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The congestion from my cold or mini flu or whatever has hung on. It is 2 weeks today I've had it. It's getting a little better everyday... just a lingering cough and phlegm. I also go thru periods of feeling perky and periods of feeling kind of wiped. I have no idea if the stupid cancer is contributing to my low energy days... I guess it could be draining me? The combination of back pain, the cold and the worry about the cancer, and the lingering sadness over Punk has done a number on me. I miss my old self.

But somehow, I have gotten more done around the house. I vacuumed my bedroom carpet; the dog hair was ridiculous. I scrubbed the hall bath toilet inside and out with Lestoil. I keep up on washing dishes and laundry. (I can carry a loaded laundry basket up and downstairs now with no problem.) For fun, I've been redoing all my Pyrex/vintage displays upstairs and down. At least my back is strong enough to play with my dishes! It's fun and satisfying to rearrange the dishes and other vintage items I've collected. Playing with my collections is like Legos are to an 11 year old. Making new displays is my favorite creative outlet. And novel arrangements please my eyes and give me something new to look at. Interior design is so much fun. I don't have variety in lovers now, but at least I can keep changing up my environment. Then I take pictures of everything and post them on my collectors' F B groups. Everyone there also loves to collect and make cool displays, it's such a fun community of artistic people. You really bond with people.

I quit physical therapy again. I really don't need her making me do exercises... I will stand for no more of her efforts actually hurting me. We talked about it, and I told her I'd be fine with just massage and electro stim, but she refused to do just that. Once I recover from surgery I plan to join the nearby gym so I can exercise in the pool. I love water and I used to do aquatic exercise for 5 years, it really works for me. Plus there's a hot tub with jets. I also ordered a shiatsu massager thingy online, it should get here in a few days. It wraps around whatever area you need, with 4 "fingers" that circle around, and heat too. I hope it helps my upper back to relax my neck.

Tomorrow is finally the consult with the oncologist! This surgery can't come soon enough-- I want to get it over with so bad! I hope once I recover I will have more energy and feel stronger in my lower back area in general.

Pixi continues to be my rock, my lover, my entertainer, my cuddler, my nurse, my IT support, my grocery shopper and cook. Plus she's cute. She is ever patient with me in my weak moments, and so encouraging. We binge watched Stranger Things this week. OMG we loved it so much! It was so 80s, Spielbergian, with shades of Stephen King, ET, Close Encounters, Firestarter, Poltergeist, Goonies, It, etc., while still being a unique well written, well paced and well acted, spooky scary, gripping yarn. We inhaled it in 2 nights! I even spotted Woodland Pyrex on the table in the final scene haha!
 
Thank you very much Opal!

I had the exam and consult and it went very well. My dr just happens to be one of the best in her field. People come from all over to go to her, and here I am, only 10 miles away from where she works. She explained everything very well.

I am having surgery next Tuesday! So glad it's so soon. :)
 
Glad they were able to get you in so soon, Mags! Sending continued good thoughts from me and from my boyfriend.
 
Good vibes to you, Mags! So glad they could get you in that soon!

And yep, better to drop what doesn't work (the PT practitioner) and go with what does. I'm glad things are improving in that respect. And I'm glad Pixi has been there for you.

I get the "playing with Legos" bit. Lol. I tidied up the bedroom a few days back and got all my old race medals hung, printed and hung a bunch of photos from back vacations (as well as hanging some paintings and other things that have been waiting for me to get to them), and once I have time to do it, I can get lost in it. :)

Pamper yourself! Keep letting Miss Pixi pamper you as well!
Sending good, squishy vibes for Tuesday!
 
I will be thinking of you too and sending get well soon vibes.
It is wonderful to have Pixi be there for you both before and after.
 
So yesterday I had my surgery pre-testing. Such a rigamarole. I was seen by 4 or 5 people, had to give blood and urine, have an EKG and a chest xray, plus a full physical. I also talked to the anesthesiologist. Oddly I've never had general anesthesia before in my life!

