February 19, 2011Looks like spring might be just around the corner. It certainly has been a long, cold, snowy winter. The older I get the more I dislike winters in northern Illinois.
The view from hereI've managed to do pretty much nothing all winter. I had plans to stay in shape by stationary biking but I didn't keep up with it. Pretty disgusted with myself. Once I got done with chemo in November, I just relaxed and enjoyed life. For 3 months. No excuse.
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Next week I'll get a blood draw Tuesday, then a PET scan on Thursday. I'll get the results the following week.
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I called the cancer care center to schedule my draw and the nurse said they enjoyed reading my 'blog! Go figure. Anyway, I'm glad I printed it out and gave them a copy. Hopefully when I go in there I don't get taken to task for anything I put in there! :)
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What's happened over the winter? My mom really struggled with her COPD. My sister Mary had come home from Carolina to stay with her. Mary did yeoman's duty, for sure (more about that shortly). Finally my sister Marta, who's a nurse, suggested a specialist. Pulmonologist, I think. This guy really got her straightened out. Previously she couldn't go from the house to the car without huffing and puffing and she was on oxygen pretty much 24x7. Now she can get out and to the store, walk around, the whole bit. Night and day difference, for sure. So everyone's feeling good about that. 86 and making yet ANOTHER comeback.
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My sister Mary temporarily relocated, away from her husband and 2 beloved dogs in S-Carolina to be a caregiver for my mom. Her boss agreed to let her work from home, or at least, from her Illinois home. She was here for about 3 months, I guess. She was terrific with my mom.
How to put this delicately...there was some family friction with regards to how to proceed with my mom and Mary navigated the whole affair, pretty much by herself. It wasn't always easy, and I know it was a thankless job. My mom at 86 can be a handful. Mary was terrific. She's 3 years older than me and we hadn't spent more than a few days together since... oh, maybe 1973 or so. Yikes!
Mary and Austin
At the beginning of January my mom's primary care suggested she get out of her house for a while to see if any of here COPD problems were environment related. So, Mary got all mom's (and her own) stuff gathered up and made the 30 mile trek (in a snow storm) to our place.
They stayed about 2 weeks and we truly enjoyed having them here. I hope the feeling was mutual. The whole experience with Mary for me was like re-discovering a dear old friend.
We grew up together and then moved out and had our own families. We grew old apart. Nice to know that when circumstances dictated that we spend some time together, we found out that who we were then is who we still are now.
I love you Mary!
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My buddy J., our IT consultant at work, had a problem with a tooth. He didn't get it taken care of right away. When they had a look, they told him the infection had spread to his sinus cavity. Then it spread to his brain, he was told. He had some problems with his vision, and I believe he had a seizure.
The neurologist told him it was a benign mass after reading the scan. Not a huge deal and not an emergency, but it would require surgery, at a cost of about 100Large. Then he found out his insurance wouldn't cover it. He was able to change his insurance (premium went through the roof based on his pre-existing condition) but had to wait a while to have it covered. He finally went in for the surgery. When the neurologist looked at the new scan, done just before the operation, he found to his shock and horror that the tumor had doubled in size. You guessed it. Malignant.
They did the surgery, and were confident that they'd gotten most all of the tumor. He then had radiation and chemotherapy. Blood clots in his legs followed. And at some point in there, for good measure, his wife served him with divorce papers and he had to move out of his house.
I know J. only casually through work so I won't pretend to know all of what's going on there, but come on, divorce papers at that stage?... I won't print what I'm thinking about the spouse.
I talked to him a couple of weeks ago and he seemed to be doing well, all things considered. Can't drive yet, so he has people driving him to his doctors appointments and to all his client's locations so he can do his job. He said the doctor said he was within a week of having his surgery too late. He feels fortunate.
I made absolutely none of that up.
I'm wearin' the yellow bracelet for J. now also.
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Speaking of the yellow bracelet, it's not looking good for Lance. Seems like someone has a vendetta against him and will stop at nothing to prove allegations from... how many years ago?
