Day 362 - Hospital Fashion, Wings & Control

Thanks everyone for the posts, emails, etc of well wishes for yesterdays surgey. Very much appreciated!

Isn't hospital footwear the coolest stuff on earth? Yeah, that's a bit of an over-statement. Ok its an outright mis-statement. Even the hospital folks know just how lame they are as they allow you take them home when you leave. They don't let you take home the gown, or the robe, or the stylish mesh cap. Oh no, those they want back. The footwear, they go out of their way to make sure you understand you can keep them.

Everything went well yesterday. We arrived just before 9 a.m. and the parade of forms that needed my signature was soon underway. I must have signed my name 10 times between the time I arrived and actually going into the O.R. about 4 hours later.

I mentioned the gown and robe, it would be wrong of me not to model this cutting edge fashion (pun intended)...

Here I am dressed and ready to get going on the days festivities. No where is my bed on wheels!?

And I mentioned the mesh cap, I think it accents my blue eyes...

At this point I was on the basement where nuclear medicine is located. They had just finished injecting my foreheard with a foursome of needles filled with radioactive something-or-other. I hung out here about an hour and a half while they took a mess pictures tracking just were that stuff traveled to.

And here is where it traveled to...

Now that these doctors and radiologists (I think that is what they are called) did their job the surgeon will know where to target. She would make an incision in the center of that line of X's and then use a small a gieger counter of sorts to find the specific nodes which the stuff traveled to.

Now unfortunately I do not have any pictures of her doing her work, or of the plastic surgeon doing his work on my forehead. Would of loved to have pics or video of that. But since they insisted on knocking me out I was unable to take any.

About two hours after surgery I had awakened enough to leave the hospital and head home. My mother in law saw to it that we didn't have to worry about hunger and had Franks wings waiting for dinner!

Here is what I look like this morning...

She ended up taking out three lymph nodes. Those and the forehead tissue he removed are now enjoying the wonders that take place in pathology. Possibly by end of day tomorrow, but more likely Monday, is when we'll receive those results and know what, if anything, is next.

Until then I feel good, sure in pain but I have meds for that. I'll work from home today & tomorrow and take it easy as prescribed. I'll take some walks to keep the blood moving and head clear.

Ironically I just saw a t.v. commercial for a cancer treatment facility which relates treating cancer to a journey. Sure, call it a journey, call it a battle, call it anything you want.

Should you have to ever have the mis-fortune to have to take this journey take the lead role in your treatment. Question everything even if you appear to be a pest, learn more than you ever cared to know about it; only then can you feel confident and in control. You must be the one in control, not the cancer!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 361 - Surgery Day: NO Platypus Please

So today is the day, surgery day. Next to the last hurdle I need to bound in determining the gravity of this dance with the beast.

Several family members are convening at the hospital today to lend their support, or check out the doctors/nurses too perhaps. Below is an email I wrote to my sister earlier this week that does well to describe my day ahead; so well that I figured it will do well too as my blog post today...

<
Kim,


You asked for the details on Wednesdays festivities. They are as follows...


8:45 a.m. I need to check in at LFH, the entrance in front by the flag pole.

All who decide to come for the fun should enter here, ask the receptionist where to go for the outpatient surgery waiting room. They have free coffee and water there, only the best for all of you.

Somewhere between 8:45 & 10:00 a.m. I will disappear into the bowels of our health care system.

10:00 a.m. is when they will inject my forehead with radioactive super powers, not sure if I will get x-ray vision or the ability to take the form of a platypus; I'm hoping for the former.

12:45 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. is when surgery is reserved.

When they are done with both procedures I'll go to recovery and then somewhere where all in the peanut gallery can come and see how loopy I am. Shortly after that we can leave. They said the post surgery recovery can run between 1 & 2 hours depending on how I respond.