I finally heard back from my PCP the day before, about the results of the ct-scan of my adrenal gland. She said the mass on it is a "benign tumor." (From reading, I learned the only way to be 100% sure it's benign is from a biopsy, but let's go with benign for now.) So she left messages for my surgeon about that, but no one that I talked to yesterday seemed aware of the update. My pcp said she talked to an endocrinologist who said the hormones that can be released by a benign tumor on the adrenal could have an impact on my surgery.

So I told the anesthesiologist about it. She said, the only concern would be if the hormones had been causing blood pressure spikes with concerning extreme symptoms. But my blood pressure, while slightly elevated, is fine with the meds I take for that, so, no worries.

I was told not to take any ibuprofen from now until Tuesday. I guess, if I get a headache (from tension or my usual neck issues) I am shit out of luck. I can still take my Tramadol (a mild narcotic) though! Haha! Tramadols don't help my headaches, but they do help my backaches. Oddly I have Factor V Leiden which causes clotting, and the ibuprofen has anti-coagulant ("blood thinning") properties. I will need an anti-coagulant during surgery and will have to inject myself with one daily at home as I heal. No biggie, I did that when I actually had clots back in 2004. Pixi will probably want to help. I inject her with her hormones, now the tables are turned. lol

I'd hardly slept the night before the testing. I was nervous I guess. Plus I had to be to the hospital at 8, and was under-caffeinated and hadn't felt like eating breakfast so early. By the time I got home at 11 I was so tired and grumpy. I ate, I rested a bit, and then I drove the 20 miles to my old hairdresser for a long overdue haircut. I still haven't found a hairdresser I love in my town. I really liked my old one, for her skill and just because she's nice and fun to talk to. It was very fun to see her and catch up with her. I told her my back issues had prevented me coming there for haircuts all spring and summer. She is only in her early 30s and also struggles with herniated discs on and off, from being on her feet all day, so we commiserated. The fun news was, since I saw her last, she bought the salon! So I was very happy for her success. Seeing her cheered me up, and I drove home happy. And then I had a short nap and a pleasant evening. I made us sandwiches for dinner and baked a pie. Then I watched HGTV while Pixi was cleaning house, then we watched episode 4 of Sense8.

I need to call (or be called, I was told both) on Monday to see how early to report to the hospital on Tuesday. It will be either 6am (ugh!) or 8am. Poor Pixi is going to drive me to the hospital and wait around to see how it goes. She is a huge night owl. I bet she will fall asleep in the waiting room. Surgery should only take 60-90 minutes if it all goes routinely. I will spend one night in the hospital and get to go home on Wednesday.

Our friend Teddy is having roommate trouble. It is very sad. One of his female roommates has 3 kids who live in the big house too. He is finding out she has Borderline Personality Disorder and she is constantly screaming at her kids (who are very young, only about 6, 8 and 10). He felt he had to report her to CPS. So he did. And they came to check on her. He did it anonymously, but his roommate "knows" he did it. His lease isn't up for several months. It's such a bummer! Besides the sadness around the kids being abused, it seemed like a good place for him, and he did a ton of work making flower and veggie gardens in their backyard this spring and summer. Plus he chose to live there because all the roommates are vegetarian, queer and poly, like him. He might come stay here for a for a bit, while he figures out what to do. He has 2 friendly kitties and I am excited to have them stay too! (Don't tell my landlord-- we aren't supposed to have cats here lol!)

Pixi is finally going to go see her Master Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning. She wanted to make sure I'd be OK with her being gone about 20 hours, but it's fine. It will make me happy to know she's off having fun. I feel like I am such a boring partner these days.
 
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I had my first general anesthesia experience last year when I got my tubes tied. I was scared, not that this particular surgery is a big deal, but in the way that ANY surgery kind of is and it was my first...

Well, for all they messed around in my innards and left two holes in my body to heal up, I didn't experience pain and I was really surprised. As for the general anesthetic, it's like a switch off, switch on experience...or...non experience. You're here, then you're there, and you'll have no concept of what happened in between. Not even like sleep, where you dream and stuff. It's almost spooky. But when I woke up, I have never been so perfectly comfortable in my entire life. I didn't want anyone to know I was awake. But they knew, and they made me get up and get dressed. Lame. I just felt weak and weird for a few days after, and like...walking carefully. Just in case. Fragile. Careful with myself.

