A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Brunei...

  Not much, what's going on with you? via GIPHY Hello chickadees! (I don't know where that came from, it sounded funny in my head.) Anyway... Hey ya'll! (Slightly better.) I am recovering quite well from surgery, eating almost normally (still small portions and lowish on vegetables, nuts, and seeds, but I'm gradually adding them back in), little to no pain, and... (drum roll, please) I'm having my last drain removed tomorrow!!! ...I think. They're going to see if it's ready to be removed, and if so they'll remove it. I really hope it's finished doing its job - walking around with a rubber bulb and plastic tubing dangling from your side is really annoying. And... I start chemo soon! Okay, that's not exactly amazing news, but it's fine. It's actually a really good thing. I'll have my port placed next week, get my oral meds soon, and start the chemo infusions shortly thereafter. And they expect that I'll be done in February 2025....w...

Freedom Dance GIF from Freedom GIFs Okay I actually got out last Wednesday, but I don't update as often as I should....  So they did an endoscopy and a colonoscopy, and it showed....nothing. No blood, no injury, no bleeding. I guess it stopped on its own 🤷. So they discharged me! I'm taking a BUNCH of medications, which meant I had to make a schedule for them, especially when one is EVERY SIX HOURS and has to be taken ON AN EMPTY STOMACH and at least TWO HOURS BEFORE OR AFTER other medications. SO annoying. I also still have a drain in, which I'll hopefully have removed in a couple of weeks. People ask me about staging, which is ...complicated. UCSF uses a staging system that is different from what is commonly known. My stage is pT2N1 - p=pathology in the body; T2=growing into the tissue of the original organ but not beyond it; N1=present in a few lymph nodes. My margins are clear, so it hadn't grown beyond the immediate area, but there were some cancer cells in some ...

I'm still in the hospital. Had a complication, I'm bleeding somewhere and they can't figure out where. So more tests. Such fun.