I'd appreciate your thoughts folks, and for those of you so inclined, your prayers.

 

Monday morning I'll go into surgery at University of Chicago Hospital for a sarcoma that is most likely the consequence of radiation therapy and chemo that I had for head & neck cancer ten years ago. It's the continuation of a saga that began in 1994.

 

I'll be out of touch with the world (what's new? :wink:) for four or five days in intensive care after the surgery, and in the hospital for a total of around ten days. I have a friend in Chicago who will bring me a bag with my laptop, cell phone, etc. after I get out of ICU, so if I can find a WiFi hotspot I'll be back on line as soon as I'm up to it. I'm putting a digicam in the bag, too, so maybe I can sneak in a photo tour from the belly of the beast.

 

According to the CT scans it doesn't look like the sarcoma has metastasized. I'm maintaining my optimism; same surgeon as before, and she's one of the best. The care there is first-rate.

Rob,

 

My thoughts and prayers are with you!

 

Stay strong, I have faith you will have a speedy recovery and you'll be back to your "sweet and innocent" self in no time!

Good luck!

Definitely, and please keep us up to date, or send a friend to do so if you're out of touch...best of luck!

 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you Rob.

Rob you have both thoughts and prayers from me.  I look forward to hearing from you again after you recover.

Best regards to you!  Before you know it, this will be over with and behind you!

I'll pray to my God for you Rob.  Really I will.  Looking forward to your future posts.

Best of luck Rob! You are in my thoughts and prayers!

Good luck and wishing you a speedy recovery.

Although we have never met, you seem like a great guy. The best of luck to you.

Good luck and keep on truckin'.

Keep thinking positive! I'll be thinking of you.

Hope all goes well, don't stay away too long.

Rob strong like bull.  All be OK.

 

Seriously, good luck.  I'll be pulling for you.

We'll certainly be thinking of you.

Good luck, man! You know you have all of our support :)

Best of luck to you, Rob, we'll hear from you soon!

Good luck to you.

Wish you the BEST!      Keep us posted!

Best wishes, Rob.  Can't wait to hear from you again.  You have such good stuff to chat about.

Rob- thoughts and best wishes from Cleveland. stay stong and be well

Good luck with the procedure.  We'll all be thinking of you. 

Just checking in.  How are you doing?

Based on the timeline in the thread header Rob should have been out of the hospital around this weekend?

 

I hope things went well...

 

 

Hope we hear something. Get well soon!

He hasn't visited Hamilton yet; Rob will pull through.

Thanks to friends in Chicago, South Shore Railroad, and friends in Fort Wayne, I returned to my cozy, messy home this evening.

 

Doctors and staff are all pleased/amazed with the outcome of my 14 hours in the OR on October 22, and my subsequent recovery. There's still a lengthy period ahead of hospital-at-home, along wih return visits for follow-up, but by spring, I'll be impatient and rarin' to go. The next couple of days will involve signing for shipments of supplies and learing to play "I'm my own doctor."

 

Worst part of the whole thing? NO COFFEE for the next two weeks, at least. "You can have ice chips," they said, "Just don't get carried away."

 

They had to remove a tumor (haven't seen the pathology report on it yet) from my neck, and then do reconstructive surgery using muscle and skin from my left thigh. Then they had to fix that with a skin graft from my right thigh. Pretty sore in places, yet. My left leg is in an immobilizing brace, and I'm being fed by tubes into my stomach and instestine for an indeterminate number of weeks. I have an interesting life.

 

Thanks for the thoughts & prayers. I'll be working my way back up to speed on the forum.

It's great to hear you made it through...take care, and keep us posted.

Wow. It's good that you are doing great, and take care! Keep us posted!

Glad everything went well!

Welcome home, thanks for making it through, and for the love of Pete, go easy on those ice chips. See you at the 2008 Columbus Meet!

Rob- glad you are home. I forgot to put on here that at our Cleveland meet on the 28th we toasted to your recovery. Did you feel the love at about 7pm (est)?  :wave:

^If it coincided with the sponge bath, then probably, yes.

Rob- glad you are home. I forgot to put on here that at our Cleveland meet on the 28th we toasted to your recovery. Did you feel the love at about 7pm (est)?   :wave:

 

I felt pretty toasted about then, but I chalked it up to the hospital's pain meds!

Yay!!  Glad you're okay, Rob!

Good to hear you are recovering well.  Hope to see you at the next forum meet.

 

edit: realized my lame attempt at humor was superfluous.

Great to hear your back--well--getting there at least.  Good luck with the recovery.  You had a lot to talk about. 

Rob good to hear the operation went well.  I was thinking of you and was concerned...

 

 

I'm relieved to hear that you are doing well, Rob. I thought about you a lot and it's amazing how just an online forum can bring you close to someone.  Good luck with your revcovery and feel better!!!

...it's amazing how just an online forum can bring you close to someone. 

 

I think urbanohio.com is more than just an online forum. Compared with so many forums, this one has some great substance. Our shared interest in cities, architecture, planning etc., draw together a group that's wonderfully diverse in age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, occupation. The forum meets really build unity, and the moderators do an amazing job of keeping the peace. Darn good place to hang out.

 

I think I'm making pretty good progress; feeling pretty good most of the time, regaining my energy. The big breakthrough will be getting enough PT behind me to get the brace off my leg so that I can dress more easily and get in and out of a car with less strugge. Believe me, wedging one's self into and then extracting one's self from a compact while unable to bend a fairly long leg gets quite interesting sometimes :-D

I happy to hear you are doing well.

I join everyone else on here in saying that I'm glad to hear that everything went according to plan.  And I hope this forum helps quell some of the boredom that comes with long periods of recovery!

Rob.  I'm glad all is well.

I join everyone else on here in saying that I'm glad to hear that everything went according to plan.  And I hope this forum helps quell some of the boredom that comes with long periods of recovery!

 

I could use a little boredom for a change! Visiting nurse, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, ...

 

I'm feeling pretty good most of the time, still trying to get my energy level back up. Pain is minimal, not enough to require meds now.

 

The bitches are mobility and nutrition. The surgery was on my neck, and I'd had radiation there previously, so they had to do reconstructive surgery, too. That involved taking muscle & skin from my left thigh for a graft, so now I have a brace on my left leg until I-don't-know-how-long. Ever try to get into/out of a compact car with a leg brace? :laugh:

 

Also not allowed anything to eat or drink by mouth, for at least the next couple of weeks. I've got a tube straight into my gut, and I pour these cans of slop into a bag hooked to a little digitally-controlled pump and the pump whines and wheezes 16 - 18 hours a day metering it in just the right amounts. I'm getting the essential nutrients and calories OK, but I still feel hungry most of the time. No alcohol, no caffiene.

 

I feel like going out and getting into a fight just for some variety, but that probably wouldn't turn out too well. I'd better stick with naps in my recliner in front of a sunny window. :-)

 

Plenty to do now, just catching up on business. I hope to get back to some scanning and photoshopping soon.

"Visiting nurse, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, ..."

 

For most people, that would be very much welcome.

 

Uhhh, those wouldn't do much for Rob - or me... or a few others on this site...

Umm, as an Admin I must remind you of the rules... but uhhh, I'll overlook this infraction*... :-D

 

*Just don't post any of the next series of photos - we don't want to lose any of our hetero membership ;-)

You had no idea how many pages I had to browse to find something that was not too revealing. Finding a male nurse is easier than female nurse that's SFW.

 

_{(Runs out to get a white nurse's outfit for men.)}