Well I got my MRI results and I was a lot more optimistic than the images. We know this is an extremely aggressive cancer, and my nine months of stability have ended. There were four areas that increased in size which also included crossing over to the other side of the brain. So he said it's possible that when it crosses to the other side, you may get a little wacko. But then again, how would I know, since I'm pretty wacko already. So we are going on to plan C., which we knew would eventually happen. We knew that if my home remedies stopped working they would have to get into chemotherapy. So they scheduled me ASAP which happens to be Monday, March 1 at 1:15 PM. I know they talked about a AVASTIN, which is the drug of choice for the type of cancer along with some other type. It is given through IV and I know the major side effect is increase bleeding due to blood thinning. This could prove to be interesting since my blood is pretty thin right now. I have a lot of bruises and when I bump into things which I don't even know I'm doing half the time because of lack of feeling, I lose a layer of skin down to the area where there are blood vessels. Special note; when you put a corticosteroid on the area be ready to scream bloody murder because it stings like crazy and not just for a second but for a good half hour. Lesson learned the hard way. I'm not sure if I have skin or wet toilet paper wrapped around me. So it looks like I'm going to be logging a lot more hospital time.I will probably get everybody up-to-date next Tuesday.
Now there is always a silver lining, because I said depending on my MRI results which in this case, it got worse, I would change my diet around so I could eat more types of food that I enjoy and start going to restaurants and eating anything I like. I will still have my grog in the morning until I run out of the supplies to make it, and I will continue with my peroxide therapy and my Avamar therapy which I will have been on for two weeks so it really hasn't a chance to kick in. I will still be trying to keep the sugar content down too.
Now let's get to the cheerier side. This past Tuesday, I was at the hospital from 12:30 PM to 6:15 PM. I started on the 12th floor for support group then walked down to the basement for the MRI then to the second floor for blood test then to the Kinsley wing to visit a friend who unfortunately is a head case like me, but the good news for her is that it is not cancerous. Of course anytime you're dealing with the brain, I guess we could never consider that good news. So anyway I got my fair share of walking in that day. when I got back home, 4 former ballplayers that played on my team were waiting for me for dinner and a movie. As usual, I don't mention names,"houghever" one of them brought over his homemade recipe for burritos which were excellent. Someone else was in charge of bringing the movie, which was quite an"undertaking", because he just brought the disc, and as far as we know it is still in the movie theaters. This could explain the black SUV parked across the street with the two guys in a black suits and sunglasses. He said it was an action adventure film, called on "the edge of darkness", and I thought to myself this is good because I need something with a lot of action to keep me awake after a long day. But I think the movie could've been renamed to"the edge of nodding" , Since it put me out and when I did wake up and looked around I wasn't the only one nodding off. but because of the movie and bringing it in that disk it opened the door for a lot of humor. for action-adventure movie, it was only missing two things, and that was action and adventure, otherwise it is pretty much right on.
Until next Tuesday, goodbye to one and all.
pogo
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
getting a little busier
In my last blog, I described how exciting my weeks are, which I may have to do more often because I think I drew the sympathy card and the next two weeks are going to be pretty busy. Tomorrow which will be Friday, me and Sue are going out to dinner at red lobster with a good friend of ours, which we used to do twice a year with our wives, but it's been several years, since he moved out of state for a while and now is back,so we have a lot of catching up to do. When we went there in the past we would usually spent about four hours there, and conversation was never a problem. I love their food there and their quantity, but I would still have to watch out what I eat, but there should still be enough choices.
The weekends are usually pretty quiet, however my Tuesday morning gamers said that they should let them know that if nothing is going on, to give them a call and if it works out we can do some weekend gaming. That's the life of retirement, having free time most of the time, but the one thing that trumps gaming is the grandkids.
Next week Tuesday, I'll probably have my busiest day ever. Starts with the gamers from 10 AM to 12:30 PM, then off to the hospital for the support group from 1 PM to 2:30 PM, this is going to be followed up by another MRI and a blood test, and then I have a couple of friends coming over at 6 PM that are bringing over dinner, then we are going to watch a movie, which after that day hopefully I'll be able to stay awake through it. I better go with an action-adventure movie so I don't start doing the famous nod.
The next day on Wednesday, I got someone coming over to do Reiki on me, which will hopefully be relaxing and helpful.
