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[ Home | All Archives ] Amazon.com Widgets Friday, April 26, 2024 otherstuff 07:57 AM - 04/26/2024 The topic: I’m a little behind…Brian is doing well, he’s gotten the okay to get back to work after four weeks of nothing. I’ve never watched so much television in a short period in my life. Watched a whole lot of BritBox. The day he had the surgery we were there at ten in the morning. We didn’t go home until after ten that night. The surgery went well, maybe really not so well, depending on how you look at it. When the tumor had been excised, the surgeon wasn’t happy with what he saw on the remaining portion of the kidney. Part of that was sent to the pathologist and the results were not promising, so the surgeon went back in and removed the entire kidney. Brian was sent into recovery and it took longer than it usually does. I watched as people left the waiting room and finally, I was the only one there. I was able to call the recovery room and they said he wasn’t ready yet. About an hour later, I was allowed back in. The reason I wasn’t able to go in sooner was Brian didn’t want me to see him in that condition. Really? I don’t know what he thought he should look like, but after five hours of surgery, I don’t imagine he thought he’d look great. He had a Zoom meeting with the surgeon the week after surgery and last Monday, he had an in-person visit with the surgeon, who was quite pleased with how well Brian was doing. He told Brian he could get back to work and life as usual. Brian did sleep a lot. The only issue that came up was constipation due to the opioids for the pain. They’d sent us home with Colace, but that didn’t work on the problems the drugs started. I contacted our primary care doctor and was given the go-ahead for Dulcolax. That worked. The cats are all fine, the dog is fine, I’m fine and life is getting back to normal. He’s been back in his shop, working on orders and today we’ll be shipping out three of them. I’m thankful orders were slow this month so that he won’t fall very far behind schedule. Life goes on. kidney cancer brian’s cancer (2) Comments | Permalink Tuesday, February 20, 2024 otherstuff 09:36 AM - 02/20/2024 The topic: Quick (?) updateBrian has cancer. A tumor on his kidney was found the Monday after last Thanksgiving. There is also a lesion on his liver. That weekend something happened to his lower back that had him in super bad pain. He just couldn’t get comfortable. I’d had sciatica in the past, so I know how that can be. But this didn’t seem like sciatica. We have a Nautilus mattress. Which is an air mattress. It’s old, past its prime, but it still works. His side was leaking air at the intake and I told him to sleep on my side, I’d just sleep on the sofa. Not a problem. He did on Saturday and Sunday night. Monday morning, I heard him calling me. I go in to see what he needs. "Don’t get mad" was what he said. That is NEVER a good way to start a conversation. Turns out, he has some pretty bad blood in his urine. And the pain is still there. We went to emergency and they ran tests (he had to pee in a cup and it looked like cola), which is when they found the tumor. Now, we get to the waiting stage. We’ve since learned that kidney cancer is symptomless, it’s usually found when something else is being checked out. One of the doctors advised that the pain was most likely from a blood clot passing through the kidney. He had his bladder checked out in December (there was a camera that was put up his penis checking for abnormalities) and that was pretty interesting. We had our annual physicals in mid-December and the doctor wanted to know about the lesion on the liver. Well, there was no word on that, so she put a call in for an MRI on the liver. He also had to have x-rays of his head to make sure there was no metal that would cause a problem with the MRI. (There was not.) We wait some more to find out about the liver MRI. At the beginning of January, we saw the oncologist surgeon who explained the four options. Due to the size of the kidney tumor, the first two options were not viable. So, surgery it is and the surgeon won’t know if the tumor can be excised from the kidney (there is still kidney function) or if the kidney has to come out. But he doesn’t want to set a date until he knows about the lesion on the liver. I tell him I’ve called them three times since our annual physicals and they haven’t responded yet. It was another two weeks before they did. The lesion is nothing to be worried about, just a fatty deposit. We’re told at this point things can start moving. But we have to wait for an opening for surgery. A month later (last Friday, February 16th), the call came in. The surgery is happening on March 21. This coming Friday he’s getting labwork done, then a consult with the surgeon next week. The amazing thing is the Tuesday after we went to emergency, his urine was clear and the pain was gone. And that’s where we stand at this point. He has some concerns that all of those over-the-counter supplements he’d been taking for years had something to do with this. He told me last night he was taking twenty-two (!!!) a morning. I knew he was taking a lot, but nothing like that. He’s not doing that anymore, he actually was scaling back last November. About Fury. He’d been coughing for a while and we took him in. The vet saw something concerning on his x-rays. Antibiotics helped with the cough, but the follow-up x-rays didn’t show any improvement in the mass in his left lung. We ended up going to a specialist at the beginning of January. An MRI was over $3,000 and to biopsy the mass would be a least an additional $1,000. I was ready to go for it, but Brian wasn’t. I was looking at the screen for the estimate options and surgery was $14,000 to $21,000! They were going to email an estimate, but they never did. What we decided to do was to get follow up x-rays with our family vet. He’s had two sets since and there has been no change. At this point, we’re just watching for any changes, with the occasional follow-up x-rays. And that’s life in the cathouse. fury catstuff cancer brian’s cancer | Permalink Friday, December 29, 2023 otherstuff 06:53 AM - 12/29/2023 The topic: This has been a horrible monthWe lost Phoebe on the 5th, Brian has some concerning health results, still getting tests and Fury may have lung cancer. Of course, we need more tests. That’s all for now. I’ll elaborate in a later entry. phoebe goodbye fury | Permalink Sunday, November 19, 2023 otherstuff 06:13 AM - 11/19/2023 The topic: It’s been an interesting couple of monthsThe dog had an ulcerated cornea, and a business owner from another state was interested in selling what Brian does, except in a higher volume than Brian and there was much paperwork and webwork to be done. I finally finished last year’s taxes (due to the bad weather last year, our county was on the list of counties that were given an extension (October 16, happy birthday to me!). The holiday cards that I started in July 2022 are completed! And I finally decided to get serious about LASIK surgery. First, Jingles. Back in September, I noticed that LBD’s right eye was really weepy, and upon closer inspection, it was also swollen shut. Lots of swollen conjunctiva. I started putting Teramycin in that eye on a Monday. By Friday, the swelling had gone down a little, but not enough to make me feel better about his eye. I made an appointment for him for the following week Turned out he had a badly ulcerated cornea. The vet trimmed back the fur around his eye, cleaned it up, and then put a contact lens in. Yeah, a contact lens. This was to help the new prescription drops stay where they were needed. A couple of weeks later, we took him in for a recheck and although the eye was better, it wasn’t good. So, they took blood, spun it, which separated the blood parts, pulled off the blood serum , and put it in a bottle for us to put in his eye. He also got a new antibiotic script. Ten days later, the eye is...