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CANCER: An Uncensored Journey

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SharynS
Post Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:53 pm

Joined: 28 Jan 2006
Posts: 2533
Location: the 'puter 		Cul De Fete, fete de cul? If it has anything to do with scopes or probes count me out, I can't make it eh.

Sounds positive on all fronts WJ. Some would say a shitty way to begin a year survivors say lucky me. If attitude is 50% of recovery (and I know it is) then you're well on your way.

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Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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Bill Sable
Post Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 7:32 pm

Joined: 14 Feb 2009
Posts: 144
Well, Sharyn, my thanks to you as always...Re the remainder, as Brother Scott and anyone on the night crew knows, craziness is next to godlieness...and god, well, "she moves in mysterious ways", to quote the Irish brethren.

If you can't laugh at it, it just ain't worth the trouble. Laughing Wink
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Bill Sable
Post Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:28 pm

Joined: 14 Feb 2009
Posts: 144
Well now...onwards and inwards. I have been a tad dilatory in my posting (apologies Embarassed ) and I do have some news.

To begin, the "hypaque enema" procedure went, shall we say, interestingly. (N.B. there may be other, better, descriptives.)
Walked in, checked in, stripped down, gowned up, layed down...and the nurse rolled up the goddamn biggest IV bag I have ever seen in my life which she proceeded to fill with water and the radiological chemicals. I am not kidding - this IV bag was the size of a bull elephants stomach, a bloody 30-gallon Hefty bag...and full, way full.
When questioned re this matter, the nurse answered that they really did not propose to use all of this liquid but that the were required to mix that volume. Sure.
She did make points by noting that, due to my disuse of the lower colon the past few months, they would use the smallest nozzle in the place.
Sure.

Actually there was no discomfort involved in the process. The doc got apparently museum-quality X-rays and videos which were relayed instantly to my surgeon for his assessment.
However...after some success in ridding my hindparts of said hypaque liquid, I walked out of the place wearing one pair of "Depends" (N.B. pull-ups are still, imho, superior to the strap-on kind), a couple of towels, etc. Posterior must have looked about 8 months pregnant. Messy is the word.

Took the night off when I realized that leaking both fore and aft was a recipe for spending most of the shift in the mens' room. The evening proved this a prudent decision. So, I have spent the past week living on Maxi-pads and baby wipes...a good warm-up for the next step...
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Bill Sable
Post Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:49 pm

Joined: 14 Feb 2009
Posts: 144
The next step...

Well, the news from the planet "Hypaque Enema" was good. There are no pinholes,leaks, portholes, rust, rats and roaches in the now long-unused south 40 of my colon.
This is official, straight from the surgeon yesterday AM.The next step is what they call the "Ileostomy Takedown" which is a surgical (not a wrestling) move.

We set a date, 17 February 2010 at CPMC. Reversal surgery with all the plumbing hooked up and the septic tank ready to operate. About 3 days in the hospital and 4-to-6 weeks recuperation; much less complicated and invasive than the last surgery.

The downside is that nothing works as well as the original equipment. The rectum is, essentially, a storage area (a septic tank, if you will) for waste/fecal matter/merde over which one exerts a fair degree of control (think: "toilet training" or the absence of muscular control under certain conditions, i.e. food poisoning, etc.). While the surgeon says the muscular part of things are pretty damn good (thanks, Safeway Exclamation ) that which the muscles will again control is not the same stuff - it is colon that has been dragged down and sewn down as replacement tissue.

Consequently, until such time as superior muscular control is developed, there will be "challenges".

Note to the nightcrew: if, in April, May, or thereafter. you see me moving briskly in the direction of the employee bathroom, the customer bathroom or a convenient bush, do NOT stop to inquire about how the Giants pitching looks this season. Nothing personal, just a question of priorities. Wink There will be "Depends" involved for a period of time, there will be Maxi-pads involved for a period of time, hell, there may be gas-tank siphons and buckets involved.

So...avoid the fun and get your colonoscopy ASAP...or, meet me in the Depends aisle and we can compare notes. Rolling Eyes
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atuuschaaw
Post Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 6:25 pm

Joined: 29 Jan 2006
Posts: 753
Location: an ahwangan 		Speaking from the POV of an old pipefitter, the no pin holes or leaks caught my immediate attention and is a definite plus! Wink

Great news my friend. You are correct when you say nothing works as good as the original equipment. Since my colon resection going on two years ago I've been trying to adapt to the changes. Scheduling and diet being two of the most important aspects of adaptation. As a matter of fact, I'm still adapting...haven't got it all figured out yet, but the fact it still works is also definitely a big plus! Mr. Green

Hang in there Bill...and thank you for sharing Bro! I also wanted to mention a group of folks I found through interactions on Facebook. Some extraordinary folks to be sure. You might want to give them a read and maybe a listen. The site is Voices of Survivors.

