Apologies for not providing an update on my ulcer. It took two weeks after the PEG tube surgery before the pain from the ulcer was gone. Thank goodness it did not take longer.
The whole time, I was quite puzzled as to why the ulcer pain started immediately after the surgery and lead me to think that the pain initially was from the surgery itself. Two days after the surgery, it finally occurred to me that the pain is from the ulcer. But if I had the ulcer before the surgery, why was there no ulcer pain prior to surgery?
On the day that the ulcer pain was nearly gone, I got a letter from my GI surgeon stating he had performed a biopsy on my ulcer to test for Helicobacter pylori, which is associated with 80% of all ulcers. Well, the results were negative, which is good, but the doctor failed to mention to me that he had done the biopsy during the day of my PEG tube surgery. I'm no doctor, but I'm guessing the biopsy may have contributed to the two weeks of pain and discomfort! I thought the doctor did a great job, but perhaps he could have mentioned those minor details to me on the day of surgery.
4 comments:
You need to work on those abs (like I should talk).
Hey Mark..just wanted you to know we were thinking of you.
Donna Lo
Hello, Mark,
How have you been doing? You must still feel weak from the chemo. I talked to my Dad the other day about the cancer treatment. My dad said he knows that one of his friends had breast cancer and went through chemo treatment, but amazingly she did not even lose much hair. The secret is that she ate the famous Chinese herb, called "Winter worm summmer grass". It got the name because the herb looks like a worm in the winter and looks like a grass in summer. If you ask your chinese friend or family, they may know the herb by the name. This is a kind of precious herb that is originated in Tibet of China. I guess you may be able to get it in some Chinese herb store here. I think you should get some and try it. According to my Dad, it really helps his friend to fight the discomfort from the chemo. Best luck to you. Let me know if you want more info on this.
Yongjun
Hi Yongjun,
Thanks for the note. Unfortunately it's a bit late for me since I've lost most of my hair. Surprisingly, most of the chemo drugs now do not cause hair loss. In fact, of the 3 chemo drugs I'm getting, only the Taxol causes hair loss. I'm not too worried since the hair will grow back. :)
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