We will not get any results from pathology from my forehead tissue or lymph node for 2-3 days, so anti-climatically we'll leave still waiting and wondering the gravity of it all. Not that I will care as I will surely be starving by this time and any discussion of anything other than food will not be my preference. If someone would bring Franks wings to recovery for me I will be most indebted.
>

If not mistaken I believe that I failed to mention that results of my blood test from last week came back good, all numbers normal. That was a 'whew' moment. Hoping from another whew moment in a few days when the pathology reports come in from todays surgery.

I so do not want platypus powers; Fingers crossed!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 159 - My First VLog

Out of no where as I was wrapping up typing this post I got the notion to try a vlog. So, at the end of the post there you see a video of me rambling on for 8-9 minutes. Much of what I wrote here is in that video, and there are a few tidbits in the video not in the post. So if you have the time, give it a look, let me know what you think. Sound and picture quality Ok? Just used a basic digital camera, no fancy equipment. Hope you enjoy, it was fun to record, play back and stick in this post. Now on to the post itself...

Seems like this week I have been slowly catching up on news from last week which I didn't get around to bloggin about. So here is another tidbit from last Friday...

Finally we closed on the purchase of hunting land in west-central Wisconsin; that picture there is an aerial view of the the general area we bought. Doesn't look like much, but it is a haven for deer & turkey.

We've been working on this deal for about five months now. HERE I blogged about it way back on day 28 when we started exploring the purchase. Two & a half weeks from now we will be up there for the youth hunt, can't wait to get the kids set up and watch them fill the freezer. Us adults get our turn the following weekend and then there will be four more open seasons in November through early January.

Lots of good cardio opportunities await me in walking up and down the hills of that land. Climbing up and down tree stands. And hopefully hauling hundreds of pounds worth of deer away.

All went well yesterday with the surgeon and the removal of more tissue from my cheek. So just healing to be done now on that topic. Here is a pic of the sport new face bandage, just a mess of steri-strips. Twice as many of them as the first go-around. Probably twice as hard to keep it all from getting wet too...

Walking, walking, walking is what is in store for me for exercise this next week. With the changing seasons the weather is very comfortable so I have zero issues getting out there and burning some calories by foot.

The weekend is fast approaching folks, are you getting plans for fun and health together for it?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 158 - My Towel, Mine!

Look what I got! Yep, the yoga towel that Jody hooked me up with via her recent give-away arrived.

It took only a day to get here. The company that shipped it for Jody was nearby in Indiana.

There you see the towel, sort of, it is it's wrapper.

You also see a bonus, a Full Bar, hmmm. Never tried one until yesterday.

Not bad, sort of like Captain Crunch squished into a bar.

Also a hand written Stciky-Note on it from Cheryl of Bottled Fitness congratulating me and wishing my enjoyment with my towel.

Ok, enjoy it I shall...

Well, I am trying to enjoy it. Which end goes up?

It doesn't come with instructions. Ah, a label...

Figured it out.

Right after getting untangled I went downstairs and hit the home gym, with my towel.

Ah Ha - it wipes away sweat. No, it sucks it up, fast!

This photo cracks me up, I look like I am about to fall asleep in that towel.

Certainly it is soft enough to sleep on.

Very nice towel Jody, Thanks again!

Ok - Fill in the blank: Wednesday is a good day to __________ ! To what?

For me this is a good day to go have some more of my cheek removed. Yeah, wish I didn't need that but as I shared yesterday it is needed and I am not waiting. So a morning of work and an afternoon with the plastic surgeon. I'll be in and out in an hour and on my way so no big deal procedure wise. Just want it done, healed and well, done.