So even though you have a more serious procedure ahead of you, here is hoping that it goes picture perfect and your recovery is super easy.

**hugs!**
 
I had my surgery starting at 730am on Tuesday. Woke up with a deep pain in my gut, rather severe pain in my back, neck and head, and the interior of my mouth so dried out it felt like the texture of a brick and with no power to make saliva at all, for hours.

I was in there 4 hours because of scar tissues from my c-section 30 years ago. But apparently things went well. My body did well, and there was no evidence of a tumor on the walls of my uterus. She sent the uterus, ovaries and some local lymph node to the lab, where we will get results by next Tuesday.

So I woke up around 230pm. The lining of my mouth started to regain normalcy around 6. I hadn't had breakfast, couldn't eat dinner. I was kind of nauseated.

I barely slept that day, or night, or the next day, because people were constantly checking on me or my roommate, or our IV poles would start beeping, or whatever.

I got to go home around 330, and then I just slept and slept and slept!

I've got 5 incisions on my belly which are bruising up very colorfully. But I have a lot less pain today and am off oxycodone and just back on my regular tramadol and ibuprofen.
 
So glad you popped in with an update; I was wondering how it went.

I'm so glad the pain is quickly subsiding and you're getting your rest now. Don't push yourself too hard to do anything! Make with the relaxing and the healing...
 
I'm glad everything went well!!! And yes, the dehydration is the worst! My one time having general anesthesia, I spent the whole morning exhausted from not being allowed to eat or drink, and afterwards, I woke up crying for water. I swear nothing in my life has tasted as good as that first post op orange juice :D
 
I'm glad it went well. The 24 hour "wake up we have to see how alive you are" checks are the worst. There must be some better way of checking sick people. When Tam was in the hospital and not allowed liquids they gave him damp little sponges on sticks to swab his mouth with.

Leetah
 
A couple days later and I am still not well. TMI: I had gone off the oxycodone mostly so I could poop. I hadn't since Monday and now it was Friday. So 13 hours after stopping the oxy on Friday at 4AM, I did go at 5PM, and it was a good one; a good start, I thought. However, I have had very little appetite, so that was about it. Nothing more to come. And my gut is feeling so crampy from having taken laxatives and just from being messed around with.

So I have gone back on the oxy and ibuprofen, more or less often depending on the time of day and whether I want to sleep or not.

Even when I sit and relax to pee, my gut goes into a sharp cramp. Still a little nauseated from time to time. Mostly this is what I eat: one yogurt for breakfast, one bowl of soup (Pixi made a big pot of chicken with rice and veggies for me on Thursday) for lunch, cereal and milk for supper. Only wanting one cup of coffee per day instead of three. Craving less cigarettes is a good thing. I have gone from 10 a day to 5. We have some of those flat long icee pop things, they taste good sometimes. I drink ice water all day long.

Last night after napping from 6-8PM, I woke up hungry and changed things up. I ate a bit more: 1 piece of toast, 2 scrambled eggs, 2 tablespoons of mac salad Pixi had bought, and a few slices of tomato! :) Later, while watching TV, I had some cold chocolate milk, not too chocolatey. So, that was fun.

I remember when I had my first birth, it was a c-section. I also lacked appetite. I had her on Dec 18 and I recall by New Year's Eve, I still didn't want any champagne. So it's all normal.

My lower regions are just achy most of the time. I guess my back and neck are a little better just because I am not doing much, not lifting anything heavier than a half gallon of milk.

The first couple nights I could only manage to go down to the media room for one hour to watch one of our shows, but the past 2 nights I have managed 2 hours. I have finished one book and started another. Teddy is coming over today to do some vacuuming and we will get an update on how his roommate thing is going. My other dear friend K (of the appendectomy) will visit on Tuesday.

