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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

A difficult week

As I'm sitting here watching reruns of "The West Wing", I was thinking of the past week and everything that happened during that time.

It started last week on Tuesday with my dad having his prostate removed due to prostate cancer.  As you can probably imagine, the weeks leading up to it were filled with lots of preparations, stress and worry.  I dropped him off at the hospital with my mother at 5:30 AM and went back to my parents' to wait for my sister.

Dropping them off on the Tuesday, and hugging my dad was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.  I broke down in tears and cried most of the way home.  It was terrible.  My sister and I joined my mother there soon after and waited for news on my dad.  Well, everything went well with the surgery and the doctor was really happy. Apart from the fact that he stayed in recovery until about midnight that night due to problems getting a room, everything was good.  

On Wednesday, I visited him and he looked well.  There was a scary moment where his pressure dropped and he passed out, but doctors were not worried.  They said it often happened when a patient recovers from surgery.  They sat him up in a chair for the first time since the surgery and had him walk a bit.  That combined with a lack of solid food for almost 60 hours just did him in,  He quickly recovered from that though and was eating solid food by the end of the day..

Thursday, I picked him up at the hospital and he was home, where he's been every since. He's thriving there an I truly believe being in his own place with my mother is helping him recover. I packed my stuff because I had moved in with my mother temporarily and I came back home.

That was shortlived...

On Friday afternoon, I started experiencing intense pain in my back and also other symptoms that were similar to those I had when I was diagnosed with a UTI 3 weeks earlier.  I decided to go to the urgent care clinic to get medication for what I assumed was another UTI.

Boy, was I wrong...

The pain didn't go away.  Instead, it intensified.  I was walking around and trying everything not to throw up as the pain was making me nauseous.  When I finally saw the doctor, he examined me and told me that he suspected that I had kidney stones.  Well, I've heard horror stories about kidney stones and that's all I could think about.  He said I didn't have an infection according to the test they did when I registered.

Well, that's just great.  I live alone in my condo and I'm going to be in pain and have to call an ambulance to go to the hospital when it gets worse.

Nope, instead I called my sister who called my mother and I moved back in with my parents. There's nothing like a mother's caring to make you feel better.  I didn't sleep much for 3 nights, but I had the comfort of not being alone.  I was in terrible pain Friday night and all I did was walk around and drink tons of water.  I'm telling you, this pain was horrible.  I've felt pain before, but this was different.  More intense and scary.  It finally disappeared by Sunday.

I'm now back home again and terrified of this happening again.  It's not a matter of if...but when.  How do I know this?  I went to get an ultrasound and they found multiple stones in the left kidney and at least one in the right one.  Now I'm walking around, actually hearing a clock in my head ticking away to the time when this will be happening to me again.

I'm pretty terrified..  I want to move back in to my parents' place until this is all over so that my mom can take care of me like when I was a child.  There's no telling when that will be either.  I love living alone, but I have to say that I have now found one of the disadvantages of it.

Enough about me, the week has been hard and stressful and quite frankly, painful, but I'm so grateful that my father is doing well.  Everything is progressing great in his recovery and he's looking forward to things getting back to normal.  I hope things get better with me too.

Have a fantastic week!

Julie / @Flip_4

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Movember

No, that's not a typo.  For those of you who don't know, Movember is a movement that started a few years back where men will grow or attempt to grow a mustache to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer and male mental health.

For a few years now I've been laughing at the attempt from some men to grow these mustaches.  There have been some seriously pathetic pictures, but I've always supported the cause by donating.

This year, it means a lot more to me than just a few laughs.

As I've mentioned on here a few times before, my dad currently has prostate cancer and will be having surgery on November 6th.  We are very positive and hopeful that it will all turn out great.

Now, every time I'll see someone sporting a mustache, I will be thankful for what they are doing this month to raise funds.

I am currently on the lookout for someone I can support this year.  I haven't given away my "Birthday donation" yet and  would love to give it to someone to help them reach their goal.

Send me a note if you'd like that person to be you :)  julie_auger@hotmail.com or tweet me @Flip_4

Thank you to everyone who is participating in Movember!!!  I love you all!!!

Julie / @Flip_4