The "C" Word + FREE

First thing going here, let me just toss out the "C" word with abandon: I AM CANCER FREE!!!!!!

Whew. Now that I've got that off my abdomen, let me tell you what else happened today. Today was the follow-up visit to Dr. Jeffrey Stern, my oncologist whose reputation has just grown with the addition of me as his patient.

Dr. Stephanie Sullivan, his assistant, took out my stitches today. While a little painful at the end, I was so glad to have those little suckers out that I smiled. She placed little bandages over each one, and told me they should stay on there for a week. If they fall off on their own, that's fine. WARNING: I am putting photos of these in here. They look rather raw at this point, and, believe me, they feel rather raw.

If I experience sharp gas pains, pains which are indeed playing on my system daily, I might look at GAS-X. Many people, however, say that it doesn't do them much good. I'm going to skip that. I've been fine so far with the gas; I expect it will get easier from here on out.

The inflammation that I feel -- and can touch -- in the lower part of my abdomen is normal. That will take about 4-6 weeks to finally calm down.

I was concerned about running about of pain meds. I have tried to cut down on meds, but yesterday was miserable. She didn't advise it, and so gave me another prescription for Vicodin. We love doctors and their little prescription pads. Stephanie suggested that, when I'm ready to wean myself off the Vicodin -- maybe in two to three days from now -- I might try one Vicodin tablet every 3 hours. That sounds like a good way to go.

I then walked into Dr. Stern's office, who went over the pathology report with me for all about five minutes. There was nothing to report. "Clear," "clear." He doesn't suggest radiation at this point, although he did note that some doctors do, as a conservative measure. He called it "prophylactic."

My appointment for a follow-up visit with Dr. Stern is June 21st, months from now. In the meantime, I will get labs done around the first of June. I will then call Shirley in his office, who will get the CT scan authorized through my insurance. By the end of that process, he should have results of both the blood tests and CT scan done before he sees me June 21st.

As I got up to walk out, I said to him, "You know, Dr. Stern, they say you're a genius. You certainly are to me. Thank you for the great work!"

And then he did something the usual taciturn Dr. Stern rarely does: He smiled.