When I awoke it seemed a fine day to strength train so I got in a great session with my dumbbell routine. Five sets of push ups & sit ups too. As noted abouve yesterday after work I also got in a session with the home gym. These sessions were closer together than I would have usually spaced them but for good reason. Just as it was two weeks ago when they removed the skin lesion I it will be again today; I'll need to take a week off of the weights. So four of the past five days I have hit them as hard as my heart could. Kind of like a squirrel storing nuts for winter. Yeah, I am guessing strength training doesn't quite work like that.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 146 - See Spot Go

Cool comments from all regarding my belt yesterday. I hear you loudn & clear; I shall save up for a new belt; soon. This belt I will not get rid of, ever, but I do need a new one for work. But I can never get rid of this reminder of where I was & how far I have come.

It would be nice if I had a children's story to tell. Remember those books we learned, or we used to teach our kids to read; See Spot Run, See Spot Sit. Or in my case See Spot Eat Allot! Some of you may be using these with your kids or grand kids these days.

No, the spot I want to see go way is the one you see there on my face. It has been there about 3-4 years now. It started small, just seemed to be a freckle, and I have many freckles so I thought nothing of it. But the past year or so it has slowly grown.

Remember Karl Malden from The Streets of San Francisco? Most think of him for that bulbous nose, it defined his look on screen. But he also had a bunch of skin spots such as this on his face, especially in his later years. He lived into his late 90's passing away a bit more than a year ago.

Forget about Karl now, my point is I really don't wish to age and be one of those men with a face full of these. My father didn't have them, nor his dad, so if heredity plays a role in them I should be safe. But then again I have this one. More importantly I am very aware of that which is a cancer risk. And while I am told that this lesion is not cancerous, it someday could be; just no telling.

So, See Spot Go, I say.

And go it will later on this morning. It what will hopefully be the only reason I ever have to use a plastic surgeon, I am trusting one today to remove this spot and leave me looking as if it were never there. Well, that won't happen. There will be a barely noticeable scar, which is fine by me. You don't get to be 320 pounds and carry allot of vanity along with you. Scar or not, it is a fine trade off to remove that which bothers me and may be a cancer risk.

Now, please tell me you have more exciting, if not all out fun, plans for this day; what are they?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 111 - TGIF & What

I've never been much of a TGIF guy, Friday is a great day don't get me wrong; but I don't usually pine for it to get here. This week however I have been so looking forward to it. It has been a long week, of course much longer for my wife than for me. Still, it is good to have her home, have the long week of getting ready for the hospital, the surgery, the hospital stay... as I said so good to be home.

Now it is a six week haul for her to recover and get back to work. So far so good; finding out where she is most comfortable and resting as best she can. Thanks again for all of your well wishes this past week.

Exercise is on my agenda today. I last got in a good session on Monday. Now that we are back home, I need to get back to the exercise. I feel the lag in exercise too. Just a few days away from it my energy is a few notches lower than it had been. A nice affirmation I suppose in the importance of exercise.

My diet this week has been good. Eating has been more sporadic and not as disciplined in terms of eating at good intervals, but the contents have been wise. Looking forward to getting back in a solid groove on both eating and exercise.

I also am in the mood for some fun. The work day will be done soon enough, and even though things around here will below key for a while, let us have some fun. The picture up there, could it be... A few weeks ago, Day 93 I believe, I posted a picture for your pondering pleasure which we had fun with. A visual riddle if you will. So...

Any idea what it is?

 
Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Whoo-Hoo, Homeward Bound

My wife has done well and is being released to go home today. As soon as the wheelchair gets here we gone! Ah, it is here...

Day 110 - Holy Sleeping Stapler

Whoa, It is Thursday already. Keeping a sense of time this week has not been easy. Thanks again for all of the warm wishes & prayers for my wife & family. She is doing good, a bit better than expected in terms of recovery pace. There is a chance she will be home today, just a chance, say 30% or so. And if she doesn't that is fine, better to stay another day so the first day back home is not any harder than it need be. We'll know by Noon today where she will sleep tonight.

Now that I am dropping some weight and it is becoming noticeable I get into a few conversations with folks asking me what I am doing, telling me what they have done, etc... they are welcome chats. Yesterday one such chat occurred and we got a tad off on a slant about weirdest diets tried.

