Fibro Friday!

Hooray it's Friday! That's a great feeling if you have been working all week and have been looking forward to the weekend. For me ... today it means I have survived one more surgery in my lifetime! One week ago today I was lying on a pretty uncomfortable hospital bed with an even more uncomfortable pillow under my neck. I was at the hospital this time for lung surgery. The most serious surgery that I have been through yet.  I had IVs in both arms and was soon being wheeled off to a large operating room where many people clothed in surgical blues were scurrying about preparing for my upcoming appointment with them! As things began to fall into place and they began to settle in around me I began to feel very sleepy. I honestly don't remember the recovery room this time...usually I do but the next thing I remembered was being wheeled into my room where my son and daughter were waiting. I am sure neither of them realize how much that means to someone coming back from surgery....but to me it meant so much more than I can put into words. Unless you have been that one on the hospital cart not knowing if you are going to live or die... then you really don't understand how much it means to know that someone... somewhere... cares about you. I think about all this today as I sit here on my sofa in pain. At least I am still here feeling that pain... and I am thankful for my family and for the many many people who have shown concern this past week. Today is Friday and I am so glad I have made it through this painful week and have hope that this next week will bring continued healing and less pain. Maybe you need to look at where you were last Friday in order to be thankful for where you are today. 

Fibro Farewell

Farewell my Fibro Friends...this is the last post before I go to the hospital! Tomorrow morning is the day we pack up early and head to the hospital. The first day is just pre- op stuff and I will not be officially admitted until Friday. After they are finished with me tomorrow, we will get our motel room and actually have our pick of a really good place to eat! My "last supper"! Then up bright and early on Friday morning without coffee.....oh no....not again!!! I hate that part the most! My surgery is supposed to be sometime first thing but as surgeries go....that doesn't always happen that way.... we will see. I will probably not be posting anything on this blog for  a few days....maybe longer.... depends on how doped up I am...I don't think I should write if I am a bit loopy! However, maybe I am like that anyway and just don't know it? Well...until I get back at it again...farewell.... Later Gator....After awhile Crocodile!

Fibro Fervor

I guess you could say I have what you would call "Fibro Fervor" or in other words ...Persistence! It has been a royal pain in the pinfeathers to all of my doctors I am sure because they especially have had to listen to my chronicles of chronic complaints for the last year over and over and some of them I do believe were starting to think I was nuts! You see, it all started when years ago doctors thought I had MS but then later after several MRI's of my beautiful brain decided that was not my disease! They then started throwing all kinds of other possibilities at me. Then two years ago I had my gallbladder removed! Ever since I have had one problem after the next. I have fractured my foot, found out I have Osteoporosis, Vitamin B-6 deficiency, Vitamin D deficiency, migraines, fibromyalgia, ulnar nerve damage in both arms, and on and on the list goes. The persistence or "Fibro Fervor" as I call it, comes in here..... I have had this chronic terrible pain up under my right ribcage ever since my gallbladder problem in 2009. I have told doctor after doctor. I have been told...you may have adhesions....maybe it is phantom gallbladder pain....maybe you have shingles...maybe it is in your head...(NO.....IT IS IN MY RIB CAGE!)  I really was getting tired of telling all of my doctors about this chronic pain so I finally stopped mentioning it to them just recently. Then in April, I started having really bad chest pain that just didn't go away even when I rested so I went to the Dr once again. I noticed that this pain in my ribcage was getting to be more constant and severe however I decided I would just shut up about it this time since no one was listening about this anymore! My doctor decided to do a lung function test and I failed....hmmm. So then on to a chest x-ray, CT Scan and PET Scan. Very interesting! Well... the doctor discovered that in my right upper lobe of my lung there sits a good sized lung nodule that looks like cancer. I sure do wish they would have explored my complaining about my ribcage pain a bit sooner!! So I am telling you my Fibro friends....be persistent...because you know your own body! You alone know what and how you are feeling! Keep telling your doctor the same thing over and over until they do something about it! My doctor just looked me in the eye and said..."I just want you to know that at no time did I ever doubt you.... "  HMMM. Anyway...now I am facing surgery on Friday of next week to remove this nodule. It is too embedded to just remove a small wedge of my lung so a whole lobe of my right lung must be removed in order to be sure they get it all in case it is cancer. Don't let your Doctor talk you out of your symptoms. I know they have done that to me. Be persistent if something is really an ongoing problem... make sure they investigate it!