I have been delinquent over the past few weeks. It hasn’t been for lack of interest, but rather, well, I’m not sure. We made the anniversary of the diagnosis of stage 4 bladder cancer, and with that recognition we moved … Continue reading
Last December Terry’s niece, Kaci, got married down in Florida. We had tickets to fly down and desperately needed the escape. The wedding was occurring just weeks after his diagnosis of stage 4 bladder cancer, and we needed to have … Continue reading
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We’re coming up on the anniversary of Terry’s last major diagnosis. The call from the doctor informing me the bladder cancer was aggressive and stage 4 was that blindside, never saw it coming kind of call you never forget. It … Continue reading
I was humbled the other day by my six pound cat. Walking into the kitchen at a quick pace combined with him running through my feet led to me hitting the kitchen floor. Hard. It happened so fast I didn’t … Continue reading
Terry had his surgery to repair his hernia a few days ago. Given all he’s been through, this was relatively minor, but has certainly waylaid him since. As is usually the case, while it went pretty much according to plan, … Continue reading
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The hospital we utilize for Terry’s diagnostic and treatment purposes is an hour away from where we live. We’ve burned up the highway between here and there over the past six days, and are now waiting for results. We started … Continue reading
Now that summer is ending we’re heading into a busy period of medical appointments for Terry. When it’s all said and done I believe the month will simply be a blur in passing as we move from one specialist to the other.
He saw the local surgeon last week about the abdominal hernia. He confirmed my suspicions that it was his intestine dropping into the weakened area of his lower abdomen. Terry had been reading some forums that indicated hernias were not uncommon after abdominal surgery. He had it diagnosed several years ago, and while it hadn’t been problematic then since the surgery it had become painful and extremely swollen. We had even ordered a special hernia support belt for him to wear. The surgeon wanted to fix it as soon as possible, but knew he had other diagnostics that were already scheduled. We’ve now added to the appointments he already had, so once the appointments are completed he will have an outpatient surgery to repair the hernia.
Tomorrow he has labs and scans and appointments with the doctors who did the chemotherapy and the surgery for the stage 4 bladder cancer. He still hasn’t gained weight back so I’m sure they’ll ask about that. I’ll be anxious to hear what they have to say. I’m hoping they’ll have good news. Good news would be greatly appreciated!!
The following Wednesday we’ll head to the main hospital. He’ll go through admitting and then get an injection. It’s called a thyroglobulen stimulating hormone. He’ll have this shot and then go back the next day and repeat it. The day after the second shot he will have labs and a radioactive dosing that he will swallow. Three days later I’ll take him back one more time and they’ll do another scan trying to see if there are any thyroid cells still showing up in his system. He should have no thyroid cells since they removed the thyroid due to cancer. If there are stray cells showing up, they may be what’s forming the mass that they’ve found in his throat. We’ve waited several months for approval to do this test, and had I not called again he might still be waiting. We need to know what he’s dealing with right now.
Once all of those are done and finished, he’ll have surgery to repair the hernia. By that point the month of August should be just a reminder that it’s almost September. I know it’s no fun for him to have to go through all of the diagnostics, but it’s no fun for me knowing what he’s doing, and why he’s doing it. I wish for both of us that he could get just a small break and heal and improve his health before having to deal with more problems. Or better yet, it would be nice to not have any problems for a while!
Enjoy your August…I know there’s fun to be had out there somewhere!
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It seems as though Terry may have plateaued with getting any healthier post surgery for stage 4 bladder cancer. It’s been more than four months now, and there just don’t seem to be any changes in his physical condition. No … Continue reading
After just celebrating July 4th, I realized how much more it has come to represent to me. I am the typical lover of Christmas, and Terry loves the 4th of July, but it seems like each of us like our … Continue reading
Friday of this week is another big day at the doctors’ office for Terry. They’ll be repeating the scans and x-rays to ensure the bladder cancer has not made an unexpected return. Ordinarily I would just assume the tests will … Continue reading