Myself I have not tried anything too odd. The oddest may have just been being very calorie restrictive, say 800 or so a good decade or so back. But the guy I was talking too had a few doozies he had put to the test over the years.

The Sleeping Diet - He bought into the notion that when you are asleep you don't eat. So, to help increase his sleep he would sedate himself as often as he could and in a sense went on a starvation diet. He lost weight, but he also gained new problems like severe headaches and bad bowel issues. YUCK!

Ear Stapling - yep, just what it says. He pierced the cartilage of his ears. Doing so is said to reduce your appetite. He couldn't say why it worked and in fact he said it didn't. He was warned that it only works for a few weeks before the body gets used to the staple and no longer recognizes it for its appetite suppression. For him it wore off in 2 days and on the 3rd he was back at McDonalds to makeup for 2 days lost time. Huh?

The Holy Diet - from the bible apparently there is a verse that lists natural vegan foods which you restrict yourself too.He forgot the verse. No food listed can be cooked. He actually liked this for a time as he learned a new respect for eating vegan and lost a chunk of weight. But he fell off the wagon at a party and realized he couldn't commit himself to the diet any more than he had committed himself to God,which he hadn't. Geez...

What is the craziest diet you have ever attempted?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 109 - Eeyore's Got It

Good morning everyone. Hope all are having a fine week!

A huge thank you to all of you for your heart felt posts & emails yesterday for my wife & our family.

Her surgery could have brought us devastating news, or, excellent news. Thankfully it was excellent news. Bottom line, the problem has been removed, no cancer in sight more importantly. Now all she has to do is heal & recover.

No doubt the events of yesterday were all in God's hands and we thank God for the resulting great news. We also look to God for a speedy & full recovery for her. She should be home Friday and then home for a month or so before being able to get back to work.

Her father stopped in the hospital gift shop and got her a "Chewy-Bamba". A what, you say? In the picture on the left, a stuffed chihuahua that goes by the name of Chewy-Bamba. Press the button in his foot and he dances, shakes those maracas and sings La Bamba, and does so rather loudly. If you knew her father, you'd completely understand why he thought that was the appropriate get well gift.

On the right is one of my Eeyore's. Yes, one of them, one of about 30 I have. A different story for another day. But I must say that I agree with Christine, in her comment on my post yesterday she stated that 'Eeyores are chemically formulated to heal whoever is hugging them'. She says it is Scientific fact, now I don't know about science having proved this, but I know it is certainly true.

That Eeyore there in the picture, that is our Get Well Eeyore. Whomever is ill, gets him to hang out with. It started back in 2001 when I was recovering from cancer surgery and he hung with me through the coming months of treatment. From that point on he had the job of Get Well Eeyore.

His last tour of duty was the Spring of '09 when my Mother had surgery. He hung with her a week or so. When he came home he was somehow dirty. My Mom doesn't recall how he got dirty so she naturally blamed me. However it happened he needed a bath, so into the washing machine he went. And without proper thought, he then went into the dryer.

Look at that picture closely, see anything odd about him? I set the picture to a larger size than I usually post just for your review. See it?... No, ok check out his hair, or the black mane of hair more specifically. See it?? Yeah, it melted in the dryer! So our Get Well Eeyore is also cooler that most other Eeyore's now, because he sports an afro!

I don't know why, Eeyore & his 'fro crack me up.

I'll be at the hospital a good portion of the day today and then this evening I should be able to get back reading & commenting on your blogs.

Be well everyone!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 108 - Loving Grace

Loving Father, I entrust my wife unconditionally into your care to cast from her all causes and forms of illness 

Grace the minds and hands of the staff who will care for her with your divine wisdom, knowledge & skill

Restore her health, happiness and harmony to that which your divine benevolence will allow

In your name I pray this prayer, Amen

Thanks again to all ofyou for your kind thoughts & prayers yesterday for my wife & family as she enters surgery today...

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!