September 10, 2007

I'm sorry that I haven't added to the blog in awhile. The cruise was fine, but I was frustrated over my lack of independence. I was in a wheelchair the whole time and having to be lifted and pushed everywhere was not my idea of a vacation. We had to board a bus to get to the ship and then be lifted onto the ship. I just don't know how these senior citizens in wheelchairs do it. The food was wonderful and the family times at the dinner table were great. The kids had a ball in Hamilton one night, but for me it was not handicapped accessible (we tried). My daughter, Lauren, did say that the beautiful turquoise waters of Bermuda were better than the green carpet in my home. The weather was quite pleasant as well.

After arriving home we headed straight to the doctor's as I thought I had some kind of infection. The doctor put me on antibiotics to be on the safe side, but really didn't think so. The redness around the wound had increased at the end of the cruise which was one of the signs of an infection. The following Monday I went to the surgeon's office and saw his associate as my surgeon was on vacation. He indicated that this is a "radiated wound" (one that still had some radiation in there), but it looked clean.

A week later I had another appointment with my surgeon. Unfortunately, the skin graft didn't work out and he was peeling dead skin off and around the wound. Another action would have to be taken. Last Friday I had a wound vacuum attached to the wound. This is a sponge over the wound and then a small vacuum is attached to that to "suck" out the blood and liquids to bring to the surface the good stuff to make the wound heal faster. This is on 24/7 and it makes a small burping sound. The unit weighs 3 lbs. I don't know how long this will stay with me, but my visiting nurse today said she already saw an improvement.

August 24 I had one day of chemo. The usual problems occurred as much as the first time, but I knew a little better how to ward off further problems. I go for the next chemo treatment Sept. 24. The onocologist told me I have 1 more one day treatment after this and two more one week treatments. My thoughts are that I won't be finished chemo until near Thanksgiving.

In a way I'm glad they didn't tell me how long this treatment would last. I probably read it on the internet, but put it out of my mind. I thought that I would be going back to work in September but wasn't expecting the visiting nurse 3 times a week when the skin graft didn't take. My wonderful boss says he's holding the job open for me. Everyone in the congregation is looking forward to my return. I am looking forward to closing out 2007 and putting this all behind me.

Until next time, thanks for the prayers and phone calls. God Bless.