Ouch

Hi Everyone,  Today I left the hospital without completing the first implant treatment.  The truth is I simply could not take any further physical pain today.  Maybe I'm just a wimp, all I know is OUCH!

Brachytherapy is at best uncomfortable; at worst, excruciatingly painful.  The 'tubes' surgically implanted in me were approximately 2" in diameter and 10" long.  About 2-2.5" of these tubes protruded from my body (we know where cervical cancer is so that is the area of protrusion, nuff said about that).  I had 3 of these implanted and to help hold them in place moist gauze packing was also inserted, oodles and bunches of packing.  Then I was to basically lay on my back the entire time (3days).  That's when trouble in river city began...I've got a bad back.

I was ill for nearly 4 days, running fevers of 103.  Also needed more blood transfused, had perhaps 3 hours total sleep during those 4 days, just generally run-down and then came the surgery.  That was the only 'real' sleep I'd had in days since waking up from that I'd had no sleep since.  There were lots of factors stacked against me and by this morning I realized I'd hit my limit.  No amount of pain-killers were going to change this fact so I asked Dr. B if it was possible to take the tubes out before the scheduled time; it was and he took them out. I felt like a failure although Dr.B told me not to, that I'd just have to make up the time in the next round.(ugh!)

Right now I'm going back to bed.  More later today.

A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.
-- Author Unknown