As I read through posts and blogs of fellow enthusiasts who get set back on their passions due to health reasons… I admit I am joining that task force of LJs who have been forced to slow down but are determined to get back in it again as soon as possible.
You may have noted me flipping in and out of this site, and my last project was a painted piggybank. My niece loved it, by the way. I encouraged her at her birtthday to make the rounds and collect coin ;)
About a month ago I was diagnosed with cancer. Let’s say “a lot of it”. I won’t talk about stages and kinds…. just that I am being taken care of by so many great specialists here in Montreal that I have total faith they will help me beat it along with my own scrappy spirit. This thursday I start radiotherapy for lesions on the brain… then there is followup chemo for my lung, spine, liver and abdomen. They have not tested my big toe yet, if you get the drift!
Amazingly, I never showed signs or the signs were not well put together. What triggered all the investigation was I had severe back spasms after doing refinishing on the table of my diningroom project. Since I had a horse riding accident a few years ago, I am used to back pain and figured I overdid it – as usual. Chiro treatments over a week actually helped! But then suddenly I was going into work end of April and I heard a loud snap and I doubled over, unable to walk. I saw my clinic doc immediately and she sent me for an MRI on my lumbar. Instead of finding a slipped disk, they found mestasticized lesions on the lower spine! Talk about a shocker.
So I got all sorts of tests over a week and we know we are facing. I went home… things seemed good but my body tried to test me out last thursday. Unbeknownst to me and at least 50 health professionals who have been all over my body…. a mass of fluid had collected around my heart and was crushing it. Can you believe this? I almost died (vitals crashed) but these great docs got a catheter around my heart real quick and drained me off. After a week – we determined full recovery from that episode and I got out of the hospital on saturday.
I think if I can survive that, I can beat this and I can’t wait to start up my projects again… When I was in the hospital for the first round (tests) I was trying to figure out if I could sneak in a scroll saw…. to while away the time… I think I will spend another round watching my Charles Neil videos… and of course on this site when I am not too tired. I have not set myself up with too many buddies to follow but I may just do that more.
Keep on truckin’ and postin’. You folks on this site are one hell of a bunch and I still remember my first project post and how nervous I was! You welcomed me with open arms and kept the encouragement. I’ll never forget that.