Positively Phoebe

**This post was transferred from the now defunct "The Long Ease" blog.** Two days ago, I said something to the nurse at HBOT about being almost done and she mentioned the fact that my insurance had approved 30 more sessions after the initial 30.  It sent me into complete freak-out mode - I'm not going to lie.  I think I had been getting through all of this stuff knowing that there was this countdown.  This end date.  I felt completely blindsided by her news.  Did I HAVE to keep going?  What would they say at work?  Can I afford to keep getting these tiny paychecks?  SHOULD I keep going?  Would more be better, even though I am already feeling so much better? I had a million questions.  And the problem was that NO ONE can answer them.  The doctors at the Wound Center seem to know basically NOTHING about my condition.  The questions they've asked me in the follow-up sessions I have with them every week or two are useless. ...

**This post was transferred from the now defunct "The Long Ease" blog.** It's been a hectic few weeks, and I sort of lost track of my blogging.  But I wanted to pop in real quick this evening with a TMI report about my healing. I've been told from the get-go that these oxygen treatments have the best results with radiation injury.  As you likely know, I started the treatments for an injury inside my bladder - therefore the healing progress cannot be gauged visually without an expensive (and in my case, somewhat risky) procedure  (cystoscopy) . The only way to tell if it's working is really just based on how I feel.  I've been hesitant, to say the least, to admit or even believe that I am doing better, but over the past couple weeks, it's really gotten quite obvious: I no longer wake in the night to go to the bathroom, and when I DO have to pee, there is no pain, pressure or discomfort AT ALL.  I no longer wince in pain when my car hits a bump let alo...

**This post was transferred from the now defunct "The Long Ease" blog.** Well, today SHOULD HAVE been Treatment Day #24... but things don't always go according to plan... Yesterday, as I sat across from Ryan during our Labor Day breakfast at our corner diner, I was feeling pretty great.  Like, finally feeling like I knew for sure that I was getting better.  No doubt in my mind.  I even felt comfortable saying it out loud.  That was an awesome feeling. After breakfast, we went to run some errands, and I started to feel a little "bleh" in the belly.  Bloated and uncomfortable by the time we got home, I was in and out of the bathroom for a couple hours.  Ryan guessed that I probably got a mushroom in my omelette somehow.  Not hard to believe and the symptoms seemed similar to the mushroom situation.  But as the day went on, I started to feel like it was less gastric upset, and more the same stupid lower abdominal pain that has accompanied my la...