Catch Up

It will be hard to catch up here, so much time has passed since my surgery which was apparently a success. My stay in the hospital was good and lasted 7 days for which I am grateful. There was no trouble with the incision or the surgery and my recovery has been just as it should be, and as I am determined to live quite awhile yet, I have rested when I needed to, and moved when I felt like it. Six weeks is the average recovery time, and that will be here in just 4 more days.

Elvin has been wonderful, ... patient, calm, and accommodating. I have had a minimum of stress and that has been a great help in recovering. For 2 weeks after coming home, we had Meals on Wheels, which turned out to be way too much food, as neither of us are eating as we once did. I have lost 20 pounds and intend that it stay lost.

This is a continuing journey still as the 2 spots of cancer in the liver, even though they were "zapped", will always be, "cancer in the liver". This will be monitored yearly and I continue to be very careful what I eat, concentrating on foods that do not stress the liver.

I have my 6 week check-up with the surgeon this coming Thursday, and I begin a monthly needle in the stomach this coming Friday as a means of retarding the growth of any stray cancer cells. This I will supposedly have to have for the rest of my live, ... if the side effects don't finish me first. I may be one of the lucky ones and have only the mildest and most common, which include abdominal discomfort, loose stools, nausea, abdominal gas, .... Wahoo, how lucky could I get. This however is only supposed to last 24 hours, ... once a month, ... for the rest of my life. Sounds as though I will be rigidly planning my activities. Don't get me wrong, ... I am very grateful that the surgeon feels he got everything and my future looks very good, and science has discovered something to retard the growth of cancer cells.

My journey with cancer, will be walking hand in hand with my journey with hip replacement which begins the 30th of this month, with a trip to Toronto for an assessment with Dr. Cameron at the Holland Arthritis Institute in Toronto. Everyone tells me this will be a great success and I will feel like a new person, ... can't wait, ... this new person will be able to walk upstairs, shop, garden, dance, ... all without pain. I hang on to this belief with tight fingers.

It will be an interesting Summer, ... tiring, uncomfortable and I will need to be able to keep as positive as I have been up to this time, ... bear with me.