There and Back Again, by Bilbo Baggins

Monday, 27 April, 2009

Any Lord of The Rings fans out there will recognize this as Bilbo's accounting of his great adventure with the dragon, and the basis for the Ring Series. I have had my great adventure the last few weeks as well. And, while it was not necessarily the path I would have chosen, it is what God choose for us, and He got us thru safe and sound.

Radiation treatments concluded last Wednesday. I had been radiated twice a day for 15 days, and the REAL side effects started to come out and play. I had also just finished the second round of chemo the previous Thursday.

In a nut shell, I had nothing left in the bag of tricks. Did not have enough energy to sit upright. Walking felt like wading thru a pool of warm grease. Was unable to keep any food down, and I was getting severely dehydrated. In addition, the one critical piece of anatomy I needed to begin to recuperate, the esophagus, was now burned to a crisp. Drinking, eating, talking, anything other than breathing was not going to happen. So after the last radiation treatment, we asked Dr. Chang to just admit me direct to the hospital, otherwise I really didn't see a way to get any better.

I got to choose, so I opted to get admitted here locally at Dekalb County Hospital, as I know lots of the people there. Jan took me there straight from Dr. Chang's office. First thing they did was get me plugged in with IV fluids. Lets see, I got there Wednesday late afternoon, and did not pee until Friday morning, after 3 liters of normal saline. Yup, dehydrated.

The nourishment side actually turns out to be an easier fix. The esophagus is not going to heal for about ten more days, so nothing beyond ice chips and small sips of water are going to get thru. So I got a feeding tube placed directly from the outside world to my stomach, so I can get some fuel into the body finally. It sounds gross, it's actually kind of neat. No need to worry about what your meal will taste like - taste isn't an option! Pop the top and pour, that is about it. The tube will need to stay in place for two months, but I hope I will only need it for the next 2 weeks. And it works well - I have gained back about six pounds from Wednesday.

I got discharged yesterday morning, so now I'm back home on the sidelines, feeling reasonably well, ready to do some stuff. It is nice to be able to get a whole night's sleep in, during the night! I have to limit my talking during the healing process, so I will be in electronic stalker mode for the time being.

Next round of chemo is a week from tomorrow, and I hope that it will be not as bad this time since I will not be doing the simultaneous twice daily radiation beatings.

Thanks and God bless to Beth, Herb, Ted, Dale, Bill, and Jess for visiting me this week. It is good to see our friends in person!

More of my heros at the bottom!

More later. Thanks so much for checking in, and thank you more for your thoughts and prayers. They work!

God bless,

Mark