Unfortunately Pixi has developed a bad pain in her left wrist simultaneously with me coming home. She is handicapped in her arms and hands and maybe typed too much? Don't know... she's had a rough few days too! Trying to figure out how to treat it, she has settled on sessions with a heating pad, and me giving her arnica gel massages. I jokingly accused her of wanting more attention for herself, but of course it's just a coincidence. She has been great and loving as usual. Our cars needed inspected. She took one over on Friday and will take the other tomorrow. She went and got my anti-coagulant injectibles. We are having to go to evil Walmart for those as the other local drug stores don't carry it. Even Walmart only had 3 hypos of it on Wed, so she got those, they ordered more, and she went back yesterday for the rest of a month's supply.

I do have "dating" news. To be continued.
 
Just prior to surgery I was getting deluged on OKC. Well, I kind of have been getting a lot of messages all along since I started going there more since Punk dumped me.

A few gems in the turds. 2 stood out somewhat lately so I encouraged them. I was upfront about my surgery, what it was for and all. Not too sexy to know a woman you are interested in is about to lose her uterus I guess? But I am not going to hide it!

So in the past couple days I gave 2 guys my number so we could chat. Yesterday I chatted with the one I mentioned on another thread who told me he was sapiosexual, and did I believe he was? Because most men are only interested in looks and bodies.

So let's call him Sapio. He is black, 37, fit, cute, loves the arts and sciences. Works 2 jobs, lives alone, no kids. Loves swing music and crooners from the 30s and 40s. He texted me a couple more pix and I noticed he had 1970s canisters on his kitchen counter, and mentioned that, and he sent me more pix of his house, which he has purposely decorated from that era! He even has some 1970s Pyrex! He seems very interested in me, thinks I am attractive, and eager for me to get better so we can meet. I think I like him pretty well. We chatted about an hour, he was flirty... he asked when we could get together, but then he disappeared, don't know what happened. Hopefully I will hear from him today. I am in no big rush, obviously. I can probably do lunch on around October 4.

The other guy I gave my number to is 50, a white guy, and ex marine and a cop in Juvenile Corrections. Not my usual type, but he said he also likes flea markets and hiking and board games and cooking... But here's the thing. A few hours after I got done texting with Sapio, Pixi was out shopping and my phone rang. I never used to pick up an unknown number, but with all the drs and nurses etc that have been calling me, I have been picking up. It was the Cop!

Oh no. A phone talker. I kinda hate talking on the phone and do it seldom. I think the ones that like to call instead of text love the sound of their own voice, can't type and be more brief. Also, if the connection on the cell isn't great, you end up not even hearing what they said a part of the time. And this guy, that was the case.

He had a pretty strong Boston type accent, he talked fast and non stop. He was in a shopping mall looking at shoes and giving me a play by play of what he saw, or telling me about shoe or shirt bargains he'd found in the past. So boring! Just blathering on to me these details... it's not like he was antiquing! Just in a goddamn mall.

Finally he asked what hobbies I practiced when I was feeling OK and I told him, but he barely commented. Then he said he was about done shopping, could he stop by?

WT actual F?

He knows I am just a few days post op. I haven't gotten dressed all week, I can barely move. Oh god. What a fun first date! Me on the couch in my nightie, him showing me his new shoes. LOL what a clueless bastard.

So I said, No, and that I wasn't up to it. So I said, (to get out of it) maybe we can have lunch sometime when I am feeling better. He said, Or we can just talk (meaning endless boring phone calls? No thanks!) I said I didn't like phone calls, I preferred texting or actual in person. So maybe I can get rid of him quick. Oy!
 
Glad to hear some things are looking up (Sapio and his Super-Seventies Space!), and you're on the mend (although not as fast as you'd like, I'm sure, given how you've been feeling). Hopefully, you get some steady progress and things start feeling better soon. Hoping Pixi heals up quickly, too!

Sending good vibes for good lab results... Keep taking care of yourself (and each other), and I'll bring some celebratory champagne next time we get together. :)
 
Hey to mags and pixie. I haven't been on forums much but I wanted to make an effort to say I am so sorry about news and operation but really really glad you're ok now. And the surgery went well mags. I hope that pixies wrist also heals very soon. Lots of kind thoughts your way. :eek:
 
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