Baldies' Blog began originally in the UK by a 26 year old journalist with a blood cancer on a mission to inform the world about bone marrow donation.

He has since died, and I took on the cause of making cancer care more transparent for everybody.

Cancer is a disease that will touch everybody through diagnosis or affiliation: 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed and 1 in 3 woman will hear those words, "You Have Cancer."

I invite you to read how I feel along my journey and
how I am continuing to live a full life alongside my Hodgkin's lymphoma, with me controlling my cancer, not my cancer controlling me.

I hope that "Baldies' Blog" will prepare you to handle whatever life sends you, but especially if it's the message, "You Have Cancer."

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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Hallelujah!

Hallelujah!
The last of my cancer paraphernalia is gone!

Well . . . . I guess I get to keep the scars, but My mediport was removed yesterday afternoon!
The port had cultivated an opinion of its own and decided I was done using it, and it was coming out of my chest on its own, literally.
The incision that was made to place the port in August never quite healed properly. The stitches that sutured the skin together failed to actually keep the skin together after the thread worked its way out leaving a small hole where the port was visible.
After a month of constant accessing my skin just couldn’t take all that action anymore and began to erode. The small original wound began to expand until I had a significant hole in my chest.
I could actually touch the port that was supposed to be safely tucked away under my skin.
Luckily, it was an uninfected wound, but I couldn’t be taking any chances under the circumstances.
As a momento from my last four years of adventures, the doctor from interventional radiology who removed the port let me keep it!
I think I may put it in our dining room next to all our team pictures and Xander’s trophies.
I don’t even remember the last time I wrote, so maybe this will be a surprise, but the circumstances are I’m in the hospital with possibly the flu. At the very least I have fevers of an unknown origin.
Dun dun dun. You should be hearing horror movie music in the background and be getting chills right now.
I made it to the hospital quickly and I’m actually feeling pretty fabulous if I disregard the pain from the incision in my chest and the crackles I can feel in the base of my lungs.
These symptoms on any other day for any other person would probably make for a very BAD DAY, but for me, I’m excited!
I’m just taking a couple days at the hospital to work out the kinks in the side effects reminiscent from my treatment so I never have to hospitalized again!
I really believe that all the prayers so many people, friends, family, loved ones, acquaintances, and strangers, have said brought me to this place.
In my conversations with God over the years I acquiesced to his decision, but prayed that my disease process wouldn’t be the cause of one single person losing faith.
A cure at this point in my treatment would be a miracle, and it can only be attributed all the love and prayers that have been received on my behalf.
Despite the days of fevers, the procedure yesterday, and my treatment with Vanco that threatened to give me “red man syndrome,(a syndrome seen when the drug is administered too quickly that causes severe itching prior to the skin turning red and a feeling of your skin burning off from the inside out), I'm feeling GREAT.
If you need a visual of red man syndrome, check out the picture from my original transplant. I really did turn into a red man.
I did not spike a fever this morning though! It’s my first day fever free, and my lungs are feeling more elastic and free.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Red man...maybe check out burning man festival??I can see you there. I believe in miracles! Hugs..Deb W.