TheBanyanTree: Off on a New Adventure

[Sheri Baity]

You have got whatever support you need!  From the Wings of Crow... feel and enjoy the healing, flying your way, from now, until you are up dancing, flying, bicycling and whatever else your heart desires!

Sheri L Baity
Regional Director
American Predator Federation
"Where Predator Hunters Are Forming A Pack"
http://www.huntapf.org

A woman is like a tea bag, you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water~~Eleanor Roosevelt

--- On Sun, 1/10/10, A. Christopher Hammon <chris at oates.org> wrote:


From: A. Christopher Hammon <chris at oates.org>
Subject: TheBanyanTree: Off on a New Adventure
To: "The Banyan Tree" <thebanyantree at remsset.com>
Date: Sunday, January 10, 2010, 11:30 AM


I am off on a grand new adventure at the out set of this year and decade. It is not one I would choose, however, but it seems to be the one that I have drawn to be my next grand adventure.

A microscopic trace of blood in my urine sample during a routine physical before Thanksgiving prompted an abdominal CT scan the beginning of December to check for any problems with kidney and bladder. That was an interesting experience and included my first ever experience with an IV. The last time I was in a hospital as a patient was for a tonsillectomy in 1957, when they still used ether...that was traumatic. As an aside, I had my second experience just before Christmas for a combination endoscopy and colinoscopy. I couldn't resist asking the IV nurse to be gentle, it was only my second time. To which she promptly shouted out for all to hear, "Hey, I've got almost a virgin here." Gotta have some fun with this stuff.

The abdominal CT turned up no problems with the kidneys or bladder, but much to our surprise we discovered mucinous material secreting from a tumor on my appendix; apparently a rare condition known as pseudomyxoma peritonei. This is not good. The good news is that it is very treatable (you just have to recover from the treatment) and that it is typically benign. It is a "Trouble with Tribbles" story where cells we need on one side of the intestinal wall were reproducing on the wrong side of the intestinal wall ... where they had no place to go except to accumulate.

The next stop for getting started on this grand adventure was to meet with my lead tour guide, the surgical oncologist in the area that specializes in the treatment for this. He is a great doc; a prof at the medical school with a rep for being really slick in the OR

The most successful approach to this in current practice is to surgically debulk all of the mucinous material gathering in my abdomen, remove the appendix, gall bladder, areas of the colon where the mucinous cells have gathers (in my case, most likely the right half), and a lot of the omentum. Then as part of the surgical procedure to introduce a heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy that they slosh around in the abdominal area for a little over an hour. This generally gets it and life goes on once you recover from the surgery. My job, the big part of the adventure ahead, is to recover. And then they added that the big side effects of the surgery/chemo are that it zaps all of your energy and depletes your immune system. It will take time, patience, and perseverance, they say.

So it is "game on" for this grand adventure; we have the surgery scheduled for January 13.

The good news is that with the exception of this I am in very good health and should be able to get right on through this fine. I anticipate plenty of stories coming out of this and hopefully I will find the energy to write them down before they get away from me. I have loaded up my Kindle with fun reading while I recoup and my iPhone with plenty of music. I also have myself a stack of DVDs to entertain me. Most important to me, though, is that I am gathering the energy of friends and family as cheerleaders to help me sustain my energy through the journey. Family members have opened up a Facebook group where they will be posting updates, if anyone is interested (Updates on Chris Hammon).

And now, like it or not, I am off on this grand new adventure to see where my journeys take me and to learn what I might learn along the way. In the meantime, I made my reservations for the week long bicycle tour of Indiana State Parks in September that includes bicycling all of those Brown County hills. I still plan to make that.

Cheers and bon voyage,
Chris


/_________________________________________
A. Christopher Hammon, D.Min.
Director of Online Learning and Publication //
Wayne E. Oates Institute
Integrating Spirituality, Ethics, and Health
http://www.oates.org/

/Affiliate Faculty, Doctor of Ministry Program
Drew University Theological School/