Rachel's Letter

Rachel’s letter
So I'm finally home from the hospital:) Here is an update so you all know what to be praying for.
And truly thank you for all your prayers. I know that without them I wouldn't be where I am today.


As you all know on Monday, April 18th, I was rushed to the ER at UPENN for extreme constipation and pain. They then determined that my colon was so severely blocked, in some areas my colon had stretched 7cm, that I would need a transverse colostomy done immediately. HOW had I gotten here???

Well I've always had slow moving bowels and over the last 2 months I had been suffering from blotting and constipation, whether from possibly some of my supplement regiment I don't know. But recently because of the pain I experienced earlier in the month I was taking percusets to help with the pain of the blocked kidney. Plus the outpatient stint placement on the 14th and the medications they put me on, it's a fair assumption that my colon all but stopped working. So by the 18th you can imagine that things were pretty bad. I asked the drs. why in their opinion this happened and they really don't have a clear answer, they say that it much have something to do with the cancer that they see on my rectum, but they're not sure. Though I might add that, 1. they're not 100% sure that what they see on my rectum is cancer, and 2. my rectum remand and still remains open?? One thing that they all agree on, is that thought my colostomy is 100% reversible, they don't expect to ever have to reverse it however, because they believe my cancer will over take me before that time ever comes. Well honestly they can go jump off a bridge, because I will walk back in there sometime in the future, cancer free and tell them where they can shove this bag!!!!!


But really, this is hard, harder then anything I've done to date. I want to erase all that I just wrote and crawl into a hole and hide. I'm not an overly vain person, but honestly!!!! Why this LORD?? I guess you could just pray for me that I can adjust and get comfortable with this new extension to my body.


ON THE PLUS side!!!! I did see Dr. Sara in the hospital, she came to visit my a few times and we had a good talk. I appears that the cancer mets on my ribs have stopped growing and are either dying, or walking themselves off. She doesn't believe that they are any more of a danger to me!!! I've only had the medication Zometa, to help with Metastases to the bones, 2 times. SO whether they are disappearing because of the medicine of because of my diet I don't know, but I’m very happy about this!! They told me from the beginning that their worst fear was that I’d start cracking my ribs and be in a lot of pain. SO now that doesn't seem likely:) Dr. Sara also said that this colostomy in no way makes the cancer worse then it was last month.

Please be praying that I know where to move from here. I will be resting at home over the next few weeks, but I need direction on where to go from here. I've decided that I'm not going back down to Mexico in the near future. Mostly because I'm not sure that they have anything else right now to help me. I am looking at a clinic here in the US in Texas, also I have an interview with The Cancer Treatment Center of America in a few weeks to see what they say and get a second option. Plus next week I’ll be going in for a 3rd does of Zometa and I want to talk to Dr. Ford about possibly any alternative treatments that she may know about and practice in her office.

Thank you all again for your prayers!!