I’ve said this before in the past and I’ll say it again, having cancer is both inconvenient and boring. I don’t recommend anyone get it, even a little bit.
With all this laying in bed I’ve been doing, last Wednesday I decided it was time to change my sheets. I didn’t want to trouble anyone at home with such a simple task. I successfully did it but in the process strained my upper body so much that the next day, I was in so much pain I couldn’t get out of bed the entire day. I thought I was recovered enough that I could start doing stuff on my own but I guess I’m not quite there yet which is a bummer.
I have however successfully weaned myself off of oxycodone and I haven’t taken it for over a week. I’m still hovering between a pain level 3-5 but I’ve been taking ibuprofen and tylenol to help with it. Sometimes I get sharp pains when I try to take a full deep breath and the meds help loosen up my chest so I can breathe easier.
I got some really good responses last blog post about what I’ve been watching. I am totally bored out of my mind just watching tv and movies so my list isn’t quite as long as last time:
TV
The Office season 3
Started season 5 of 30 Rock
Movies
Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Aliens
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them
Avengers Infinity War
The World’s End
Dunkirk
Upgrade
Sunshine (This movie sucked really bad)
John Wick
John Wick 2
The Iron Giant
My dog is not a cuddly dog, he is what I not-so-affectionately refer to as a “jerk dog”. He refuses to hang out with me and prefers to be on his own but because of the colder weather we’ve been getting, he figured out that the bathroom floors are heated so he just lays there now.
I’m slowly considering getting my project management certificate called the Project Management Professional (PMP). I have the book and figured with my brain being mush, this might be a good way for me to slowly get back to the working world.
I read the first chapter this week and even though the material is really dry, I struggled a lot to maintain focus and retain the information. I’ll continue slowly chipping away at the book and see where it takes me in the next few weeks. I understand it takes up to 3 months to study for the exam for someone who works full time so this could be a good opportunity for me to take advantage of my free time.
I spent a few hours the other night putting together my application to become eligible to take the exam. I just need to take 35 hours of classroom learning to be able to take it. Next session is the first week of February, Mon-Fri 8am-4pm. After that I might take the test the week after. I haven’t fully committed to the idea yet but with that and my grad degree, it could be a good thing to have in my career tool belt.
Yesterday was my 1 month post-surgery checkup. As part of the checkup, I had to do bloodwork and get an xray done so they can check how my sternum and right lung is doing.
To get the chest xray you have to wear this funny paper poncho.
I met with the nurse practitioner who was on my surgical team. She looked at my stitches and reviewed my xrays and said that I’m healing really well. Even though my incision still looks a little raw, things are progressing nicely and I shouldn’t let the slow recovery annoy me.
Next meeting was with Dr. Wiisanen my oncologist. While my blood tests with my tumor markers hadn’t come back yet, he estimated that I should be around the teens or 20’s which is down from 37,000 when I was first diagnosed. He said that the results from chemo are exactly where they expected them to be and that I won’t need to come back to Mayo until mid-January, or every 2-3 months for the next year.
He said to keep exercising my lungs and body by doing everything I’ve been doing but increase the intensity little by little to adjust back to normal life. The one thing that’s troublesome is that because they removed part of my lung and my right diaphragm is now paralyzed, it’s going to take at really long time to return to almost normal lung function.
After I got home from the hospital, my blood tests results came back and my tumor marker was at 1.4 which was a surprise at how low it was!
The doctor said they’ll continue to monitor where it plateaus and then set it as my new baseline. The concern in the future is if the number will go up which indicates return of cancer. The sucky thing is that they monitor you for 5 years before you’re officially declared “cancer free” but it can always come back.
Since you like food and you are bored you could watch The Great British Baking Show on Netflix. There are six seasons now and it is very competitive. Most people believe they would never watch it and find themselves watching every episode. I never thought I would watch it but i kind of like it now and it is interesting to say the least. Hope you are better in your recovery although I do know it is a long hard journey to go through. God Bless You on this Journey.
Hello Andrew,
I am very sorry you are having such a hard time with your health. It’s been years since I have seen you, but when I eat rice I think of you.When you were a little boy, I thought it was so funny that you did not like rice and Mike did not like potatoes… He loved the meals at your house!
Take good care of yourself and my very best wishes to you and your family.
Xxx Anne McElroy