On Thursday, at 10 AM, I have a massage specialist who specializes in people that are disabled coming over for a couple hours to work me over. At 3:30 PM, I have a doctors appointment at the hospital to go over the MRI results and the blood test. I will be interested to see how the results end up, because I've been on this aggressive peroxide therapy for quite a while now, plus about a week ago I started a special supplement which is supposed to expose the cancer cells to my normal immune system. So I'm pretty optimistic that things will be stable and would be great if it showed signs of the cancer shrinking. I will keep everybody up-to-date by next Friday when I will blog again.
The next day on Friday, my red lobster friend will be over all day for a couple games of chess.
Then on Saturday, February 27 we will be celebrating my youngest daughter's birthday which was actually January 31, but as we say in our family, better late than never.
So when that social calendar starts opening up again, I'll have to blog again on how boring my life can be.
I can't end without letting everybody know that once again the world of electronics and technology let me down again. Sunday night, AT&T u-verse went out again for the fourth time in a month.I got on the phone with them Sunday night to let them know how happy I was with their service( sarcasm)and the earliest that they could get here was Tuesday morning. Well I got to thinking and then I realized that Monday night was one of the two nights where we have all the shows that we watch and so I called back the next day and actually got a very friendly and helpful person on the other line. She was able to get somebody over here on the Monday noon to four slot. She checked our history and said that they would fix the problem permanently this time, and of course my comment was shouldn't it have been fixed permanently the first time. She was in total agreement and spent extra time and put in extra notes to make sure that it was done correctly. The guy that came out was very thorough, was inside the house outside the house, check every wire and connection and found multiple problems. He seemed confident that everything should be back to normal, but just in case, he gave us his business card and said to call him directly if there is any problem. So far so good.
And of course my computer went down on Tuesday where I lost my connection to my business which I heavily rely on and of course it was payday for the staff and boy if you want to see a group of people panic when you tell them the computer is not working and I can't get the payroll done, but who can blame them. For several hours during the morning I tried to fix things, but with my usual skill with computers, nothing worked. However, I had to leave for a while and when I got back everything was working fine. The only really fancy thing I did was unplug the printer and then plug it back in and that must've fixed the printer and the computer. I'm not going to argue about it, just as long as it works.
So my next blog will be next Friday and hopefully I'll have nothing but great news from the MRI.
pogo
The weekends are usually pretty quiet, however my Tuesday morning gamers said that they should let them know that if nothing is going on, to give them a call and if it works out we can do some weekend gaming. That's the life of retirement, having free time most of the time, but the one thing that trumps gaming is the grandkids.
Next week Tuesday, I'll probably have my busiest day ever. Starts with the gamers from 10 AM to 12:30 PM, then off to the hospital for the support group from 1 PM to 2:30 PM, this is going to be followed up by another MRI and a blood test, and then I have a couple of friends coming over at 6 PM that are bringing over dinner, then we are going to watch a movie, which after that day hopefully I'll be able to stay awake through it. I better go with an action-adventure movie so I don't start doing the famous nod.
The next day on Wednesday, I got someone coming over to do Reiki on me, which will hopefully be relaxing and helpful.
On Thursday, at 10 AM, I have a massage specialist who specializes in people that are disabled coming over for a couple hours to work me over. At 3:30 PM, I have a doctors appointment at the hospital to go over the MRI results and the blood test. I will be interested to see how the results end up, because I've been on this aggressive peroxide therapy for quite a while now, plus about a week ago I started a special supplement which is supposed to expose the cancer cells to my normal immune system. So I'm pretty optimistic that things will be stable and would be great if it showed signs of the cancer shrinking. I will keep everybody up-to-date by next Friday when I will blog again.
The next day on Friday, my red lobster friend will be over all day for a couple games of chess.
Then on Saturday, February 27 we will be celebrating my youngest daughter's birthday which was actually January 31, but as we say in our family, better late than never.
So when that social calendar starts opening up again, I'll have to blog again on how boring my life can be.
I can't end without letting everybody know that once again the world of electronics and technology let me down again. Sunday night, AT&T u-verse went out again for the fourth time in a month.I got on the phone with them Sunday night to let them know how happy I was with their service( sarcasm)and the earliest that they could get here was Tuesday morning. Well I got to thinking and then I realized that Monday night was one of the two nights where we have all the shows that we watch and so I called back the next day and actually got a very friendly and helpful person on the other line. She was able to get somebody over here on the Monday noon to four slot. She checked our history and said that they would fix the problem permanently this time, and of course my comment was shouldn't it have been fixed permanently the first time. She was in total agreement and spent extra time and put in extra notes to make sure that it was done correctly. The guy that came out was very thorough, was inside the house outside the house, check every wire and connection and found multiple problems. He seemed confident that everything should be back to normal, but just in case, he gave us his business card and said to call him directly if there is any problem. So far so good.
