some day, but not yet'
In a way nothing had changed.. "Hey you're alive' 'You'll die some day, but not yet'.. way to go.,;-)
The worst part for me was how upset my best friend, my lover, my wife was.. that was far more difficult to handle and caused me much more upset, stress and concern than any worries about myself. Naturally her reaction was to be expected, but knowing that didn't make it any easier to handle and I'm not sure my efforts to calm her were the best.. what can you say to your wife in these circumstances??.. Note to caregivers.. this may apply to others..
My Mum was handling problems with my Dad, who has dementia and was in hospital at the time, so I decided to postpone telling her to spare her the upset.. bad mistake.. I felt really guilty about that and as it turned out she had an inkling something was wrong.. psychic connection?.. probably.. If I had to go over that again I'd have told her from the get-go..
At UNC Hospital I saw Doctor Nirmal Veeramachaneni, MD, on 2nd February 2011.. I call him Doc V.. so does everyone else.. as he's got one of those names that's hard for a westerner to get your tongue round.. He made arrangements for me to have lots of scans, which confirmed there was a tumor on my right lung, but seemed to indicate that the cancer hadn't spread anywhere else outside the lung. He's a very nice, efficient guy and wanted to be absolutely sure, so he scheduled me for a biopsy on 4th March 2011.
With hindsight, I guess I'd had my suspicions about the Cancer for a while.. perhaps it just hadn't been seen sharply enough to register... or maybe I'd simply chosen to ignore it.
Had the Biopsy and the lung collapsed.. apparently it does this for nearly everyone.. They kept me in to see if it would re inflate under its own steam, but after several hours it became clear the lung was not going to re-inflate as hoped. This meant a tube had to be inserted to allow drainage of pale pink fluid from the chest cavity..
The Doc in charge asked me if I'd mind him carrying out some training for another doctor on the insertion of the tube? I was happy to agree.. hell they have to learn some time.. Two shots of local anesthetic numbed the flesh around the ribs under my right arm and a plastic tube about the thickness of my little finger was literally rammed in... lol... no problem until it got in deeper between the ribs than the local anesthetic had numbed... then six or seven more inches were rammed home and boy did it hurt like hell... there's an awful lot of nerve endings in the chest cavity around the lungs... I was practically climbing the walls..:-(
As the tube was now placed I had to stay in for what turned out to be four days.. The tube caused a great deal of pain, but the self administered Morphine helped somewhat.. as long as I didn't need to cough, or move about too much... coughing really let you know what pain was all about... lol... I could give myself a fix by pressing a button every 10 minutes and it worked pretty well.. The first night I didn't sleep much as I was clock watching, waiting for the ten minutes to be up for the next fix... luckily it wouldn't allow you to overdose... lol... funny really.. felt a bit like a junkie lab rat..:-) Fortunately, that had settled down by the second day.
Couple of downsides with the Morphine...:-)
1. Constipation... Keep taking the Stool softeners or you'll be sorry!!
2. It causes nausea and sickness... Be sure to try not to take any for about 30 minutes before meals... You'll be hungry... the food will smell great, but you'll likely be sick before you get to eat it..:-( hehehe,, happened to me a couple of times and that's sad cause the food in UNC Hospital is pretty good!
Was in hospital for four days in the end and had a lot of excellent care from some super nurses.. Lots of hiking me around the hospital corridors to get me exercised and plenty of breathing exercises.. They had to hike me, to help push along the great festoon of pipes and drips that hung from my arms and ribs.. The pipe sure came out much more easily than it had gone in.. few painful twinges, but nothing like when it was put in... lol... thank you Santa!!..:-)
Doc V dropped by to tell me he was going to operate on my right lung, in light of the biopsy results, and I Escaped home again on 3rd March 2011..
The exit wound from the pipe continued to be painful for about 2 weeks.. in fact it was still giving me twinges when I went in for the operation on 21st March 2011.. so I had to keep topped up with Oxycodeine{sp}... that meant continuing with the stool softeners or paying the price if you forgot... hehehe... I did forget once.. it led to a 'session' where I wasn't sure whether to call for a midwife or scream.. never again..:-)
Let's end this slot here... I'm getting tired.. more follows to complete catch up, then I'll blog it as it happens..:-)
how well the anti-nausea tablets are working, as I haven't tried it without them, but I've felt nauseous a couple of times and been sick once after taking them religiously, so have to assume they're doing their best.
