Mar 1, 2013 Update

It all started back on Friday January 11 when I went to the ER for some serious pain in my lower back. I think that is the worst it has ever hurt! I even got sick to my stomach and had to use a sickness bag in the ER!

They did a CT scan on me and discovered that sure enough I had a couple of kidney stones blocking the flow. But that wasn’t all. The ER doctor told me they saw a small mass near the end of my pancreas.

I tried to appear cheerful despite the pain I was in. But inwardly my heart sank. They referred me to an oncologist, knocked my pain down to a tolerable level and then sent me on my way.

I got to spend the whole weekend in uncertainty while waiting for my appointment with the oncologist. The ER doctor had used the term “mass” and “pancreas” in the same sentence. Surely this didn’t bode well. All the research I did online indicated that the prognosis was not good if it was serious.

I did entertain some rather interesting thoughts over the weekend. Did I rename my website “The Riwa Memorial Library”? Was mom going to bury me next to dad? How fast could I liquidate my possessions? And would I end up moving back home?

I told my mother and naturally she had a couple of bad days while waiting for my doctor’s appointment. Naturally I had this idea of a “mass” running through my head throughout the weekend. Your thoughts can sure run wild on you, can’t they?

I saw the doctor the next Tuesday the 15^th. The first thing he told me was they had seen a shadow on the CT scan and wanted a better scan to make a better determination. The word “shadow” somehow sounded better to me than the word “mass” and I told him so. He understood and he helped schedule a 2^nd CT scan to study the pancreas better.

I had that 2^nd scan on Thursday the 17^th. From there, all that was left was the waiting. In the meantime I decided to tell only a few people as I had no idea what we were dealing with.

As an added bonus the weather during much of January was exceptionally cold. There were a couple of weeks where temperatures barely reached 15 during the day. And here I was trying not to let my mind run away with me while trying to be patient. It was a month I was glad to be finished with when it finally ended.

Again, the waiting was longer than I expected. In the meantime I decided to start uploading a lot of stories I had in my archives that I had yet to post to the library. After all, I didn’t know how long I would feel like writing and posting.

I wanted to make as much of my archives available as possible before conditions changed and I couldn’t write or post anymore. So I decided to post 5 stories a week for awhile… stories I had in my archives that I hadn’t posted yet. Perhaps that helps explain the sudden rush of stories over the past few weeks.

I FINALLY heard back from the doctor. They had found something near the end of my pancreas the size of a quarter in diameter. But it was not showing some of the traditional characteristics of cancer. So I was sent to a surgeon for a consultation.

I met with him on the 30^th of January and he told me what the CT scan had showed. It resembled a cyst and they were unsure exactly what it could be. For all he knew it could very well be benign! In the past these cysts were often left in place just to see what might happen. But in cases of the pancreas it was always better to remove them and check it out.

It was sounding less and less serious and now I was feeling better and better. He scheduled my surgery for the 26^th of Feb and I felt even better! Had it been a higher priority I believe they would have wanted to remove it immediately!!

Armed with this information I felt much better going into February. I told mom and she began making plans to come stay with me after surgery. Our stress levels had settled dramatically and I was feeling much better about living past this next Christmas.

I already had several medical appointments for February so I got right to them as I began to prepare for surgery. My first one was the doctor who is treating my blood pressure and gout. All my tests came out fine, although he was concerned my stones had yet to pass. It was decided I should go see a urologist.

My next visit was with a kidney doctor who’d been seeing me for several months over a previous issue with my kidneys. My indicators appeared to be close to normal, other than what those stones might be interfering with. He agreed that I needed to go see that urologist about the stones. So off I went… another doctor to see!

Instead of the urologist I saw a nurse practitioner who prescribed me a medication and then scheduled an x-ray to see what was going on with those stubborn stones. But the x-ray revealed them to be still blocking the passageway… only now they were too big to pass! It was strange because I had been feeling virtually no pain! I was instructed to go back and see the urologist for sure.

He met with me the 19^th of Feb and told me how serious it was. He wanted to operate the next afternoon! They were big and they needed to come out! That meant there was a possibility my pancreas surgery might have to be delayed until I recovered! That news set me to scrambling!

I told mother and of course she wanted to come down. She said she would pick me up from the hospital as they did not want me driving home that afternoon. So I spent the rest of Tuesday and all of Wednesday morning getting ready for mom’s arrival and for surgery!

I went in Wednesday afternoon and they took me back and got me ready. The operation went smoothly and he went in through my, uh… well, you know. He broke them up, pulled them out and then left a stent inside to make sure any debris drained out.

I ended up sticking around waiting for mom who was driving over 680 miles to come get me, bless her heart! The hospital staff was gracious and put me in a room to wait. But I just sat in the wheelchair while taking turns standing up and going to the bathroom and then walking around.

Mom finally got in after 9 pm, driving right to the hospital thankfully because I’d given her good directions. She picked me up and took me back to the apartment, leaving my vehicle in the hospital parking lot. We went back and got it a couple days later.

In the meantime my pancreas surgeon had been talking to a surgeon in another hospital. It seems the other surgeon could operate less invasively while giving me a faster recovery time. So once again I was scheduled to go see yet another doctor for yet another consultation, this time with mom accompanying me.

We saw him Monday the 25^th of February and he explained the best and worst case scenarios. He also put us even more at ease in that the chances of this being a life-threatening issue were not likely. Naturally there were risks to any surgery, but it was possible that all could go well and the cyst could end up being benign.

Tuesday the 26^th mom took me to have my stent removed. You have no idea how painful it was having that thing inside me! Every time I had to go it would feel like a very sharp back pain that would finally ease. I was told it was because the kidney was backing up and swelling a little before it drained.

Having the stent removed was embarrassing to say the least. A cute trainee was there to observe the procedure. And I had to drop my trousers and briefs right in front of them!! I could feel my face flush red with embarrassment!!!

She pulled the stent out in seconds… and just like that it was over. I was shown what it looked like… and I was happy to have it out! Then I got dressed, asking if I had helped that trainee with her education. She just smiled and said yes.

Mom finally felt released to go home when we got back to the apartment and I told her I was feeling no pain. I thanked her for spending time with me and for the special meals we had enjoyed together. She ended up making the long trip home on Wednesday, getting back safely.

So where do things stand now?

I still have a kidney stone in my other kidney. But it is out of the way and does not appear to be a hindrance. In the meantime I’m in the process of scheduling surgery on my pancreas for sometime this month.

I’m so glad January and February have passed. They were very stressful months… and naturally I still have a surgery to go. But things are looking up and spring is on its way. I hope all of you fared much better than I did these past few months.

Thanks again for stopping by. And I do sincerely hope I have written something somewhere in my library that is/was enjoyable for you to read! Take care and have a really great spring…