Hair Regrowth

I can't believe how much my hair has grown.  It feels baby-soft too.  Here are some pictures of a style I experimented with tonight.  It was blow dried, flat ironed, and curled.

Still Updating...

I’m not sure how many still read this blog, which is a good thing.  That means not much is going on with regards to my cancer treatment.  J  In some ways, the time has flown by, but in others, it seems like this has been a very LONG year and a half.  Those of you who are still checking on my and praying for me, I thank you. 

Please don’t stop praying for cancer survivors because this is something we will have to live with our entire lives: oncology checkups, body scans, blood work, the emotional pain of learning of another cancer patient who has relapsed or passed away, and the fear that anything “unusual changes” should be checked out.  I was told at the start of my journey, “once a cancer patient, always a cancer patient”.  I now understand what that means.  So, keep us in your thoughts and your prayers.

At this point, my healing has greatly improved.   I no longer have to pack my abdominal wound.  YAY!!!  And the upper wound is getting noticeably shallower each week.  At this week’s follow-up appointment, my surgeon talked about scheduling the second phase of my reconstruction for middle October.  This phase will be outpatient surgery at Baptist East and should be a very quick recovery – 2-3 days since I work from home.  Thankfully, we have Fall break during the middle of October, so I hope it can be scheduled for that week.  Terry plans to be off that week too.  This procedure will be symmetric adjustments and other tweaks.  There are lots of little things to do, but nothing major.  The surgery should take about 3 hours, but with pre-surgery and recovery, I’ll be there most of the day.  I’m excited about the changes that will occur from this phase.

On a slightly irritable note, I am going to the oncologist office today at noon to have a sudden “rash” checked out.  It came on suddenly, in several parts of my body, and does not itch.  It has been there for 3 weeks and has not improved.  The doctor want to know about anything unusual that happens and does not go away in 2 weeks.  They may order blood work too.  We’ll see…

Rough Week - Prayers Please

It's been a difficult week for me, emotionally.  I'm dealing with many residual effects of the cancer (non-physical stuff).  I guess you can say, I'm feeling faith "growing pains".  Throughout this cancer journey, I've lost a lot of things, and with each loss, I've learned to trust in God all the more.  I know God is (and will be) glorified through all this.  I just need your prayers in the midst of it all.  Thank you.

Seeing Some Improvement

Since my last post, my wounds seem to have filled in a bit.  The pain has subsided a lot too.  I will visit with my surgeon again Tuesday to see how much I've progressed.  I hope he'll be able to give me an idea of how long this will last. At my last visit, I asked my surgeon why he won't just re-stitch me.  He explained the risk of infection if he did that.  For some reason, some special cases (like me) have wounds that re-open after the stitches are removed.

6 Weeks Post-Op

I had expected to be in "full steam ahead" mode by now, but it's not happening.  My surgical wounds are still far from healed.  In fact, I was in Dr. V's office yesterday almost certain I had an infection in the wound area.  Thankfully, nothing is infected.  The healing is very slow, but the tissue inside the wounds still looks healthy, according to the doctor.  To help speed it along, I need to increase my intake of protein and vitamin C.  And, it appears that I was packing my wounds too tight, which was contributing to the pain. 

I've researched this enough to know that a big part of the problem is my BMI.  Additional flab decreases the blood flow necessary to speed up healing.  Also, chemotherapy plays a part in the healing factor.  As Dr. V told me yesterday, "it will happen... it just will take some time". 

Iron Transfusion

Last week, at my doctor appointment, Dr. T. was once again concerned about my iron levels in my blood work.  My red blood count had already been low due to treatment, but surgery made it drop even more.  What I didn't realize is that he sent the blood off for further testing.  Apparently, the results were not good, because the clinic called me today to schedule a four-hour iron transfusion.  This explains the headaches, dizziness, and light-headedness I had last weekend.

I decided not to call Dr. T. Monday about the dizziness because I had already decided it was due to low red blood count (iron).  I have some iron supplements a doctor gave me 2 years ago, so I started taking them Monday morning.  It has helped.  I talked to the RN and I was still advised to have the transfusion because it works much faster and without the side effects of the pills.  I decided to follow their suggestion and will receive the transfusion Friday morning in the treatment room of The West Clinic...just when I thought I wouldn't ever go there again.

Hairdo by Sarah

Check out my hair growth:

Of course, I'd never wear this style outside my house.  :-)  Fully extended, my hair is about 3 inches long now.  I wear it pretty tightly curled (wet curly).