Positively Phoebe

**This post was transferred from the now defunct "The Long Ease" blog.** Well, today SHOULD HAVE been Treatment Day #24... but things don't always go according to plan... Yesterday, as I sat across from Ryan during our Labor Day breakfast at our corner diner, I was feeling pretty great.  Like, finally feeling like I knew for sure that I was getting better.  No doubt in my mind.  I even felt comfortable saying it out loud.  That was an awesome feeling. After breakfast, we went to run some errands, and I started to feel a little "bleh" in the belly.  Bloated and uncomfortable by the time we got home, I was in and out of the bathroom for a couple hours.  Ryan guessed that I probably got a mushroom in my omelette somehow.  Not hard to believe and the symptoms seemed similar to the mushroom situation.  But as the day went on, I started to feel like it was less gastric upset, and more the same stupid lower abdominal pain that has accompanied my la...

**This post was transferred from the now defunct "The Long Ease" blog.** Just wanted to pop in and say a couple things: 1. I just took my last antibiotic a moment ago.  I am feeling pretty good.  Hoping it lasts through the next week and our upcoming trip to the Adirondacks! 2. The Survivorship Support Group at The Gathering Place is really pretty excellent.  I enjoyed this month's session on Tuesday night immensely.  Got to talk to some lovely people, finally got to officially meet a familiar face from other programs we've both attended there, got some accidental great insight from a kidney cancer survivor about something that's been VERY on my nerves lately, and once again really "GOT" how much help is needed in the Survivorship Community as a whole.  Which brings me to... 3. We live in a time when more people survive cancer than die from it.  And yet, support for survivors and our unique and myriad problems is seriously lacking - ESPECIALLY in...

**This post was transferred from the now defunct "The Long Ease" blog.** It's funny, I really had not intended for this blog to be a chronicle of new health issues, exactly, but it seems that right as I started it, all this craziness started getting crazier. But I don't want to leave anything hanging, so I just figured I would pop in and say that I do seem to be recovering quite well from the Emergency Room excitement. All of my blood tests came back perfectly normal, so the infection was likely all that was causing all that pain and high fever.  Crazy.  I couldn't get a gauge on whether the doctor seemed to think the infection was actually in the bladder / from the surgery, or just somewhere unknown in the urinary tract.  Doesn't matter, I suppose.  Knowing won't make it have sucked any less! Anyhow, I am halfway through my antibiotics and 5 days away from a vacation that is STILL HAPPENING! Can't wait. Xxo, Phoebe

**This post was transferred from the now defunct "The Long Ease" blog.** I'm headed back to work today. Yesterday's follow-up at the doc pretty much told us this is probably nothing serious.  Looked like some growth had happened in the urine culture, likely indicating nothing more than a UTI.  I got another series of pokes and listens and was sent to the pharmacy to pick up a week's worth of Penicillin which I have to take 4x a day.  She hoped that by today, it might bring my fever down and it seems to have done that.  Back down to 99ish this morning, which is pretty normal for me, so I'll take it.  And I'll be calling for or expecting a call with the results of the other tests sometime today.  The pain has settled down to being manageable with just the Tylenol and when I got up this morning, I actually stood up straight without wincing.  So progress is definitely being made! The hard part is definitely just the difficulty in all of this.  T...