Hot Colon Action!

Just a heads up, I'll have a picture of what they took from me on Wednesday at the end of this post. I think it's cool but kind also kinds of gross. Fair warning.

Last night was rough from the standpoint of highly interrupted sleep. I didn't sleep much between my roommate's nurses and my nurses waking me up for various things, which I will get into soon.

Honestly not too much to report about my condition. I'm still recovering, and I think I overdid it with the walking. I did a solid twenty minutes doing my laps, saying hi to whoever I would pass. It's becoming pretty clear to me that I'm the youngest guy here. I'm not sure if that makes me cool or not. I'd rather be uncool (which I generally consider myself) and not have cancer than be cool. My emotions regarding this diagnosis are deep and mixed, and I think I'm handling it well. Maybe more on that in another post. The worst part is over, perhaps.

So about last night, at some point, I got chills and decided it was time to turn in for the night. I probably did too much activity. It turns out my vitals said otherwise. So, I had lower than usual blood pressure, and my blood panel showed that I had low hemoglobin. So, the surgical resident ordered me back on fluids for an hour and another blood draw to see if my hemoglobin stabilized. It did, or at least didn't go any lower. So, the nurses tracked that today; around 6 PM, my hemoglobin dropped two points. Which seems to me is a statistical blip. The doctors have not said that a transfusion is necessary. So keep your fingers crossed. Lots of interruptions to sleep, which is fine; I get it; information needs gathering overnight, and there's no way to get it while I'm sleeping.

On the topic of gathering information, let's talk about blood draws. Holy smokes, blood draws suck! There is a needle shortage on the needles the nursing staff and the techs like to use. I get stuck, and they are searching and searching for a vein to use but have trouble getting it right. They tell me it's my veins, but I never had much trouble with it in the past. I've also never had so much blood drawn since childhood. There are worse things to endure, and I'm glad the cancer is out of me!

On the topic of poop (you didn't think you'd get off that easy, did you?), it is the same; watery and maroon (not the former St. Louis Blues player) colored. The surgeons have told me that's this is normal, and there's no telling what my new standard will be. I also may not know for weeks or months. So stay tuned for some more poop talk. So much writing about poop...

Now for that hot colon action! The surgical resident worked hard to get a photo from the pathology department. The picture is of my colon split open. The tumor is also split open.

The tumor is in the approximate middle of the photo. It has been in preservation fluid which explains why it looks the way it does.

Look at that! I grew that! It's kind of like having a baby that would have killed me eventually. Maybe that's the plot to a screenplay I should write sometime. Anyway, the GI doc was not kidding when they said it was the size of a tennis ball! Pretty neat, rather gross.

That's all the news for now. I hope to watch an hour of a program then get a few hours of sleep before being interrupted for vitals again.

Thanks for reading. Keep the prayers and vibes coming.