Home

I'm home now. Feeling good but tired. One drain out today, one out in 10 days and last one out who knows when. I'll update more in the next week or 2.

Day Whatever

I thought I might have made it home yesterday but it was not to be. I have to wait for more tests since it is infinitely simpler to schedule them as an inpatient. The tests are the same as always; put some fluid in here and see where it comes out, put some fluid in there and see if it comes out. Then wait and wait. I should be home today one way or another. I have no pain just a little discomfort. Sitting is hard but I can walk and lie down fine. Sleeping is hard In the hospital with all the comings and goings at all hours and a thin plastic mattress that promotes sweating and has some form of artificial intelligence that tells it to inflate or deflate at seemingly random intervals throughout the night. I think it's built to reduce the frequency of bedsores in non-ambulatory patients by changing the pressure points but for people like me who are mobile it's just annoying.
So now I wait for more tests and surf the Internet. I guess life could be a lot worse!

Day 3

I think I'm hung over from all the narcotics I've had over the past 2 days. Headache and mild nausea all day. I got a day pass to leave for a few hours. Penny and the kids picked me up and we met Sandi at the bookstore for a coffee and to pick up a copy of "Never Leave Your Wing Man" a book by a cancer survivor from Saskatchewan. Her and her husband were in town promoting their book and signing copies. It was good to chat, meet her and her husband and hang out with the family. Now I'm back in my bed in the Hospital getting some antibiotics and waiting to see what the chef has prepared for supper. I'm hoping for roast chicken and cous cous but I'm sure I'll get some meat surprise and powdered mash like usual. Dr Buie stopped by and we had a short chat. He said things were on track for a Monday sineogram. Tonight, the plan is to do a little reading and watch a movie but feel free to stop by if you have nothing to do.

Day 2

Woke up this morning to a video text from Andrew saying "good morning daddy!". I'm feeling pretty good now and even had half a piece of toast and some OJ. I think I will get up and go for a walk around this morning before Penny and Andrew come for a visit. One foot in front of the other!

Walk

11:48, just got up for my first walk half naked in front of 6 nurses. Definitely not looking my best but feeling decent. More walking to come tomorrow.

He is Out and Recovering

Suppose it's ironic that for the 5 seconds I'm away from my phone... nature calls... Buie calls. Anyways, for those of you that are thinking of Dan today, wanted to let you all know he is out of surgery and awake. According to Dr. Buie, everything went really well. The stoma is now permanent and the best news was they were able to access the abscess from inside. There's a great possibility now that Dan will no longer have a drain, and can stop the antibiotics he's been on constantly for a year. This is GREAT news. I'm sure Dan will post something soon.

Interventional Radiology

I got in to see the IR docs today and they placed 2 drains successfully. One will stay and one will come out tomorrow during the surgery. The procedure wasn't bad, pretty fast and good drugs. I have to be in the hospital at 05:30 tomorrow for phase 2. Hopefully it goes as well as phase 1. Looking forward to having all this behind me. More updates to come tomorrow.

Genetic Update and Monkey. Seriously?

It's been a while since I last posted and their has been a lot going on.

Last week I got a call from my genetic counsellor at the childrens hospital to discuss the latest testing that was done on my tumor. Up to that point she had done two tests to determine if my cancer was caused by any know genetic mutation or inherited gene, but the results showed that no, that was not the case. There was one more test to do for a gene that is known to be the cause of colon cancer in less than 5% of the cases. The results were interesting. It turns out that I am a carrier of this recessive gene. BUT while I am a carrier I only carry one copy of the gene, not the two required to make this the cause of my cancer. That means that at least one of my parents is a carrier. In order to pass an active form of the disorder on to my kids, they would have to inherit one copy of the gene from me and one from Penny. So, the next step is to get Penny tested to see if she is a carrier. If she is then there would be a 1/4 chance that one of the kids would have the active condition. Bottom line: This isn't the cause of my cancer but more testing will be done on Penny to see if she is a carrier. If she is not a carrier then the worst that can happen is that Carly or Andrew could be a carrier. Clear as mud?

This is surgery week. As of lunch hour on Tuesday I am still waiting to hear back from Dr. Buie's office to see if I can go in early Wednesday and have the wire placed into my abscess. I'm thinking that since I haven't heard anything yet and my surgery is just around the corner, the chances of something happening with interventional radiology are remote at best. BUT I never count Dr. Buie out. Who knows? He might have a secret plan up his sleeve.

My Movember moustache effort is going well as you can see from the picture above. If you haven't had a chance to donate, it's not too late. You can visit my Movember page to see some pictures and make a donation.

Also, this article was in the Globe online edition today. It details the top 25 most hacked passwords. What's with number six?

1) password
2) 123456
3) 12345678
4) qwerty
5) abc123
6) monkey
7) 1234567
8) letmein
9) trustno1
10) dragon
11) baseball
12) 111111
13) iloveyou
14) master
15) sunshine
16) ashley
17) bailey
18) passw0rd
19) shadow
20) 123123
21) 654321
22) superman
23) qazwsx
24) michael
25) football

ER wait times online!

Between cancer and kids I spend a lot of time with doctors. Often when you need a doctor quickly the only option is going into the ER. This summer, Alberta Health Services started a new page on their website where you can find real-time wait times for all of the Emergency and Urgent Care centres in the city. It's a great resource and a good way to save time if you need to see a doctor. I'll post the link in my "other links" bar on the right hand side of the blog should you need to know wait times in the future. Overall a great move by AHS to make health care a little more accessible to Albertans.

Surgery Date!

Carly, choir outfit, originally uploaded by DPC Tutt.

I finally got a confirmed surgery date today. I will go in on Thursday November 24th. Of course that could change if the interventional radiologists are busy the day before... At least I have a date to make plans around now. 3 weeks to get things sorted.

Movember - It's On!

Please support me in fighting prostate cancer this Movember! HERE is my personal movenber page where you can make a donation and check out the progress of this year's upper lip sweater.

Dr. Buie

I saw Dr. Buie in his clinic yesterday at the hospital to discuss the upcoming surgery. Stop reading now if you don't want to know every lASSt detail of the plan.

The plan, as discussed before, is to make my ileostomy permanent in the hope that it will reduce the fequency of infection at my drain site and also perhaps eliminate the need to be on antibiotics constantly. As an added measure he will also talk to interventional radiology to see if they would attempt to place a wire down my drain, into the abscess, throught the fistula and into what is left of my rectum (I have a feeling that might not be too fun). If they could do that the day before surgery, and leave the wire in place, Dr. Buie might be able to trace the path of the wire up from the rectum. He could then insert a dilator and enlarge that opening with the hope that the abscess would then drain right into my rectum and posibly alleviate the need for a drain altogether. I'm not sure I'm so keen on having a wire in there for a day before surgery but I sure like the idea of not having a drain anymore. We'll have to see if the interventional radiologists will attempt it.

As for a date, I don't have one yet but Dr. Buie said he would have the surgery done before the end of the month so that I would have ample time to recover before heading to Cancun for Christmas. I have a feeling the surgery will take place closer to the end of the month than the beginning but it could be any time after this week. I can't wait to have it all behind me and sip on a pina colada on Christmas morning.