for what it's worth

A friend of mine is battling colon/rectal cancer right now. She is a beautiful, smart young mom with a busy family. She was diagnosed a while back and had surgery to remove the cancerous tissue from her colon only to find out later that the cancer was back and showing up in her liver. She is fighting hard to keep the cancer at bay with chemo and then another round of surgery. My heart is broken for her and the fact that she is too young to have to deal with this. I HATE CANCER. I do not know what Wendy's prognosis is but based on attitude alone, I'd say she's already won. Just 2 weeks ago I had surgery to remove my colon and large intestine due to a disease called Ulcerative Colitis. Had I not done this my chances of colon/rectal cancer would be through the roof. So, you can say that I have a very special place in my heart for people battling this cancer. My Grandfather is also a survivor of this dreadful cancer. He had his colon removed and a very rough surgery to remove...

It is so good to be back home!! There is nothing like crawling into your own bed, sitting in your own recliner, using your own toilet... I could keep going! For the most part, it's been a fairly smooth transition. Pain management seems to be the trickiest. I have set an alarm on my phone to remind me to take it. My bathroom trips to expel the contents of the ileostomy bag are going better than I expected too. In fact, this morning I even changed the whole contraption by myself with out incident! GLORY BE! My tummy is still very sore from the surgery and very bruised. I look like a small ninja beat the tar out of me. My strength has a long ways to go before I am close to normal. Just walking from room to room or refilling a drink can make me very shaky. We are so incredibly blessed by the people in our lives. For the past 2 weeks, someone has brought us dinner every other night. There have been numerous offers of help from taxing the kids to laundry service.  It is unbelievab...

Hey friends and family, Monnie is home!  She has gotten much better over the last few days and has eaten food and kept it down. I think today is the third day for food. She is a bit overwhelmed by the thought of having this bag from now on and it is a little bigger and a little more problematic than we had thought it would be. However she is a tough girl and Since she's been home has been sleeping pretty good. I hope she can get her strength back now that she can eat and really rest. Thank you to everyone for all of the prayers the visits and the meals. I'm sorry if I haven't kept everyone updated quick enough . After 13 days Living between the hospital and a few hours to sleep and take care of boys I really have no concept of time or whose done what for us except I know we have many great friends who have all shown us incredible support and love . So thank you so much! i have somebodys crockpot thing here. I think it's gary wells not sure. If anyone w...

So I would be totally lying if I said I got this. Today I hit a wall. I cratered. I cried. Dr. Larry, the weekend on-call doc, came to see me this morning. Nothing but good news was delivered as he poked at my belly; he felt I could go home today but thought since I was Dr. Holloway's patient, he'd let him do the honors on Monday. After all, Holloway has been with me in this from early August and had more than one look at my insides. I guess we've kinda bonded in a surgical way... When he left my room, I was overjoyed at the prospect of going home for about 3 minutes. This was the amount of time it took to text the hubby and parents of my upcoming release. 5 minutes later I was a shaking blob of tears and fear beneath the thin hospital sheet on my mechanical bed. I wonder if Dr. Larry saw the look of bewilderment in my eyes at the mention of going home? I tried to slow my tears and tell myself how absurd I was being. I mean, I REALLY, REALLY want to go home! But, ...

Wow! I cannot believe my last post was September 9h. Sorry guys, it's been a bit crazy around here so I'll start at the beginning. August 12, 2011: Dr. Lusby (my GI/cranky colon doc) treated me in his office and determined I was having a flare up of the Ulcerative Colitis. The plan of action--to admit me to the hospital in hopes of calming things down quickly. I had suffered from many symptoms of the on coming flare for several weeks prior to this Friday visit but with the onset of some blood in my stool, it was time to get serious again. August 12-17, 2011: Days spent in the hospital on IV fluids and pain killers. Blood has disappeared but still having quite a bit of colitis pain. No solid food until evening of Aug 16th and even though it was kept down it was not pleasant by any means. Various blood tests, CT scan, colonoscopy and xrays were performed gathering data in order to meet with a surgeon if needed. Everything was lining up that would make surgery-removal of colon...

Ok Tuesday, Sept 13th is the day of surgery! We finally have a surgery date.  I called to check because we have not heard anything and they said they were actually working on it right then. They said first opening is 2 weeks out. I told them shes in bad pain and may need to be in the hospital because shes looking pretty bad and her pain level is starting to get like 3 weeks ago when we were last in hospital. They said they would talk to doc and try. They just called. Said next tuesday at 11. We preadmit Monday and meet with stoma nurse to mark where she wants to wear the ileostomy bag and then surgery tuesday afternoon. probably start around 1-2 and finish around 5-6. 3-5 days in hospital and feel good in about 4-6 weeks. So we finally know our timetable. The hardest is just not knowing and being in pain but now we just wait and get ready. Thank you to everyone for all of the thoughts and prayers. To all my buddies at Dove fest right now have fun and drink a b...

We are still waiting to hear when surgery will be.  The last two days I have been fighting the red tape of medicine. To make a long story short they called late yesterday and had her scheduled for a counsult with the surgeon next wed then they would set surgery . I went to their office and pleaded with them to let me talk to the doc. They were nice but said he was gone for the day so I wrote a note and reminded him we had already consulted with him in the hospital. So please let's just get it done since shes in pain 24/7 and taking painkillers.  They called this pm and said the doctor remembered and would get us directly to surgery. They haven't called with when yet so we r just waiting. Monnie is a little worse today but still managing pain by pills .  So my hope is we can stay out of hospital until surgery. Will post more when date of surgery is scheduled. 

Monday, September 5th It seems that my good response to the Remicade treatment after leaving the hospital was very short lived. Unfortunately, my symptoms seem to be returning. I have spent all of Labor Day weekend in bed with severe cramping and other abdominal issues. This is very disappointing. Shannon is searching the Internet for alternate therapies besides a colectomy. I am hiding under the covers watching netflix in complete denial. When I first woke up this morning, I thought I was feeling pretty good--or at least better than I have over the last few days. Not so. As the day goes by I am slowly sliding back down the hill, or maybe it's a mountain? I have a follow up appointment with my colon doc tomorrow (Tuesday). We shall see what he has to say. I am wondering how much more of this I can take before I demand a colectomy. I am missing valuable time with my family.  I HATE being sick like this. Shannon found a place in the UK where they use whip worms to treat...