FYI RFA ASAP

This Thursday, February 11, I'm going in (finally) for the Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA) procedure. That's the one I told you about a while back where Dr. G is going to "berry pick" the small tumors (either 2 or 3) off of the bottom of the right lobe of my liver. It's supposedly less invasive than the chemoembo but I will be under general anesthesia for it. I'll be staying the night for observation - from the anesthesia, but mostly because he's burning and cutting into my liver, a rather sensitive organ, so he wants to make sure I'm close by while it does its initial healing.

Pete's taking off work Thursday and Friday and of course he'll be staying with me at the hospital as long as I get on the Oncology floor or at least some room with a sofa again.

I'll be home Friday. Dr. G says it takes just a couple of days of recovery so hopefully I'll be back on my feet by Monday.

I fear general anesthesia and especially dislike the after effects the day or so afterwards (like I really need to be MORE depressed!). I've warned Pete about it and I'm going to look up ways to manage those after effects so hopefully I can keep them to a minimum.

Wish me luck Thursday morning! (I check in at 9, procedure's at 10:30ish and it's a couple of hours long I think.)

One More Time

Thank you, Auntie Carolyn, for participating in the Confetti Conspiracy of 2010!
;) Ya'll are so very thoughtful!

It Happened Again!

Remember that other dear friend I mentioned near the end of yesterday's post who likes to adorn her birthday cards to me with lots of fun confetti?? Well, naturally, she struck again!

Last night, we picked up Saturday's mail on our way out to dinner with some family and there was her envelope. It didn't sound rattley like Betsy's card did so I figured it was safe!

I sliced the envelope open, gently pulled out the card, opened it up and WHAMMO!!! A few dozen ballo0n-shaped and "Happy Birthday"-shaped confetti's poured into my lap! It was hilarious!

So thanks to you, too, Jane, for brightening up my birthday mail!

And thanks to everyone else who sent me messages, phone calls, Facebook comments, snail mail cards and general good thoughts for my birthday today! It means the world to me that so many of you do care! And I am just thankful to be able to thrive through yet another birthday! (Shouldn't we all be???) Horray!

A Fun Birthday Experience!

A dear friend of mine sent me a birthday card within a thick envelope that rattled! It came in earlier last week but I've been reluctant to open it, for fear that I'd be awash with some crazy assortment of confetti's!
This is one of my two friends who have been sending me at least one card each week since shortly after my diagnosis (um, over two years now!). Her envelopes are always cute and inviting! She's a preschool teacher, too, so it should come as no surprise that she decorates the envelopes and cards with an assortment of adorable stickers (often according to the season or recent holiday) and encouraging words! This birthday envelope was, of course, no different than the rest...except that it rattled. There was something --a lot of somethings!-- in there, shaking around crazily every time I picked it up!
Finally, a couple of hours ago, I laid out a couple of paper towels on the counter and carefully opened the envelope above them.
I sliced the edge open, turned the envelope upside-down to shake out some of the more loose confetti's when all of a sudden...!
THEY WERE NOT CONFETTI'S BUT TEENIE TINY CHICKLETS!!!!

YES!

A packet of those "Tiny Size" Chicklets gum squares was actually part of the card, I believe, as it seemed to be adhered to the front of the card, under the words "Shake Things Up!" And my friend, my dear, sweet, thoughtful friend...well, she had the great idea of making a small little slit in the bottom of the packet of Chicklets so that they would slowly seep out of their packet as the envelope made its way from Ohio to Colorado! Boy, did her plan ever work! :) Almost all of the teenie tiny Chicklets had come out of their packaging and were free-flowing within the envelope and card!

I couldn't help but laugh out loud (yes, it was even funny enough to spell it out, rather than abbreviate it as usual!)! I know from experience that if you want to actually chew this kind of gum, it takes just about the entire packet of Chicklets to equal the size of a regular chunk of bubble gum! And yes, I did try to chew a few of them but all I could taste was paper!

I thought I'd share this story with you because it was such a unique idea! I mean, we've probably all been bombarded by an envelope full of heart or angel or birthday cake-shaped confetti in our lives, right? That's always fun and exciting (in fact, I have another dear friend who usually sends me a card with such decorations on my birthday...I should probably go check the mailbox today!)! But the Chicklets thing I'd never seen and it was thoroughly enjoyable!
So, the lesson here is, the next time you get a thick envelope covered with adorable smiley face stickers and it rattles...BE VERY CAREFUL! And be prepared to CHEW!!

P.S. Thank you, Betsy for the fun card! Actually, it was more an experience than just a card!

