Just Keep Living

Anytime that you can go across Baltimore City on Lombard St, from Broadway to Howard, make a left on Howard and hit 395 without hitting a red light, it’s a good day.

It happened to Jess and I today as we were leaving Johns Hopkins after we got our report card. While there was less shrinkage, there was still some shrinkage on nodules in my lungs and around my Pancreas. Everything else was stable, with no new nodules and no growth whatsoever. That’s about as good a report as you can get. The doctors and Monica told me to keep up the good work. I plan to. I go back in February for a checkup. The next scan is in March.

The game plan now is to keep on doing what we’re doing. I can take a “vacation” of a few days if my feet get too sore, but everything else is tolerable.

I had an appointment with my Urologist to follow up on the Urinary Tract Infection I had a couple weeks ago. The difference in the level of care from Johns Hopkins is very apparent. When I do the pee test at JH, they give me a jar in a plastic bag along with a towelette to wash myself after I’m done. I return it in the plastic bag to the attendant. At the Urologist he told me to go into the bathroom and pee in one of the paper cups laying in there and bring it out to him when I was done. I did so and he put it on the sink and put a little test strip in it and declared that I no longer had the infection. He looks at the CT scan report I had brought and told me I wouldn’t need to come back for a couple of years.

Jess wanted to go with me to JH, but I got to tell you that I was a little bit nervous about that. What if the report wasn’t so good? I thought about emailing Nurse Monica to let her know if it was bad news to give it to me by myself, but I never did. If you have to tell bad news, you like a little time to figure out the right “spin”, you know what I mean?

Linda made a comment to me a few days ago about my being nervous about the CT scan. Looking back, I must admit I was. It kind of reminded me about the Vietnam Tour. When you first get there, you wake every 20 minutes when you hear something unusual. After a while, you can sleep through just about everything. When your tour is just about over, you start hearing those things again. I remember the last night in Quin Nhon. I was in a barracks near the airport when some mortars struck nearby. I spent the rest of the night between the barracks and the sandbags! I got that far, and wasn’t going to get stopped there.

Here we are at the beginning of the tour again, I can get some sleep.

It’s just past midnight and we’ve been dancing the night away! The Centuries are playing here at Michael’s 8th Ave. The food is great!

Bill and Sandy, Louis and Mitsi, Frank and Debbie, Jerry and Gail, Gary and Carol, Steve and Sharon all shared a table and just had a good old time.

We are all in rare form. I lost my tie a long time ago during the 60’s set. The food is ok, but who cares? The music is outstanding. The trick to beating the long line at the bar is two drinks at once. The girls are all flirting with Debbie’s boss, the Senator. They all took pictures with him, all showing some leg. He better hope that doesn’t make the papers. Bek and Eric are watching the kids and staying over, so there’s no rush home.

I’ve been an equal opportunity dancer, making sure that I danced with all the girls. Steve, Sharon, Linda and I all danced together and sang “Color my World”. Linda and I did our “Staying Alive” dance routine when they flashed back to the Disco era.

I’m not sure who will drive, but we will be driving slow and taking the back roads.

My how the time has passed. While all of this is true, it’s just the good memories we have.

Linda and I enjoyed the evening together. Had some subs from Jerry’s, watched a movie, and she went to bed before 11:00.

I took my nap a little earlier so I could watch the ball drop. We can do what we can do. Don’t worry, be happy!

Happy New Year!

It’s Monday night, a day longer between blogs than I wanted. We had a great visit with my sister Denise and her hubby Randy. We didn’t do much, rode around in the rain showing off the preserve and Jason’s church and a few other points of interest on Saturday. We all watched a movie Saturday night, and they left early Sunday so Randy could watch the Steelers from the comfort of his own home. He broke my record, 4 hrs door to door.

Linda and I went to see Avatar yesterday at the 3:45 showing. We got there 30 minutes before the show and ended up in the front row. After about 5 minutes of watching in 3d, I got a severe case of motion sickness! We got a credit and plan to go back tomorrow. We’ll be sitting in the back, and I’m going to pass on the 3d! I remember when I could ride just about any roller coaster around, but not any more.

As far as my meds go, I’m still doing good. BP is good, feet don’t hurt, and everything else is under control. I started back on the Thyroid meds this morning so I’ll be watching that.

I visit my Urologist next Monday. Since I got the UTI, Nurse Monica felt I should visit him and make sure there’s nothing going on there. If I got to do a cystoscopy, I’m going to make them put me under. I remember doing it before awake, couldn’t handle it now!

