Slow but steady progress

Well once again I’ve left a bit of a while pass between reports, partly because there wasn’t much to report and I guess I was just lazy.

I have made some progress, the tender spots on my tongue have healed considerably and they don’t affect my eating anymore. I still have some issues with my lower throat. At night and first thing in the morning I do have some problems swallowing. It feels like there is goop in my throat and I can’t swallow it or clear it out. It’s better during the day after I’ve eaten something, it seems to clear some of it out.

I saw two of my doctors the past 2 weeks. Dr. Eller, the one who diagnosed my cancer saw me and scoped my throat. He said everything looks good and the primary site of the tumor has healed well. He’s happy with my progress and doesn’t want to see me for another 2 months. He asked if I had any concerns and I told him I was ready for my feeding tube and port to be removed. He said he could take care of my feeding tube but that the port would have to be taken out by the doctors that put it in. By that I assumed he would schedule the feeding tube removal. He then did an examination of my throat, inside and out. He checked out my lymph nodes and said they will probably not come back fully and I’d have to deal with that for the rest of my life. When he was done he asked if there was anything else, so I reminded him about the feeding tube. He told me to open my shirt and lay back on the examination table. I replied, “You’re going to take it out?” He said, Yea it’s easy, no problem. I said, I figured I would have to have it removed and then spend the night in the hospital like I did when they installed it. Checking for leaks. He said, no there won’t be a problem with any leaks. I said, but if you just take it out won’t there be a hole? Won’t you have to stitch it closed? Oh no, he said, it’ll close right up. With that I laid back, he cut the one stitch attached to the tube and to me holding it in place and proceeded to pull the tube out of my stomach. I didn’t feel a thing. Not the stitch being removed, not the tube being pulled out of my stomach, nothing. I just stared at the place where the tube used to be, watching the hole and nothing happened. I expected a steady stream of stomach ooze, but nothing came out at all. He placed a piece of gauze over the hole and put a piece of tape over that and said ok, you can go home now. I said I was back to going to the gym, how long before I can do any strenuous work outs or abdominal work? He said I should wait about a week, that should do it. When I got home after work that day I removed the bandage and there wasn’t anything on it. It hadn’t leaked at all. Now it looks like I’ve got a second belly button about 5 inches above and a little to the right of my normal belly button. I sleep better at night now that I don’t have to worry about it getting caught on something and being ripped out. It was a little annoying hanging out there all the time, but it sure served it’s purpose. I would have been in serious bad shape if I didn’t have it back in the March/April time frame. For sure I would have ended up dehydrated, malnourished and probably in the hospital.

This week I saw Dr. Richard (the chemo doctor). He’s always so amazed that I’m looking pretty good. I guess compared to many of his patients I’m in damn good shape, but he always makes a big deal out of it. He was also happy with my recovery so far and he ordered the whole body Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan so we could see if there is any cancer left in my body. I asked him if I should be seeing some other type of oncologist, someone that I would see for several years. I reminded him that military doctors get reassigned every 3 – 4 years and I won’t be seeing him for the long haul. (during my 25 years on active duty I never saw the same doctor twice) He said not to worry about that, the kind of cancer I had isn’t the kind that will require constant monitoring for recurrence like some of the other cancers. Mine has a very good survival rate, so I should be happy that they aren’t going to want to monitor me for more than about 3 – 5 years.

Two weeks ago I went in for my annual physical (mainly to check on my cholesterol), I of course didn’t see the same doctor as I say last time. My last physical was about 18 months ago. This doctor was somewhat interested in my cancer and the treatment, but didn’t say much else. I was in and out in about 15 minutes.

So, other than a few issues with my throat that will hopefully clear up in time, I’m doing pretty good. I can eat anything I want, except spicy food. Regular black pepper is hot to me right now. That hasn’t stopped me from eating at our local TexMex restaurants. I just don’t use any hot sauces and I stay away from the dishes I know will be spicy.

On the home front Terry and I traveled to Phoenix, Arizona this last weekend to take care of her mother’s winter home. She owned a nice mobile home in a retirement community for 23 years. We cleaned it up, and packed up what personal affects Terry wanted to take home. The main office that handles renting the mobile home spaces and mobile homes themselves made her a fair offer for her mothers place, but we need some paper work back from the probate lawyer before she can sell anything connected with the estate. It was a very emotional weekend and we were both wrung out by the time we got home. I also have to say it was Africa hot there. It was 110 degrees in the shade.

We rented a car while we were in Phoenix and while I was dropping off some things at the local Goodwill a book case fell on the car. I was in the car getting ready to pull away and a gust of wind blew over the book case and dented the driver side front fender. I spent another hour there filling out paper work, taking pictures. The manager was very helpful, she made a few phone calls and told me not to worry about the damage that they would take care of it. We brought the rental car back early expecting a lot more paper work and hassle, but Enterprise Car Rental was very easy to work with, we made out a report and they sent me on my way. On Tuesday I spoke to the claims department at Goodwill and they took some more information and said the will call me back. Sure enough about 2 hours later I got a call back and they said everything was taken care of. They had talked to Enterprise and Goodwill was going to pay all the damages. I’ve always gotten very good service from Enterprise and I will continue to rent cars from them and recommend them to everyone. Consider yourselves having been recommended.

We have a new Bouvier De Flanders want-to-be foster we are taking care of. He’s about 18 months old and a real keeper. This is a different one then the one we had back in June. He also came from Dallas, TX. He came house trained, he knows a few commands, he doesn’t mind being put in a large dog crate and he gets along with our two dogs. He’s good enough to where we leave him roam the house with our two dogs during the day while we’re at work. That’s pretty rare for one of our fosters. He should be gone soon, a couple of folks are already interested in him.

Ok, I’ve rambled on long enough. Things are good here, I’m progressing well, I’ve been in the gym 4 weeks now and I’m putting on some lean muscle weight.

My PET scan is in early August, I’ll report in when I get the result of that.

Cheers,
Miller, out