The shower sign

There are signs the doctor looks for when he goes in to see a sick patient in the hospital. One is the lipstick sign. If his patient is wearing lipstick he knows she is feeling better. In my case it's the shower sign. I slept pretty well last night. The only problem is when I have to move. Fortunately my bed is so comfortable that I only have to move every 3-4 hours. It hurts like heck for a long time. Then things finally settle down. I have found that a few very deep breaths makes that pain ease up. When I got up this morning I had a craving for a hot shower. So even before coffee I got in the shower and reveled in the hot water on my body. I like to stand under the shower head and let the water run over my bald head. It feels so good.  Here I am, all cleaned up and ready for the day. I think I will try it without pain pills.  The pain only seems to occur when I move in certain ways. The worst of all is when I lie down on the bed or get up. But Im figuring out how to move so it isn't so bad.. 

Im looking forward to a beautiful day. The weather is absolutely magnificent. I plan to spend a lot of time walking in my yard.

The big day

Today my gall bladder goes. It's time. There are previous posts that describe the gall bladder and it's function. If you missed it and want to know, go take a look.
I slept well last night. Im now sitting in my bed with my computer. I don't plan to go into the kitchen any time soon. The kitchen is for eating and drinking. I won't be doing that this morning. So there is no need to go there.
Ive got my kitty by my side and all is well. .
I go in to the hospital at 11:15. Surgery is scheduled for 1:15. I stay in the recovery room for 3 hours or so. After surgery Frank will call Shirley. And she will call the siblings. I should be home sometime this evening.
If things go as expected I will be blogging by tonight.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers.

'Take a deep breath and hold it.'

Breath... ping ping ping... Take a deep breath and hold it.....ping ping ping..Breathe
First order of business today was a sonogram.The doctor wants to have a look see at my gall bladder before going in and fishing it out of my body. She doesn't like surprises. That took about an hour. I got to see my gall stones. Most of them are pretty small. But I have one big one the size of a marble.  
Before I had the sonogram I stopped by the doctors office for my marching papers. They had my whole agenda all spelled out for me. Its a darned good thing cause it's complicated!
Then I was ushered into the accounting office to discuss how we would be paying for this. She looked me up in the system, asked me my date of birth, then said, 'You have medicare and Tricare. You don't owe a thing'. So, once again I march into one of the finest health care systems in the world  and get the care I need and it doesn't cost a cent. I have a bit of survivors guilt. Why should I have such good care when others are fighting for every bit of care they need? It just isn't right.
No time to ponder, I have a schedule to keep. Ok, Sonogram, check.
Next I go to the PAT office. They have consolidated all the things a pre surgical patient must do in one place. It's a darned good thing, cause the hospital is a maze of corridors.  A person could spend the whole day just trying to figure out where they are supposed to be. As it was  I had to find the radiology department and then get to the PAT office. With a little help from hospital employees heading to the cafeteria I found the PAT office.
Next on the agenda, EKG. It was a guy. He told me he would have to see my chest. Was that all right? What the hey, I said, sure. Cant be slowing things down waiting  to get a woman technician.  He attached 12 leads to various parts of my body. Once they were attached it took a few seconds to do the EKG. I can remember when a fancy EKG like that would take a half hour.
Next a little chat with the nurse to discuss the surgery, my medical history and tell me a whole bunch of stuff. Fortunately it was all written too. Cause I would never remember it all. One thing I do remember very well is that old 'Nothing by Mouth after midnight' 
I hate that one. I sure get hungry and thirsty.  The surgery is at 1:15. So it will be one dry morning. And I can't even chew gum! Thats the final insult! I love my gum, especially when my mouth is dry.
Next was a long wait and then they called me to draw blood. It was a cramped space with several technicians climbing over each other and a lady on a computer who told me to 'sign the medicare form electronically on a little pad. AFTER I signed, she gave me a copy of what I had signed. It seems I agreed to pay if medicare refused. That would have been nice to know before I signed.
 One last insult, I had to produce a urine specimen. Since there was no bathroom in that little space I had to take my brown paper bag with the specimen cup into the public bathroom by the cafeteria and perform the ritual. Then I tucked it into the plastic bag and then into the brown paper bag and brought it back to the PAT department.
Finally I was good to go. I enjoyed a lovely walk to the car along the back part of the hospital that overlooks Torry Pines Golf Course. It was an absolutely splendid day.
Altogether it took about 4 hours. That leaves me the rest of the day to enjoy. Im taking all the happiness I can out of each and every day. There is lots to be had. Tomorrow is a free day. The next day is the surgery. 
Onward and upward! 

Success!

