Update: A Year and a Half Later

I read a newspaper article about a group called "Reel Recovery", an organization that helps men who have dealt with cancer through fly fishing! I went to the website and volunteered, and will post the results if something definite happens. But it made me take a look at the blogs (something I haven't done for a year) and I decided it was time for an update! Life continues to be good. I had a surgical implant to control the urine flow, and it works great, I am essentially back to normal on that front. I have regained all of the lost weight (darn), and am pretty much what I was before the surgery. Of course I have begun to take all of life's little joys for granted again, reading how things were helps me be thankful again for all of the joys of a healthy body, and the blessing of good friends.

I have also retired, and will have time on my hands again, and maybe will be able to turn this blog into what it is intended to be... a place to ramble about whatever is on my mind.

Health Update

For all intents and purposes, I am back. My appetite is back, my energy is back, even some of the fat on my stomach is back (darn). I will start school full time after President's day. I told my children last Sunday, "You can now officially stop worrying about me".

The other two issues associated with the surgery (the ones every man who has it deals with) are still a problem, but there are some good signs that I am making progress there as well. As my doctor says, the only cure for them is the "tincture of time".

So, with any luck, this should be my last post concerning my health. If the day comes that I can say "Everything's working, hundred percent", I will.

Oh, last week I bought a boat, a fishing boat, my first. Nothing says recovery like buying a boat.

Thanks again for your concern and help.

Tom

And the beat goes on....

I continue to feel incredibly weak, but when I look back to last Saturday, I have made progress. It will just take time. Last Sunday it was an accomplishment to go to church for 1 hour, this week I have gone to the school everyday starting Tuesday, and taught at least one class, I taught a two hour community school class last Thursday (it just about killed me) and this morning Ruth Ann and I went to the gym. Just for the heck of it I thought I would try my regular work out to see how far things have gone. I usually started on a stationary bicycle at level five, and would have to work hard to keep my pulse above 130, going for 30 minutes. Today, I lasted about 7 minutes, and had to quit. I was using about 100 pounds on all of the stationary weight machines for arm work outs, 170 for legs, doing three reps of 10 to 12. Today, I did three reps of eight, using just 50 pounds. I did the usual arm and leg exercises, but didn't do any of the abdominal work, I will wait another month for that. So I have lost all that I had gained, and more, but I will keep working out and hopefully get it back by summer.

I am still totally incontinent, but wearing a external catheter has given me much more freedom. I have noticed that I am beginning to hold things back a bit, and do that whenever I can before letting the catheter do its thing.

I will probably not be saying much more about this, but will let you know when my recovery has had any significant milestones.

Time to spend more time with my other blogs....

Tom

Interstitial Space- Tom in a Speedo

Through out my hospital ordeal I had to deal with water building up in the "Third Space" of my body, interstitial space between the cells.  Water is normally stored in either the blood stream or the cells.

The worst of this happened during renal failure, but when I went back because of sepsis part of the treatment was to use antibiotics and  extra liquid to fill the interstitial space.

When I came home from the hospital the second time I weighed 190 pounds.  Now I weigh 178, because my body has finally rid itself of all of the extra liquid in the third space.  I look like a POW from the prison camp.  

Ruth Ann had bought me a Speedo prior to the surgery thinking it would be a good option when I got to the "pad" stage where I had some control but needed pads for accidents.

Well, for the record I put it on and had Rebecca take pictures of my emaciated body.  I am not going to post this picture, but if any of my family or friends wants to see the "new me" let me know and I will send it as an attachment.

Tom

Big Day

Yesterday Nathanael and I hung out together.  First we went to see Dr. James Rees.  He is a good "Country Doctor" type of GP that I have absolute confidence in.  We started going to Jim in the 80's after Dr.  Peterson and Dr. Amano died.  Nathanael had injured his finger in a bike accident, and we were impressed with the calm, helpful way he fixed it.  We knew we had found our new family doctor.  He lived in Mary's ward at the time, and her family had already started seeing him. He was just "Jim" to her, and soon to us.  He doesn't need the title Doctor to gain respect, you can't help but respect him because he is so competent

Anyway, I wanted Jim in the loop and he listened to my story with disbelief.   He noted that I had lost 40 pounds.  He took some blood tests and gave me a simple remedy "Get some Carnation Breakfast, and drink it or it in a Milk shake at least twice a day in addition to whatever you can stand to eat.

After that I went over to the High School for an hour to visit with the Yearbook Staff and my sub.  Then off to Ogden to fill a prescription for external catheters from Dr. Rees.

I came home, napped for a few hours and then Nathanael and I went to the Apple Store to buy Ruth Ann a new MacBook.  Last year she accidentally set up her cafeteria medical account to take out $400.00 a month instead of $400 for the entire year. She didn't realize it  because she had made both a lane change and we had received a substantial raise because of a huge surplus in tax revenues that year (my what a difference a year makes).  The bottom line was she had $3600 that she had to spend by March 15th or lose.  Our medical expenses took care of $1000. of the money, and I used the other $2600 to have LASIK surgery.  So this is part of her payback.  She is pursuing a Master's degree and wanted a computer of her own, now she has the nicest one in the house.

Finally I came home, exhausted but happy that I could accomplish so much in a day.  Part of it was made possible by an external catheter that worked for 24 hours.

Finally a night's sleep.

One of the big roadblocks to my recovery has been my inability to sleep at night, since I had to wake up every hour to change my diaper and if I happened to sleep for two hours, I would wake up in a wet bed.

We knew the solution would be an external catheter which is essentially a condom like device which collects urine and drains it into a bag. The problem was finding a device that was the right size. Every place we looked was getting out of the external catheter business and the devices left in their dwindling inventory were either too small or too large.

Yesterday Nathanael and I went to a place called IHC Home Medical where they had a disposable piece of paper with half circles on the outside that made it possible to determine the exact size of the device I would need... and as usual they had no devices in that size. But there were some, slightly larger, that I tried, and tonight I successfully wore it through the night allowing me to sleep from 10:15 to 4:00. This is not enough, of course, but it is more sleep in one night than I have had since I had the surgery, and I will take it.

This morning I will see my family doctor, James Rees, and have him do some blood work and perhaps a EKG to make sure things are proceeding normally. My appetite is still not normal, and the amount of food I am eating very small, but I hope that will change if I can get my electrolytes balanced.

For the record, all of this has been very hard. But I have the support of my family, the ability to get connected to my job in small ways online, and I hope I will eventually begin to make steady progress, something which depends to a large degree on getting a normal nights sleep.

Yet another blog...

I have added a new blog, called Davenport Family Times wherein I will try to reconstruct the history of our family on a yearly basis, going back to July 9th, 1976. You will find it at

davenportfamilytimes.blogspot.com