My cousin DeAnna’s husband died early this morning. He had been in ill health for several years and it finally took him. He was in the hospital for several weeks, and hadn’t be awake for several weeks. After shooting him with morphine, and trying just about everything else, they finally recommended stopping the ventilator. I spoke with DeAnna tonight, and she is doing OK. She’s been preparing for it, so I think she’s a little relieved that LeRoy isn’t suffering anymore. Like my Mom, he hung in there longer than they thought possible. They had been married 40+ years.

George Michael, the Sportscaster for Channel 4 also passed away Christmas Day. I watched him for 28 years as the voice of the Redskins during their glory years. He died after a 2 year battle with cancer. I didn’t know him, but I enjoyed his work and he was obviously respected by everyone he came in contact with.

I just wanted you guys to know that I’m really a coward. I’m not afraid of dying, but I am not interested the pain and suffering that Mom and Leroy went through. Watching what my sister and Deanna went through while this was happening is nothing that I want Linda, Jason, and Jessica to have to go through. I’m going to work on my little situation with optimism and attitude, but when it’s time, I don’t want to hang around. I am at peace with this. Just so you all understand.

It’s Friday night, Christmas Day. Linda’s asleep, Jess, Jason, and Kim are in their rooms doing whatever. My sister Denise and Hubby Randy are downstairs asleep after braving the freezing rain, fog, and broken windshield wipers to come in for Christmas. It’s the first time they’ve been here for Christmas forever.

It just shows once again why I’m the luckiest guy in the world! The year started out kind of rough. The car business as you all know, has been in the dumper for over a year. I spent the first two months trying to help get Academy Ford through this unprecedented time. I was just barely getting by, moving money around, finally borrowing from Linda’s retirement, just to keep our nose above water. I had an offer to go back to Len Stoler, which had a much better potential for income than where I was. I passed because I had just purchased inventory for our lot and felt that I was responsible for getting that inventory sold. You can’t leave a small dealership in the lurch like that and have a clear conscience. I stayed and was able to sign up for a short term disability policy because I had been there long enough.

In May, just by chance, I had a bleeding colon. I’m not going to repeat it as you have already heard it a bunch of times, but because of that, they found the cancer. Just like the first time, no symptoms, no lost weight, just sneaking around in there, found by chance. I guess that’s why I’m such a lousy gambler, all my luck is saved for the important stuff.

Unlike the last time, Academy Ford bent over backwards to help me. They came with me to the auction. Said nothing when I would take off a 5:30 at night, or come in late. They let me take a week off when I had no vacation. And they made sure everything was done right so I would qualify for my disability pay. By the way, I was past the prior cancer 7 year disqualifying period by 5 months, Nov 2001 to April 2002. I qualified for the disability pay, which has been a godsend over the last few months and will be through february.

Our friends jumped in so fast to help, it made me dizzy. I had so many calls, offers to help, I almost couldn’t catch my breath. Our refrigerator died, they bought one. Our bathroom leaked, they got it fixed along the with damage to the room below. I can’t remember when I’ve paid for a meal when we go out. They gave me a contact at the VA, and I found out about Benefits that I never new existed and I may be getting in the near future. The calls, emails, visits for support have just been remarkable.

They go with me to the hospital for my tests. They have helped me take every step, and believe me, it makes it easier. The stress that they have helped remove from my family and myself is priceless.

Over the past few months, I have recontacted and stayed in contact with too many friends and family to count. I’ve even got a new family branch that I didn’t know anything about!

So here I sit, Christmas Eve night 2009. I’m feeling pretty lucky. Yes, I have this little situation, but I’m ahead of the curve right now. With a little tweeking, and some options I’ve been offered, we will be able to stand on our own, reasonably. There will be some adjustments, but the alternative is not worth talking about at this point. I’m maintaining my gotta be there list, and my bucket list isn’t very long, but we’ll adjust it as we go along. The thing I learned with my first little go around is, you take baby steps and your goals are easier to get to, and the next one is just a short distance away, and you don’t get discouraged.

My next three gotta be there’s are Jan 6th, the second CT results. Jan 10th, Jess’ Graduation, and February 13th, Jason and Kim’s wedding. I know I’m good for those.

I’ll be adding to the list.

It’s Sunday night, I’m upstairs on the computer and Linda’s asleep. Kim made it back safe from visiting her Mom this weekend, after 6 hours sitting in traffic. The kids are around the table downstairs scarfing up on the brownies and cookies Jessica made today. I hope they leave some for me.

Our tree is up. We all went to get the tree at Home Depot on Friday night. Matt, Jessica’s boyfriend took his truck to bring back the tree. Jason met us there and we picked out the tree. While we were there, a young man with an old Chevy pickup had bought a tree, but couldn’t get his truck started. Jason went over and banged on the starter a few times and helped him get it started.

