Waiting Game Pt 2
HI All!
I will be waiting a little longer to hear about my results from USC. My colon shut down on Monday. It was due to a blockage. So far, no more information then that. Laurie took me to the hospital at 0030 Monday. The local Mountain hospital gave me a muscle relaxant, took a CT from the oldest CT machine I have ever seen. (I am sure there was a little bird in there pecking out a picture like in the Flintstones.) Either way the Doctor decided he saw a blockage and called down to Shea Medical in Phoenix (A hospital specializing in Colon Cancer, and highly recomended.)
I got my first Ambulance ride as a patient. I was basically drugged up and slept most of the way. I got a NG Tube and more muscle relaxants. Today I got fluids and my colon started functioning again! Wooo Hoo! Laurie is staying with me at the hospital and we have a friend staying at our house to watch our dogs. Laurie's Birthday is today. So, it was a special birthday for her. lol
Hopefully the Doctors can tell me what may have triggered this so this does not happen again. It was very painful, and made me very ill.
We will make travel plans when I get out of the hospital. Then more waiting.
Best Always, mike
Comments
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Wow, Mike!lp1964 said:Scary stuff!
I can't even imagine what you went through Mike and I just hope it was a one time deal.
Let us know what's going on and happy birthday to your precious wife.
Laz
So sorry to hear this. Remember, I'm nearby if I can help in any way.
Luv,
Wolfen
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Mike ... that must have been frightening to have that pain and
find yourself in an ambulance. I see you have not lost your sense of humor, I had to chuckle at your Flintstone description of the CT machine
Hoping you have continued relief and comfort. Not the best birthday for either one of you ... but, how nice that you can have Laurie by your side.
Peace and rest to you. ~ Cynthia
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sorry to heardevotion10 said:Mike ... that must have been frightening to have that pain and
find yourself in an ambulance. I see you have not lost your sense of humor, I had to chuckle at your Flintstone description of the CT machine
Hoping you have continued relief and comfort. Not the best birthday for either one of you ... but, how nice that you can have Laurie by your side.
Peace and rest to you. ~ Cynthia
about the blockage seems with this disease there is always something lurking around the corner.loved your flintstone comment,next time i get a scan i will be listening for the pecking bird.take care my friend and as my mom(wolfen)said she is not to far away from you...Godbless....johnnybegood
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update
Thanks All for your support!
I graduated to Full Liquid diet today! This means I can have soups or custards with cream, and flavor! This may not seem like much, but when you have had no food for a couple of days.... A couple of more days and I can go home.
Hopefully the Docs will have an answer on what happened and how I can avoid it in the future.
On the plus, we have our frends watching our dogs. One neighbor's kid (22 yrs old) is staying at our place and running the dogs every day. He likes staying at our place because we have high speed internet. 18mbs minimum and 30 plus on the high. Several other neighors come over and play with the dogs and make sure all is ok. Our next door neighbors are in their 80's and miss having dogs. So, they come over and play with ours, or they open the gate I put in to let the dogs run around in their yard. lol Our dogs are hardly spoiled.
Best Always, mike
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its a biitch of an illnessthxmiker said:update
Thanks All for your support!
I graduated to Full Liquid diet today! This means I can have soups or custards with cream, and flavor! This may not seem like much, but when you have had no food for a couple of days.... A couple of more days and I can go home.
Hopefully the Docs will have an answer on what happened and how I can avoid it in the future.
On the plus, we have our frends watching our dogs. One neighbor's kid (22 yrs old) is staying at our place and running the dogs every day. He likes staying at our place because we have high speed internet. 18mbs minimum and 30 plus on the high. Several other neighors come over and play with the dogs and make sure all is ok. Our next door neighbors are in their 80's and miss having dogs. So, they come over and play with ours, or they open the gate I put in to let the dogs run around in their yard. lol Our dogs are hardly spoiled.
Best Always, mike
the custard sounds good.
goodluck mike.
pete
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Custard and cream - yeah!
I'm glad you are on more solid like foods. Keep up the progress, though hospital food is not always healthy.
Sorry you had to go through this. You always seem so careful with your diet, so I'll be interested to find out what casued the blockage.
You in my thoughts and prayers.
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We laugh at the food inTrubrit said:Custard and cream - yeah!
I'm glad you are on more solid like foods. Keep up the progress, though hospital food is not always healthy.
Sorry you had to go through this. You always seem so careful with your diet, so I'll be interested to find out what casued the blockage.
You in my thoughts and prayers.
