Rectal cancer (Stage 3A) diagnosed late June 2017

[Eleda]

Jesus Mike Ur having a rough time of it ATM, I how things improve soon for u
Adele X

[NHMike]

Jesus Mike Ur having a rough time of it ATM, I how things improve soon for u
Adele X

I came home and there was a bathroom flood in my absence. Fortunately others cleaned everything up and I'm running a dehumidifier to dry things down more quickly.

It's been a rough year and I would really like to get back on my feet again because I have a huge backlog of things to take care of.

[susie0915]

I hope you are feeling better Mike.

[NHMike]

I started running after 5 weeks, mainly because of the pressure in the abdomen and surgery.

Claudia

Thanks for the data point. My abs are better but not 100% and I think that I'm going to wait until the abs are 100% solid. I find that I can do the elliptical right now and it's like running but without the shock. I will take it easy for a week because of the heart stuff yesterday.

[NHMike]

I hope you are feeling better Mike.

I took the medication last night. My heartrate dropped slowly yesterday afternoon and was back to normal this morning. I don't know whether or not the medication helped. I'm working from home today to see if there are any side-effects that I need to worry about. It's a low dose and the doctor said that the side-effects usually show up at much higher doses. The drug has been around since 1969 and it's a standard treatment drug globally.

I'm feeling a lot better (not 100% as the GI problems persist) but I'm fairly functional right now. I have two Chest Strap Heart Rate Monitors and I might put one of those on for easy measurement. The other approach would be to buy a Blood Pressure device ($25 - $50 at the drug store) as they also measure heart rate. I can take my pulse fairly quickly but it requires a bit of setup with a timer.

So back to working on the GI stuff for now. I have an appointment with a cardiologist in two weeks just to check things out. I don't think that it's anything serious.

[ValZen]

I'm glad to hear your heart rate is back to normal Mike! I hope it's a good day overall for you today!

[Lee]

. . . . The other approach would be to buy a Blood Pressure device ($25 - $50 at the drug store) as they also measure heart rate. I can take my pulse fairly quickly but it requires a bit of setup with a timer.

.

Be careful with those over the counter blood pressure cuffs, They use them in a lot of doctor's office and I ALWAYS get a very HIGH reading, usually around 160 to 170 over 90 something. Not too long ago, I needed some dental work done, doctor was unsure if he should do it. I told them not to take my blood pressure that will find it high, and it was. BUTT, I always keep a paper from my last PCP visit where they take my blood pressure the old fashion way, 124/70. When I showed the dentist this, he told his staff, forget taking her pressure anymore.

I have a Fitbit Charge 2, I can get my resting heartbeat anytime I want. You might want to look into something like that to measure your heart rate. They are coming out with a Fitbit Charge 3, so the Charge 2 are dropping in price. My local Kohl's is selling them at a discount. Also Fitbit has Black Friday specials for various of there trackers. That is how I got my current Fitbit.

Hope you are feeling better soon. Dehyrations can land you in the hospital fast. I still drink tons of water a day.

Lee

[child#6]

You can get a pulse oximeter on Amazon.com. I have found them to be accurate for me.

[NHMike]

. . . . The other approach would be to buy a Blood Pressure device ($25 - $50 at the drug store) as they also measure heart rate. I can take my pulse fairly quickly but it requires a bit of setup with a timer.

.

Be careful with those over the counter blood pressure cuffs, They use them in a lot of doctor's office and I ALWAYS get a very HIGH reading, usually around 160 to 170 over 90 something. Not too long ago, I needed some dental work done, doctor was unsure if he should do it. I told them not to take my blood pressure that will find it high, and it was. BUTT, I always keep a paper from my last PCP visit where they take my blood pressure the old fashion way, 124/70. When I showed the dentist this, he told his staff, forget taking her pressure anymore.

I have a Fitbit Charge 2, I can get my resting heartbeat anytime I want. You might want to look into something like that to measure your heart rate. They are coming out with a Fitbit Charge 3, so the Charge 2 are dropping in price. My local Kohl's is selling them at a discount. Also Fitbit has Black Friday specials for various of there trackers. That is how I got my current Fitbit.

Hope you are feeling better soon. Dehyrations can land you in the hospital fast. I still drink tons of water a day.

Lee

I have two running watches and they both have chest strap HRMs. They are not as convenient as wrist-based HRMs but are more accurate.

I have an iCloud Notes page to record and remind me of drinking water now. That's how I manage meds and supplements too.

