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Progress report on book
Yesterday I finally sent to the publisher the chapters in Part One of my book, and some of chapters of Part Two. The book is tentatively conceived as having three parts. I want to tell in detail this story, because it also involves the very bad, Job-like, many-sided state of suffering under which I was toiling all Friday night, and also several hours on Saturday morning when I was doing this work. The suffering included the intense gut pain (around 70 percent of the unbearable pain I had in late January / early February which was ended by the first nerve block), which suggested to me that the second celiac plexus nerve block, administered on Wednesday, was not working, which in turn suggested to me that my functional life was close to over, because the doctors’ next step would be morphine. But since around noon Saturday—24 hours!—there has been no gut pain, suggesting that my functional life will last at least a couple of months more, giving me the time to finish my must-do projects, Amazingly, the only serious physical problem I’ve had over the last day is serious bodily weakness, making it difficult for me to move. Even the bad pain down the entire esophagus and the accompanying great difficulty experienced in swallowing (including swallowing the many pills I take each day), which started this past week, and which we learned is a standard result of the radiation treatment, has mostly ended due to a liquid medicine that restores and protects the mucus lining of the esophagus. So, my Job-like suffering has become simple suffering, and it’s not that bad.
I will try to write that entry later. It will accomplish two things at once: it will have specific information on the progress of my work and also specific information on the evolution of my health status, which various readers have asked for, but which I haven’t provided in some time. Email entry |