Observations From Hadleyville: MY CHEMO PREVIEW

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

MY CHEMO PREVIEW

The first week after surgery was a snap. Never felt a bit of pain. No restriction on the use of my arm--other than be careful. Went for two walks with my honey. Great.

This past week has been a Primer for Chemo. I woke up last Wednesday morning with the familiar gout pain. For your information, gout is caused by a buildup of uric acid in the system. The acid crystallizes and gathers in a lower joint. Normally I get it in the left big toe, which is painful. This episode manifested itself in my left ankle; a much larger area than the toe. Essentially, My ankle joint was lubricated by ground glass. It took two days to renew my prescription. Started taking the meds of Friday and the pain--AND swelling--were gone by Sunday morning.

Sunday night I was hit by what felt like stomach flu, accompanied by all the usual side effects. Spent Monday with an achy low-grade fever and finally woke up Tuesday feeling... well, not normal, but at least less sick.

Will see the surgeon on Thursday and hopefully get the nasty drains removed. They are inconvenient and uncomfortable, but people used to die from simple buildup of bodily fluids. We live in amazing times.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Welcome back dear old grumpy Don! Having had only a small taste of hospital life lately i will agree with you that we live in amazing times! Give yourself permission to be grateful AND grumpy old Don (or Darn-old)! Blessings!; July 3, 2012 at 9:08 AM
Eric said...: Glad you're at least less sick now.; July 3, 2012 at 10:12 AM

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WORDS OF WISDOM FOR WRITERS

The secret of becoming a writer is that you have to write. You have to write a lot. You also have to finish what you write, even though no one wants it yet. If you don't learn to finish your work, no one will ever want to see it. The biggest mistake new writers make is carrying around copies of unfinished work to inflict on their friends.

I am sure it has been done with less, but you should be prepared to write and throw away a million words of finished material. By finished, I mean completed, done, ready to submit, and written as well as you know how at the time you wrote it.
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WHAT'S THIS HADLEYVILLE THING?

Those of you familiar with Mark Twain’s works might recognize my blog title. As Samuel Clemons grew older, he became increasingly disillusioned with humanity. Towards the end he began referring to the Damned Human Race; employing the secular and religious epithet at one stroke.

I find I’ve not reached that level of despair myself. I still believe in redemption and I still see signs of nobility even among we fallen, damned creatures. So, I could not bring myself to call this blog “On the Damned Human Race.” I do however, resonate with another of Clemmons stories; “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.” And viola, there you have it. “Observations From Hadleyville.”