Detour

Basking in the relief of my last clean scan, I looked forward to another three months of staying quietly on task, focusing on diet and supplements until my next scan at the end of April...

Unfortunately, another path unfolded for me.

This past Thursday, I got out of Mass General Hospital after almost a week of difficult drama. It's been a continuation of some internal bleeding issues that had put me into Emerson Hospital two other times during the last few weeks... Last Friday I ended up in the Emerson ICU unit and was eventually transferred to MGH, under the care of my oncology and surgical teams.

It was difficult for my team of doctors to figure out what was causing my bleeding issues, but after MANY tests (including lots of endoscopes), by Tuesday they concluded that it wasn't a return of this cancer I've been struggling with since 2009, and eventually a clear diagnosis and treatment plan came out of that.

Very good news for me! I have a nasty gastric ulcer just inside my duodenum.

I still have a serious condition, but one that can be treated and that I can recover from. I was stable enough to go home, though I still have to work out some medication and treatment issues, and I have to rest and heal some more before I can fully return to school. They believe that a combination of conditions in my body put me at risk for this gastric ulcer; complications of the cancer's involvement with the veins in my gut and subsequent radiation in that area (portal hypertension), as well as the heavy use of advil I've used over the years for my separate chronic back pain. I now need to live with new medications and an understanding of the ways that my body is compromised...

This sickness nonsense has been driving me crazy... and on top of all of it, Monika is in India until Wednesday on a school trip, so my timing was terrible!

I'll be staying home resting and healing for the next week or so before I can go back to work.

Many friends and family members stepped up to help me and to help keep our lives running at the house (the dog and chickens to say the least...) as well as at school, and many others with visits and words of support, so as usual: Thank you.

This has been one of those crazy months, but now I'm home, I'm on the mend, spring is breaking and today I actually feel pretty damn happy...

I don't know why but I'm not complaining...