I made it! Though things got a bit scary when once again they couldn’t find a vein to put the first IV thingy into and after about four tries I started to cry. Then the next thing I knew I was in the wake up room, drifting in and out of consciousness. Then back to my room for a rather rough night of it. Yesterday I was still pretty groggy but I was given the go ahead to drink water (yay!) and I also convinced the doc to take me off the morphine. But I really couldn’t do much other than lie here. Feeling a bit better and stronger today.
So here’s the deal. The surgeons were able to remove the tumour residue in the liver and one of the lesions in the peritoneum. Apparently the second one was very close to an artery and they didn’t want to risk hemorrhaging so they left it there and took a biopsy sample. They think it will end up being benign scar tissue like they found last time. If it ends up being malignant it will mean further surgery to remove part of my pancreas, my spleen and possibly a kidney (eep!). So it’s going to be a long 2-3 weeks waiting for the biopsy results. But the surgeon said it didn’t look like a malignant tumour and The Team is convinced that it’ll turn out benign like last time. And so, overall it’s good news.
More good news – it looks like I’m going to have the room to myself all weekend. The other bed was blessedly vacant when I came back from the wake up room, then yesterday I had another roommate for about six hours – she was just here for some tests and went home at 2pm.
I’m hoping to have all the tubes taken out so I can get out of bed today. Just waiting for the doctor to make his morning rounds. Nog stayed here again last night (I was feeling a bit lonely) and Pipocas should be here soon. So I am being very well looked after. And you guys really made my day when I read all your comments on the ‘hanging out’ post this morning.
Must lie down again for awhile, will be back later…
Anneke said:
So glad to hear that you are through it and on the mend! Fingers crossed about the one remaining bit of tissue….
I hope you know that friends who don’t even know you have been asking how things have gone and if I have heard anything, yet.
Thank goodness for the blessedly quiet room for you! Rest mend!
Love you! (and my love to Nog, as well)
Mwah, Mwah!
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B'Elana said:
Very relieved to hear it all went well. Now you try to get as much rest as possible. :*
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Dave (aka Orcus) said:
Brilliant news Azahar. 😀
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Puddock said:
Great to hear it all went well and that you’ll have a bit of peace today. Hurry and get better so you can beat me at Scrabble (again!) 🙂
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nursemyra said:
so far so good 🙂
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dragonqueen said:
Going from post-op to your own room is good. Hey, I knew you’re a tough gal.
The Lair Cats sends some snibbles and nibbles.
*hugs*
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raincoaster said:
That sounds like excellent news! And definitely having your own room will help you. Rest up and take care of yourself, and keep us in the loop.
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Paul & Alison said:
Great to hear from you and still praying for you
With our love,
Paul & Alison
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mister.anchovy said:
Great to see this post! Hope you heal up quick…
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healingmagichands said:
There! A room to yourself. Wasn’t that what I was visualizing for you? I’m so glad it turned out that way. And it’s a good thing too. With the crowd of visitors you have with you at all times you need a lot of space! I dibs the empty bed.
And OF COURSE that tissue will be benign. You need all your kidneys and pancreas. Keep on making room for your excellent immune system to fight, do what your doctors tell you with your chemo and things will turn out good.
Okay, while I’m at it, you are going to end up with plenty of money and visit Greece AND New York.
Now, rest and play scrabble. So glad you are back safe.
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Dan | thesamovar said:
Great news again az!
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alejna said:
It’s so good to hear from you. And wonderful that the surgery went so well.
Now I’d best check to see if it’s my turn on scrabble.
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Lizzie said:
Fab news Honey – mend fast and mend well. Are you coming to UK for Christmas or is that to be decided at later date?I think Stormy and I will be there,or close by anyway. Got digits entwined as usual for results but feel v confident it will be benign.
Love and love. L.xx
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Beth said:
Oh, whew. Good to hear your “voice” on this foggy Saturday morning. I know people think no news is good news but I think that’s bs and I like to know what’s going on every moment.
Brave of you to get off the morphine that fast. I’d probably be asking them for more. You are so tough!
Rest up and get back to your kitties, I’m certain they need snibbling, what ever that actually is. xxoo
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Anneke said:
Sorry to hijack this… I am testing out a new blog site but am trying to figure out why the photo on the front page is truncated. Can someone tell me what they see when they visit the page?
http://mudhooks.tumblr.com/
I see only half a photo and you can’t seem to click on it to get a larger image.
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azahar said:
I do have a snibbling video in the works, Beth, but I’ll have to edit it before it can be shown to the public. And it wasn’t brave to go off the morphine – I hate the stuff. It makes me very groggy and nauseous. Besides, they give me other stuff for the pain which seems to work quite well.
Sorry to say that London at Christmas won’t be happening, Lizzie. *sigh*
“I hope you know that friends who don’t even know you have been asking how things have gone and if I have heard anything, yet.”
Ha! Remind me to hire you if I ever need an agent, Anneke.
