Too Much Information
Or maybe not, since you clicked here! If I had to guess, I'd say almost EVERYBODY who took the time to read the post went ahead and clicked over here for one of two reasons:
- You did indeed want the whole story, or
- It's like a car wreck, and despite your best intentions, you just had to look.
Apparently, my tumor looks a lot like a girl's profile. Strange.
The
radiation left me with some semi-permanent tans on each hip and at the
top of my intergluteal cleft (I had to look up that term). Those tans
follow the combined outline of my tumor plus the cancerous lymphnodes.
Kind of a cancer silhouette portrait, which I find interesting.
In addition, I had some signs of physical damage. As you might expect, there was obvious injury to my lower intestinal tract. By the last 2 weeks, I had some pretty good pain when I had to use the restroom, for which they prescribed an industrial sized jar of ointment. That pain was only bad "in the moment" however, so it was entirely tolerable. Fortunately, the pain from the radiation has left, so if anyone has any ideas what I can do with a whole lot of lanolin ointment, I'm all ears.
Of more interest (in the immediate at least) was the collateral damage to the urinary tract. I say of more interest because those effects had more potential for public humiliation, especially when combined with the "full bladder at time of radiation treatment" instructions I had to follow. The effects were somewhat like those of a bladder infection in that it hurt like heck when I used the restroom (I'm now 2 for 2 for painful bodily functions, if you're keeping score) and the need to go was frequent. Very frequent. Especially when you had to drink lots of water all the time.
In addition, I had some signs of physical damage. As you might expect, there was obvious injury to my lower intestinal tract. By the last 2 weeks, I had some pretty good pain when I had to use the restroom, for which they prescribed an industrial sized jar of ointment. That pain was only bad "in the moment" however, so it was entirely tolerable. Fortunately, the pain from the radiation has left, so if anyone has any ideas what I can do with a whole lot of lanolin ointment, I'm all ears.
Of more interest (in the immediate at least) was the collateral damage to the urinary tract. I say of more interest because those effects had more potential for public humiliation, especially when combined with the "full bladder at time of radiation treatment" instructions I had to follow. The effects were somewhat like those of a bladder infection in that it hurt like heck when I used the restroom (I'm now 2 for 2 for painful bodily functions, if you're keeping score) and the need to go was frequent. Very frequent. Especially when you had to drink lots of water all the time.
The scene of the crime
In addition to frequency, there was urgency. My injured bladder would spasm, such that I had grave concern that my brain might say, "Now? We just went. And we're not in a place with a restroom. Can't you hold it 2 minutes?" To which I was was terrified my bladder would reply, "Oops. Too late."
If you remember, I walked back and forth from my camper at BOHICA to the MD Anderson campus most days. And trust me, I knew the ETA to every restroom along the way, which there were plenty. Unless of course I walked along Bray's Bayou for part of the journey, which I did all the time in order to escape the incessant sounds of traffic when walking along the roads. While it was an ugly paved drainage way and no longer resembled anything like a bayou, it had only a walking/biking traffic alongside of it and thus was a welcome respite from the constant racket associated with 6 lanes of driving Houstonians.
I'd start this walk by cutting through the MDA campus, which has some truly lovely areas. Then I'd cut through the UT's Institute of Molecular Medicine, which had one of the prettiest water features I've seen to date (see photo at right). The building entrances are clearly marked "No Public Restrooms" and indeed, there's no one there to even ask. It's all locked with card swipe entry. Well, all that rushing water was too much for me and my bladder, so I am undoubtedly on hidden security camera attending to that most basic of needs. Some of you may also remember (not from this blog though) that I've been caught on camera before. In my defense, the prior incident involved a deer cam and me putting up electric fence on corn stalks located on our ranch property, so nothing illegal there. If there's enough of a demand for the whole, sorted, goat-infested story, I'll share.
The other effects were so minor, I'd not even mention them except I've sworn to tell everything. I had some diarrhea, but nothing that required treatment fortunately. That was their biggest concern since blood chemistry is already goofy and it doesn't require much to where you need medical intervention. I had to skip my walks only a couple of days because of that.
