Breaking News!

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated this blog, I guess since everything is pretty much status quo.   

Well, except for my hair.  There is more hair!  Dark hair on my head, not red hair, dark hair!  More hair on my face thanks to dexamethasone (the steroid).  Also, annoying hair growing on my ear lobes and upper lip.  Nice fine blonde hairs giving me a little beard and whiskers on my chin.  Wonderful.

I knew this time would come when the hair fell out of my scalp with the chemotherapy treatment.  I think, to be specific, the drug Taxol is the culprit.  Ugh! How awful to have no control over the hair on your head.   Well, I guess I could have had control over it and stopped treatment altogether.  But I made an agreement with myself to do a chemo treatment and I knew this was a side effect to expect, but it was still one of the most difficult things I have done in my life.  Now it’s growing back and I can’t just be happy about  it.  It’s growing now in so many places I never thought about.  Much of it due to the steroids.  

I’m trying to focus on the hair on my head.  DARK hair on my head!  How funny.  I was hoping for a change and I got it!   Pretty far from the cornsilk color I was hoping for though.   I think it’s going to be straight and not curly hair too.

I finally did something I’ve been thinking about for awhile and bought a Kindle this past week.  I enjoy the size of the Kindle, it fits so well in my hand and is so light weight that I can hold it for long periods of time without needing to adjust the pages or my hand or whatever may be bothering me at the moment with a book. It’s been really useful when lying down I have to admit.  Best of all there are no hard copy books to store somewhere never to be seen again.  I’m really enjoying the Kindle and at the moment I’m reading the new biography about Walter Cronkite.  

Breaking news!  I have a disability retirement date of June 9, 2012.  That will give me a total of 28 or 29 years working for public safety agencies in California starting with the Riverside County Marshal’s Office in May of 1983.  However, in 1984 I moved over to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office and from there moved to the Riverside County Fire Department in 1987.  After a nine month break from full time work, in 1990 I started work with the San Jose Police Department and spent eleven years with them until 2001 when I changed agencies – again! – and went to work for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office in Tahoe City.  That was almost eleven years ago and it’s 2012 and I’m retiring with a disability retirement from both Placer and San Jose.  

After the surgery - more perspective to gain

Good news this week!  My hemoglobin counts are high enough that I don’t need a blood transfusion.  It’s breaking my every two week schedule – yay!  As I go through the next week I’ll just keep an eye out for symptoms that make me think they’re too low and go back in for more labs.  Time to celebrate now though!  Okay truth is I’ve been forgetting that.

I was reminded yesterday that while I wait to see if the nerve pain is going to get better, the vertrebroplasty (filling the L3 space with a “cement”) was accomplished and my L3 vertebrae should be strong – stronger than prior to the procedure/surgery and should not be in so much danger of causing problems down the line.  Prior to this I was in danger of fully fracturing my back in that area  and losing control of my bowel and bladder. 

Pain control is still an issue in my left hip and back.  I still use the walker to get around the house and getting up from sitting is becoming a little bit more of a challenge.  I do best from seats that are higher or where I can use my arms to help propel me up. 

Really, I guess, I’ve been focusing too much on the pain still being the same and the fear that decompression of the nerve hasn’t happened - and wondering if it ever will.   

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How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples,
the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons
of our lives are princesses, who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.
Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.
So you must not be frightened, dear Mr. Kappus, if a sadness rises up before you larger than
any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloud-shadows, passes over your hands
and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life
has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. . . .

Rainer Maria Rilke

 

After the surgery

It’s been a week since my back procedure and about time to write about it!  I still like to think of it as a “procedure” and not surgery!  My sister, Stevie, has been here taking care of me since I was released from the hospital just the next day (Tuesday).  The first few days I think I was still under the influence of some of the anesthesia, and I did not feel real bad, however later I did find myself upping my pain medication more. But don’t worry!  I had permission in my release instructions from the hospital to do that.  Now I’m just back to trying not to give myself a hard time about there still being pain.  This next information in quotes makes me feel better and was at the top of the Post-Operative Instructions I received:

“Your nerve was under pressure before surgery. Even though pressure has been removed the nerve can remain irritated for a period of time which varies with each person. You may notice a change in your initial symptoms or changes in sensation.  Do not be alarmed, because given enough time the nerve will generally recover, pain decreases and sensation improves.”

If we go by the pain, my nerve was under pressure for months and months, so with this I can see why it would take awhile for the pain to decrease. I am still about the same as prior to the procedure and can get up and down from sitting, walk very short distances, and sit on my walker for a little while rolling around the kitchen.   Still find myself lying on my right side instead of flat on my back though so I intend to start working on that.  Is it laying or lying?

Looked it up, okay I lay myself down on the bed and lie there on my right side.  I think that's right. 

  

Posterior Microlumbar Left L3 Hemilaminectomy & L3 Vertroplasty

Its been awhile since I have added anything to this blog.  Pain control is at the top of my list for excuses, but mostly I have just been waiting to have all the pieces in front of me so I can present them in some kind of legible form.

Wednesday I got the go ahead from the insurance company for back surgery, or to be more accurate, Posterior Microlumbar Left L3 Hemilaminectomy & L3 Vertroplasty.  What a mouthful huh?  Basically the surgeon will make a small incision and using microsurgery shave away some of the bone of my L3 vertebra and maybe some of the L2 and L4 above and below it.  Then he will inject a cement like substance into my L3 vertebra to stabilize where the tumor has destroyed the bone.  With that vertebra being stronger to hold my spine up and room made for the nerve endings the idea is pain will be a whole lot less!  Yes.  I can go for that! 

Surgery is scheduled for Monday, that’s tomorrow as I sit here typing this.  Whew, I guess as soon as I hear I can do it - I don’t mess around.   Joyce and I saw the anesthesiologist/pre-surgery people on Friday and so far all I can tell they’re worried about was my blood potassium level being low then.  Hopefully that is going to resolve itself over the weekend and not be a problem.  This procedure is usually done on an outpatient basis for most people, but the doctor has told me they will keep me overnight because of my underlying health issues.

Best of all, of course is, my big sister, Stevie, is coming to take care of me!  At this point we don’t know how much care I’m going to need, but it sure is nice to know she’s going to be there to help Joyce and me and all of us (I mean, what are big sisters for, anyways?)  J  Big Smile. It will be so good to see Stevie,  she took such great care of me last summer when I was going through that radiation treatment.  Like Joyce and Sherry, she’s a star. 

What has become my bi-weekly blood transfusion was done on Thursday so I should be strong enough in that area for this procedure.  Let me take this time to, once again, thank all the blood donors out there.  I hope you all know what a difference you make in so many people’s lives. 

I guess that's about it.  Thank you for reading my blog and I will try and update how it all went next week.   After a hospital stay I might have a lot to say!  haaha... This will actually be at the new Scared Heart Medical Center in Springfield and all their stuff even still looks new!