Tags
… my life changed forever.
On May 5th 2007 I woke up with serious abdominal pains that got worse as the day went on. By the end of the week I’d been sent home twice by the emergency doctors at the private hospital I’d gone to, with them refusing to do the ultrasound I’d asked for, telling me I just had gas pains. But when I went back on Saturday evening they finally realised it wasn’t a hairball and admitted me for observation and further testing. On Sunday around midnight I was transferred to the general hospital for an emergency operation. And a couple of weeks after that I was given the diagnosis – stage IV colon cancer with metastasis to the liver (later they discovered it had also spread to the peritoneum).
So it’s been a week of retrospection and introspection, but mostly it’s been a good week of being alive and feeling healthy. Unlike my friend Gaelen, I have yet to “beat the odds”. I was given a 50/50 chance of surviving for five years and I have to say that it feels pretty damned good to have reached the two-year mark. Meanwhile, the next PET scan is coming up next month and it always feels … well, scary as hell. But today the sun is shining and I am busy working on projects at home. Just letting you know where I am. And reminding myself to enjoy every moment as much as I can.
How are you enjoying today?
casa azahar 
I am counting my blessings and enjoying my state of excellent health, even though my sciatic nerve is still inflamed it is so much better and an achey leg is a pretty small glitch in my otherwise fine life. I am also trying to maintain my focus on how important my good health and excellent relationships are in comparison to a cash flow situation.
It is a beautiful day today, the sun is up, the sky is blue, it’s beautiful, and so are you… Oh wait, didn’t someone else sing that song? Anyway, it is all true of my life today, and to top it off the knockout roses are in the middle of their crescendo of neon bloom.
So glad you are here!
LikeLike
I am enjoying today here in the good old U of K by making cakes in my cafe, voting (thank you Mrs Pankhurst), visiting the licensing office to see if I can extend our alcohol sales time by 1 hour and then going to see a film with my 16 year old son, with whom I now have to book time if I want to see him other than over the breakfast table (not a pretty sight I can tell you – for either of us) and then home to watch the telly and see who is going to trash our country next.
I remember many bits from your roller coaster ride (hackneyed phrase I know, but suits) my dearest dear girl and think you are a bit of a marvel and I am SO happy you are at the 2 year mark and I look forward to the next 20 as we get baggy and old together, albeit on different land masses. Am still working on being dropped off from the boat somewhere near you in early August – all systems on stand by please!
LikeLike
I am just waiting to hear so I can “book” the Málaga apartment for us …
And I love the idea of us getting old and baggy together. Yes please!
LikeLike
As much as I can with paint in my hair.
LikeLike
Az, omg, all this time and I never realized how close we really are.
Monday night in the recurrent support group meeting, I realized that 6 years earlier (May 3, 2004) I was recovering from port surgery. I’d been scoped on April 28, dx’d on April 30, port on May 3, chemo teaching on May 4 and my first infusion was May 5, 2004. They called it my cancerversary, but I don’t feel like that word really fits.
Two years IS scary. And amazing. Amazing Az.
Be in the moment and be well, my friend.
LikeLike
At the moment I am thinking how if not for the cancer thing we would never have met. So there is a silver lining to all this awfulness.
I read through the “hairball” post again, and the comments, and was taken right back to that week and the first hospital misdiagnosis that almost killed me – the emergency op was just in the nick of time. And this calendar I chose to put up has the 19th as a holiday, which was the day I came home from hospital that first time. Oh, to be home again and hug my cats and NOT be at the hospital anymore. That was one happy day.
My mind automatically goes to the good memories. I think because the bad ones are just TOO bad. Which is why the “scanxiety” is already hitting. I just can’t imagine being able to go through any of that again.
Chemo teaching? Shit, I just showed up. Also didn’t get the port until the second time I had to go on chemo. My first infusion was June 30th and I remember the nurse telling me I was only allowed to cry the first time (she was joking with me). And nursemyra was there with me. And after we went out for tapas, but I was so afraid about what might happen that she very generously stayed with me overnight (Nog was out of town working). The next few days after that are a blur because I crashed the second day and could not believe how bad I felt. Anyhow… the real bad bits are blurry. And I’m rambling. You know, we really should get that skype thing set up.
Cancerversary? Yuck.
LikeLike
Over here, the bluebells are up, and I’ve been spending as much time as I can walking through the woods in Charleville Estate. It’s warm and sunny and pleasant. I’ve been in work all day, but I’ll be up there soon.
TRiG.
LikeLike
I am enjoying the beautiful spring day, and like you, I’m marking two years this week since my cancer diagnosis. I’m so glad we are both still here and feeling good today. Take care.
LikeLike
Great to see you here, Dori. I haven’t been over to the CC forum much lately and tend to avoid FB like the plague.
Also great to hear that you are feeling good. And I really hope we get to do this more often. You take care too, okay? And please drop by any time you like.
LikeLike
I am still in the midst of moving but I count myself lucky in a number of ways.
Unlike Reverend Paperboy, I am not moving a household, two kids and a wife a continent away and not knowing exactly where I will land up.
I have plenty of help, even though it seems that this will NEVER get done and I have finally decided to hire a cleaning company to do the final clean and I still have to repair holes and prime over my beloved bathroom mural http://mudpuddle.wordpress.com/2009/05/16/photohunt-painted/ and prime all the window frames which weren’t primed when they put up the windows a number of years ago…. as well as re-caulk the tub.
I am still sleeping in what will be my office which faces east which means lovely sunrises…. but means early sunrises unblocked by curtains…. but said office looks lovely!
My satellite, which is luckily still hooked up in the old place so I can park Mom in front of the tv while we finish the move hasn’t been hooked up HERE, yet, because I have to buy a pole at least 8′ high and anchor it into the ground (Do the SELL pole pre-sunk in concrete that you can just dig a hole and put it in????). At least I DO have my computer up and running, have been allowed to take an extra week of holidays, and aside from one emergency having to run in and get a document scanned that I brought in a few weeks ago to get scanned (which it turns out was scanned in today both the original I brought in two weeks ago AND the one I rushed in with yesterday).
AND, my dear friend az is still here and I am so glad to visit her blog every day and read it and see Loki and Azar’s latest adventures.
Love you!
LikeLike
I do hope you’re taking lots of before and after pics…
Your new office sounds like it’s going to be wonderful!
LikeLike
Gads, no….
I did take one photo today of the new office which is also my temporary bedroom.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Today was good, I’ve finished work for the week and I’m drinking a ginger beer and visiting blogs. The Fiery Furnaces are playing in the background and Pablo is lying at my feet…..
LikeLike
Enjoying the colours of spring here – bluebells, violets, wood anenomes, bright green leaves on the trees. Grass needs cut! Replanting some pots where the poor plants didn’t survive that harsh winter. Ordering a Scottish dancing tartan sash for a ceili on Skye later this month. And thinking about buying a dongle 🙂
LikeLike
I GET to say this: didn’t I tell you two years?
Here’s to you staying well and beating the CRAP out of the odds.
LikeLike
You did. And isn’t it great that you get to say it again???
LikeLike