Name?

I got the Porta-cath put in yesterday.  I thought I slept through the procedure but apparently I didn't.  I was able to talk to them when I felt some pain and they gave me more meds but I don't remember a thing.  Best way to go through a procedure I guess.  It only took 1 1/2 hrs.  I was out of the hospital by noon and travelled back home in time to feed my zoo.  (Two cats and two dogs)

It was a little sore last night but nothing I can't handle.  I've been through much worse! LOL  Today it seems to be settling in to my life and not so sore.

So now that Porta-cath is part of my life and suppose to be my friend I might as well name it.
Hmmm...what name should it have?  Maybe I should wait until after my first Chemo on Monday to see how it works and then name it. 

Have a great weekend!
I wish you all enough!

My new Friend?

I'm off to get the Port-a-Cath put into my chest tomorrow.  I am apprehensive about the whole thing but it's something that has to be done.   I might as well make friends with it as from what I've been told it will be with me for a long time! 

It will be a long day for my husband with the early morning and all the travelling out of town.  I guess in a way I'm the lucky one as I'll probably be sleeping for most of it...I hope! :)  My children wanted to go too to be with me but there's really no need to as I'll be either in surgery or sleeping so I told them to stay home.  My daughter isn't happy about it but we'll see if she listens to me. LOL  I have to be there early but they said I should be able to leave around noon so I guess it only takes a few hours to do.

One step closer to being cancer free :)

I wish you all enough!

Oncologist visit

The visit to Dr. S. my Oncologist had some good news and not so good news.
The good news is the CT scan of my chest, abdomen and pelvic was clear.  They could see no cancer in the CT scan.  The not so good news is that my CEA count is up a bit.  It was 166 before surgery and after surgery it was 5.9.  The last two tests showed it raised to 6.9 so there is cancer but they don't know where.

Dr. S. started talking about a new procedure called HIPEC that she felt I was a good candidate for because of my age.  Because I was young (it was nice to hear that 51 was young!) they would like to consider me for this.  She told me that they open my abdomen, heat up the chemo and pour it in and let it sit there for a while.  She said that this is relatively new so there aren't many stats to show me how well it works compared to people who don't get this.  She then received a call from the doctor that does the HIPEC and he suggested that I go on chemo for 6 months first, then get a PET scan and if the cancer hasn't spread into any other place but my abdomen then they will do the HIPEC surgery.  I am glad they are starting the chemo first because I really feel we need to get on this as soon as possible instead of waiting for PET scans and info on HIPEC.
I go on Thursday to have a Porta Cath inserted in my chest and I start Chemo (Folfax or 5FU?) next Monday.  I am not looking forward to the many side affects but I am looking forward to finally doing something about this cancer!  It's been 8 weeks from surgery and I feel hitting it as soon as possible gives me a better chance.

I try to stay positive and I do believe I can beat cancer's ass but sometimes the anger creeps in.  I am angry about being misdiagnosed for so many years!  IBS is what they said was the problem and no matter how many times I went with complaints they just told me "you have IBS".  There was no scans done nothing.  If they had listened to me I wouldn't have stage 4 colon cancer!  It would have been caught early and my chances of a long long life would have been so much better.  Yes I know that that's the past and it's done and it's time to let it go and I know life and cancer isn't fair but sometimes...well I have to learn how to let that go. 

If anyone reading this blog ever gets the diagnosis of IBS or has ANY of the signs of colon cancer please please DEMAND a colonoscopy and/or CT scan!  Colon cancer, if caught early, is one of the easiest cancers to cure!

I wish you all enough!

Housework?!

I never thought, in a million years, that I would look forward to doing HOUSEWORK!  Housework used to be something I had to do so others wouldn't think we were complete slobs.  Everyone has to do housework but no one enjoys it.  Cleaning the same things day in day out.  Just getting the house clean and it's messy again.  A continuous cycle with no end in sight. Monotonous.  There were so many other things I wanted to do besides housework!

But now?  I look forward to it!  Yes I said it!  I love doing my housework now!  No I haven't gone off the deep end...well not quite yet anyway although I am teetering.  Since the colon resection surgery I haven't been able to do too much.  It's been a long and boring recuperation but now I can occupy my time doing light housework.  It makes some of the time go by so fast and it's something I look forward to doing.  There's still alot I can't do yet but I'll get there eventually.  By my being able to do some light housework it sure takes a load off my wonderful, caring, loving husband.  He's been running his business, my business, looking after me and doing all the cooking, cleaning and laundry as well as taking me to all my appointments.  He's so tired and I worry about him so much.  He has the stress of all that and the stress of his wife having cancer.  I don't know how much more the poor man can take!

So I shuffle around the house looking for things I can do that will relieve some of his work load and stress.  I know it's not much yet but soon I will be able to do all of it and get back to running my business. 

I love that man more than I could ever say!

Have a great day! :)

Addicting!

I've spent way too many hours surfing some fantastic blogs today.  This is more addicting than facebook games!  I've added some wonderful blogs to my list so I can revisit them and I'm sure I'll find many more to add.  I hope no one minds :)

I'm still trying to figure out all the blogging stuff.  It took me an hour today just to add a site meter!  I used to blog many years ago but so much has changed that I'm totally lost now.  Hopefully I'll get the hang of this soon!

I'm off to make my life miserable (and waste more time) by trying to add more gadgets.  :)

Have a great day!