Slight setback, going in for colon surgery this afternoon, doc say 3-4 days recuperation. So if I am a little tardy responding in the next day or so, be patient!

On a related note, it’s funny that, to a musician, the pain is only a minor inconvenience, but not being able to perform at 100% is the thing that really tears you up. Been dealing with this for a few months now, and the thing I’m looking forward to the most isn’t the exhaustion going away or the lack of pain, or being able to sleep properly or go to the bathroom normally…

It’s being able to get in front of my audiences and give them my best! 🎹♥️🙏

Everything else is just lagniappe..!

You will be ok.... Health issues have become a lot more manageable now.

Take care of yourself.

Thanks.

Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery Diki.

Wishing Diki a rapid recovery. I ‘m sure you’ll b back to doing what you love feeling better than ever!

Wishing you a speedy recovery.🙏

👍🏼. Heading into pre-op in a few. Hope the surgeon plays good music while he works! Don’t trust a surgeon playing smooth jazz in the background..!

Speed metal, maybe, some Zeppelin, maybe even some punk. Just no smooth jazz! 😵‍💫🤢🤮

Good luck, Diki, and I sincerely hope the surgery is successful.

All the best,

Gary

Here`s for a speedy recovery Diki,take it easy afterwards.

Get well soon Diki! Have no doubt that you did the right thing investigating and getting this taken care of!

Wish you all the best Diki. Speedy recovery.

Post-op quite painful at the moment. They took out a baseball sized mass, so they tell me!

And here I was, hoping for a cricket ball lol. ⚾️🇬🇧

Great to see your sense of humour is intact! Slow and steady is your best bet, press that medication button like you are pounding a keyboard!

Sadly, I had a reaction to the painkillers and they’ve got me on a very low control supply at the moment. Unfortunately, a fair bit of pain. But pain is good! Tells you you’re still alive lol. 🎹😱😂

Heal up, bud. My guy says I have my last colostomy. He says old age will kill me before colon cancer will.



Damn, getting old sucks!

Russ

The best thing I found for intense pain, at least in my case, was a combination of Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and a 12-ounce glass of ice cubes covered with Jim Bean Honey Bourbon. I wash down the pills by slowly sipping the Honey Bourbon over a 2 hour period just prior to bedtime. This usually provides me with about 4 hours sleep before wearing off, at which time I get out of bed to pee, and grab a couple extra-strength Tylenol, which usually kicks in in about 30 minutes, and provides me with enough relief to sleep an additional 3 hours before the phone starts ringing and a scammer from New Deli calls and tells me that he is with either the IRS, Social Security, Medicare, Pain Management Center, Amazon, etc...

In my case, after seeing 3 different GI docs, having a colonoscopy that revealed I had colitis, which I already knew from the previous colonoscopy, my condition began to worsen. The doc that did the colonoscopy put me on Prednisone, which did nothing but cause insomnia. I knew something nasty was going on, talked with a general surgeon friend of mine, and he said it sounds like I have a fistula between my sigmoid colon and bladder. He gave me the name of the best coli-rectal surgeon in the area, he agreed, did some minimally invasive surgery, and ended up removing 8.5 inches of my sigmoid colon. I now have a permanent colostomy, which at my age, is far too dangerous to reverse. The surgeon said that technically, the colostomy could be reversed, but there was a 37 percent chance that it would not hold up and I would end up dying from sepsis.

Hang in there, Diki, do what you can to endure the pain, which will eventually go away. And, be thankful that you don't have a plastic bag glued to your side. Maintaining that bag on a daily basis is by every description, "A crappy job."

Gary

They’ll hopefully find something else for your pain.

Update…

Firstly, thanks for all the well wishes and illustration that, no matter how bad it feels, others are always less fortunate and I should count my blessings (which I do, daily!). ♥️

I am now four days post-op and the first two were pretty miserable, but has been steadily improving the last two. Talk is that they may release me tomorrow or Tuesday, which will be nice..! Then it’s home rehab as fast as I can, as all my clients are chomping at the bit to get me back to work. Slave drivers! 😂

Rehab is going to be an unknown though. I really have no idea how long it’s going to be before I can put pressure on my core to sing, or even sit on the stool and play for three hours or so. Fortunately, I have some great friends that have volunteered to take over transportation and setup/teardown for a while, and some very talented singers offering to come out and take most of the singing burden away to start with. It is very gratifying to have so many willing to help me back on my feet! Times like this, you REALLY find out who your friends are! 🥰

But whether it’s a week, or two, or more before I can even sit there and play, only time will tell. The surgeon upped his size estimate of my mass to a softball. Guess that’s another game I am going to have to learn! But he only had to take about 5” of colon, and function shouldn’t be affected (he tells me!), so maybe I’m spared the ‘shitty job’ for a few more years..! As to biopsy, still a day or two before I find if they got it all, or that I have a longer journey to take. But I don’t cross bridges before I get to them, so que sera sera there. And now you know as much as me…

Once again, thank you all for your kind words. So many of you have trudged this road long before me, and your words of wisdom are very welcome.