And of course my computer went down on Tuesday where I lost my connection to my business which I heavily rely on and of course it was payday for the staff and boy if you want to see a group of people panic when you tell them the computer is not working and I can't get the payroll done, but who can blame them. For several hours during the morning I tried to fix things, but with my usual skill with computers, nothing worked. However, I had to leave for a while and when I got back everything was working fine. The only really fancy thing I did was unplug the printer and then plug it back in and that must've fixed the printer and the computer. I'm not going to argue about it, just as long as it works.
So my next blog will be next Friday and hopefully I'll have nothing but great news from the MRI.
pogo
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
a week in the life of Pogo
Since this is one of those weeks where there wasn't much exciting things going on, I thought I would give you an idea of what a typical week is like for me. Get ready to yawn, because it's not that exciting.
I have a special hospital bed that is set up in our living room and i usually climb out of bed somewhere between 5 AM to 8 AM. The first thing i do is get dressed, which I can easily do within about five minutes now, considering that half their body does not cooperate. From there, I transfer myself to the wheelchair and roll-on into the kitchen where I take my supplements which is roughly around 30 pills and I take that with my peroxide solution. I do this first thing in the morning because I have to do it on empty stomach and then I have to wait for an hour before eating. Next comes breakfast, which is the exciting grog which I have every morning, which is a special mixture of flaxseed oil, freshly ground flaxseed, organic low-fat cottage cheese, and fruits and berries. This is all mixed together with a hand blender, and if to thick, organic 0 g of sugar apple juice is added. This is then choked down with the help of my oxygenated water.
Usually the rest of the morning is dedicated to office work, going through the e-mails, blogging, phone consults, and meetings. That usually gets me to noon or 1 PM.
The rest of the afternoon is usually divided up between working on jigsaw puzzles and doing my own personal physical therapy which involves a minimum of 20 minutes of walking each day, my core exercises which is a combination of sitting and standing stretching as far as I can go to the right and left at different angles which helps with balance and strengthens the oblique muscles, I also use a 15 pound dumbbell to help strengthen my upper body on the right side, which includes shoulder press, rowing, tricep extension, and bicep curls. When I go down for my nap between 4 and 5 PM, I will do my glute and quadricep exercises which are done in bed that involves arching my back so only my shoulders and feet are touching the bed and sqeezing my cheeks together. And then that is followed up by usually an hour to an hour and a half nap which is all dependent on my bladder. After that it's dinner time, and then the evening is dedicated to TV whether it's catching shows that we DVR or movies.
I do have some standing activities on certain days during the week. Every Tuesday morning, I have three people come over for playing board games. On Monday and Wednesday afternoon when I go over to innovative fitness where i do at least a half hour on a sitting step climber with the resistance of 6 out of 10, and that is followed up with about 30 to 40 minutes of aqua therapy. Then I get to hit the showers which is the highlight of the week, since that is my only ccess to shower facilities. The second and fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 PM to 2:30 PM is our cancer support group at St. Luke's Hospital.
Occasionally, I will have friends stop by and play games or just talk. But pretty much during the winter months, i stay inside. Usually once or twice a week, our grandson comes over and I get to watch him cruise around the house. I also play online chess with a friend and so far I am up two games with no losses.
On weekends, Saturday and most of Sunday is usually a combination of play, exercise, and possibly office work. Sunday during the football season, I would have people come over to watch the games.
It is rare for me to have Dr. appointments. Every three months I have an MRI done and blood tests and then see the doctor for the results.
How is that for excitement. Just a little different than my previous lifestyle.
Until next week, if anybody is still awake out there.
POGO
I have a special hospital bed that is set up in our living room and i usually climb out of bed somewhere between 5 AM to 8 AM. The first thing i do is get dressed, which I can easily do within about five minutes now, considering that half their body does not cooperate. From there, I transfer myself to the wheelchair and roll-on into the kitchen where I take my supplements which is roughly around 30 pills and I take that with my peroxide solution. I do this first thing in the morning because I have to do it on empty stomach and then I have to wait for an hour before eating. Next comes breakfast, which is the exciting grog which I have every morning, which is a special mixture of flaxseed oil, freshly ground flaxseed, organic low-fat cottage cheese, and fruits and berries. This is all mixed together with a hand blender, and if to thick, organic 0 g of sugar apple juice is added. This is then choked down with the help of my oxygenated water.
