Well, today was an important milestone in this journey. It's my six-week follow up. The news is good! My x-ray shows I am healing well. I'm released for most things...I'm to listen to my body and not do anything that hurts...so still no heavy lifting. And still no swimming because of a small scab that is yet to fall off.
Pain: I'm supposed to start to wean myself off of Tylenol. I'm to go from three times a day to two. Ice packs are recommended. It's normal to feel all sorts of weird pain and numbness, pressure and tingling, stabbing and weirdness - because of the intercostal nerves that were cut. She mentioned rest and fuel - getting good rest and eating right.
As for the biopsy and the follow up...the darn tumor was huge and classified as high risk due to size, my age, the necrosis and whatnot. But, the verdict from the expert, now that it's outa me and has been reviewed in the lab, is that this is a benign tumor. HOORAY. Now, before we all get too excited, these solitary fibrous tumors of the pleura are their own category of tumor and they can recur. However, that's not anticipated...yet it requires surveillance. So, into the CT machine I will go in six months. I'm glad I'm not claustrophobic. I just lay in there, say my prayers and we're done! The good news is that I can do that locally and send it to Mayo and meet virtually. This will establish a new baseline of what my lungs look like and we'll go from there. This is good because six months from now is January...and Rochester, Minnesota (MinneSNOWta) is not fun in the winter.
Funny things hurt or feel weird. Writing in cursive (signing my name) hurts. Go figure. Slicing food with a knife can hurt if I don't press my arm against my side. I do have pain in my throat which is scar tissue from being intubated and that should improve, but it takes a long time. Reaching is an issue, but it's improving day by day!
Now it's time to work on emotional healing too. It's daunting to think about being sliced open, ribs broken, someone (multiple someones because I know at least one medical resident was working on me) reaching in there, removing the resident alien (good TV show) and putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Sometimes I think about generational medical trauma. Mom's side: My great grandmother was a diabetic and had medical issues. My great grandfather had a ruptured appendix that took him early. My grandmother had her gallbladder removed and apparently suffered greatly around that time of her life. My mother had her appendix and one ovary removed at 16, a major fatal car accident (I was in that one too) when I was 7, a cerebral aneurism and metastatic breast cancer. Dad's side: My grandmother had skin and stomach cancer. My grandfather had Alzheimer's. My Dad, who is living, survived prostate cancer and melanoma skin cancer.
My Mom, who lived to 80 in spite of it all, always told me "we are great at healing." True statement. But, admittedly I'm tired of this healing business (although it beats the alternative) because this is surgery number 11 for me. It's a lucky thing I don't drink very much and don't do drugs because I can't imagine how many brain cells have been sacrificed via anesthesia 11 times!! I fired my local PCP and switched providers. I showed up with my list of surgeries, along with the reasons why, and she looked at me and said "you've been through the ringer." Yup. The only problem with that statement is that if I truly were put through a ringer, I should be a lot thinner (LOL LOL). I thought for sure I'd lose at least two pounds when the resident alien got evicted...but I've gained that back...so the universe is still in balance. Ha!
Speaking of food...it's time to go feed the dogs. I'm able to walk both of them, together, like I used to do before surgery! They are old dogs...12 and 15...so they don't pull much. Then it's time to feed us...I'm making a pasta salad chuck full of the garden cherry tomatoes that Bob grew! Light on the pasta, heavy on the veg! Plus, I boiled the pasta and cooled it, making it a resistant starch. Tomorrow lunch with dear friends and life goes forward!
God bless you all.
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