Return of the Phil...

 And I am back. 

So, I had cancer that I spent much of 2023 dealing with in one way or another.  After my last post and meeting with the surgeon, 8 1/2 weeks were spent in daily radiation treatments.  These lasted just a few minutes per session and usually done Monday to Friday.  Late spring into summer was the actual chemo.  I did my chemo sessions at the hospital (every other Wednesday) for a couple hours then had a portable unit attached to me for around 46 hours until they detached it Friday afternoons.

Another CT and MRI and a sigmoidoscopy (sp?) after that.  Then the nightmare began.

My surgeon was recommending surgery, the alternative was CT's and MRIs every few months or so for the foreseeable future.  I would have gotten bored with that after a while, so I chose surgery.

The surgery process was an eight hour operation that took out a bit of my butt and rerouted waste disposal into an ostomy bag attached near my intestine (in which a hole was opened up to allow said intestine to hang around outside my body). The surgery was fine, recovery at home was not.

My bag was filling up quicker than expected.  And I was eating less (nothing was tasting good), drinking less, and getting weaker in the process.  This happened twice and both times I ended up calling 911 which sent an ambulance and took me to er.  I was becoming dehydrated and therefore my kidneys were failing.  My potassium levels (along with most other indicators) were sky high and going all over the place.  My sister was told that if I hadn't gone when I did that I probably would have died.

That second time in the hospital, I had six rounds of kidney dialysis, 3 hours each time, over a ten day period.  That was tough.

I was supposed to have the ostomy bag for 3 months before the process would be reversed.  After my trip through hell, my surgeon decided to reverse the process while I was there the second time.  I would be released once I had a bowel movement.

At home at the end of October, life didn't get much better.  Aside from the fact that I had to relearn how to get around again, for the first month or so I had little or no control of my bowels.  By December, I was getting control of them once again though I had to be aware of where the bathrooms were every place I went.  By the week before Christmas I was able to return to work though it was only 16 hours a week.  By April, I was pretty much back to my regular schedule.

So, where am I now?  At home in my bedroom typing up this blog.  Ha!  First, I feel my bowels are getting ready to settle down, finally.  It sure has been a long recovery and this whole thing was becoming a big pain in the butt.  Ha, again!  I am now less than two weeks from my next colonoscopy on the 16th.  My favorite surgeon will be doing that one.  I am also averaging 30 hours weekly at work.  In addition, I am now doing some door dashing on the side (more on that another time).  I also have some ambitious projects in various stages of development.

Now, time to go.  I need to start laundry in 20 minutes and my work week starts tomorrow morning.  I'll be back soon, sooner than this time around.

😁