Can you start visualising me at home on Monday, hmh? I reckon I’ll have the room to myself until tomorrow evening and will only have to put up with the new roomie overnight. Plenty of money, eh? That would be nice!
Having my own room makes all the difference, Rain. It felt equally peaceful that first night with María, but both of us knew that we had really lucked out.
Nice to hear from everyone. Am going to try a little scrabble while I’m sitting up (typing is quite hard, actually).
Kissitos…
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azahar said:
I just found your comment in spam, Anneke – it’s up now.
I only see the roof of the house. Hey, why not try WordPress again? It’s got a lot more cool features than the first time you tried it.
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Anneke said:
It was just that I wanted to try it out. It appears that it is the theme set-up that I picked which was the only reason I kind of liked it. I don’t like any of the other theme set-ups.
Glad you are feeling better. My friend Krys said to pass along her best wishes and “good vibes” for a speedy recovery.
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noggin said:
It’s a real relief that the op’s over, and the prognosis good. Just hanging out, relaxing and reading for a while.
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Lori said:
Whew! Glad you’re posting again.
Perhaps you need headphones and an mp3 player to block out any future roommates…I’m a little worried that your quiet weekend alone in that room may backfire on you. 😦
Is there any tea left?
(hugs)
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Wandering Coyote said:
So glad to hear this, Az. I knew you’d come through with flying colours!!
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mudhooks said:
grumble, grumble… I added a new post to the old WordPress blog…
I still would like to edit the page but you have to “upgrade” to be able to do that. Still, the page I picked is better than some.
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DKL said:
awesome news! im wishing u a speedy recovery. and remember to take it easy when u get home.
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Big Bad Johnny P said:
Never mind the tea – I hope there are plenty of biscuits left for late-comers.
Good to see you on the mend.
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archiearchive FCD said:
Umm – I’ve been in the corner quietly eating all the biscuits and smiling. There are only two left – biscuits, not smiles!. Although I have made a new pot of tea if anyone is interested.
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azahar said:
All this talk about biscuits and I haven’t had any solid food since Wednesday – I’d love a biscuit right now! Being Sunday it’s not sure if a doctor will happen by today to make the ‘official change’ in my diet. But I hope that happens because I don’t think they’ll let me go home until they’ve seen how I respond to solid food. And I REALLY want to go home tomorrow.
I was finally de-tubed yesterday, which was a huge relief. Though they’ve left the port in my jugular (ewww) to give me painkillers and take blood samples. But at least now I can get up and walk around without goddamn tubes all over the place and dragging an IV stand with me. They also took out the catheter which means I have to get up every couple of hours or so. But that’s also good for me – to be up and walking around a bit.
Yesterday I was sitting in the chair reading blogs and I heard a nurse out in the hallway say to a patient’s spouse – “See? She’s up and about and she was operated on less than 48 hours ago.” Presumably the nurse was trying to convince this woman that her husband should get out of bed and was using me as an example. 🙂
I have to admit that it’s pretty hard getting out of bed. Even after just a trip to the bathroom I’m exhausted. Yesterday evening after ‘dinner’ Nog and I took a short walk around the ward and afterwards I felt like I’d just run a marathon. But it’s so boring just lying around and I know it’s good for me to get up as much as possible, so I do.
One more day of glorious solitude … I suspect another roomie will be showing up around 7 this evening. Well, I’m not totally alone. Pipocas and Pablo stop by and Nog is here for a large part of the day, just hanging out. It’s a comfort having him here, even if we’re both just sitting and reading. And the dinner tray ladies always try to find a spare meal for him – I think they reckon he needs feeding up. 😉
Anyhow, I will be losing my internet connection this afternoon because the USB gadget is needed elsewhere, but it was great while it lasted. So I may not post anything more until I get home (sitting up enough to type is also very tiring). Which I hope will be tomorrow.
Thanks for all the ‘hospital visits’ guys – it really means a lot to me and puts a smile on my face.
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azahar said:
Nice new WordPress page, Anneke! 😉
There’s a lot of editing you can do without upgrading. What aren’t you able to do that you think is missing?
I wish there was a comment preview button, but otherwise I really like WordPress.
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B'Elana said:
Good to see you about. {{{}}}
Hope you’ll get some nice breakfast.
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azahar said:
Nah, just some crappy decaf with plain yoghurt. AND some biscuits, but really hard dry ones that need to be dipped in the crappy decaf in order not to break my teeth. Maybe I should get Nog to sneak me in some Digestives.
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B'Elana said:
Oh, sorry to hear that.
I could start a new scrabble game, just don’t be surprised about the unknown to you username.
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silverstar98121 said:
Sorry, I took a day off from blogging, but I’m glad to see you back. Hope you get home soon.
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silverstar98121 said:
P.S. Thanks for the birthday card. It’s cute.
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B'Elana said:
Nearly lunch time, hope that will be better than your breakfast was.
