It's been awhile . . . so I thought I'd better bring you up to speed.
I've had all those three month check-ups come around already! On May 16 John and I went for my appt with Dr. B in the morning - she thought things were really going great - even better than she would have imagined. But she did tell me that it would be about two years before the bowel movements were "normal" again. Everytime I've gone in for a checkup she always says "wow your hook up is right there". Well this time she told me that when she examines me it always reminds her of being in the operating room, when everything came apart and she thought I would have to have a permanent ileostomy. But she backed up, prayed and then thought to herself - no Cheryl is a fighter, I have to give her every chance! I will need to set up an appt for a colonoscopy in August, but I will do that here in town, so I won't see Dr. B until November for my regular checkup. Of course on Thursday I had a sore behind (from the scope to check things out). I'm hoping that as we keep getting farther out, that will get better. Brody had his preschool program that afternoon, so John and I decided just to make a day of it in Omaha on the 16th. We took a drive to the Bob Kerrey bridge and John walked across it (one side is in Nebraska and one side is in Iowa) - I didn't think I could make the walk. Then we went for a leisurely lunch at Olive Garden (one of my favorite places) - then did a little plant shopping / sight seeing to kill time before it was time to go to St. Pius X / St. Leo for Brody's program. It was very cute of course - and Brody stole the show (at least in my eyes). On Mother's Day I worked a little outside and we went to Carrie & Justin's for supper - it was a great day! The next weekend was busy too - we celebrated Brody's 5th Birthday on the 20th (where has the time gone?). We all went to supper at Red Robin on the 21st - his actual birth day.
Also on that day John had made an appt with Dr. S in the late afternoon as he was having some pain in his legs - so Doc checked him out, sent him to their lab for some bloodwork and then sent him to the hospital for an ultrasound (to check for blood clots). The good news was there was no bloodclots - the bad news was we didn't know what was causing the pain. And we made it to Red Robin with time to spare for the birthday party. The Dr.'s office called the next day to say that they had gotten the results from the bloodwork back and that he had two prescriptions at the pharmacy - one was a steriod (three pills to take - one per day) and the other was an antibiotic; and a follow up appt was made on May 30.
I got to celebrate my birthday at Junction Motor Speedway at McCool Junction, NE. Initially we were going to go out way early and then have lunch at "Chances R" which is a great restaurant in York - but I wasn't sure that I could stand a whole day celebrating that far away! So we took off early in the afternoon - took Hwy 30 so I knew that I could do pit stops if needed. On the way out we stopped at Sapp Bros in Columbus where my friend Roxanne works - so I got to see her! Then we stopped at the WalMart in York where John picked up some cupcakes and a small cake so that everybody could help me celebrate at the pit meeting! Like it has so many times when we've gone to JMS, the weather was a little threatening so they ran the program off pretty quickly. We had also talked about staying in York if the races got done late, or if we got rained out completely. Since the races were done at 10:00 and we could get the check from the track right away, we headed for home. Stopped again at the Sapp Bros on the way home for a pit stop, and John had a bout of diarrhea - and then after we got home I had a bout of diarrhea (good old fashioned can't get off the toilet diarrhea - not the kind I had been having up to that time). All we can figure out is that we both must have gotten a bug - we thought at first maybe it was food related - but neither one of us had had the same thing to eat!
John went back in for his 8:15 followup appt on the 30th - what had been a small bump on his right leg on the 21st was now the size of a big bar of soap. Dr. S sent us to the ER - so John could be admitted to the hospital - by a little after 10:00 we were up on fifth floor in a room. From there we passed the time by watching tv and waiting for Dr. L to come in - when he did come in and look at it - his diagnosis concided with Dr. S's - that it was an abscess. So he went down to surgery about 3:00 - they thought it would last about half an hour. When they got done, they did not close the incision up, so that it could continue draining. I went and picked him up from the hospital at 4:00 on Thursday when they released him. Now we were supposed to go to US30 Speedway that night to race - but luckily the races were cancelled because Columbus had gotten too much rain. John was planning to go mind you - with me driving him there and not taking the racecar - he couldn't see any reason that he couldn't have done that! On Friday I had to pull out the "wick" that they had put in the incision during the surgery - it was like the magician and the scarves! I kept pulling and pulling (all the while thinking I had to have done something wrong) when finally the end came out and we threw it away.
