It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything on here, but in all honesty, there hasn’t been much to report and that’s mainly what I’ve been using this blog for. I have been getting bloodwork done every three months and meeting with my oncologist and my family doctor after these blood tests to make sure that my numbers are still good. Some are good, such as the numbers that indicate whether my body is trying to amass white blood cells to fight off a tumor. Some, such as my weight and my sugar, remain a work in progress.
I just had a colonoscopy on Friday. This was the first look in there since just before I had my ostomy removed on September 22 of last year. I was nervous, but just like I knew that the doctor was going to find cancer the first time around, I knew somehow that this one was going to come back clean. They did find a polyp and it was removed, but the doctor told me that it was not near the original site and did not look suspicious. They are having it sent out for testing, but he told me there was a 95 percent chance that it was nothing to worry about.
I don’t know how many of you reading this have ever had a colonoscopy, and before I go any further with this, I fully recommend that you have one. I have been through a lot of tests and “procedures” since this whole thing started, and while the idea of someone running a piece of rubber tubing with a camera, blower, and a razor attached to it into your innards is not pleasant (especially considering the point of entry), it is probably the least uncomfortable thing that they do.
They give you a gallon jug with some powder in it to get you started. You mix the powder with water and start drinking. Eight ounces every 10 minutes until half of the jug is gone. Don’t be any more than 10 feet from a bathroom during this process, because once that laxative starts to work, it works fast and often, and does exactly what it’s supposed to do, which is to remove everything from your body that isn’t connected to something in there.
Kelly and I checked into our hotel in Farmington Hills at about 3:30 on Thursday and I mixed the stuff up and started drinking. She was incredibly supportive through the process by going to Meijer’s for a couple hours because nothing really cements that bond between husband and wife like the sound of a faucet running behind a closed bathroom door and a grown man whining “not again” as the laxative does its job.
Another part of the instructions for the procedure are that you can only eat (drink) clear liquids the day before. And really, once you start taking that horrible tasting drink mix, you don’t want to eat anyway.
After that part’s over, it’s time for bed. Our hotel was a really nice place with a little kitchenette and stove, and even a dishwasher. It would have been really good for a stay of a few nights. The only thing wrong with it was that our window had a very nice view of the freeway (96) and traffic never stops on that road, regardless of the hour. Our pug snores, but it doesn’t have anything on a tractor trailer running by your window at 75 miles an hour at 3:30 a.m.
Not that there was a lot of sleep going on anyways. I said I knew that the result was going to be good, but in the back my head, I wondered. Does even thinking that kind of stuff jeopardize the result? I’m a bit superstitious, and hate it when sports announcers say dumb stuff like “This hitter’s never gotten a hit off Justin Verlander” while he’s in the middle of a no-hitter. Expressing a belief regarding an event before that event’s taken place seemed an awful lot like jinxing the no-no.
Then, what if I’m wrong this time? That damn Tim McGraw song “Live like you were dying” starts running through your head and before you know it, you’re trying to figure out in your head how you’re going to break the bad news to people.
This, as I said before, is completely ridiculous because I already knew how it was going to turn out.
After the colonoscopy, we met my brother for lunch in Fenton and went back to his place for a little while. It turns out that the Sault High football team was playing in Lake Fenton that night, which was just a few miles from Clay’s house. I talked to Rob at The Evening News and agreed to cover the game for them since we were going to be there anyway. The Sault lost the game, but it was a good one, and it was a beautiful night for football. We drove home to the Sault after the game because my youngest daughter was playing in her first organized basketball game on Saturday morning at Sault High. It made for a long night, but the good news earlier in the day made it seem more like date night than six-hour drive night.
Kelly did most of the driving because I was not supposed to be behind the wheel for a while due to being knocked out earlier in the day. We switched around Grayling though at about 11:30 p.m. and I drove the rest of the way home. Kelly fell asleep shortly after that and it made for some good reflection time for me.
One of the things I thought about was a conversation that I had with a friend of mine at work. She has known a few different people who have suffered with cancer and the results for these people have been mixed. She was frustrated by the “prayers to you and your family” comments that were being posted on someone else’s Facebook page who is suffering from cancer way more severe than anything I’ve had to deal with.
“Why would God let that happen in the first place?” she asked me “I mean, why pray at all, if he’s going to let stuff like that happen to good people?”
I didn’t have an answer for you then my friend, and I don’t have one now. Even after deliberating it during the drive. I think that’s a question you could ask a hundred different people and get almost as many different answers. What I would tell you is this. Read a book called “The Shack.” I wish I could remember the author’s name, but I can’t. My son read it and recommended it to me. I always read stuff that the kids recommend to me because I’m interested in things that grab their attention enough to tell me about them, or especially recommend them. I’m not sure it answers the questions that you asked, but it does provoke some thought, and it does touch on those topics.
So, anyway, back to the original topic. The colonoscopy turned out good enough that I don’t have to have another one for three years. I will continue to work on the weight and the sugar and I will win that battle too.
Woohoo!!
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