I'm Fried

I simply cannot eat a bunch of fried food anymore.

I used to not even think about what I put in my mouth. Naturally, that was *before.* When I started to not feel well, those two or three months prior to my diagnosis, the very last thing I ever wanted to eat was fried foods! It was like my body was actually giving me a warning, "Do NOT eat that! It's too hard on the liver and that's where the problem is now! Put the french fries DOWN!" So I stayed away from them for several months, maybe a whole year.

Every once in a while, I am bombarded by an almost overwhelming craving for a particular food or drink. Pete has mentioned that it's almost like what we hear pregnant women are like. Except that I'm not craving ice cream with dill pickles on it! My cravings are more direct. For example, I am currently in the midst of an Orange Crush soda craving! This from someone who rarely drank much soda in the first place! But it happened a month or so ago and we had to start buying Diet Orange soda so that I don't get sick from too much sugar. I like the way the diet tastes anyway...sort of sweeter.
My cravings aren't always bad for me, either. I have also craved cantaloupe and pineapple, edemame (soybeans) and chicken salad (not in those particular pairs, though). Alas, just like everyone else in America and beyond, I often do crave fried foods from time to time!

Last week I went to lunch with Dad and had a 6 McNugget meal. Six is really all I can eat until I get full anyway and I was proud of myself for eating all of them because it was protein protein protein (my nutritionist wants me eating a lot of protien but I struggle with that daily). Instead of fries, I had "Apple Dippers" on the side and I didn't even want the caramel dip that comes with them. I was just fine after that meal.
Another time recently, I was able to enjoy Bernie's Hot Dog Co.'s (a local restaurant) incredibly yummy onion rings (Pete and I usually split an order of them) without bad after effects.
However, two nights ago I guess I just turned my brain off and ate whatever I liked...which was two big egg rolls and half an order of sweet and sour chicken. Fried, fried and more fried...with some pineapple and red pepper chunks to "balance" everything out, right? WRONG!
Yesterday I was in so much pain in my liver that Pete and I thought for sure I needed a trip to the E.R.! It was horrible! We couldn't figure out what the cause was and of course we feared The Worst (a cousin of What If). But during a long phone conversation with Nurse Gari, in which I described exactly how and where I felt the pain, I remembered the previous night's Chinese food Pig Out and I said to him, "I don't want to go to the E.R. if this just turns out to be a very bad case of indigestion! I'd be so embarrassed!" (I am now asking myself why I'm sharing this story with you even though I'm still embarrassed about it!) So he suggested I take a couple of my breakthrough pain killers and take it easy for three or four hours and if it gets worse, give him a call and he'd get me in to see the doctor ASAP. Fortunately, a few hours later it did not come to that. It did not get worse but it also didn't get much better.
Last night I woke up every hour still feeling very uncomfortable in my gut. So I had to cancel my lunch plans for the day so I could stay home to manage the pain and try to, well...let's just say get to the end of this particular digestive crisis.

I tried Googling some information to share with you regarding what exactly the liver does and how fried foods are so horrible for it but I was unable to find any *reputable* articles with this information in it. In summary, the liver cleans the toxins and bad stuff out of whatever we put in our bodies before it can get into the bloodstream to give us energy, strength, etc. I think of it sort of like a blender: if you put fresh, sliced apples and carrots and oranges into it, they get ground up easily and smoothly, hardly a blip on the liver's Toxins Radar. But if you pour a cup of vegetable oil, a doughnut or two and the not-so-choice cuts of meat in there, hit the Puree button and let 'er rip, the blender will most likely get all that clogged up in its blades, causing the whole thing to just...S T O P. So if your liver is the bladed part of the blender and the whole blender itsself is your digestive system, you can imagine how unwell this would feel.
It happens to everyone, whether your liver is compromised or not. If you eat too much fried food either in one sitting or consistently for too long, your blender's bound to bind up and STOP, right? So with a liver that's not quite as healthy as it could be, it takes even less to stop those blades!

I am managing well, though and our fears subsided almost as quickly as they came yesterday. I am just grateful that I know exactly what is causing this pain, that I've been through this before, how to manage and get through it and that I will feel better very soon (maybe one more day, if that).

If you are a person who is now extremely worried about me and my health, please read the above two sentences VERY CAREFULLY. This is no big deal. It would be a big deal if I continued to eat junk food right now. But now I'm taking better care of myself and trying to figure out how to bend my body just enough to kick myself in the booty for not thinking things through when I ordered all that yummy Chinese food the other night! That'll learn me!

Now it's time for me to get on the treadmill for a while. Wish me luck!