I've Got Cabin Fever!

It’s been two months since my last post, so I guess I should say something to let folks know I’m still around. I haven’t been in a writing mood lately and have been putting this off for a while.

At my last post I was preparing to go to the wound center for an open lesion on my left leg. That one healed pretty quickly, but a couple of new ones popped up on my right leg that took a while longer to heal. All better now, but I’m continuing to wear some compression hose on both legs to keep down the edema.

My church has a special service on Thanksgiving weekend every year and a few of the men are invited to speak about what they’re thankful for. Since things had been going very well for me, I asked to be one of the speakers back in October. At that time I was up and walking around without oxygen and feeling extremely good. Lots of things to be thankful for! By the time Thanksgiving rolled around I was still doing well but wasn’t able to stand for extended periods and had to rely on a stool to support me while I spoke. Soon I was back on oxygen 24/7 and barely able to stand up. I was admitted to the hospital in Gotham on Dec. 7^th for extreme shortness of breath. A thoracentesis treatment drew 1.4 liters of fluid off my right lung and a bronchoscopy followed the next day. The surgeon removed some additional fluid from inside my lung and trimmed back some of the cancer that was invading my middle airway that was causing some of the shortness of breath. Too bad they couldn’t get all of it. After 11 days, I returned home shortly before Christmas.

I’m still recovering my strength and am still on oxygen 24/7. I have only been out of the house once for a follow-up visit to Dr. Whoosh a couple of days ago. I get to try driving tomorrow, taking my wife out for a couple of errands. I resume my immunotherapy treatments on Friday.

Things have been pretty dull lately, sitting around watching TV, reading, playing computer games, doing a little Photoshopping, and taking long naps. Looking forward to being able to drive again, hoping tomorrow’s outing goes well. I'm getting cabin fever...