I'm not trying to defend him. I didn't get "into" biking until after Lance was done winning his Tours de France. I certainly admired his accomplishments and even had a livestrong bracelet BEFORE I ever knew I had cancer. As I think I 'blogged previously, I had bought his book and started reading it but then put it down. After I was diagnosed with NHL, I picked it up and read it cover to cover. I found that he had a lot of the same thoughts that I had and I thought it was a good read. I intended to do a 'blog chapter on the book but haven't got around to it.
I also know from things I've heard and read that he is a very polarizing individual. People seem to love him or hate him, not much middle ground.
Do I think he took performance enhancing drugs? Speaking generically and not specifically about him, I believe "they" are all dirty. I think there's too much to be gained and too much to lose to NOT take them. If you think about the TDF, it's considered to be the most difficult accomplishment in all of sports. It's a grueling, sadistic, endurance contest. Anyone who sets out to win on their own will fail. You must make deals, forge alliances, have "domestiques" who do the dirty work for you, pulling you along in their slipstream to conserve your energy for the finish, helping you rejoin the pack when you crash, and on and on. And then you climb the Alps and the Pyrenees (!) in the blazing hot sun all the while your oxygen levels plunge in the thin mountain air. Contestants have died.
So what I guess I'm trying to say is that I would be surprised if he DIDN'T take PEDs. The guy that won the last 2 TDFs just tested positive recently. Like I stated, I think they're all dirty.
Do you remember Kenneth Starr? The Independent Counsel who tried and tried and tried to pin something, anything on Bill Clinton when he was president? Yeah, that guy. As I recall his initial thrust was investigating Whitewater, some real estate deal from Arkansas that someone was convinced would bring down Slick Willie because of some law he might have broken. Only, he never proved anything that led to any charges against Clinton with regards to Whitewater. And he spent $40M!
What finally fell in Kenneth Starr's lap was all the Monica Lewinsky stuff. How sordid, how unfortunate, how scandalous. But at the same time, it had nothing to do with the $40M or any of Starr's efforts. It all came about because Miss L. blabbed to a friend who blabbed to Kenneth Starr.
So a guy like Starr spends $40M of our money on a witch hunt and finds nothing. But he acts like a hero when something that in the greater scheme of things would have been totally inconsequential by chance falls in his lap.
Do I think Willie was a scumbag? Yes. Do I think what he did with Miss L. made him unfit to be president? No. Do I think the real crime was when he lied about it when asked? Yes.
But above all, do I think it was worth $40M to find out he couldn't keep his equipment in his pants? Absolutely friggin' not!
My point being this: At some point, don't you question the motivation of the accuser? Why would someone spend so much time and so much money on something that at this point is so far in the past AND really, so insignificant? Maybe just because they want to make a name for themselves? Or maybe they have an intense personal dislike for the target?
Maybe the whole investigation says a lot more about the accuser than it does the accused. What do you think?
I don't wear the livestrong gear because I'm a big Lance fan. I wear it because it reminds me of the fight against cancer. And if Lance's convicted, I'll still wear it. Maybe then they'll investigate me.
I've never met Monica, I swear:).
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After I was diagnosed, Julie and I started wearing the livestrong bling. Some of our friends started wearing it too. And they all said "we're going to wear the bracelets until you're cured". How sweet of all of them.
The other day I noticed a yellow bracelet in our bathroom. I said "Julie, whose livestrong is that?" She says, "oh, it's mine. It makes my wrist sweat"....
Wife's actual livestrong bracelet, lying
in actual wooden box on our
bathroom vanity, actually.
Not actual size.Oh, it makes your wrist sweat, does it? It makes your wrist sweat? Well I just noticed... MY TUMOR'S BACK AND IT'S YOUR FAULT! Oh, I could have been cured of cancer if only the bracelet didn't MAKE MY WIFE'S WRIST SWEAT!
Jesus Palomino, so much for commitment. So much for wearing a lucky charm, a talisman, a mojo inducer. It's all about her spouse's health, UNLESS IT MAKES HER WRIST SWEAT!
Thanks honey. I love you, too.
Thanks for listenin', friends, I feel better now.
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