The Snow Storm of 2009 came with Saturday. Jason volunteered to transport Nurses and others back and forth to the hospital and was gone just about the whole day. I’m sure missing Kim and his joy of 4wheeling had something to do with it, but I think it was noble.

On Saturday, Linda and Jessica trimmed the tree. I was still under the weather and just kind of kept out of their way. There wasn’t much football, so I finished 2 books. They were kind of short and both were good, so I kind of flew through them. My next door neighbor Bob P brought over his snow blower cleaned the sidewalk and as far up the driveway as he could get. Thanks Bob. Jimmy S called and invited us to go for a ride to his daughters house for a party. I was tempted, but just was not up to it. I understand that they partied into the night. I knew I would have run out of gas about 8pm. Thanks for the invite Jimmy and Louann. Maybe next time.

Today was a good day. My feet are back to normal, just a little residual pealing, but not hurting at all. The meds for the UTI seems to be on top of it, and the med that Lou gave me has just about cleaned up my mouth.

I felt so good that I decided to take my 200mpg leaf blower and see how it working on the snow on the cars in the driveway. It was actually moving a little off the cars, but you had to get real close and the blowback was very cold and wet. After about 5 minutes of that I was resembling Frosty a little too much and decided to let the kids clean them the conventional way.

For the record, I am proud of my kids. Jessica found out Friday that she did get the job that she interviewed for on Friday. She starts her long term sub position in February. Jason goes out of his way to help people. This isn’t the first time he volunteered at the hospital. He probably used $50.00 in gas driving from Glen Burnie to Mt Airy. He helped the boy out at Home Depot, laying on the ground underneath the truck in his new coat. While he was out today, he worked for 2 hours helping someone get their truck pulled out of a ravine. Jason and Jessica are both good people and I am proud of them.

I start back on the Axitinib tomorrow morning, and the thyroid meds probably the day after. We’ll see how it goes.

Well guys, it’s been a tough week. It turns out I have a urinary tract infection. I was up just about all night Sunday running to the bathroom. I assumed I must have been dehydrated from lack of fluids on Sunday, so I ended up on my recliner in the family room drinking water after water. I had chills and my feet were hurting as well. It made for a rather uncomfortable night. I called the Doctor on Monday and ended up getting blood work done on Tuesday at JH. It confirmed the UTI and they prescribed a antibiotic. I started taking it last night with no effect as yet. It’s not as bad during the day, but each night it makes for some extended visits. They believe the thyroid medicine is only a coincidence and suggested I start back on it after the Antibiotic treatment is over.

It looks like I’m in for another long night, as the trips have started, I got a little chill. My blood pressure came in at 160 of 91, so I can’t take the pill.

I hope I’m over the hump when Denise and Randy get here Friday afternoon.

To balance out this depressing report, Jessica has completed her school, turning in her portfolio today with a great report from her supervisor this morning. This afternoon she had her first interview for a teaching job and said it went really well. She is on Cloud 9!

I promise the next blog will be more upbeat.

Well, it’s Sunday night and I’m sitting here a little under the weather. I’m not sure it’s new Thyroid medicine they put me on or what, but I’ve been laying around all day. At least the football was entertaining and not so frustrating as last week. Jess’ tv died, so she and Matt watched the Ravens with me. Of course, even though they were leading by a gazillion points, we had to watch it through to the end so I missed the start of the Skins game. Lucky they started slow.

The group went to Lancaster Pa for dinner and a Christmas show. After much whining on behalf of several of the hubby’s it turned out to be a nice time. The food was good, although the group that frequents Ruths’ Chris and the Capital Grill was disappointed. The banter was worth the food. The restaurant, recognizing immediately that we were a loud group (Linda walked in first), they gave us a private room!

We were enjoying ourselves so much that we got to the theatre a little late, but soon we were caught up in the moment. The story was the “Miracle of Christmas” which began before Mary and Joseph were married and finished up on Christmas. Even though we knew how it ended, their were a lot of moments that we had forgotten about. The story, the actors, the costumes and the sets as good as anything I had seen on Broadway, better than most. Steve W, who does the lighting for the Lyric was like a kid in a candy store with all the effects. There were also donkeys, horses, a couple of camels, a llama, and a goat that was having the time of his life, eating the scenery. The only faux pas (faux poo?) was the white stallion that had the dropsies at the top of the center ramp. Not a note was missed and the ushers attacked it like a swat team. We barely got a whiff!

My thanks to Debbie and Gail for setting it up.

Friends, its obviously not Sunday night. I thought I had published this then, but it never was saved.

