I was so excited to tell you all the great news, I forgot to tell you the other good news. Dr. Lo got my stomophagus to 18 mm! That means it is 3 mm ABOVE what we were shooting for! A normal esophagus is 15 to 25 mm and I am smack dab in the middle! Now how cool is that? AND I had my first salad!!! Greens never tasted so yummy, but I think next time I want a greek salad or one with lots of tomatoes! * happy sigh*  Am I sounding too much like an alien again? Cause if I am, I am at the point where I really don't mind.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Art by Liz Lemon Swindle Copyright.

First off, another balloon party dilation happened yesterday.

When I was there in prep, I was trying to decide if knowing the nurses so well that I was asking :

.....about Danielle's pregnant daughter, or why Achilles wasn't at work today, or if Michelle wouldn't mind if we called Ron from the IV team this time cause my veins were being mean to me today, or if Mike was finished with his traveling nurse assignment, or where Mariella gets her hair clips 'cause they always match her scrubs.......

was this a good thing or a bad thing?   hmmmm...

Anywhoo, Dr. Lo got ye ol' stomophagus to 14 millimeters. The magic number we are shooting for is 15, so we are almost there. The tissue had grown back to a point it was before the last dilation, so he was pretty aggressive this time, actually removing scar tissue and injecting me with steroids so the tissue wouldn't grow back as fast. He really is an amazing doctor.  I also got a new medication to basically "shellac" the lining to help it heal faster and smooth it out a bit. I am so very happy that after 2 days of a clear liquid diet, I get to finally have some real food. Well, soft foods like mashed taters, canned fruit or veggies, etc. Still no salad, but we are getting there. I am thankful for that.  I am also thankful Nathan said "Mom I am really kinda sick of pizza.".

The kids have been eating that pretty solid for the past year with Cary doing the single dad thing and all. Poor hubby reached the "sick of it" stage back around last April. To his credit he stuck to it...and stuck to it pretty darn well I might add. This has been a hard year on him. On all of us really, but we emerged from the other side a with a few more gray hairs (OK a lot more gray hairs, but that is what L'Oreal is for...), but we DID emerge.

I know I have been belly aching a lot these past few blogs, but I really do have so much to be grateful for. I just need to take the time to understand that.

In fact, for the last past 5 months Cary and I have been trying our darnest to figure out a thank you gift for Dr. Soukiasian. "Thanks for saving my life, here's some golf balls." just doesn't seem to cut it.  We have searched high and low, even asking his nurse for suggestions to his interests. We are still at square one.

How can ANYTHING convey to him  that I am here because of his skill and Gods grace?  I get to see my children grow, play fetch with the dog and throw water balloons. I get to hold my babies when they cry and comfort them when they are scared. I get to watch them wrestle and giggle at their antics.

I get to fly kites with them.











How do you even begin to say thank you for that? Somehow even a nice fruit basket seems a bit trite.

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so...... the dilation went O.K., but I gotta do it again.

Good news: no sign of cancer HOORAY!

Also, he stitched my feeding tube back in (the stitch from the Monday ER trip kept slipping, making me feel a bit like a trombone). He pulled it out a bit more out than I am used to , so I have about 5 inches of feeding tube hanging that I need to tape up now. Not sure why he did that, but oh well, at least it ain't moving! 

Bad news, but really not so bad: scar tissue built up so much that the surgical staples were actually touching, creating a web across the 1/2 centimeter opening. Dr. Simeon Lo removed a few of  the staples and dilated my stomophagus to about 1 centimeter. He wants to get it to 1.5 centimeters, hence having to do it again.

right now I am sore and a bit tired, but hunky dory. Hey, I've been through A LOT worse. I can deal with more balloon animals...


p.s.  as per the Explanation of Benefits, my insurance company loves to send out, they have well exceeded a million dollars (yes that is the one with the six  0's after the 1)  in pay outs for my medical care. I suddenly understand why they were so keen on trying to get me to settle on "adequate" care...

Working through the pains in my back, I think I have not been walking enough. Gotta get those muscles up to speed. I only feel them when I am up and about or sitting in a chair that does not give adequate lumbar support. I also think I need to improve my posture...I slump forward too much when my stomaphagus and innards hurt.

I just liked the bum on the top right...J-Lo got nothing on this guy!

(I do wonder about my strange and convoluted thought patterns ... but only sometimes...)

OK I am a bit daft sometimes, but ya really can't blame me.... ok maybe you can. I mentioned I have been having trouble swallowing. I felt that maybe I was just being a woose, (huh, wonder the real spelling on that one, spell check will NOT accept it...) SO like the brilliant person I am, I decided I would just push through it. I tried to eat a tiny piece of really soft flaky fish (yummy on the tongue BTW, Cary is a great cook).

It got hopelessly stuck.

It was a full day before I could even get water down, and took 2 days to completely go down. Bah...  I just want to get better. I spoke with the nurse who said it was possible my new "stomaphagus" (wish I could claim credit for that wonderful word, but found it on a EC chat site)  is having a spasm (hold the spaz jokes please).

We are giving it a week to see what happens.

Oh, and Cary fixed my chair :)