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azahar said:
Lunchtime here is 2 o’clock, so still a couple of hours to go. I’m still on liquids, so it’ll probably be purée again. Last night I had a pumpkin purée that was actually quite good. Nog had the same purée with grilled pork & chips and flan for dessert. I’m starting to get my appetite back, so I hope they put me on more solid food soon. If this were a weekday I would have seen the doc already and I’m sure he would have changed my diet. Oh well, perhaps I’ll lose a couple of kilos this way.
I just showered and washed my hair all by myself … I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t send me home tomorrow. I feel ready to go now, but they wouldn’t let me go on a Sunday.
Shame about losing the internet connection today, as this is the first day I feel well enough to take advantage of having it. Well, I can still watch DVDs on the laptop. And Nog will be here to keep me company throughout the afternoon/evening.
And now Pipocas is here so gotta go! 🙂
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dragonqueen said:
Decaf!!! Horrible!
I never got the hang on why there should be coffee lacking its most important ingredient (=poison)
*leaves real coffee on the table*
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Anneke said:
Jeez… even their puree is better than the crap they feed us at hospitals, here…
When I was stuck on the “liquid diet” at Albert Einstein Hospital in the Bronx for 8 days, they gave me apple juice (which I can’t drink because it gives me massive heartburn), 7-UP (which I loathe…. AND gives me massive heartburn), and this horrible kosher JELLO substitute sweetened with Aspartame…. meal after meal after meal after meal…. That was it…. OH, and watery “broth” made with fake (but kosher) chicken flavouring.
I was supposed to be on solids and despite the doctor’s orders and despite my filling out the menu card they kept sending me up the liquid diet.
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Anneke said:
BTW, re the blog….
I would like to tweak the design of the page. On Blogger, I can just go into the setting and edit the HTML to change the size of the font and size of the columns…. change the background image, page colours, etc.
You can’t do that on WordPress without upgrading. Or at least as far as I can see.
On my Blogger account, I have widened the layout and changed the side on which the sidebars are on,changed the font colours, changed the size and font of the name of my blog, etc.
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Timothy (TRiG) said:
One of these days I’ll get around to writing my own blogging application in php. I’m told that the main problem with WordPress is that every time a page is requested it makes multiple database queries, pulling from the database loads of information that it doesn’t actually need. This makes it slow and inclined to crash.
Sorry. Am I being a geek again?
Glad to hear you’re up and about, az. Keep us all informed.
TRiG.
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mudhooks said:
I noticed that comments on my blog (Hi to you, too, dragonqueen!).
Yeah, I looked at the various options for themes and while some of them have customizable headers, I either didn’t like the rest of the layout or the font-size… Again, you can’t make the font larger (I notice that in the ones I picked, you can’t even change the font size beyond “Heading” “address”, etc, and can’t even change fonts. What’s with THAT?
Not that I’m crazy with the limited number of fonts on Blogger, you should at least be able to choose a font you like. At least they have added “full align” to the justification. I am very anal about having both sides of my text aligned. It irritates me beyond words when I can’t choose “Full” and when I receive a letter which is raggedy on the right-hand margin.
The layout I picked is pretty nice.
I prefer a black layout because I find myself blinded by white backgrounds. The sort of olive green and soft yellow is a bit easier on the eyes. I like the lacy detail, too.
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mudhooks said:
I am currently importing my posts from my Blogger blog (the main one)
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B'Elana said:
I have started experimenting with a blog now. It’s all still incredibly confusing, but I’ll get there somehow, I think.
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Teuchter said:
Just checking in from a chilly Edinburgh to see how you’re doing – and am delighted to find you sitting up and receiving visitors.
Sending goodvibes(Tm) for quick healing and nice histology.
Lotsa love
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truce said:
Yay! So glad to hear it went well and that you’re feeling a bit better (although the jugular tube sounds ghastly) and able to get out of bed.
Here’s hoping you’re currently enjoying something delicious to eat at home in your own bed by the time you read this.
{{{hugs}}}
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spacecadette said:
SO glad to see you back online! I’m jazzed to hear that everything went well; I’m adding my good vibes to the pile, for the follow up analysis on the peri-thingies.
Google Reader crashed it’s sorry ass on me — so back to following your blog the Old Fashioned Way.
Snibbles and Hugs, Hon! Get better (and Get OUt!) Soon.
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Toy Box said:
Good to see you up again, even if for short. I hope you can have some nice proper coffee now. Decaf indeed, pah!
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anhaga said:
It’s so good to hear that it went well!
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azahar said:
Yep, back home and everything, anhaga. 🙂
I can’t tell you how fabulous it was to have REAL coffee in bed this morning, Toy Box. Bliss!
SC, have you tried Netvibes? That’s the feedreader I use – I like it much better than other ones I’ve tried.
The jugular thing is nasty, truce, and it really creeps me out. But apparently my veins are too fine to use for more than a couple of hours so once I’m out they stick an IV thingy in my jugular. *shudder*
Got your blog set up yet, Bel?
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