I’m Not Dead Yet (I.N.D.Y.)

The pain in my stomach continues to be uncomfortable, so much so that I have not been sleeping well.  As I mentioned yesterday, the pain has been similar to the discomfort I experienced just after my surgery.  As such, I’ve been taking two oxycode pills (5mg) every 4-6 hours.  My doctor’s appointment today was largely uneventful.  She checked me over and said that the pain does not appear to be associated with any problems with my liver or spleen nor was there an indication that my pain was associated with some kind of blockage in my GI system.  She ordered an x-ray and a CT scan to try and figure out what was causing the pain in my stomach.  The x-rays came back fine but we will have to wait until tomorrow to find out about the CT.

She wants to move me to a morphine based pain reliever, but she didn’t want to switch me prior to my trip to Puerto Rico.  That’s right, on Thursday I will be heading to San Juan.  For those of you who have been coming to my blog for a while, you’ll know that I was supposed to go to Budapest, Hungary this summer.  Unfortunately, my cancer diagnosis prevented me from going, so I made it clear to my doctor that I really (REALLY) wanted to go to PR.  (She cleared me to go to PR.)

One of the things she wanted to do was move me to a morphine based pain reliever which is long lasting, so I would only have to take pain pills twice a day.  She didn’t want to start me on a new drug when I was heading to PR.  Instead, she wrote me a prescription for stronger oxycodone.

So there you have it, the pain is still unexplained, but the doctor is not terribly worried at this point.  She’ll know more tomorrow, in the meantime, I’m packing my swimsuit and the suntan lotion.

Don’t forget to send me your international recipes for inclusion in my dutch oven cookbook.  More tomorrow.

Merle

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I first want to thank those of you who have expressed their concern about the pain in my abdomen.  I called the doctor yesterday and have an appointment for this afternoon.  The pain, when not controlled with pain medication, is pretty substantial — reminding me a lot of the discomfort I experienced right after my surgery.  I am again reminded just how often we use our abdomen muscles.  Lying down and moving around in bed is particularly painful (to the point that, in the middle of the evening, it woke me up and I had to take another round of pain meds).  I truly do not expect this to be anything major, but it’s interesting how quickly I can go from feeling complacent about my cancer to being mildly concerned about my illness.

As for my asking for help, I have a couple of requests.  First, as I have previously mentioned, I participated in the advanced boy scout leader training called Wood Badge.  Part of successfully finishing this training involves completing 5 activities that help me to develop personally as well as a scout leader.  Thankfully, I have completed 4 of these activities (presenting a workshop on dutch oven cooking to scouts; presenting a workshop on cancer to scouts; participating as a trainer in cub scout leader training; and participating as a trainer for boy scout leader training).

The last item I have to complete is an international recipe cookbook for dutch oven cooking.  Now, looking at the stats for my blog, I had visitors from over 50 countries in October, so I am turning to you, the readers of my blog, for help.  I am asking you folks to send me your favorite international recipes.  You see, I am a firm believer that anything you can cook in an oven at home, you can also cook it in a dutch oven, too.  I will modify the recipes so they can be cooked in a dutch oven.

So what I need from you all is (a) a list of ingrediants; (b) directions for cooking; (c) the country of origin for the recipe; and (d) how you would like your credit to read (I will credit all recipes to the people who submitted them).  If you can help, please send your recipes and information to do@merlehamburger.net.  Thank you for your help with this project.

The second thing I would ask for your help with is my continuing effort to raise funds for the Pancreas Cancer Action Network’s PurpleStride Atlanta 5k walk/run.  I have successfully raised over $1500.00, but I would like to hit $2000.  If you haven’t done so yet, please consider making a contribution via my personal PurpleStride webpage.

Thank you for your help.  I promise to post what I hear from the doctor later today.

Merle

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