Usually the rest of the morning is dedicated to office work, going through the e-mails, blogging, phone consults, and meetings. That usually gets me to noon or 1 PM.
The rest of the afternoon is usually divided up between working on jigsaw puzzles and doing my own personal physical therapy which involves a minimum of 20 minutes of walking each day, my core exercises which is a combination of sitting and standing stretching as far as I can go to the right and left at different angles which helps with balance and strengthens the oblique muscles, I also use a 15 pound dumbbell to help strengthen my upper body on the right side, which includes shoulder press, rowing, tricep extension, and bicep curls. When I go down for my nap between 4 and 5 PM, I will do my glute and quadricep exercises which are done in bed that involves arching my back so only my shoulders and feet are touching the bed and sqeezing my cheeks together. And then that is followed up by usually an hour to an hour and a half nap which is all dependent on my bladder. After that it's dinner time, and then the evening is dedicated to TV whether it's catching shows that we DVR or movies.
I do have some standing activities on certain days during the week. Every Tuesday morning, I have three people come over for playing board games. On Monday and Wednesday afternoon when I go over to innovative fitness where i do at least a half hour on a sitting step climber with the resistance of 6 out of 10, and that is followed up with about 30 to 40 minutes of aqua therapy. Then I get to hit the showers which is the highlight of the week, since that is my only ccess to shower facilities. The second and fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 PM to 2:30 PM is our cancer support group at St. Luke's Hospital.
Occasionally, I will have friends stop by and play games or just talk. But pretty much during the winter months, i stay inside. Usually once or twice a week, our grandson comes over and I get to watch him cruise around the house. I also play online chess with a friend and so far I am up two games with no losses.
On weekends, Saturday and most of Sunday is usually a combination of play, exercise, and possibly office work. Sunday during the football season, I would have people come over to watch the games.
It is rare for me to have Dr. appointments. Every three months I have an MRI done and blood tests and then see the doctor for the results.
How is that for excitement. Just a little different than my previous lifestyle.
Until next week, if anybody is still awake out there.
POGO
Monday, February 1, 2010
one-year anniversary
Well it's been 365 days since I hit the wall, so to speak. February 2 is the official anniversary date of when this all started. And surprisingly enough, this year went by pretty fast. My goal in life right now is to prove to Dr. doom that he doesn't know what he is talking about when it comes to life expectancy. Since he gave me 12-18 months, so far I've proved him wrong on the short end. And considering I feel great and have no symptoms, just the paralysis, I expect to be around for quite a long time. I am debating whether to send him an anniversary card every six months.
This will be a shorter blog today. When I thank friends I usually do not mention their names only because I don't know if I need their signed permission or they don't want to see their name in lights.
I had one friend that just happen to stop over. I asked him if he knew anything about electricity, because when my daughter tried to rewire the family room things stopped working. He said he would take a look but wasn't overly confident. Well I'm glad to say that he fixed the problem and the house is still standing.
I also want to thank another friend who took me to see,' whose line is it anyway', at the Pabst Theater on Saturday. It was also nice of him to pay for everything. It was a great show and was being taped so we may be on TV or be on a DVD. I know that laughter is the best medicine and i also know that gut belly laughter will kill cancer cells, so i wouldn't be surprised if I am now cancer free. We plan on making this an annual event and maybe get a big group together next January for this.
pogo
This will be a shorter blog today. When I thank friends I usually do not mention their names only because I don't know if I need their signed permission or they don't want to see their name in lights.
I had one friend that just happen to stop over. I asked him if he knew anything about electricity, because when my daughter tried to rewire the family room things stopped working. He said he would take a look but wasn't overly confident. Well I'm glad to say that he fixed the problem and the house is still standing.
I also want to thank another friend who took me to see,' whose line is it anyway', at the Pabst Theater on Saturday. It was also nice of him to pay for everything. It was a great show and was being taped so we may be on TV or be on a DVD. I know that laughter is the best medicine and i also know that gut belly laughter will kill cancer cells, so i wouldn't be surprised if I am now cancer free. We plan on making this an annual event and maybe get a big group together next January for this.
pogo
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