One more step down the road

2012/20/01

Well, the stent has been installed, with an immediately noticeable improvement in blood flow. I could feel the difference before they finished the cleanup. Still had some initial swelling left, which went away and returned several times over the course of the first day and a half, with no discernible reason for any of it. It seems to have settled at partial facial swelling now, noticeable to me, but perhaps not everyone else. I can lean forward, bend over, and kneel now without feeling like my head is going to pop, so the main purpose of the stent (reopening the flow in the Vena Cava) has been achieved. I am now learning what pace I can do things at = for the past almost two months, I have been able to do nothing but walk, and that at a greatly reduced pace. I can walk a bit faster now, but that is going to have to be explored, to see what is a comfortable pace now, that will not have me chuffing in a block or two.

2012/22/01

I chased the snow blower yesterday, at a much reduced pace from what I am used to, but I managed to do almost all of what I wanted to before I wore out for the day. Got up today, and rediscovered the “pleasures” of over doing it on muscle sets. It has been so long since I have done anything using more than walking muscles, that I feel every stria of muscle that was used more than once yesterday. Break out the menthol cream, and coat the affected parts. With in the hour, most of the pain is gone, but the muscles still don’t want you abusing them again. I will hit the area with more menthol tomorrow, and push myself into service. It’s the only way to get past this in any decent sort of time = work through it. I am going to do extremely easy work, to give myself a bit of a break, but I will work through it

Things change even as I write this from day to day. I have been modifying the results in the past, but I think that is a mistake now. I will leave what gets written as things progress. It will help me keep better track of what is going on too. The fluctuations in facial swelling seem to have subsided now, and my throat has stopped puffing. I am a bit fuller in the face than I remember, but I can live with that. Still feeling slightly out of phase with the universe, but not bad enough to quantify. It will change or not, and I will get on with my life.

I have to drive over to Trail tomorrow morning (about 90 miles) through one of the more notorious mountain passes. I am getting an echo-doppler scan of my heart, what ever that is. Because of the time of year and the weather we have been having, I have to plan in an extra two to three hours travel time, to allow for avalanche control.

2012/23/01

Just back from the “echo doppler “ scan (read ultrasound) of my heart. The “pericardial effusion” (read fluid around the heart) is gone, the rest seems to be okay. The fluid was the initial reason for the scan = to see if it had increased enough to be causing the backup effect on blood flow. I was fairly sure the fluid had departed before i got the scan = I have been feeling radically better in the past 24 hours, and at the same time, dropped almost 8 lbs of weight = the only way I could drop that much weight in that short a time is by passing it out of my body, and I can assure you I would have definitely have noticed that amount of solids leaving me. Initially the weight loss alarmed me, as i have been fighting to maintain weight, even when my appetite was flagging. My chest and abdomen feel much better than they have for weeks. My breath comes easier, i have far fewer undefinable pains in my chest (you know the ones = your not sure if they are muscle aches from some action you have performed, a knock you don’t remember, or what). My stomach no longer feels slightly off, making it much easier to get enthusiastic about approaching a meal. It may all be just coincidence, but I will put it down to the stent returning blood flow to normal, which gave the rest of the systems a chance to repair and reset to a more normal function.

I have already regained about 2 lbs of the initial weight loss, and will likely be able to put most of the loss back on just by cutting back on coffee a bit (coffee is a great natural diuretic, but I don’t want to dehydrate), and eating normal meals. The problem with dropping the 8 lbs, is that those lbs were on while I was having all of my treatments, and indicate the weight that I should be carrying. I am sure that increasing my water retention now will not be a problem (won’t put fluid back around my heart) because there are no longer outside influences pestering my insides = no more radiation or chemo. I believe they set up the conditions (constriction of the Vena Cava) that created the fluid build up in the first place. Right or wrong, that is what I think.

The past 24 hours have increased my feeling of well being immensely, even before having the ultrasound. The physical sense of well being is comparative of course, but still immensely rewarding to me.

And the adventure continues