Tag Archives: hospitals

happy monday…

05 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in cancer, cats, christmas, food & drink, friends, hospitals

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I mean, it started off okay. And nothing went horribly wrong. But things kept not going right. You know the sort of day I mean? Well, this was my Monday. At least until about an hour ago (it’s now 8pm).

I was actually supposed to have taken Luna and Loki to the vet’s for booster shots today, but one of Peter’s students changed her Friday class to this morning so I changed the appointment to Friday, because there’s no way I can handle taking two beasties to the vet’s on my own.

So fine. This freed up my late morning so I could go to the hospital to get my chemo port cleaned. I’d actually forgotten all about it – really should’ve gone last week. Anyhoodle, decided to make it a good morning and go to the gym before heading off to the hospital (new port cleaning hours are 12.00-1.00). And because Peter’s shoulder is causing him grief and he’s been complaining non-stop I thought it might be a good idea for him to go to emergency instead of waiting two months for the MRI… and this is when things started to go crappy.

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biopsy results negative!

27 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in cancer, health & happiness, hospitals

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It was four weeks ago today that I had the emergency op – the one  that turned out to be an abscess on one of my ovaries and not anything related to my colon as the head surgeon had previously thought. I was told at the time that they didn’t think there was any cancer, but as a precaution they’d taken biopsy samples and said the results would be ready in two weeks. So two weeks ago I sent a text message to Isabel and Ricardo (of my nuclear medicine Team) to ask if they could check the results and when I didn’t hear back I reckoned that no news was good news.

But in fact good news is good news.

This evening I was over at Agustín’s getting him to witness my passport application and a message came through from Isabel that simply said “no describe nada de tumor” … my biopsy results in a nutshell! Right after that I had to go and take photos for my friend/client Maria at her shop and I forgot to call Isabel back, so she called me about an hour later and went over the results in a bit more detail. But the bottom line is that I’m okay! And although I was pretty sure someone would have called me before now if they’d found cancer, it was still a huge relief to see those words and talk to Isabel.

So I called Nog on my way home and he met me for a Cold Beer and some toasted almonds to celebrate.  A good day. 🙂

the best bed…

02 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by in cats, health & happiness, home, hope, hospitals

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THIS is all I could think about while I was at the hospital. Being home again in my bed with my boys. So you can imagine my joy when I found out this morning that I could go home.

I was sure in an out in record time – from operating table to home again in less than three days! I think in part because there was a serious bed shortage and also because my doctor knows that I’m a veteran, this being my fourth major abdominal surgery there. So he could rest assured that I knew what to do and how to take care of myself. But I was also surprised at how quickly I bounced back, being up and about in less than a day after the operation. So perhaps I’ll be able to do that Gourmet Tapas Tour on September 10th after all!

But don’t worry. I plan on taking it very easy. When I got home this afternoon the first thing I did (after snibbling the cats) was take a long hot shower and wash the hospital off me. Then I had a bit of lunch and then I had a lovely three-hour siesta with the boys. This is a photo of my rather rumpled bed after getting up. And oh man! I just felt like the luckiest person in the world to be back here. Sure I’ve still got a lot of pain and it’ll be awhile before I’m back to normal, but I’m still determined – perhaps more than ever – to stick to all the changes I’d been deciding on just before this happened.

Well, time for a light snack and a DVD before hitting the hay again. And thanks again for being with me through all this – it really meant the world to me.

observation

30 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by in hospitals

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How ironic that a couple of hours after writing about how happy l was yesterday enjoying having time to myself at home l suddenly doubled over in pain and took to my bed. But the pain just got worse and worse and at 10pm l found myself in a taxi heading for Emergency. After several tests they put me in the observation room and ran more tests.

Have just found out that they want to operate this afternoon to drain the liquid they found in my lower abdomen. They also think l may have a fistula which may result with me ending up with a (temporary they say) colon bag thingy – aaargh. But it seems there’s nothing for it. I shall be going under the knife around 6pm.

Terrified? You betcha. Watch my Twitter (not Facebook) feed for updates.