More Glue

I got more glue put in my drain this morning. The doctor that did it says they sometimes have to try 5 or 6 times before it actually works. Hopefully it doesn't take that long for me. The procedure this morning was quick and somewhat painless. The glue they put in last week didn't work for some reason and got flushed out. The doctor suggested this time that we don't flush it between now and my next glue appointment next week.

In other news, I'm headed to Comox for the weekend to visit some friends. It should be a good trip and a welcome change of scenery. It's especially nice given that its only a one hour flight direct from Calgary.

Gotta go put the kids in the wee pool outside. It's a hot one here today!

Finally, summer!

The forecast for this week looks great in Calgary. We've got some friends staying with us right now from Kenya. He works for the UN doing security work. This morning he was on his cell phone, helping to coordinate the movement of 13,000 refugees across Kenya by bus. I don't think that there's a more different job out there.

I just got back from my family doctor where I was following up on the blood tests I got in the hospital last week. It turns out that all of the subsequent blood cultures turned out negative. That means that the one positive test I got in the hospital was either contaminated or it was a fleeting infection that my immune system took care of before I got more blood taken two days later. I feel great and I'm up for having a great week in the sun.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

It's been a busy week. We were planning on heading out camping on Tuesday with our neighbors for three nights but I woke up Tuesday morning at 1:15 with a wicked headache, chills and a fever ranging from 38.5-41.0 degrees. I stayed home for a few hours but eventually hauled myself into the ER. The nurse who saw me first drew a whole bunch of blood before the doctor even saw me and sent it off. She gave me some tylenol and ibuprofen which lowered my fever and almost completely got rid of my headache so that by the time I saw the doctor I had virtually no symptoms and felt like a tool. But he was thorough and would not let me leave without having a try at finding out what had caused my fever and headache. My white blood count came back normal so a bacterial infection was unlikely (we both thought that my drain and abscess may have become infected again and caused my symptoms). So in a last ditch effort, he sent me off for a CT scan to see if the abscess looked bigger or had changed shape since my last scan. Since I was scheduled to have a scan next week anyways this was actually going to save me time so I was totally in favour.

An hour or so after my scan, he came back into my room with a long face. He said that the good news was that the abscess seemed to be smaller than my previous scan and that it was unlikely that it was the cause of my fever and headache. He also had two rather distressing pieces of information to share that he had gleaned from the radiologist that looked over my CT scan. The first thing they were worried about was a possible blood clot in my leg. He said I would need to go for an ultrasound immediately to confirm and then go on some high powered blood thinners and clot busters. The second, infinitely more distressing piece of news, was that the radiologist saw two spots in my right lung that were "suspicious for metastatic disease". Curiously enough this was similar to the wording I got on my first CT scan almost a year ago when they thought they saw some spots in my liver that were potentially cancerous. Needless to say I was pissed, scared and frustrated by that news.

So after that bombshell I got shipped down to the ultrasound department for a scan of my leg. The tech was good and fast and said that she couldn't see any signs of a clot in my leg. She also said that they frequently get false readings for clots on the CT scan. It has something to do with the contrast dye they inject into your blood while they are doing the scan. For this reason, ultrasound is a much better tool for seeing clots than a CT.

Once I got back to the ER the doctor came back to talk and said that since I was feeling better and since I didn't have a blood clot I could go home. He said I should follow up with my oncologist ASAP to find out what the plan was for dealing with the probable lung mets. So home I went.

With our camping trip delayed because of my impromptu trip to the ER, Penny and the kids were waiting for me at home. So we packed up the rest of our supplies and planned to get a good nights sleep Tuesday night and then head out to McLean creek first thing in the morning. BUT that afternoon I got a call from my colorectal surgeons office saying that I was booked in to have glue inserted into my drain Thursday morning. It was seeming like our camping trip was not going to happen, but we talked and agreed that we would all go out for the day Wednesday and Penny and the kids would stay overnight while I would drive home and spend the night so I could be at the hospital first thing Thursday morning. So we got a good sleep and first thing Wednesday we went out, set up the trailer and spent the day. After the kids were in bed, the marshmallows were slain, and the fire was dieing down I drove back home. Before bed I checked the messages (good thing I did) and there was a message there from the ER doctor on call saying that my blood culture results were back and there was something worrisome and could I please call or come in ASAP. Being somewhat accustomed to receiving dire medical news of late, I gave the ER a call while I brushed my teeth. The doctor said that one of my blood cultures had grown strep bacteria and I needed to come in to repeat the test and/or be treated. I said I had to come in first thing in the morning anyways and could I make a day of it and see him after my morning appointment? He said that would be fine. I also needed to get my chemo port flushed so it truly would be another fun filled day of procedures and tests at the Foothills.

Thursday morning I went in (thanks for the ride Sandi) to start my day of fun. The glue-in-the-drain thing went well and the doctors were cautiously optimistic they may have solved the problem. During this procedure they just filled the fistula (sp?) - the passage between my rectum and the abscess - with glue. If it has made a water tight seal then next week they will fill the entire abscess with glue and pull out the drain. I am scheduled to have that done Thursday next week.

