RM6f9's Journal: Life happens (RANT)

Well, lessee...

In addition to being laid off from work in Oct, what else has happened here?

Back surgery for yours truly turned out to be a poorly timed blessing: The two ruptured disks have been repaired, the pain that had been my evil siamese twin for the last year plus is (thankfullly) gone - unfortunately, apparently, so is the ability to flex my left foot dorsally, resulting in a clumsy walk and the occasional trip and fall relatied to toe-drag. General anesthesia is a real experience - like throwing a hibernate switch on the brain, one second wide awake watching a needle go into the IV line, the next, they're removing a mask in the recovery room, ZERO memories between the two. Recovery continues, will take approx. 6 months to get anything like my former strength returned.

My wife is facing what may be her third bout with cancer - from hydro-nephrosis in September, through the prior three months of tests (Labs show slightly elevated kidney function and tumor marker; wait two weeks for CT; CT showed a lesion in the spleen, wait 2 weeks for ultrasound; ultrasound shows lesion non-water-based (but nothing visibly in lymph nodes), wait 2 weeks for PET; PET showed increased metabolic rate in the lesion, meanwhile labs show OCA tumor marker highest since original dagnosis (My friends of the bio-female gender - if it isn't there, ask your Dr. to add the OCA-125 test to your annual bloodwork - it can save your LIFE!)); Finally (after changing oncologists) we get one willing to try to help, chemo seems best, starts 2nd Jan - Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, here come 18 weeks of alopecia and bone pain, then more tests to see if we need to plan for recovery/remission or some other prognosis...

If there were any Cosmic Justice, the TRULY bad shit (cancer) would be happening to *me* - Don't mistake me, I'm hoping there is a God, because He's got some serious 'splainin' to do, and the way things are going right now, I want one shot at kicking Him in His Infinite NUTS before I tumble into the eternal flames where most of my friends and family will be...

I could *really* use a win right now... I'm tired of losing...

Holy Crap!

[Shadow Wrought]

That's a lot of stuff on one plate at one time. I hope everything goes well treatment-wise with your wife and hopfully your back continues to make improvement. Being unemployed sucks. Being unemployed with medical bills- I did that too, and I'm still trying to pay it off.

Best wishes to you, this too shall pass.

Re:

[RM6f9]

Nothing like watching one's hard-earned savings dwindle away, while *trying* to comfort an angel whose only crime was being generous enough to give her love to, well, me.

Deliver the wins, Infinity-Boy, or I'm gonna stomp on those Nuts with BOTH size 14 feet while wearing hob-nailed boots.

(lest anyone think I'm not doing my part, I've licensed a business for on-site PC rescue, donated hours to various organizations to put the word in the streets - so far, zero, zip, zilch, nada: On the wife front, I've done

Re:

[bethanie]

Hey, my pleasure.

My heart goes out to you and your wife -- I hope that you find your reserves of strength, faith, and love are deeper and more powerful than you had ever imagined.

That said, I would also like to mention that exercising can help make you the stud that *you* deserve to *be*.

You & your wife will be in my thoughts -- all the best to you both.

....Bethanie....

Re:

[RM6f9]

Thank you, Bethanie.

disks

[zogger]

I blew out most of mine several years ago and it eventually put me out on the street as I went through my savings, etc. I avoided surgery (refused it which is what the official insurance docs wanted to do) and opted for chiropractic care and hydrotherapy, and got a lot of function back (took a LONG time), but I still suffer relapses. Being in a physical job, sometimes this becomes..inconvenient is the word. More or less in forced semi retirement now, I was never able to effectively go back to my regular job

Re:

[RM6f9]

I live on a very small farm - part of the grief over being sans job is the fact that the mortgage is still due every month: While I like the quiet, the Mrs. gets some therapeutics from her critters and (weather permitting) her garden - we joke about "gettin' dressed t' go t' the big city" when we go.

Thank you for the tip on another web resource for her.