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"Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." George Orwell
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Bill Sable
Post Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 12:37 am

Joined: 14 Feb 2009
Posts: 144
Many thanks, Brother A...that website looks great (and intense...I guess it should considering rthe subject matter).

Perhaps it's a little curious but I do not perceive myself as a cancer "victim". A cancer "patient", certainly; alot of other things, possibly, but not a "victim".

"Victims", if you will, are those who never had a chance - the millions of Auschwitz and
Treblinka, those killed and maimed by the earthquake in Haiti, those who never had the opportunity to fight back, to spit in the eye of the storm and say to it, "you want it, take it if you can and pay the price".

I've been given the chance to do just that: I've got a disease and I've got a middle finger.

Exclamation Twisted Evil Cool
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Bill Sable
Post Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 3:27 pm

Joined: 14 Feb 2009
Posts: 144
Well, folks...in about 24 hours i will once again be in an OR under anesthesia getting knifed up by the docs....and I am looking forward to it.

As Churchill said in another context: it is not the beginning of the end but it is the end of the beginnning. I would like to take a moment to thanks all of you who have helped along the way. It does make a difference.

That said, I do not want to get all mercenary on you folks but there are Depends that have to be paid for, the annual "out-of-pocket" cash, etc...

So...my thought is to open the bidding for the "NAMING RIGHTS" to the new equipment.
For a relatively small sum of money (a couple of million sounds like a good place to open bidding) you could have your own name (or that of your organization, e.g. the United Food & Commercial Workers; the Republican Party; Goldman & Sachs; OR Sarah Palin Enterprises, etc.) put in an appropriate location tomorrow.

This is a one-time option, so call now: operators are waiting to take your call.

You, my friend, are going to be a STAR.. Exclamation Exclamation Exclamation
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SharynS
Post Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 3:33 pm

Joined: 28 Jan 2006
Posts: 2533
Location: the 'puter 		The other olympics - Go Bill!

Without having seen the "equipment" I'd like to submit UNCHARTED.ca.ca. Advertising space is advertising space eh.

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Laboryes
Post Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 3:43 pm

Joined: 29 Jan 2006
Posts: 1679
Bill Sable wrote:

So...my thought is to open the bidding for the "NAMING RIGHTS" to the new equipment.
For a relatively small sum of money (a couple of million sounds like a good place to open bidding) you could have your own name (or that of your organization, e.g. the United Food & Commercial Workers; the Republican Party; Goldman & Sachs; OR Sarah Palin Enterprises, etc.) put in an appropriate location tomorrow.


Bill how much to paste this pic in the seat of that first Depend?.......



Remember...if I win the bid no holding back! You feel that erge just fire away!!! Mr. Green

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"When people refuse to obey, then democracy comes alive."
Howard Zinn
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Bill Sable
Post Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:00 pm

Joined: 14 Feb 2009
Posts: 144
Morning, Sharyn

Just received your address from LY...photo will be in the mail today...Enjoy. Exclamation

At the risk of over-thinking the problem, I would haved to say that this region of my world has been extraordinarily well-charted during the past year - charted, mapped, probed, explored. I am open to all options, however. let's make a deal. Cool

Hmm...customized DEPENDS...NOW WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT. Question Question Just goes to show, you can't think of everything, even on night crew.
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SharynS
Post Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:21 pm

Joined: 28 Jan 2006
Posts: 2533
Location: the 'puter 		[she] ...no door to pick this is good [/thinks]

Alrighty then "..let's make a deal..." . As you've already noted customized diapers are yet to have an established market. I'm also thinking it's a huge investment risk. Do you have or is there a target demographic or a target anything?

edit=
Quote:
...Just received your address from LY
You call it getting my address, I call it investment backing, yes! Twisted Evil Twisted Evil

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Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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SharynS
Post Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:00 am

Joined: 28 Jan 2006
Posts: 2533
Location: the 'puter
Quote:
Just received your address from LY...photo will be in the mail today...Enjoy.
I got mail...