After the glue thing was finished I went to the chemo day care unit to have my port flushed. It worked fine (at least something did) and then I was off to the the ER. Once I got there I got right in and got a bed and they proceeded to draw more blood and do more tests. The funny thing is it takes about 48 hours to do a blood culture so after all the tests they didn't know any more than when I went in. They had to make a decision. Do they treat me for strep based on the first test alone or do they wait 2 days to get the results back from these blood tests to find out if I actually have it? That required a call to the infectious disease people who didn't call back for 3 hours. In the end they decided to put me on antibiotics as a precautionary measure. I will follow up with my family Dr next week to see if the most recent tests came up positive as well. Either way it doesn't really matter. I'm on the antibiotics anyway.

I finally managed to leave the hospital at about 4. I stopped at home, DIDN'T check the messages and headed out to meet up with everyone at the campground. We had a great time and the weather was awesome. It got a little cool at night (maybe down to 8 degrees?) but that was fine, we had a nice furnace to keep us warm. Nancy and Art also cooked up a HUGE breakfast this morning and coupled with a little Bailey's and coffee there no chance of being cold.

So you see it has been a busy week for us. Next week will be lots of fun too. We have friends coming to stay with us all the way from Nairobi, Kenya! We can't wait to see them and hear all about their adventures in Africa.

That's all for now.

My truant doctor

So I went to the hospital this morning to pick up some supplies (medical supplies are WAY cheaper at the hospital pharmacy than anywhere else in the city I've discovered) and to stop by Dr Buie's clinic to politely remind him that I am still waiting to hear about my sineogram that happened a month ago. I talked to his secretary and she said that Dr Buie was actually away for the whole month of August. An entire month! My first thought was how dare he, but I soon realized that he can't tell everyone when he's leaving and how long he's going for. I've seen him at the hospital at all hours on all days of the week so I'm glad he's away from work and hanging out with his family.

So the plan is for Trish (his nurse) to review the test and discuss the results with me on the phone later today and depending on what needs to be done she can probably book the next sineogram or glue insertion, whatever needs to happen. At least things seem to be moving forward somewhat, though it now looks like an end of August start date for chemo is all but impossible.

I went to see District 9 last night. It was really well done and worth the twelve bucks to see it in the theatre IF you like alien movies. It's not really a date movie though...

It's been way too long

Yikes! It's been almost a month since my last post. Sorry for the delay.

I still have the drain in my butt. It's not causing any pain and I'm off the gabapentin which was helping me with the discomfort before. I left a couple of messages with Dr Buie before we went away to BC asking him to please call and let me know what the official results of the sineogram were and what the plan was going forward. Apparently he was very busy and then left on holiday himself so still to this day I have not talked with him or had any more done with my drain. He gets back Monday so I will be sure to hound him for information and try to encourage some progress in the drain department so that I can start my chemo by the end of the month. The way things are progressing (very slowly!) I'm not sure that I'll make that deadline. Maybe my medical oncologist can help push things along?

So, as I alluded to above, we just got back from spending 2 weeks in BC. A couple of weeks before we left we bought a travel trailer and we brought it with us to BC. Its a 27 ft model with lots of space. I'm not sure you can call it camping anymore though when you have a fridge, microwave and air conditioner with you. It was a good time. We stopped at Blanket Creek (25km south of Revelstoke) for our first two nights. The campsite there was full so we were forced to stay in the overflow which actually turned out well. The overflow parking lot is right next to the lake and playground and there were only a couple of other groups there with us. Since there was a fire ban we really didn't miss out on anything by being in the overflow.

After that we took the back roads to Lumby and to our yearly stay at Sugar Lake (an hour east of Vernon). We parked the trailer right next to the lake and had a great view of all the helicopters taking off and landing at the fire camp up the lake. There was even a small forest fire across the lake from us so we could watch the helicopters dumping water on it all day. Andrew loved all the action and was sure to let us know every time he heard a helicopter. Being parked right next to the lake had its disadvantages though. While Carly was very manageable and good at listening, Andrew was a terror and as soon as he was out of the trailer he would head straight for the water. This meant that he either had to be closely supervised outside or was cooped up in the trailer. Either way the situation yielded little down time for mom and dad. In a year or two things will be much better. I hope. Also sleeping became a bit of an issue. Carly would wake up in the night and call out for mom. This became a nightly habit that would go on for hours. In the end we chalked it up to being away from her usual bed and routine and not having her usual coping mechanism (her soother). She had just given it up a month or so before we left so not having it in the trailer was probably the main issue. We'll be sure to bring one on our next trip just in case.

We had great weather on our trip and besides Carly not sleeping well, mom and dad not getting much relaxing time, blowing the power steering pump in the truck, and forgetting some key ostomy supplies, things went well.

Right now our thoughts are with the family and friends of my cousin Daniel. His memorial service is taking place today in Vancouver and we wish we could have been there.