Onwards… always onwards! ♥️🎹

All the best to you Diki. Recover quickly.

Been away for a short while and just read your surgery report. Sorry to hear it but its over now so just get better and take your time recovering. Best wishes for yo to get back on the keys.

I must encourage you to work as hard as you can with the physical rehab. Just walking a few blocks a day is a major achievement after colon surgery. And, be extremely careful with pain killers that can cause constipation. Colon tissue heals very slowly, and the pressure of constipation could result in very serious consequences. Unfortunately, laying in a hospital bed for a week or more causes you to lose a lot of muscle, which at our age is quite difficult to regain.

Good luck,

Gary

Thanks for the hard won advice. I’ll definitely be taking this to heart. ♥️

Fortunately, I’m a non smoker, 160 lbs and fairly active to start with, no diabetes or other conditions (that I know of yet!) so fairly ahead of the game to start at least. And I have never been a fan of recreational painkillers and don’t like the way they make me feel even when prescribed, so I’m going to do my level best to stay this way!

Thanks for your kind words. I live in a beautiful, safe part of Florida, so getting out and walking, especially this time of the year before it turns into Hades-on-the-Sea 🥵 will be no chore at all. Who knows, I might be able to catch some of my friends playing, for a change!

Hey Diki. Glad to hear you're doing reasonably well after your ordeal. I was there about a year ago had a big one removed from center of gut. It was a stage 4 just starting to send out it's deadly tenacles to spread. I had a great surgeon and he managed to get it all. The oncologist sent me for blood work and talked about doing kemo & wanted me back for more tests but I had a good dose of the big D and there was no way I could chug 2 bottles of that stuff and sit in the office and wait for my turn without making the biggest mess they had ever seen. Now I also heard from the meds there was a test called "Gardant" that would check your blood for any sign of the cancer spreading. I got said test and it showed no signs of metastasizing so I let it go at that and so far so good. Best of luck, Gerard.

Late to the party here but I'm glad you've made good progress, the docs were able to remove a sizable portion of "bad stuff?" and your recovery seems moving in the right direction.

Good luck, Diki....Here's hoping for a great outcome in time...

Bill

Update.

Got released yesterday lunchtime. A very dear friend of mine with extensive experience taking care of post-op and cancer ridden friends offered her house to me while I rehab enough to be safely on my own. Still have occasional problems just getting out of bed by myself if the pain medication has wore off… Speaking of which, the discharge prescription has me taking it at half the rate as when I was in hospital, so my ‘Superman window’ only lasts so long!

But got taken out the house today, went to Walmart’s for some invalid supplies and a two month overdue haircut (during the ‘Superman window’ of course!) and got in some distance with the walker, so taking the advice to heart!

I’ll keep you posted as things progress. In the meantime, my friend kindly offered her house to all my friends for a big birthday bash on Monday. Looks like most of them can make it..!

Mo’ birthdays, mo’ betta!

Glad to hear it's working out for you..... GOOD STUFF !!!!

Update:

Back home by myself, finally. Went for a nice walk up to the Bay today after going with a friend to a nearby (50mile) town to visit his mother-in-law (insert song of choice!) and pick up English Easter Eggs for another friend.

Scored some 🇬🇧goodies for myself too… black pudding, Aussie meat pies, Bisto, Bird’s Custard powder, Aero bars… Don’t tell my cardiologist! 😂

Everything is healing well, feel like a million dollars, going to play this weekend. Cover me, I’m going in! 😂🎹♥️

Diki, I wish the best of everything. If you were not so far from me I would visit. There is no doubt that your job will be successful, with your positive outlook.
John C.

Thanks…

Got quite a few cancer survivors among my friends. They all emphasized the importance of the positive attitude, it’s something I take extremely to heart. ♥️