Friday, March 26, 2010

the stress factor and birthdays( not related)

Stress can be difficult to notice until it goes away, or dramatically improves. Especially over the last six months, I have noticed that I was spending too much time trying to keep my dental practice going By trying to manage day-to-day and assuming all responsibilities for making sure the office runs smoothly. Well now that I feel confident in the people working there, I have given specific instructions on running the practice and to keep me out of it. So based on the above information, it is in my best interest for my health and sanity to sell the practice. After all, the greatest joy I had was working with the people, and since I'm only working out of the home, and no longer with patients, I'm saying to myself,'what kind of idiot are you to put in 20 to 30 hours a week on things you really don't enjoy and not even get paid". Now in all fairness, I had to be an idiot for a year to take advantage of my disability benefits which basically saved my ass(excuse my French). So I am basically in the process of doing a practice valuation and have five parties that are interested in buying the practice, so retirement is in near future and the stress factor should become a thing of the past. By the way, I have felt great the past two weeks since the start of my stress relief plan. Even though I felt strong in the past, I've noticed that I'm a lot stronger now, plus I'm getting 6 to 7 hours of solid sleep at night compared to the 2 to 3 hours of broken up sleep that I was getting before. Who knows, the hidden stress of running a dental practice may have led to my cancer, since stress weakens your immune system and that's when the cancer cells in your body can grow and form tumors. So in the words of Mr. Soul himself, James Brown, "I feel good (musical interlude) I knew that I would (musical interlude) like sugar and spice ( musical interlude) and everything nice ( musical interlude) so good(dont-dont) so good, et al. enough about the stress factor, let's get onto topic two.

As promised my wife took me to the movies on my birthday and we went to our old standby, the budget theater, where we saw 'blindside'. As usual, it became an adventure just getting there and getting seated. It takes less than 15 minutes to get there, but we usually leave a half hour early, because I have that slow-moving vehicle insignia on my butt. Well wouldn't you know it, we got stuck behind a funeral procession, and if that wasn't bad enough there were two school buses parked in front with probably over 100 kids, and they were also in front of the handicap ramp, so we had to wait for the buses to move and by the time we get to the theater the doors were shut and it was pitch black so you couldn't see anything. You'd be surprised how much of an incline there is when you're using a walker, and are even talking about the back row. I'm not sure, but I think I did a lap dance on some 80-year-old lady, which could explain the $20 bill I found in my front pocket later that day, which covered the movie, the popcorn and soda. Anyway, after spending about 15 minutes trying to get into the seats, we did enjoy the movie. Sunday was family birthday day where we went out to Outback Restaurant. My daughter's, who did not plan this each got me a jigsaw puzzle, which is one of my winter pastimes. Lisa got me a 1008 piece puzzle of a picture of my grandson, and my other daughter Jessie got me a jigsaw puzzle of 513 pieces of the family photo at her wedding( must be in their DNA). I couldn't ask for two better gifts, since it'll probably occupy me for months and when finished I will be rewarded with two great pictures that we can frame, since all the puzzles I do, I seal when done, because I hate to spend all that time putting together the puzzle and then taking it apart and putting it back in the box which to me would seem like a waste of time. Also my daughter Jessie, alias,' the town crier', had e-mailed a lot of people to tell them that it was my birthday on March 19. I was wondering how everyone knew about this, this year, but not in previous years. So between 5 and 7 PM on that day, I got probably 50 e-mails about a dozen phone calls and a few visitors, it would have been nice if it was a little more spread out but who am I to argue.

Well I hope that holds you for another week.

POGO






I knew that I would



















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the stress factor and birthdays( not related

Friday, March 19, 2010

happy birthday pogo

Well I made it to the ripe old age of 56, chronically speaking, but mentally I'm still 12 years old. My wife plans on taking me to movie today, and Sunday the family is coming over for laughs and celebration.

I actually found what I want for my birthday, which I'm giving to myself. I plan on going to Germany where they have the top cancer clinics in the world, and also use it for vacation and sightseeing. I recently sent in for some reports on the top cancer clinics in the world, and Germany is head and tails far superior as far as there knowledge of cancer and therefore have safer, more effective treatment modalities with no side effects and no poisoning of your system with drugs and radiation and surgery.

I will briefly describe what I had just learned.