Me at 165lbs with Katie

Yesterday I promised to talk about my plan to shed some pounds. This will not become the focus of my life. But I want to put it out there for anyone who is interested. There are three elements to my plan that are really working. 
One is the website Daily Burn. I used this program  a couple of years ago when I was weaning off of Jenny Craig and making my own decisions about what I would eat. It is quite fun actually. I enter the food Ive eaten. They have a huge data base that will come up with calories and breaks down nutrients to proteins, carbs, fats, etc. I can also make any food a favorite. As I go through my day I see exactly where I am in terms of calories and breakdown of the foods Im eating. There is also an app for that! Who isnt surprised that I use an iPhone app???? I can actually scan bar codes to enter food. The App is synched to my online website. Very cool! There is  a 'locker room' where I track my weight, my calories and my exercise. The cool thing is the program automatically adds more calories to my allotment when I exercise.  So Im highly motivated to exercise to 'buy' myself more calories. If you decide to check it out, they actually have three 'Daily Burn' websites. It's complicated. Just use the link I have above to get to the tracking part of the program. Thats all I use.
That's the first element. 
The second is simply GET THE SUGER OUT!  I have learned over the years that if I eat sugar, even if it is a calorie controlled weight watchers food, I just want more. If I have brought anything sugary into the house, Im going to eat it til it's gone. I do manage to eat only one serving a day of whatever it is when Im loosing weight. But it preys on my mind. I am aware of it. And I cant wait until I can have it again. Does that sound like an addiction? Yes it does!  Now that Ive been off sugar for a week, I dont have a problem with it. I have decided to have zero tolerance for sugar. And Im ok with that.
The next element is Fat. I do subscribe to the theory that we all need fat even when we are on a weight loss plan. Well, in my case, fat is my enemy. Why? Because if I eat it, even in limited amounts I risk a gall bladder attack. It is probably the result of a lifetime of over indulging. (see previous blog entry)

My doctor gave me a handout explaining how to keep fat consumption to a minimum. It is even more limiting than what I was already doing. I will have to keep this going until at least 6 weeks after the gall bladder surgery while my body adjusts. Im very happy about this. It really motivates me to keep the fat out. The cool thing is, my body will let me know in no uncertain terms if I have consumed too much fat!
What is the result of these radical changes? I have lost 2.5 pounds in a week!!  I may not keep loosing at this rate. But at least I know Im on the right track! Just to keep me honest, Im going to put my weight in the blog. I was 165 when I started last week. Im now 162.5!

Scheduling my surgery

Today I saw Dr Day. The wonderful doctor who saved my life by finding the tumor in my gut and getting me connected with Dr Saven, my oncologist. Before she even walked in the room I heard her say, 'Is this who I think it is?'as she looked at my name on my chart. Yes it is. I got off the table and threw my arms around her and hugged her for a very long time. She tried to downplay her role in this amazing experience. But I wouldnt let her. I told her, 'You saved my life by pushing this process along. We got it before it got to my bone marrow.'
The next discussion was about my gall bladder. It is full of stones. In the picture it is green When one of the stones tries to travel out of my gall bladder down the bile duct I experience excruciating pain. So the gall bladder has to go. The gallbladder is a little pouch that stores bile from the liver. When food is eaten, especially fatty food the gallblader empties some bile down the common bile duct into the upper part of the intestine. The intestine uses the bile to digest the fat. You can do without your gallbladder, The liver continues to produce bile and it simply goes straight down the bile duck instead of being parked in the gall bladder until it is needed.
The surgery is scheduled for next Thursday April 5. Im not sure what time.
The main thing I have to do while Im waiting for the surgery and for about 6 weeks after is have a very low fat diet. This is perfect! I decided just 5 days ago that I would start loosing the weight I gained over this past year. I gained 10 lbs after Mike died. I just didnt have the emotional discipline to keep my plan going. I also gained 10 lbs during chemotherapy. This is because I was on high doses of prednisone. When I got my second clean bill of health last week I asked Dr Saven if I could start loosing weight. He said yes. So here I go. I was already eating a low fat diet. But Im going to eliminate a few more things.In another post I will talk about what else Im doing to loose the weight.. I have already lost 1.5 lbs.

Gall bladder?

At 3am Saturday morning I awoke with discomfort that went around my rib cage like band. Thinking I may have pulled a muscle at the gym, I took a couple of tylenol. By 5am the pain was still there. But had become a focal point under my right shoulder blade. I decided to wake Frank up and go to get checked out. We drove down to the Scripps Clinic Urgent care. Long story short. All my labs and a chest X-ray were normal. By process of elimination it was probably gall bladder. The pain wasn't as bad or in the same place as the other two attacks.  They gave me an IV shot of Dilaudid and sent me home.  I spent the rest of the day in bed. I had no appetite and no desire to do anything. By evening I started coming around. I was able to eat some oatmeal and some cottage cheese. This morning I woke up feeling fine.

Time to evaluate what happened. On  Friday afternoon Frank wanted to go to the Souplantation. I wasn't eager to go. But since he wanted to I went along. I tried to be careful of my food choices. But let's face it, it is a smorgasbord!  Probably I just had too much fat or just too much food, and my gall bladder couldn't handle it. Lesson learned.

This is a good thing. I am so motivated to stay on a healthy low fat diet. I can't take care of the gall bladder with surgery until after I have recovered from the chemo. Next week is the last one.