I got a perm on the 1st - YEAH to have curly hair again! (John had gotten me a gift certificate for my birthday to my favorite hair / nails venue - so that was a pleasant surprise!) After I got done, I went and picked John up and we went to Applebee's for supper. Our friends Marty & Jacquie K. came in not long after we were seated, so they joined us for supper and we had a great visit! We decided that Jacquie, John and I had been together on that day 20 years ago, when the three of us and our Associate Pastor at the time (David H.) were on a Mission Trip in Rico, CO!
I went back for my checkup with Dr. S on June 6 - and they did bloodwork too.
On the 8th we went to Beatrice Speedway, Beatrice, NE.
Justin celebrated his birthday on the 10th!
I went to see Dr. L on the 12th, so that he could look at my umbilical hernia - to see about doing surgery. I'm planning to have surgery later this year, since all of my deductibles are paid again this year.
On Sunday, June 17 we went to Raceway Park, Jefferson, SD. Had a tire blow on the way there - luckily #33 Larry & Carol A. came along and added a second jack to the mix to get the trailer jacked up enough to get the tire off. By the time we got to the track we found out that the tread was gone off the spare, so thankfully we could borrow a tire from #92 Johnny O. to get home on!
June 20 was the one year anniversary of my bowel resection surgery at Methodist - and June 30 was the one year anniversary of my coming home from the hospital.
On the 22nd we went back to Junction Motor Speedway, McCool Junction, NE.
Saturday, June 23 we went to Riviera Raceway, Norfolk, NE.
That weekend was very busy, as Jeff & Carrie went on the Great Nebraska Tractor Ride - unfortunately both of their tractors broke down on Friday. Thanks to Spence W. for following them home! They got Carrie's tractor fixed, so she and John (and his new Ferguson tractor) went on the ride on Saturday.
And when he got home we headed to Riviera Raceway, Norfolk, NE.
We took the convertible to the races both Friday and Saturday night, as John's truck wouldn't start when he went to leave the car wash Friday morning - and with the events of the weekend - he obviously didn't have time to get it fixed!
And on Sunday, June 24 John and I worked outside - because the yardwork had to be done - he did the trimming (grass, trees, etc.) and I did the mowing. Or should I say that we worked for a little while, then got some water and sat in the shade for awhile, and repeated that scenario several times that afternoon! Both of us wondered if we would be able to get out of bed the next morning - but we did - although we were both sore for a few days! That was about the beginning of our heat wave - which hasn't let up yet!
My three month checkup with Dr. H was on the 25th - Dr. H was not there, so I saw a Nurse Practitioner. My white blood cell count is coming up, but the hemoglobin has not come up as much as she or I expected. They were going to check my iron count - and I checked on that later in the week and it was in the "normal" level.
I really felt like my energy was starting to come back, and then all of a sudden I was having to come home and rest again.
Jill celebrated her birthday on the 26th!
Sunday night we got together for supper and also to shoot off fireworks. Last night we got together to watch the fireworks at Christensen Field.
Right now I am still trying to "even out" those bowel movements - I have gone back on the Welchol pills to try and firm up the bowel movements - we'll pray that does the trick!
Our friend Dan ended up doing a couple more chemo treatments.
And our friend Brian is working on his 8th or 9th treatment - so he is working toward being done. As a matter of fact I ran into Brian when I was at Dr. H's office and we compared notes a little! Also ran into my friend Diane, and we had a nice long visit too! Have been keeping Diane in my prayers.
The summer is going by pretty quickly - but I am liking being able to go along with the #31 car to the races!
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