whoa, hoss, not so fast

I'm going to keep this short. Today I learned that my lymphoma has reared its ugly head again. This will require two more chemo treatments in October, then more vital organ testing in November, and admission to Moffitt Cancer Center in mid-December if all goes well, not on November 9.

My heart surgery delayed my admission in August, as initially planned, but that surgery was necessary. Some good news is that (if all goes well) I will be back home in five weeks, not ten weeks as I understood earlier.

This my last use of this blog to post updates about my medical situation. Go to http://www.caringbridge.com/visit/al_galbraith for the rest of the story. That's an easier place for people to interact by leaving messages, and I'd love to hear from you.

Recovered, more or less

It's been six and a half weeks since my by-pass surgery and I'm mostly healed, thank God. It ony hurts when I sneeze. I've started cardio exercises where they connect me to a wireless EKG and monitor my heart rate as I "work out," for lack of a better term. The last session included twelve minutes on a treadmill (boring), twelve minutes on a stationary bicycle (even more boring), and some very limited exercises with four-pound (!) dumbells, followed by some stretching. There's a man who brings a CD with hit songs from the Fifties that they play on the sound system, the stuff they'd play for slow waltzes at a sock hop. (I wonder if kids today know what a "sock hop" was?) I'm going to make a CD with some rock and roll suitable for exercising by old guys like me. One of the nurses begged me to do so, so I will.

Last week, the highlight for me was a "procedure" by a urologist to try and save what's left of my left kidney. I will spare you the details, gentle reader, but if you Google "kidney" and "stent," you'll get the idea. I spent last weekend cursing the urologist and swore that I'd call him on Monday to demand it be removed, but by Monday it had settled down from agonizing to merely irritating and now it's tolerable, even without pain pills. I just hope it works.

Next week I'll go to Moffitt in Tampa for three days of testing. In early November I'll check into their facility for the serious stuff. I will keep you posted!