I thought I'd start a new thread for updates on my cancer treatments and whatever else is going on, since the bad news thread title is misleading now.
My last treatment went better than the previous two and my chest wound is still closed up, which is a good thing. My arm is getting slightly stronger and I hope to resume lifting dumbbells next week. I need to build up my strength again, because I am going back to Denmark in May and I am extremely pumped about that! I'd like to be able to schlepp my own checked bag and not have someone else lifting it for me.
It's going to be a fabulous trip, 6 weeks and a couple of days for me. My brother is going along as well as my friends Chipp and Rod. Chipp is staying close to 3 weeks and has not gone with me over there since 2006 so he is also very pumped to be going. It will be Rod's first trip and he will be there for 2 weeks. I will get to be a tour guide. Also, I am throwing a party in my favorite pub of all, the wonderful, ever-magnificent Irish House in Aalborg on May 7th. The owner and I are friends and he will give me a little discount. We'll have Irish stew and brews in the cellar and I hope to have around 25 family and friends there. I might bill it as the "Fu** Cancer Party." A few months back, I was not sure I'd ever be able to go over to Denmark again or if I'd even be alive, but the cancer hasn't gotten me yet. I'm doing a number on it, instead.
Some other cool things I plan to do when I am back in my ancestral lands include a wine tasting in a castle, touring another castle and the northernmost manor home in the country, and visiting Skagen, the top of Denmark, where you can stand on a little patch of beach and have one foot in one sea and one in another. They also have a brewpub up there I am wanting to check out. I will start and end my trip in Aalborg and spend 5 weeks in an apartment I rent that is very close to the beach. I can hardly wait for May 4th to roll around! [Reply]
I noticed when I woke up during the night feeling like I had to dump 2 lbs. and barely passed a tablespoon (yet another fun aspect of colon cancer... :-)) that my feet are not hurting as much. The redness has gone as well. The only parts of my feet that are hurting are my heels, so that seems to be some progress. Hmm, even my tongue feels a bit more normal now. It has been feeling like I burnt it on some hot pizza sauce but a day or so after, sort of roughed up and tender. Hopefully that will mean I regained some of the sense of taste I lost. I didn't lose much, just a bit, but I like food and want to taste good stuff 100%!
In case you're wondering how I can talk of such things as in my first sentence, well, I have to describe my poo to the doc. Oh, how diginity has been whittled away. :-)
Back to bed I go until my wonderful colon decides to roust me out from under the covers yet again. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I noticed when I woke up during the night feeling like I had to dump 2 lbs. and barely passed a tablespoon (yet another fun aspect of colon cancer... :-)) that my feet are not hurting as much. The redness has gone as well. The only parts of my feet that are hurting are my heels, so that seems to be some progress. Hmm, even my tongue feels a bit more normal now. It has been feeling like I burnt it on some hot pizza sauce but a day or so after, sort of roughed up and tender. Hopefully that will mean I regained some of the sense of taste I lost. I didn't lose much, just a bit, but I like food and want to taste good stuff 100%!
In case you're wondering how I can talk of such things as in my first sentence, well, I have to describe my poo to the doc. Oh, how diginity has been whittled away. :-)
Back to bed I go until my wonderful colon decides to roust me out from under the covers yet again.
Originally Posted by Gonzo:
Actually, this is groundbreaking stuff here Ed. You've just documented the very first radioactive dump on CP. Congrats to you.
Radioactive, huh? Well, that would explain why my internal 'roids feel like they're being microwaved! [Reply]
You know what makes a guy feel tons better? I don't have any blood-related sisters, but I do have two women whom I refer to as my big sis and my little sis. Lil sis emailed me to check on me and I saw my big sis today and hugged her several times and told her I love her. Having those two like buoys under each arm has been huge in my battle with the foul invader cancer. I couldn't do it without them, in particular. My big sis has been in my life for a long time. Her brother was my best friend who was killed in a car crash back in 1980 and I stayed close to the family since I was practically adopted by them. My little sis, I went to high school with her, but never got to know her until our 20th reunion, then we became fast friends and she has been like a sister to me for a few years, but it feels like much longer. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
You know what makes a guy feel tons better? I don't have any blood-related sisters, but I do have two women whom I refer to as my big sis and my little sis. Lil sis emailed me to check on me and I saw my big sis today and hugged her several times and told her I love her. Having those two like buoys under each arm has been huge in my battle with the foul invader cancer. I couldn't do it without them, in particular. My big sis has been in my life for a long time. Her brother was my best friend who was killed in a car crash back in 1980 and I stayed close to the family since I was practically adopted by them. My little sis, I went to high school with her, but never got to know her until our 20th reunion, then we became fast friends and she has been like a sister to me for a few years, but it feels like much longer.
Yup, that's got to be comforting, Ed. Always good to have good people around. You keep on keepin' on!! [Reply]
I've been slowly building my strength, and hopefully my endurance, back but today... ugh. I was using the chainsaw to saw up firewood for an hour and I had sweat streaming down my head into my eyes. I took a long break and sucked down over a pint of water. I went back out just to put things away and took a shower. I am DONE for the day. I've got a ways to go before I feel like my old self before the chemo. I still have a goal set to be able to lift my own suitcase when I go to Denmark, though. Hopefully, I will be able to do it without making old man noises... ooooogh, eeerrrfff, *pant pant pant* [Reply]
