Sometimes my life feels like a neverending circle of doctors. I’ve not even been in Florida six months and already I’ve had one surgery, two separate hospital stays, and parts of 17 days in the hospital. And now I’m on IV fluids at home for the foreseeable future.

My ileostomy is still dysfunctional, nearly six weeks out from surgery. My output is still too high and too thin. As a result, I was discharged from my last hospital stay (August 3rd) with orders for IV hydration at home three times a week. Last week my surgeon upped that to daily IV hydration. I saw my surgeon again yesterday and he told me at this point, it’s likely to be another 3-6 months before my ileostomy sorts itself out. Yes, that’s months. So then I’m probably going to be on home IV fluids for awhile too.

My quarterly oncology appointment is next week, with my abdomen/pelvis/chest CT scans having been completed last week. No matter how good someone might be at controlling anxiety, “scanxiety” gets even the best of us. “Scanxiety” is anxiety surrounding new medical scans of any variety and waiting for the results. My anxiety is typically well controlled, but scanxiety still sneaks up on me from time to time. Hopefully everything is normal so that I can have a relatively boring appointment with my oncologist next week.

None of this is what I expected when I moved to Florida this May with my parents. I certainly didn’t expect needing to find a colorectal surgeon or having a new medical experience (at home fluids). I sincerely miss the days when medically my life was uncomplicated. I’ll even take going back to last summer when I was feeling great and doing whatever I wanted. I had recovered from chemo & my latest hospital stay and my second surgery hadn’t happened yet. But I can’t go back. All I can do is move forward and make the best of what I’ve got.