IS THE WORST BEHIND ME?

 

It's hard to believe it has been almost 8 weeks since my surgery.  I am finally feeling better after 6 weeks of nausea and vomiting.  I couldn't do much more then lay on the couch and eat chicken noodle soup with saltine crackers.  I lost a bunch of weight and became very weak.

At first it was just mild nausea that stopped me from walking but then it turned into not being able to keep anything down.  We ended up in the ER to make sure my kidney wasn't shutting down or the cancer had come back.  After 9 hours I was finally seen and several tests were run to rule out things.  Thankfully nothing serious was wrong so they gave me anti-nausea meds and sent me home.

For the next several weeks it was pretty much the same thing.  I didn't move from the couch except to use the restroom and try to go into town to do physical therapy.  The meds were slowly kicking in.  I stopped all other meds just to make sure it wasn't a drug interaction again.  Maybe that is what helped.  Either way things started to look up.  I was moving around the house more, starting to make my own food and I was sitting up.  It is funny how we relish in the small accomplishments!

Last Thursday I had to drive to UCSF to see my urologist, Dr. Stoller for a follow-up and to have the stent in my ureter removed.  It was supposed to be a simple 5 minute procedure which turned into 20 minutes because they couldn't find the stent.  They had a camera enter through my urethra into my bladder to look for the surgical sight.  It was pretty cloudy in there so they flushed it several times.  Eventually Dr. Stoller himself had to take a look.  He couldn't find the stent either.  AT this point the doctors were wondering if the stent was even left in there by the transplant doctors.  After another 5 minutes of flushing me with a catheter they decided I must have already passed it out and didn't know it.  I was just glad they were out of my bladder.

The drive home was rough.  My bladder was severely irritated but every time I tried to go it was just a drip or two.  When I finally did have to go it was very painful.  I kept drinking fluids hoping to flush my system.  It took 12hrs for the pain to subside.  In the grand scheme of things that is a short time after everything I have been through.  I decided I would rather not have that type of procedure again!

The day after that I had to take our older dog to the vet for a biopsy of a lump on the inside of her front leg.  It was a long weekend s we waited for the results to come back.  I prayed all weekend it wasn't cancer because I have already had my fill of it.  Thankfully Monday the results came back showing a fatty tumor.  The vet sent off for a second biopsy because she did not like the amount of cells she saw.  Now we are waiting for those results hoping they are the same.

As I begin to feel better I am doing more.  I am actually swimming again which is a great feeling.  The only problem is that the bottoms don't fit me with a glute missing.  I have one pair of boy short bottoms which seem to do the trick.  I may end up wearing men's bottoms if they make them small enough.  At this point I don't care . . . anything is better than a suit that rides up on one side and I don't even know it because I can't feel it!  Besides there are enough things about me that will make people stare more than men's swim suit bottoms!

Now that things are slowly resuming back to normal I should be able to keep everyone better updated.  Hopefully the worst is behind me and I truly can move forward!

Thank you to everyone who has been concerned about my well-being and Thank you for all the continued prayers.  It is always nice to hear from you!

Powered By God,

Jamie