I did notice I got tired. By the time 9pm rolled around, I was definitely ready for bed. Still not sure if the tiredness was from the effects of treatment or because I got up 2-3x/night to use the restroom. By the way, my (many) guests at BOHICA would get rocked awake by my nighttime walkabouts regardless of how stealthy I tried to be, so they were tired too.
The final effect is one that won't go away, at least before it becomes irrelevant because of surgery. I've told you before that I had no symptoms of the physical presence of the tumor until I got constipated because of a 3 day truck trip. Well, now things are fundamentally different. There is scarring that won't get better before surgery. And the microbiota (Google it) I believe to be fundamentally out of whack because of the effects of multiple clean outs, chemo drugs and radiation (which is a great way to sterilize things). I have been trying to consume fermented foods along with probiotics in order to address this particular concern. Not sure it's of much concern since we're coming up on a 6 month shut down of the whole lower gut anyways, due to the bypass.
"Bypass... What?!" you say. Yes, I will come out of surgery one of two ways:
OK, now you've heard all the gory details and you're free to go back to the sanitized version. Just click here to go back to the 4/14/15 blog post. And thanks for reading. I know I can be awfully frank, but some folks say it helps, so frank I am. Besides, I really don't know how not to be.
If you remember, I walked back and forth from my camper at BOHICA to the MD Anderson campus most days. And trust me, I knew the ETA to every restroom along the way, which there were plenty. Unless of course I walked along Bray's Bayou for part of the journey, which I did all the time in order to escape the incessant sounds of traffic when walking along the roads. While it was an ugly paved drainage way and no longer resembled anything like a bayou, it had only a walking/biking traffic alongside of it and thus was a welcome respite from the constant racket associated with 6 lanes of driving Houstonians.
I'd start this walk by cutting through the MDA campus, which has some truly lovely areas. Then I'd cut through the UT's Institute of Molecular Medicine, which had one of the prettiest water features I've seen to date (see photo at right). The building entrances are clearly marked "No Public Restrooms" and indeed, there's no one there to even ask. It's all locked with card swipe entry. Well, all that rushing water was too much for me and my bladder, so I am undoubtedly on hidden security camera attending to that most basic of needs. Some of you may also remember (not from this blog though) that I've been caught on camera before. In my defense, the prior incident involved a deer cam and me putting up electric fence on corn stalks located on our ranch property, so nothing illegal there. If there's enough of a demand for the whole, sorted, goat-infested story, I'll share.
The other effects were so minor, I'd not even mention them except I've sworn to tell everything. I had some diarrhea, but nothing that required treatment fortunately. That was their biggest concern since blood chemistry is already goofy and it doesn't require much to where you need medical intervention. I had to skip my walks only a couple of days because of that.
I did notice I got tired. By the time 9pm rolled around, I was definitely ready for bed. Still not sure if the tiredness was from the effects of treatment or because I got up 2-3x/night to use the restroom. By the way, my (many) guests at BOHICA would get rocked awake by my nighttime walkabouts regardless of how stealthy I tried to be, so they were tired too.
The final effect is one that won't go away, at least before it becomes irrelevant because of surgery. I've told you before that I had no symptoms of the physical presence of the tumor until I got constipated because of a 3 day truck trip. Well, now things are fundamentally different. There is scarring that won't get better before surgery. And the microbiota (Google it) I believe to be fundamentally out of whack because of the effects of multiple clean outs, chemo drugs and radiation (which is a great way to sterilize things). I have been trying to consume fermented foods along with probiotics in order to address this particular concern. Not sure it's of much concern since we're coming up on a 6 month shut down of the whole lower gut anyways, due to the bypass.
"Bypass... What?!" you say. Yes, I will come out of surgery one of two ways:
- I will have an ileostomy, which is an opening from the end of my small intestine to the outside of my body, which will give my colon and surgery site 6 months to heal up from the resection, or
- I will have a permanent colostomy if the tumor and it's margins were such that there's not enough to work with in order to reconnect the whole works.
OK, now you've heard all the gory details and you're free to go back to the sanitized version. Just click here to go back to the 4/14/15 blog post. And thanks for reading. I know I can be awfully frank, but some folks say it helps, so frank I am. Besides, I really don't know how not to be.