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.** Treatment Day: 13 The nurse told me my outfit was "so cute" today when I walked in.  I felt good and then she adds, "I guess I just like seeing actual clothes" and motions to her scrubs.  Compliment deflated. There was no one else in the room today.  I haven't seen Bladder Guy all week - I wonder if he's finished.  He wasn't there my first week either, though, so I don't know.  Spanish Guy was also notably absent today.  He's a diabetic.  I wonder if his sugar was too low or something.  I've started to worry about him on the days he is not there. While waiting for the doctor to arrive, I chatted with the regular nurse for a while.  She asked me if I can tell that the treatments are working.  I tried to explain that I couldn't really tell because I was in such an odd place when it began.  My pain was less constant already, after the last surgical ...

**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...