So I only have bad news to share so far…. But don’t worry friends, I’ll have good news soon. I can feel it! For now I should update everyone on the latest, as you know I’ve been here for two weeks which is above the average time for a bed in a hospital. It’s bitter-sweet, I’m under care and not worried and without help at home. However, I was expecting to be here max ten days and would really like to heal at home.

Why am I still here?

That has been the famous question all week, I felt the reason was being hidden. It seemed as though everything was going well, good enough to be released. My heart rate has been very high since my surgery, something I expected to go down for a little while. Seeing as though my surgery was better than anticipated, they removed more Cancer than they thought possible. This allows for a better chance of slowing down growth, since the small tumors left in wont spread as quickly now. Even though my surgery went well this time, there’s a lot of complications to look for in the weeks after. Pulmonary embolism being one of them, which is a dangerous blood clot that has traveled to the lungs. Blood clots are unpredictable and need to be treated right away, especially if it has already made its way through the body. My heart palpitations, shortness of breath and some other symptoms are what raised the red flag.

Today I woke up with an unfortunate familiar feeling, the dreaded adrenaline attack. All I could think was “aren’t I supposed to have a break from this!” The idea of de-bulking is to be able to reduce the severity of the pheochromocytoma symptoms, and stop the growth. So you can imagine our disappointment all around when I felt this all too familiar event. So now it is unsure of whether it’s the left over pheo that is causing this, or a possible clot in my body. Either way, I don’t like the outcome.

I’ve been doing tests but I haven’t gotten any results back yet. I had to do a CT this morning, with contrast injection of iodine. Im allergic to iodine, so that was fun. I had to take a steroid called prednisone steroid all night, and a whole lot of Benadryl. I was NOT looking forward to the CT scan, my abdomen is truly a mess, I haven’t laid down flat since my surgery. It’s too soon and it hurts more than I can explain in resting positions, walking, anything really. Flat is the worst though, it stretches all the skin and internal stitches. The tech decided not to help me laying down after I had warned that I had just gotten surgery and I need patience and help laying down, I got the patience but zero help. I ended up falling flat on my back and feeling as though my ribs had poked through my body and then been hit repeatedly by a sharp object for the remaining amount of time I was forced to lay down still holding my breath. Nice, right?!

So now it’s time to wait, we are just hoping and praying we get an answer but one that is easy and quick to be dealt with. It’s evening so I doubt they will come up now, so I’ll update tomorrow or whenever I know. PS I still got a compliment from a doctor before the scan saying I don’t look like someone who just got surgery (still got it) 😜 HA!

Pheo VS Fabulous