Thursday, December 10, 2009

Death to the Wound Vac

Hi Everyone,

I want to thank all of y'all for your kind words of encouragement, messages, phone calls, etc...it really means a lot to me and really helped me get through this past week. If I haven't responded yet, I will shortly - I'm still playing catch up.

Anywho - today I finished my last 2 finals of the semester : Lit & Research and Exercise Physiology. What a relief! I definitely am not interested in trying to start chemo during the last few weeks of a semester. Fingers-crossed that won't be an issue ever again.

So I feel super lucky, the horrendous side effects I was expecting weren't so bad. It was actually pretty manageable. Aside from a bit of queasy-ness for 2 or 3 days, the worst was just being super exhausted. It's been a week and feel like I'm somewhat back to my normal energy levels. Supposedly my hair should be falling out later this week, but I buzzed my head a week ago to take care of that situation. In fact, I'm kind of digging how it looks. very butch/military. woof! lol.

Another huge relief was having the wound vac removed from my inner thigh last Friday. One of the spots where I had a lymphoma removed was not healing correctly and ultimately got infected. It landed me in the hospital for several days during thanksgiving week (when I was supposed to be in LA...grrrr). The only way the hospital would release me is if I let them attach a little machine that essentially created a vacuum on the wound to keep it free from bacteria and suck out all the bad stuff. Horrendous. But I guess we suffer for beauty. Having it on for a week and a half wasn't too bad...but I sure am glad that it's off.

Now I guess it's a waiting game until my next treatment on the 28th of this month. I'm getting some bloodwork done tomorrow where they check all my blood platelet levels, white blood cells, etc. On Thursday I meet with a nurse...I guess she just makes sure that I'm not falling apart and that all my vitals are good and strong.

Soooo.....so far so good! Keep sending the good vibes, I feel them working.

Love,

Stephen

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