Hello again, my friends How have you been doing?
I put the following question on the Blog facebook page on Saturday.
I hope you understand where I am coming from. There are many blogs, and vlogs, and podcasts, about people suffering from. I do not read them, or listen to them, or watch them. I figure my struggle is my struggle in the same way that someone else's struggle is someone else's struggle. I figure that people do not want to read or hear about my struggles.
But dozens of people liked and even loved the above post. A few people took the time to comment, saying that they were wondering how I was doing and why did I not take a bit of time here and there and let people know.
OK. I am doing that. Letting you know.
Seven days a week, I get up relatively early and take a pill designed to keep me from getting sick. 30 minutes later, I take my two pills for my chemotherapy treatment. I take two pills because they do not manufacture those pills in the level my doctor finds necessary, so I have to take two. Then I either sit up and wait an hour and eat, or go back to bed for an hour, giving those chemotherapy pills an opportunity to do their thing.
Patricia usually rises close to an hour after I have taken the pills, which is fine, because why would she want to look at me should I become ill? (which has happened)
So, I eat, depending on the time Patricia gets up and what time my radiation treatment commences at the hospital. I get the appointments for what time my radiation treatments are a week in advance, although they sometimes change the appointment times on me for whatever reason.
Let's talk about food for a moment or two. Since... hell, I don't know any longer, but since I got sick, my attitude towards food has changed radically. When I had the headaches, which nearly killed me, they robbed me of my appetite. Food was something to avoid. So was talking to people. So was drinking. So was noise exposure. But food became something I began to avoid. That fear became something extraordinary one evening a few weeks ago. Something I had eaten disagreed with me. I vomited into a bucket while I was on the toilet. I decided then and there that I would rather eat less food, which is more bland in nature than I am used to, than I was in eating more food which might disagree with me.
Getting into the hospital, Patricia's third attempt, and going through the surgery to remove the brain tumour, saved my life, but there have been some unfortunate side effects. The top of my head still does not hurt. The head wound the doctor created which enabled her to remove the bulk of the tumour has no touch value to it. I am told that there will soon be a maddening itch, which will likely drive me crazy. I still cannot sleep on my left hand side as the left hand side of my head remains too sensitive. I can sleep on my right hand side, although that is only in the last couple of days. I mostly sleep on my back, using my CPAP machine.
I will complete this post with another unfortunate side effect. The chemotherapy pills can cause constipation. I take two different over the counter medications designed to keep me regular. They do not work consistently, perhaps because I do not take them with every meal like I suppose I should. Meanwhile, our family cat, Newbie, 15, has become bunged up just as much as Daddy has. That's why I began to use the same medicine I had bought for Newbie, purchased from a local drug store, on myself. Every day, we sit by each other, he in his litter box, I on the toilet, trying to deal. I hold his paw, he holds my hand, and we work away at it.
So, that is what I am able to write about myself as of this moment. I am a few days away from being done with the radiation treatment and the chemotherapy. During the period of my break, I will undergo an MRI treatment as well as have two things of blood work done prior to meeting with my physician again in the latter part of March. That meeting will be a check to see how my blood levels are looking, and whether there are any remnants of the brain tumour. If there are, then I will eventually go back on the operate/chemotherapy/radiation treatment, all over again.
I guess that is it for tonight. Tomorrow, expect more of the same.
See you then.
Bevboy