I went to JH today to get my monthly checkup. According to Monica, my blood work came back OK. My liver numbers have creeped up a little and they will watch it, but the thyroid numbers are back to normal.

My foot pain has come back on my left foot. The doctor, Monica and I discussed it today. The options are to stop the pill for a couple days if it gets too much to handle, or reduce the dosage. I’m not interested in a reduced dosage, so I’m going to do everything I can to keep the foot pain manageable.

I met with Mark Spencer, a cousin that I had spoke with on the phone and emailed, but had never met in person. He drove down from the Philadelphia Airport on the way to Altoona and we met at a little barbecue place off 83. We talked for a couple of hours about the Farm and plans about its future. He and his family live in Syracuse, NY near the rest of his family, but in the early 1980’s he actually lived in Laurel, Md. We may have crossed paths but never knew it.

The one fact that we both agree on is that our heritage, the Big Moses Farm, is worth working on to save for our sons and daughters. It is a special place to everyone in the family, and we can make it so for generations to come. There are few families out there that have the treasure we have in Big Moses. Whenever we go back, the memories of family, experiences, and good times and bad comes back. You can feel the souls when you cross the bridge over Indian Creek. If affects everyone that goes there. Just type in “big moses” on Google Earth or your navigation system and it will guide you there. When you visit, just let my brother, Terry know that David Rickey invited you.

I know it’s been a few days since I updated the blog, but I don’t want to bore you guys to death with the quiet days. My bp has been OK, my feet have been OK. I go back this Wednesday for the monthly MD visit. I don’t expect any surprises, just the routine stuff.

The girls had their annual ornament exchange Friday night, so the guys got together and went to Ruth’s Chris for dinner. I have never been able to join them before because of my work schedule, but I was there this time. It was a great time with Jim and his son Jimmy, Paul and Timmy, Jerry and his neighbor, Tom. Jim was in rare form on Friday night, railing about everything. You had to have a tough skin because no one was spared. You guys that didn’t show, you don’t want to know what he said about you! He kept on pressing me to tell the girls I was passing on the Xmas trip to Lancaster next week until I told him I would like the opportunity to actually to die of cancer.

I didn’t do a very good job of ordering my dinner. Paul kept on suggesting I do the tbone, but I insisted on the Prime Rib and it turned out too salty. I also lost my mind and ordered the Lobster Bisque. It tasted OK but lets just say I canceled all my plans for Saturday.

Eddie K picked me up this morning and we headed to the Redskins Game. I wanted to wear my Impeach Snyder sweatshirt, but he suggested I didn’t as we would be in a Skybox near Snyder. The suite that we were in was just the way us old guys need to see the game. Inside, but we opened the window so we could hear the stadium noise and feel the air. The host had provided all the drinks and food that we could want, and a bathroom, all within a few steps. The older the reader is, the more they will understand.

I was expecting a blowout, but the Skins actually played outstanding until their normal last minute swoon. I can’t believe a missed 4 yard field goal in the last 2 minutes. The game went to overtime, and of course the Skins fumbled and the Saints won. Ed and I waited a while for the traffic to lighten up, and when we were leaving I saw Coach Zorn walking by our suite towards Snyders box, accompanied by his son and an aide. I thought about saying hello, but the look on his face didn’t encourage contact to say the least. If I had stuck out my hand, I might have gotten punched! I’m going to suggest shortening the game by 5 minutes. The Redskins would be leading their division!

I wanted to update you all on our water bill. I received an email from the lady in charge acknowledging their error, and waiving the fee. I’m almost sorry they did that, because a bunch of people were chomping at the bit to get involved. Lanny was mailing me a check to cover it. Deb had sent me the names and numbers of some VIP’s that would have jumped on it with the promise of more names and numbers if they couldn’t do it. I had a bunch of suggestions on how to handle it, and I appreciate each and every one.

I was getting a haircut and missed a call offering a ticket to the Redskin’s game this Sunday where I can see them take down the undefeated Saints. Eddie, if you read this, call me back!

I’ve been getting a lot of compliments on this blog and suggestions that I should write a book. I’m not sure how to take that, because the last time I was doing the cancer thing, my friends would come by from time to time and tell me how good I looked. They would then come by a month or so later and tell me how much better I looked than the last time they saw me. For some reason, that makes me a little cynical.

I’ve been thinking about it though, and have a couple characters in mind. The heroes sidekicks would include The Doc, who is a cross between House and Emeril. The Wall, who is a hell of a driver and just keeps getting younger looking. The Captain, who is a financial wizard and speedboat expert, and the Redneck, who is B A Barracus with a photographic memory. I’m trying to figure out what the hero does, other than being extremely good looking, and a stud. All the ladies wear leather and hang out at a beach bar.