I have no idea how to thank you WJ. Nor how to explain having possession of it to my family. I'm actually leaning towards not trying and just having it discovered in a drawer after my passing. Mr. Green

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Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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Bill Sable
Post Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2010 6:57 pm

Joined: 14 Feb 2009
Posts: 144
A fine and shining morning to all hands... Smile I'm pleased to say that I have quite a bit to report upon (which means that I am, in the course of things, still alive and kicking) but first...

Sharyn, I am so pleased that have have received the photo. As to the problem of someone finding it in your desk drawer at some point, my advised solution is to have a friend with an artistic bent make a mural out of it (interior is fine, exterior would be very special..!

So, that problem solved, let us return to live action.

As you probably know, on Wed. 17 Feb. I was scheduled for surgery to reverse the ileostomy, hook up the new (and hopefully improved) plumbing, get rid of the stoma and bag, etc.
Went in @ 6 AM, was in the OR before 7:30 AM, was finished by 10 AM and was walking around the ward accompanied by my IV pole by 3 PM.
A couple of days of the "liquid diet", staff pulled the IV on Thursday PM (which was nice), the surgeon came in about 8:30 AM Friday morning, asked me if I wanted to be cut loose (Duh..!!), got the paperwork done (no meds necessary which speeded up the process), hit the deck running - well, walking - and was home before 11 AM.

Damn, it was nice to be home.

I've spent the past week just kicking back and healing up. Th incision has knit up quite nicely and without any pain or required meds. Visited the surgeon on Tuesday to have the staples removed, with another appointment this week for a check-up.
Things at the other end have been a little more interesting, about which more later.

Ran into my oncologist on the way out of the hospital and had a quick chat. I'll be making an appointment to see him next month for bloodwork/CEA/etc.

This is not over, not by a long shot but the first leg of the race, at least, is done.

With my thanks to you all...
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Bill Sable
Post Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:49 pm

Joined: 14 Feb 2009
Posts: 144
Today's subject is "Pain".

It occurs to me that I have done a pretty good job in the Olympic "stiff upper lip" competition during the year since the diagnosis of cancer.
A few folks have commented on or around the issue and, truth be told, I prefer a public chuckle to a public expression of pain. Just "old school", I guess. Pain: you disinfect it with Irish whiskey, wrap some duct tape around it, and keep going.

But there comes a point when you can't.

Last week, Keith Olberman on MSNBC, had an extended "special comment" regarding his elderly father, who has been hospitalized for some months; among other things, he has has part of his colon removed and has either a colostomy or ileostomy.

What elicited the commentary was that Keith Olberman's father asked his son to let him die, to get all the medical stuff over with, that he had had enough.

I has just a taste of it myself. Constant pain serves to drain you. Put your energy into ingoring it, it drains you. Put your energy into fighting it, it drains you. At some point, there is nothing left.
The year since the cancer diagnosis have not been without pain. To the contrary, those closest to me have seen me in pain driving to work, at work, at home - along with all the other frustrations this disease and its mitigation present. Speaking for me, myself and I, pain pisses me off - and can make me an unpleasant person to be around.

My profound apologies to those who were around and my profound thanks to those who stuck around anyway.

The other thing that Keith Olberman's father has endured is the sleep deprivation that goes hand-in-hand with hospitalization. Hospitals do alot of great medicine but the absence of sleep for extended periods of time tend to undo some of the good. It makes you crazy, desperate - like pain, it drains you of everything except the need to sleep. Last June, I was in the hospital for five days. When I got home, I literally had nothing left - I kicked everyone out of my room (and rudely, if I remember,...sorry Patricia and Shirl) just so I could sleep, just for a few hours. After that, I was OK.

There is a reason that sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture - it works as well as pain.
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rogead
Post Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:49 am

Joined: 11 Feb 2006
Posts: 402
Hi Bill,

I haven’t posted in this thread yet, probably because it’s a subject I just didn’t want to address. My best wishes to you, belated as they are. I also owe you many thanks. I’ve been aware of your thread for a while, and it finally convinced me to get a colonoscopy. I’ll be fifty-one later this month, and I just had the procedure today. “cat-piss” is far too kind for Go Lytely…that stuff made me gag every ten minutes, and I went anything but lightly afterwards. During the colonoscopy, the doctor found three polyps, one of which was large enough to concern him. I’ll find our more in a couple of days, after the lab looks at the samples. In my case, it’s somewhat more complicated since I just had congestive heart failure a couple of months ago. I guess if there is a malignancy, the heart disease and cancer will just have to fight it out with each other.


Again, thanks for bringing up a difficult subject with honesty, humor, and grace. Thanks also for convincing me of the massive importance of this procedure.
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