Wednesday, Nov 7

Today finds me in my beautiful suite at the Foothills Medical Centre!! Yesterday Lori (Good) & I went to my usual oncology appointment….and here I am. I have two probably unrelated problems; a large bowel obstruction and a huge Appendix which may or may not have ruptured. For the first I have this great nose tube ( called NG or nasogastric) going from my nose to my gut and really no other extra treatment beyond what I was already doing. The good news is that the CT scan didn't find anything requiring surgery nor did it find a gut full of tumor. The NG tube is only marginally effective and usually more appropriate with small bowel obstructions, but my tummy has improved significantly since coming. For the Appendix I only have antibiotics…apparently there is a very narrow window in which surgical removal is indicated if the appendix has ruptured (and we don't know if mine has). Outside of that window removal will "make a mess" and worsen the situation rather than improve it.

There might be more aggressive approaches to treatment of the obstruction, but we have to be careful not to aggravate the already aggravated appendix.

I'm not joking about my suite… i am in bed 1 of a 3 bed room, but no one else is here. At first I thought surgery patients would be coming all night, but then I was told that my bed was permanent and the other two allocated to day surgery (8am-4pm).  And today one got cancelled and one went straight home and here I am!!!

So although chemo was planned for tomorrow it won't happen now because of the Appendix. 

The backdrop to this picture is that G'ma B is at home with the kids who handled the first night with me away very well (or Dad & G'ma handled it very well). 

 I have so many people to thank for so many things I don't know where to start. So for the moment; Thanks ; Again!