Tuesday, November 12, 2013

November Update: I'm Not Dead Yet!

I apologise most emphatically for the radio silence. Here is a quick update on my Heath (reason for current hiatus) and a (hopeful) idea of when I'll return to regular blogging. Feel free to skip the health stuff and go right to the blogging information farther down the page if the other grosses you out or is TMI. (I've discussed my diagnosis/Heath stuff with so many doctors, friends, family and curious people in waiting rooms at MD Anderson that I may have lost my sense of when/what is acceptable to share on this issue!)

HEALTH STUFF
On October 15 I underwent an intense abdominal surgery that lasted several hours. The purpose of the surgery was to test several areas of my abdominal cavity for cancer cells. (In July I was diagnosed with appendix cancer and it was discovered that the mucin produced by the tumor in my appendix had managed to perforate the wall of my appendix and flooded my abdominal cavity with mucin - which will be hereafter referred to as "The Snot Monster".) 

The reason for the sampling from various sections of my abdomen was due to the face that my Snot Monster could potentially carry cancerous cells and 'seed' those cells in various cracks and crannies of my abdominal cavity. (Booooo! Hissss!)

Good news! During the biopsy phase of surgery all the samples returned cancer free. So then the surgeon opened me up all the way (samples were taken via laparoscopic incision) to remove part of my colon (joy) and clean the Snot Monster from my abdominal cavity. Final pathology results have come in and I am now CANCER FREE! *happy dance*

My recovery is going well in general. I've never had to recover from a 10in incision through all the fat and muscle of my abdomen, but my doctors seem pleased. I'm, personally, starting to get a bit stir crazy from all the restrictions of healing. But hey, I am cancer free, so I guess I just need to suck it up and be thankful. I see my doc next week and will be discussing when I can return to work. But have a feeling it will be several more weeks as I had a minor setback about 10 days ago when part of my incision reopened. And yes, it is JUST as traumatic and gross as it sounds. So now I have this small, but rather deep wound that I can see preventing my doctor from giving me the "green light" back to Libraryland.  So that's where I stand health-wise, on the blogging. 

BLOGGING
All of this cancer diagnosis, surgery and recover have really killed free time. Currently I exhaust myself merely sleeping and reading. Sad, I know. So I believe the smart this is to put my blog on hiatus until at least mid-December. The reality may be more like January 2014, but I really hope to get at least a couple posts in before then.

Again, I am very sorry for the lack of current posts but also flattered and thankful for all of your support and well-wishes.  Thank you.  

I look forward to supplying you all with quality reviews, teen programming, letters from the frontlines, and more Book Posters and Bookmarks in the near future!