No more bad news today. Just woke up and realized that it wasn’t a bad dream and I actually have to deal with this crap.
I spent the majority of my day having a Hicksman Catheter installed in my chest to give the doctors easy access, in or out , a direct line to my insides. It hurts like #£$%& right now, but that will pass and in theory it’s the last hole they will have to poke into me during this process, so its worth putting up with. I haven’t even started the chemo treatments yet but I am walking around like a weary old man because of all the blood tests, bone marrow samples, catheters, ports, and tissue samples I’ve had taken out and put in over the past few days.
I got discharged and sent home until my treatments start at some next week. I’m hoping for a few uneventful days until then. I’ll let you know.
On the Bright side-
Its kind of ironic that I have spent large portions of the past 10 years trying to lose or maintain weight and build a flourishing gut flora. It’s been an uphill battle since I gain weight just by looking at food. But the nurse told me today that I should fatten up and try to eat my way through chemo, because the patients who eat well and stay hydrated tend to be the ones who suffer least. I’m all for less suffering and I love eating. Win/win and its doctor’s orders. Let’s see how I hungry I am once I start chemo.
God on my side:
The outpouring of love and support thrown around my family has been incredible. I am usually of the mind that people don’t like me until they prove otherwise. I’m actually not that cynical but not too far off.
Well let me tell you… within minutes of the first prayer requests going out to friends and family, the response has been incredible. And incredibly touching. Family, old friends, new friends, church friends, my kid’s friends, my co-workers, neighbors, just about everyone we’ve told has reached out – Most of the are praying for me. I have people all around the world praying for me. There has been an outpouring of offers of help from the people around us. My wife and I have decided to accept as much help as we can. I know from experience that being blessed is great but being able to bless someone else is equally great and we don’t want to deny our friends that return blessing.
God has placed such awesome people in my life, Christian and non-Christian. It is such a blessing to see the groundwork that he has laid ahead of time for my time of need.
I would love to mention everyone by name but there are so many and I’m scared I might leave one out because of my cloudy stressed out hazy brain.