We laugh at the food in hospitals also. We eat much healthier at home then anything we could get at the hospital. If they are trying to cure people, why do they not serve healthy food? We live with a crazy system! New Hope Unlimited seems to hae their stuff togehter. One Fee and they will take care of your cancer. Surgery, to follow up care, to treatments, etc.... Why will insurance companies not cover a smart system? I promiss my insurance company has paid much more for my care, and poo poos the one cost method.
Best Always, mike
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Foodthxmiker said:We laugh at the food in
We laugh at the food in hospitals also. We eat much healthier at home then anything we could get at the hospital. If they are trying to cure people, why do they not serve healthy food? We live with a crazy system! New Hope Unlimited seems to hae their stuff togehter. One Fee and they will take care of your cancer. Surgery, to follow up care, to treatments, etc.... Why will insurance companies not cover a smart system? I promiss my insurance company has paid much more for my care, and poo poos the one cost method.
Best Always, mike
I'd say the liquid diet was more healthy in hospital, but I fear the salt content of the broth is way over the top.
When I had my resection, I was on liquids for t 3 - 4 days, then they brought in a meal. Chicken, not organic of course, so heaven knows what it was full of. Potatoes; I could smell the salt, so you can imagine how unhealthy that was. Green beans, that were more of a purple, blue colour and limp with over cooking. And there was a dessert of course; quite a big piece of some kind of brownie. After days on a liquid diet, I was sure to have a sugar overload, so I didn't touch that either.
I hope that you are home, and can eat your healthy food.
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Mike Ouch
Pete mentioned that this can be one hell of a disease. Looking good, feeling fine and then
. So happy that you have developed a strong local support network that was able to respond quickly.
Praying for healing and a strong medical team.
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That food still sounds betterfatbob2010 said:Mike Ouch
Pete mentioned that this can be one hell of a disease. Looking good, feeling fine and then
. So happy that you have developed a strong local support network that was able to respond quickly.
Praying for healing and a strong medical team.
That food still sounds better than what I got at VA hospital and they were bragging about thier so called chef they stole from casino He evidently dont know about herbs and spices to make it taste good.
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I worry about obstructions
Spent the first 60 years of my life constipated so I work really hard at trying to go every day. My onc gave me a really hard time about it then I looked up the info. 20,000 people a year die from bowel obstructions!
I eat Raisinets as my candy, take Benefiber but half the dose recommended. I eat Triskets with cheese. Raisin Bran. Hot coffee every morning. Anything I can think of just to be 'regular'.
Glad things are 'working out' and you're so much better! Remember, Farts are our Friends!
Patch
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Hey Mike
Hoping this finds you at home eating good food and doing well!!
Let us know how you are doing, I'm one of the worlds greatest worriers so looking for your update.
Winter Marie
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You're on the right track now
Sorry you had that bad experience. My husband had a bowel obstruction after his 5th Folfox treatment last March. He'd had extreme constipation from the start of his chemo. It also made him ill very quickly. Nasty NG tube and a dose of Milk of Magnesia and his obstruction was cleared in a few days. They figured it was the combination of chemo and constipation that caused his. He had another one in January of this year. They tried treating it with belly rest and NG tube. 8 days later they finally went in with a scope and found a large tumor in his intestines. CT scan in early December did not detect it and another scan 6 days into his hospital stay only detected bowel obstruction. We have lost some confidence in our medical team, hospital and treatment. He goes back in a few weeks for another scan to see what the next steps will be. Poor guy was in bad shape and no one seemed too concerned except me.
You have to stay on top of those bowel obstructions, but I don't know if they can ever tell what causes them. I'm glad your past the bad part and hope you get home soon and back to your normal healthy routine.
Linda
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Linda,LindaK. said:You're on the right track now
Sorry you had that bad experience. My husband had a bowel obstruction after his 5th Folfox treatment last March. He'd had extreme constipation from the start of his chemo. It also made him ill very quickly. Nasty NG tube and a dose of Milk of Magnesia and his obstruction was cleared in a few days. They figured it was the combination of chemo and constipation that caused his. He had another one in January of this year. They tried treating it with belly rest and NG tube. 8 days later they finally went in with a scope and found a large tumor in his intestines. CT scan in early December did not detect it and another scan 6 days into his hospital stay only detected bowel obstruction. We have lost some confidence in our medical team, hospital and treatment. He goes back in a few weeks for another scan to see what the next steps will be. Poor guy was in bad shape and no one seemed too concerned except me.
