MY CANCER STORY: Sunday morning changes

Well shortly after I finished writing this morning things took a turn down south. When I woke up I had a real bad back ache and actually noticed I was having a difficult time breathing. I tried the hot pad and some Ibuprophen thinking that it was just a minor thing. It wasn't and got worse. By the time I woke Julie at 8:00 I realized that I had some serious back pain and breathing was very tough. The thought of going back to the E.R. was so unpleasant that I wanted to just try and ignore it, but my wonderfully inspired wife defended the decision to go over anyway. By the time we got to the hospital, I was a wreck. They took me right back and started running tests. The doctor was concerned about the blood clot possibility since we had just gone 6 days without the coumadin and he was also concerned about the possibility of pnemonia. So we did everything including a cat scan. All of these eventually came back negative and we were glad to get a clearance to go home.

But in the process, we figured something out. I had been enjoying the visit from my family so much, I let a regular procedure (that we have been doing for months now) slip. My fentanyl patch was two days over due for it's changing which basically meant that it was doing nothing for my pain. I guess I had become too used to the relief it has been bringing me and when it stopped working, I didn't put that symptom into it's perspective. Also, I had sat in a different chair all day yesterday and I think my back just couldn't adjust that quickly or something. All combined, I ended up needing to verify that this close to the throat surgery, it was best to let them (the doctors) do their jobs and determine that there was really nothing wrong that needed attention at this point.

Not what I thought I would be doing this morning and we just barely got back to take pictures and send my sister and family on their way back to Salt Lake. So thanks to Judy and Matthew and their family for answering my prayers, coming down to visit, and bringing Stacie. It was another marvelous "non-chemo" weekend. Absolutely wonderful on the party meter it ranked right up there near the top.