Sunday, July 6, 2008

On the Mend



Here I am the day after the surgery snoozing and feeling totally exhausted. It is interesting how much my blood pressure and pulse have been up since after the surgery. Normally my BP is 95/60 mmHg and HR is 40-55 resting.

Since getting out of surgery I've ranged from 144/95 mmHg to 125/85 mmHg in BP and have not been lower than 70 bpm. There is so much going on with the drugs, pain, trauma, lack of movement, and change in diet to cause the change. I think last surgery it took ~1-2 weeks for my BP and HR to go back to normal. It is also interesting that I'd be considered normal with a BP of 125/85 and a HR of 70bpm by most people...but in fact would not be normal based on my own physiology.

Sunday (4 days after surgery) my mom left and I decided to practice a little track standing in the hotel room...so over all, I'm doing pretty good. Oh yeah, we had an amazing opportunity to stay in this suite at a downtown Baltimore hotel for the entire month that we're in Baltimore for free. The room was set up as a trust in memory of a family's son who died of leukemia at age 6. A website for information about the father is: http://www.gordonlivingston.com/.



4 comments:

blaircardinale said...

Hey Dan...it's your cousin Blair Cardinale, used to be White. I know I haven't seen you in so many years, but I just wanted you to know that you are in my prayers. Honestly, I don't think I have even seen you since Uncle Cecil's birthday party one year when I was probably 11 years old or so! My grandmother has been keeping me updated on your progress, so that's how I got the link to your blog. It's great to see that you are doing well since the surgery. I hope everything goes as planned. Take care of yourself and I hope we all get to see each other again soon. I'd love to keep in touch with you. My email is blair.cardinale@gmail.com or www.myspace.com/blaircardinale

Andy said...

Dan,

It is great to hear that the surgery went well and wonderful to see pictures of you up and about. Cool about the room. What's up with the unpacked tv facing the wall?

Maggie, thank you for the updates you made here. It makes those of us who are so very far away seem like we are almost there.

A question: the surgeon said that he took 11 this time but if he'd done the first surgery he'd have taken 80. Is the total 80 now and if not, why didn't this surgeon take them all then?

Another question: when they said that the cancer in the neck had grown on lymph node tissue does that mean that thus far the cancer has been confined to your lymph nodes (and their tissue)?

-Andy Schilling

lthake said...

Hi Dan,
Thanks for the update, we're thinking about you here in St. Louis. It's great to see you riding around the hotel room on a bike (!?!?!). I didn't expect to see you doing that well already, that's great. Obviously you're a strong guy, this proves it. Maggie, how are you feeling... any kicking and movement, tell us about that too! We love ya and miss ya, hope to see you on your way back through town to Mizzou. In this case, I hope MU and KU both come out winners.

daveandcallie said...

Dan:

Happy to see it's going well. I'm thinking about you and your family daily. Thanks for keeping those of us far away informed...