[NHMike]

I had a deadline for some work today so I worked late last night and during the day to get it done. There are lots of people that tell me to take it easy and I need to learn how to do that.

I went to the grocery store and wasn't feeling great - sweating, tired and worried about a repeat of yesterday. I got home and had some junk carbs and felt a lot better. Then worse. I've had about 1600 calories since then and it's helped.

I also spent two hours on the toilet and it culminated with one large poop. And that's the first time since the reversal. It was nice because I knew that I wouldn't have to go to the bathroom for a very long time. So food and drink and more sleep is in order.

[NHMike]

I largish poop this morning and then a medium one later on. This means that more is coming out at one time which means that my time in the bathroom and the requisite cleaning is decreasing. I also got six hours of uninterrupted sleep last night (seven hours total sleep). I have not had this amount of uninterrupted sleep since before the first surgery last year. I usually woke up every two to three hours when I had the bag. So the rest felt nice.

My heartrate was in the 60s this morning which is lower than normal so I'll have to watch that it doesn't get too low with the Lopressor.

So things have improved somewhat. If the poops get larger, that's a good improvement. I haven't taken fiber for a few days because of the event but I'm back to taking it now. I need to go out for more pads. I want to be sure that I have lots of supplies for dealing with this stuff.

And I'm working from home and will be working more from home in the future to make life a bit easier.

[Atoq]

I am happy to hear that things are improving! I also have the possibility to work from home when I don’t have classes, but I am not good at taking it.

Claudia

[NHMike]

I am happy to hear that things are improving! I also have the possibility to work from home when I don’t have classes, but I am not good at taking it.

Claudia

The working from home is a nice option but I do like to be in the office to get the vibe of what's happening. People that work at home a lot often ask me what's going on when they are in. So I guess I'm in a similar camp as you are.

I got 6.5 hours of solid sleep last night and there was nothing in the diaper this morning. And that's actually really nice. Good sleep is something that I need in life to function and I haven't had good sleep since the ileostomy bag was installed. I went this morning and there was a very large poop. Firm at first and then loose. But the large amount meant that I wouldn't have any problems for three or four hours. It seems to me that the brain is learning to work with whatever nerves remain while I'm sleeping to keep things inside. This afternoon there's more frequent going to the bathroom for small pieces. I think that this signalling will eventually get fixed as well but maybe it just takes time. At any rate, yesterday and today are definite improvements.

My heart rate has stabilized in the normal to somewhat lower than normal area and I have an appointment set with the cardiologist. The cardiologist thing is just a precaution - I think that my cardiac incident was due to lack of food and water and I've worked pretty hard to fix those two things. It does take some effort to drink 1/2 gallon of water or decaf beverages per day. It's going to be frustrating giving up coffee too.

There's some amount of pressure at work around deadlines too. So things are normal at work. I'm also going to do some walking today. I stopped my extreme walking with the cardiac incident but it's hard for me to do nothing for a while.

It sounds like you're doing great as I haven't seen you post anything that's a problem and it seems like you're enjoying life. I think that we all want to get to that place.

I actually have time to work on the reversal book/article today too.

[rockhound]

I largish poop this morning and then a medium one later on. This means that more is coming out at one time which means that my time in the bathroom and the requisite cleaning is decreasing. I also got six hours of uninterrupted sleep last night (seven hours total sleep). I have not had this amount of uninterrupted sleep since before the first surgery last year. I usually woke up every two to three hours when I had the bag. So the rest felt nice.

My heartrate was in the 60s this morning which is lower than normal so I'll have to watch that it doesn't get too low with the Lopressor.

So things have improved somewhat. If the poops get larger, that's a good improvement. I haven't taken fiber for a few days because of the event but I'm back to taking it now. I need to go out for more pads. I want to be sure that I have lots of supplies for dealing with this stuff.

And I'm working from home and will be working more from home in the future to make life a bit easier.

'

That "full" night of sleep was a wonderful thing when it finally came.. keep pushing forward!

[Lee]

. . . It's going to be frustrating giving up coffee too. . .
.

Glad to read you are doing better. Is the coffee issue due to your recent ER visit? I would talk to the cardiologist about that if it were me. I used to drink several cups a day when I was younger. Now certain Dr.(s) want me to drink 2 cups a day. Butt I can only handle 1 cup, sometimes less as I grow older. Many days I don't drink it at all.

My resting heart rate tends to hang around 60ish. I thought that was suppose to be in the normal range? Below 60 is a problem, or so I thought.

Lee