You have to stay on top of those bowel obstructions, but I don't know if they can ever tell what causes them. I'm glad your past the bad part and hope you get home soon and back to your normal healthy routine.
Linda
We are sending ourLinda,
We are sending our thoughts and prayers to you and your husband for continued strength! He is a lucky man to have a caring wife! It may be time to get a second opinion. We had to go to SoCal to get better help for me. Arizona did not have good options that my insurance covered. Now Shea Healthcare in Phoenix uses our insurance again! Shea has a Colon Cancer Surgery intern partnership. They have a floor dedicated to GI Cancer treatment, and train surgeons to treat cancer.
We are still going to use USC as our main information, and Shea will do the treatments. We asked Shea and they said they were up for that partnership.
We changed our diet to a med diet. Juicing is a good idea. It adds nutrition, ups your veggie intake, and tastes great! We eat no canned, boxed, or frozen meals! Real food is no more expensive, it takes about 10-15 minutes longer to make a meal, and the meals are much tastier! This aided a lot in our health. We walk a lot! We run the dogs and do some yoga.
The changes in our lifestyle, has aided in my recovery. The first cancer surgery I had in 2007 took me 5 months to recover. My last surgery in 2013 I recovered in a month. this was due to my better physical strength. I have Signet Ring Cell and it is an aggressive cancer, that I have been able to keep at bay from better diet and exercise.
Best Always, mike
PS Keep in touch with your husband's updates!
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Thanksthxmiker said:Linda,
We are sending ourLinda,
We are sending our thoughts and prayers to you and your husband for continued strength! He is a lucky man to have a caring wife! It may be time to get a second opinion. We had to go to SoCal to get better help for me. Arizona did not have good options that my insurance covered. Now Shea Healthcare in Phoenix uses our insurance again! Shea has a Colon Cancer Surgery intern partnership. They have a floor dedicated to GI Cancer treatment, and train surgeons to treat cancer.
We are still going to use USC as our main information, and Shea will do the treatments. We asked Shea and they said they were up for that partnership.
We changed our diet to a med diet. Juicing is a good idea. It adds nutrition, ups your veggie intake, and tastes great! We eat no canned, boxed, or frozen meals! Real food is no more expensive, it takes about 10-15 minutes longer to make a meal, and the meals are much tastier! This aided a lot in our health. We walk a lot! We run the dogs and do some yoga.
The changes in our lifestyle, has aided in my recovery. The first cancer surgery I had in 2007 took me 5 months to recover. My last surgery in 2013 I recovered in a month. this was due to my better physical strength. I have Signet Ring Cell and it is an aggressive cancer, that I have been able to keep at bay from better diet and exercise.
Best Always, mike
PS Keep in touch with your husband's updates!
Thanks for all the info, I know diet plays a large role in these cancers of the digestive tract. My husband's oncologist is conferring with a specialist at Dana Farber (Boston) regarding what he is calling a "rare" recurrence since it went from the colon to the intestines. He had a bad 17 day hospital stay in January. It has left me with doubts. Since he is still recovering from his surgery and scans are scheduled for March 5th, there's nothing we can really do right now. Onc. is also currently on a 2-week vacation. I work full time and my husband does not work at all. We do not have the means to travel the US or world right now. I think we will see how the scans and follow up appt. go in March. Then, we may pursue Roswell in Buffalo or Sloan-Kettering in NYC since we live in NYS.
Have a great weekend!
Linda
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Colon to the small intestineLindaK. said:Thanks
Thanks for all the info, I know diet plays a large role in these cancers of the digestive tract. My husband's oncologist is conferring with a specialist at Dana Farber (Boston) regarding what he is calling a "rare" recurrence since it went from the colon to the intestines. He had a bad 17 day hospital stay in January. It has left me with doubts. Since he is still recovering from his surgery and scans are scheduled for March 5th, there's nothing we can really do right now. Onc. is also currently on a 2-week vacation. I work full time and my husband does not work at all. We do not have the means to travel the US or world right now. I think we will see how the scans and follow up appt. go in March. Then, we may pursue Roswell in Buffalo or Sloan-Kettering in NYC since we live in NYS.
Have a great weekend!
Linda
Colon to the small intestine is a normal occurence! Seriously go see a professional! This is not an experienced Oncologist. We have seen several idiots in my cancer journey. One was the Head Surgeon of Banner Phoneix, which is part of MD Anderson!!! He was such an amatuer it is amazing they made him the lead surgeon! His knowledge of cancer was incredibly limited. This is why I now see JH Lenz at USC!
Best Always, mike
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