I'm still here

I’m glad you’re recovering well Stacy. I can’t wait to see what comes out of your shop!
 
Great Stacy. Wishing you a speedy recovery and another 40 years of knifemaking!.....just to use up the accumulated wood and steel and what you will still buy.
 
I typed this at 10AM this morning, but my laptop batery died.

OKAY!
They are sending me home today. The WBC wend down a bit and everything else is fine. I haven't taken pain meds for a day. They will leave the drain in and take it out in a week or so because the drain bulb fluid has a LOT of amylase. Amylase is a pancreatic fluid and the presence in the bulb shows the resection is still weeping fluid. That is not unusual, so I'll take care of the drain at home until they remove it.

Update:
They finally got the paperwork done and I was discharged at 2PM.
 
Good to see you are on the mend Sir! Keep getting better, we need old blade buggers like you to light the way for the rest of us! Congrats on your retirement Stacy, may you have health and happiness.

Mike
 
update:
I went in the hospital with stats of BP133/62; HR75, temp 97.4° (my normal). After the surgery when my BP rose to around 155/72, HR 88, and my temperature rose to 98.9°. Nothing to panic about, but it should be watched. It stayed the same through discharge. After coming home my temperature rose to 100.5-100.9 and stayed around that with no appreciable drop after fever meds (alternating ibuprofen and acetaminophen). I was planning to contact the surgeon today if it hadn't changed. It was the same last night when I went to bed. I still feel great, have no pain, don't have any detectable infections, the drain is almost stopping its drip, and I can't find anything else going on.
Yesterday I decided to take a nap around 2PM I stretched out in my comfy chair by the fireplace and was gone for three hours. I woke up and went upstairs, checked my stats - still the same - and decided to lay on the bed for a while before eating dinner. Woke up 2 hours later. I ate dinner (Chicago Pizza - yumm!) and went up to watch TV for a couple hours. Snoozed most of that time, too. Went to bed at 9 with no change in stats and still a 100.5 fever. I got up to pee around 11PM and was soaked in sweat. The bedsheets were soaked, too. Went to pee and checked my temperature ... 97.8. I dried off and went back to bed. Woke up at 2AM to pee (laugh now youngsters, your day is coming!) and my temperature was 97.5. Got up at 6AM felling really good and took my full stats. 133/63, HR73, temp 97.4. Evidently whatever was going on inside got worked out and I am back at my normal stats. Then night sweating with no fever was a clue to me that my body was working on a problem. I will continue to take it easy for the next week and slowly add more physical work to the day. Before long I expect to be out gardening and starting to clear out the shop.
 
I would still let the surgeon know about the fever. He may want to put you on antibiotics, just in case.
 
Fever is still gone. My surgeon (Female) was having her assistant call me tomorrow to make an appointment to remote the JP drain, so I let it go today. I'll fill her in tomorrow. I made a chart of my stat and meds to keep a record of my recovery. I'll to bring to the visit.
Trust me, if I had hit 101, I would have called her or gone to the ER. Currently, it is 96.9°
 
all surgical interventions are risky - not to mention scary! - and its good to know all went well.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Some of you knew, some didn't. On Tuesday I had surgery. I had a neuroendocrine tumor at the tip of my pancreas. That isn't such a big deal. It was found by coincidence from some normal tests last fall.

The surgery went smoothly, and they found no surprises. However, since it was so solid and attached, they took the tip of the pancreas with it (an expected possibility). They also took the largest nymph node near the tumor - the spleen (also a possibility). The will biopsy the heck out of them but don't expect anything to be there. I woke up feeling fine and still feel good. No post op issues at all. I un-hooked the leg compression machine and got out of bed this morning, cleaned up, got dressed, hooked everything back up, and am sitting in the chair checking my emails and the forums.
The only issue is they are trying to figure why I have a raised WBC. It may just be my body reacting to the surgery, or some other issue. They can't find a thing wrong with me, though. Lungs and heart are perfect, blood is fine except the WBC, urinalysis is great, no fever, pain, etc. I have a great doctor and she won't just let it go with a wait and see attitude. She is also not one to just prescribe an antibiotic unless she knows what it is treating. They are running some more blood work and giving me some IV electrolyte fluids.

I retired ten days ago and after a few weeks' recuperation should be back in the shop getting it up and working. One problem (a good problem) is that the shop is piled with woodworking and jeweler's tools and equipment that I just inherited from a friend who passed away and an eviction cleanout. There will be a HUGH yard sale this spring. I'll post about it when I am getting ready, as some of the folks within a days drive may want to come. To fellow bladesmiths, I will probably give a lot of stuff away.

I'll keep you chaps updated as things progress.
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On all the shit between us - fuck that for this.

You (in my opinion) seem to have a good doctor (that's rare), so I'd kind of assume the high WBC is because of the surgery itself also (as you know it can be 100001 other things), I can't sit here and say I've payed attention to everything so, without me knowing exact numbers and dx/ddxs + imagining it's relatively yes just guessing. I'm very glad to hear you got out of the post op well, that would have been my biggest concern although its a rather minor procedure, im assuming with compression we're dealing with . A lot I am not going to ask your personal health information over the internet nor expect it, but I really am glad to hear that -- regardless of any personality bullshit over text that you just don't know me or how to read it -- you're feeling better and I honestly do mean that. I'm not gonna lie, I'd really like to see the actual mris and paperwork because I do not practice medicine it.. kind of gives a separate perspective past what is "common". But ya I don't know you and I give a shit. I know you dislike me and that doesn't matter. I'd never wish this shit on anyone so, I really do hope that everything works out for ya man. Honest best wishes for not a speedy but PROPER recovery. (ill take proper over speedy and failed anyday lol)

You'll probably still ban me and I have no problem with that. I just wanted to say man to man no petty bullshit, I hope you are doing better. I did not read anything more than the first post here, so I apologize if there's important information I missed.

Ivan Campos said:
all surgical interventions are risky - not to mention scary! - and its good to know all went well.
Click to expand...

Yes they are.
 
Upped wbc is quite common post op. That's part and parcel to being opened up in any way as a bit of preemptive.

It's also possible that you contracted something in the hospital that you are fighting off or both!!


Antibiotics are a great way. However, nothing we make in a lab, save perhaps meropenum, is as good as eating a metric bleeptonbof garlic. Garlic, black pepper, turmeric powder. This will pretty much kill anything.

Get well.
 
Biopsy came back today. Nothing found in an adjacent tissue, spleen, pancreas or nodes. Cancer predictor test came back <1%. Other indicators also very low or 0.

CRSS/sf - I greatly appreciate your comments and respect you for being able to step out of the ring and talk man-to-man. I am sure you will eventually get banned again by one of the super-mods, or me, but we've been there before, haven't we. Take care and try to keep calm. - Stacy
 
Sounds like you’re turning the corner. Way to go! If getting up to pee is bothersome, get a urinal (Cabela’s?) next to your bed. If you lie on your side while using it, you won’t even elevate your heart rate. Makes it easier to fall back asleep.
 
tiguy7 said:
Sounds like you’re turning the corner. Way to go! If getting up to pee is bothersome, get a urinal (Cabela’s?) next to your bed. If you lie on your side while using it, you won’t even elevate your heart rate. Makes it easier to fall back asleep.
Click to expand...
Lol. There was an episode in the show Alone where a guy rigged a funnel and pipe from the inside of his shelter to the outside, so he would not need to go out in the cold to do the deed. Makes sense to me!
 
I have been away from the forums for a bit. Sorry to hear that surgery was necessary, but very glad to hear that you're recovering well!
 
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