State of the Hope

In 10 days, I'll have my guts rearranged.

I know, right? I'm a bit overwhelmed, too.

As some folks already know, I have stage 3 rectal cancer. There is every reason to expect that I'll be cancer free after treatment. It helps that I'm young for rectal cancer, have excellent medical insurance, and that I live where there is outstanding cancer treatment available.

I've already had radiation therapy, which was even more successful than expected. The side effects were no fun, but not nearly as bad as they could have been. Also, radiation side effects are totally worth it to kill cancer. Next up, I'll have surgery on October 3. The surgery will be in Chapel Hill, so I can be worked on by an expert. It will be a 3 - 7 day hospital stay. Because the tumor is very low in the rectum, I will have a permanent colostomy afterward. Having a colostomy is far, far better than having cancer.

Once I'm sufficiently recovered from the surgery, I'll start 4 months of infusion chemotherapy. That will probably not be a walk in the park, but, still, it will be totally worth it to finish off whatever remaining cancer cells might be hanging about.

Cancer Eviction is my main focus from now until the job is done. I have a lot of support, for which I am very grateful. Dealing with the medical bills is not as difficult as it would be if I hadn't been working in medical billing for so long. It's still no fun to be on this side of the process, but at least I come into it with a good idea of what to expect and how to handle it all. My insurance is very good and covers quite a lot.

Financially, I'm in good shape, although I may need to pass the hat down the road. I'll holler if I get to that point.

The medical professionals are doing most of the actual work on cancer eviction. My job is to stay as healthy as I can while following the treatment plan.

I stink at keeping in touch at the best of times, so my plan is to post updates here on my neglected blog. Do ask anything you like - talking about all of this stuff is therapeutic for me. Do ask me to stop if it gets too gross or TMI. Surgery is gross in general, recovering from butt-cancer surgery even more so - but that won't stop me from talking about :)

I'll post details soon, with TMI warnings as needed.

XOXOXO

P.S. I haven't kept up perfectly with Story a Day September, but I have written quite a few stories this month :)

StoryADay September!

Yes, I am participating in StoryADay September! For this challenge, I will write a short story every day in September. If I can stand to let other people see any of them, I'll post them here :)

Gratitude List 20180827

Gratitude List:

1. finding the rest of my pretty, lightweight scarves
2. using last halloween's yarn spider web to hang/display the aforementioned scarves
3. writing in my bullet journal/commonplace book with brightly colored gel pens
4. picking up a huge pump bottle of really good body lotion for not a lot of money
5. working on my ideal knit washcloth (prototype 1 is done, prototype 2 in progress)


6. I made an earring holder from a large index card


7. ending my braid with a rag roller bow


8. Fancy lotion that makes me smell delicious
9. Lightspeed sf/f magazine
10. downloadable audiobooks from the library*

*If for some strange reason you don't have a library card, go get one! If you're in Wake county in NC, Click Here to get started