It's almost party time! I'll bring the balloon!

It's been a while since I last wrote. But it's a sunny, warm, Spring evening and that makes me want to stay indoors and write. Actually, I've already had two walks today, and I'm enjoying a breeze in my sun room, so I'm not as nature deprived, as I pretend to be.

Since I last wrote, I have seen my colorectal surgeon twice. The first time was regarding reversing the colostomy. She did a brief exam of my lower orificia (that's the medical plural for orifice). I have been on this type of examination table more than once. I laid on my stomach, bent at the waist with my knees on a shelf lower than the table. Then they pushed a button, and my head went down and my rear went up, and she did her exam, apologizing the whole time because of the pain she thought she was causing. Actually, it was not bad, because she was being very careful. She also looked at the report of the PET scan and seemed pleased with what she read. Because she didn't want to hurt me by doing a more extensive examination, she set up an appointment for me to be sedated. During the next exam, she also scheduled another biopsy. 

So my brother took me to the outpatient surgical center, and we met some very nice nurses who covered me in warm blankets and connected a tube to my port (I love my port!) and dripped some saline in there, while I waited for the procedure. The anesthesiologist came and asked me a lot of questions, and then my colorectal surgeon showed up and checked what the nurses had written down. I told her and the anesthesiologist about the pain I'd been having (and am still having) in my left buttock and down the side of my leg and in my shins. After a few questions, I think they were convinced that it was not a sudden recurrence of cancer. I had thought it was sciatica, but now that I've read some things about it, I am not sure what it is. It hurts most when I'm lying down and has been interfering with my sleep. It feels best when I walk, and it hurts a little when I sit. I will see the radiation oncologist next week and tell him about it. Maybe it's a side effect from radiating my pelvic area.

Okay, so finally it was time for the exam and biopsy. Two nurses rolled me back to the operating room (in my bed) and one told me that what they had just pumped in me worked very fast. I told her I was still awake, and that's the last thing I remember. My neighbor came to pick me up and took me home. My throat wasn't sore from the anesthesia this time, but I did have some bleeding from the biopsy and probing. I wasn't groggy and was actually able to work from home for 5 hours that day. Since I used up 5 weeks of vacation time during the surgery, chemo, radiation, and side effects, I have been trying to make up the time I miss, so I don't lose any more vacation days. 

The results of the exam and biopsy were surprising. The biopsy showed no cancer, which was not that surprising, since that was what the PET scan showed, but the exam showed no evidence of the fistula. According to my doctor's nurse, she had really poked around while I was anesthetized trying to find the fistula. What is odd is that not only can radiation cause a fistula to form, but if you already have one, as I did, it can enlarge the opening. But mine was nowhere to be found, which was unexpected, good news. 

So now, we get to the party part of this posting. There's yet another test to see if the fistula is hiding somewhere. On 4/22, I will get a gastrografin enema. You may not know what gastrografin is, but I'll bet you know what an enema is. Gastrografin is a "palatable, lemon flavored, water-soluble iodinated radiopaque contrast medium for oral and rectal administration only." I'm sure my rectum will be delighted with the lemon flavor. I hope it doesn't sting the radiated tissue. The nurse mentioned that a balloon would be put in my rectum (party, party!), and then the liquid is pumped in and x-rays are taken. I asked the nurse if I would be sedated for this procedure, and she told me that I would not be, because it doesn't hurt, it's just embarrassing. Whenever someone in the medical profession tells me that something does not hurt, I wonder if they have experienced whatever it is that doesn't hurt. But don't you worry. I will soon have first hand, or first ass, knowledge of this procedure and will tell you whether it hurts or not. As for being embarrassed, I think all the previous experiences have made me immune to embarrassment. But if I walk into the procedure room and see Sybil's mother at the piano, I'm outta there! (If you haven't seen or heard of the movie "Sybil," check out http://moviebuffs.livejournal.com/2047467.html.)