I got out of the hospital late Friday, and we drove back to Brooks. I don't remember a lot of the last 2 weeks. They have this 1 through 10 scale, that the nurses use for pain. I have a new rating for 10. That is when you pass out. There was quite a bit of pain. I have a high pain threshold, and I don't particularly like using drugs, but I think that I really need to err on the side of more morphine. I was authorized for morphine every 15 minutes for most of my stay, and I think that I should have taken more advantage of that and brought the pain level down more quickly. I do remember being on oxygen, having a heart rate of 140, building a pillow fort, sticking my arm out for the nurses to draw blood from and not coming out for a day and a half. Most of the time was pretty much a blur though. I actually had to read Becky's posts to find out how the weeks went.
I am home now, and although on Saturday, I still felt pretty bad, I have been getting substantially better every day. I lost a lot of muscle, and as of yesterday, weighed in at 148, which is about 30 pounds below what I think of as my typical weight. I have a lot of work to do to regain that muscle. I have started a workout program, which consists of walking 10 minutes a day, doing my stretches, and some work with the therabands - which are therapeutic rubber bands that have different resistances. I have about 4 or 5 weeks before they send me off to Dartmouth, I think, and I would like to gather some strength before that happens. I know that I will lose it all again while I am laid up there, but still. It is hard to not be able to lift more than 20lbs, or walk 10 minutes.
On Sunday, I had a group of friends over to the camp, and that was really nice. I have not seen my friends for nearly 2 months, first because I was in chemo, then because I was neutropenic (which means that I did not have any white blood cells, and so had no resistance to disease), and then I had the fever and was back in the hospital for 2 weeks. But as of Friday, my white blood count is low normal, so I am able to see people again. I have some wonderful friends, and it was so nice to be out and somewhat social again.
I have a blood draw tomorrow morning, so I will update you on exactly how it is going, as well as having a meeting with my oncologist. So I hope to know more about when I will be going to Dartmouth and how that will all work. I know that I have a short (2 day) chemo session in a few weeks to keep my cancer in remission.
I am home now, and although on Saturday, I still felt pretty bad, I have been getting substantially better every day. I lost a lot of muscle, and as of yesterday, weighed in at 148, which is about 30 pounds below what I think of as my typical weight. I have a lot of work to do to regain that muscle. I have started a workout program, which consists of walking 10 minutes a day, doing my stretches, and some work with the therabands - which are therapeutic rubber bands that have different resistances. I have about 4 or 5 weeks before they send me off to Dartmouth, I think, and I would like to gather some strength before that happens. I know that I will lose it all again while I am laid up there, but still. It is hard to not be able to lift more than 20lbs, or walk 10 minutes.
On Sunday, I had a group of friends over to the camp, and that was really nice. I have not seen my friends for nearly 2 months, first because I was in chemo, then because I was neutropenic (which means that I did not have any white blood cells, and so had no resistance to disease), and then I had the fever and was back in the hospital for 2 weeks. But as of Friday, my white blood count is low normal, so I am able to see people again. I have some wonderful friends, and it was so nice to be out and somewhat social again.
I have a blood draw tomorrow morning, so I will update you on exactly how it is going, as well as having a meeting with my oncologist. So I hope to know more about when I will be going to Dartmouth and how that will all work. I know that I have a short (2 day) chemo session in a few weeks to keep my cancer in remission.
As much as a hospital can become familiar, there's no place like home. Good to have you back, on a path that seems like normal, at least for a little while. Have you experienced shrinkage? Spleen, that is.
ReplyDeleteMy spleen is actually a little larger than it was before I went into the hospital, but only because it was doing its job fighting that infection. It is expected to start shrinking again now that I am out.
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