First of all, let me tell you about some of the people that decided against traditional American treatment for cancer. In 1983, Pres. Ronald Reagan opted to go to Germany cancer clinic instead of being treated by the standard way in the US, and we all know he survived and died of old age. Others include Cher, Suzanne Somers, George Hamilton, red buttons and Liz Taylor, all of whom were cured without all the side effects. Most of these people were considered terminal by US doctors and yet were completely cured. What really wakes you up is when executives at organizations such as the American Cancer Society, and the FDA, or their relatives come down with cancer, they go to the German clinics even though they strongly recommend that you get traditional American treatment to the public. And do you ever notice, that the doctors here like to let you know how much time you have left and not how to get better. They say it cost $350,000 to die of cancer in America, while at the German clinics you can take off the last two zeros and have a better chance of survival with no side effects. The clinics are more like bed and breakfast and very positive, plus are in some of the most scenic areas.

What I learned that I did not know before is that the tumor is the last manifestation of cancer and that is why most people have relapses because they are treating the tumor and not the cancer which involves the whole body. So when you know all there is to know about cancer as far as how it works, then the treatments can be designed to be conservative and yet effective instead of just blasting everything like they do here. There are still life style changes that have to be made when you get back, but they will help with recommended treatment and who to contact for that when you get back home. Because again the point is to completely get rid of the cancer and not have it come back every so often.

So I cannot think of a better birthday present to give myself than this. After all if I am going to live to be 100, so I have to do something proactive.

Looking forward to a lot more birthdays.

pogo

Friday, March 12, 2010

going from musicals to Shakespeare

On the medical alert, last Thursday I had day surgery to put a port in my right shoulder which it will be used for drawing blood and to give medications. It was pretty simple and was done with local anesthetic and was there about five hours total. This was one of the few times I used the wheelchairs at the hospital and I am glad I don't have to use those all the time. First of all their wide enough to fit an elephant and clumsy enough where you cannot propel yourself, and I think the seat is made out of 'ass'phalt. Anyway, I got a good meal out of it which included soup and salad, a turkey club sandwich, milk, fruit and let's not forget that chocolate brownie. I had no complications from the surgery, I was just told to stay away from lifting anything over 10 pounds and to take it easy for 10 days, and stay out of water for the same amount of time, which pretty much takes care of all my physical activities. But I guess a little rest can't hurt.

On Tuesday, I was at the hospital from 12:30 PM to 8:30 PM, about four hours longer than expected. It started normal with our support group, and for the first time in a long time I had a couple sugar cookies while I was thereand then walked for about another half hour to get to another part of the hospital to visit a friend. When I got there I was offered a brownie and a few other desserts, since they went to get rid of them, and they were very tasty going down a couple hours later I had this funny feeling in my stomach, probably because I'm not used to eating sugar. So this is where i did my Shakespeare routine playing 'KING REAR', all night with my plunger as my scepter and my toilet as my throne. You talk about a long night. And let's add insult to injury, as I was approaching the valet parking area my foot got caught under one of the mats that they have laying all over to keep the moisture down and that wasn't the only thing that went down. I went down in my usual slow motion and I think before I hit the ground, they had security and paramedics all over me. I basically had a cut on my knee, and of course I said, it's fine just put a Band-Aid on it. But they insisted on taking me to the emergency room where I spent the next four hours getting a Band-Aid on my boo-boo knee. So that became quite a long day and night.

On Sunday, my son Brad kicked me and my wife of the house so he could do some video work for the TV show he is putting on, which actually worked out very well since it was a nice sunny day, so we went to the movies, the fancy place, and not the usual budget theatre, and after that we went by my office to gather the mail and plus it was the first time I probably walked into the office in about 6 months.

On Thursday, started my first treatment of the AVASTIN and to my delight, I felt fine and had no side effects. The total time to get this into my system is always was to be a half-hour. After laying in the nice recliner, taking a nap, I was awakened by the usual, my bladder and found out I was two hours into the appointment but they hadn't started yet because the port was clogged, so I ended up being there for four hours instead. So as usual, I can't do anything the easy way, but all in all I still feel great.

POGO

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Pogo to star in the musical Annie

First of all,"the sun will come out tomorrow", because Pogo is so optimistic, that nothing can get him down. I had my doctor's appointment on Monday and we now have our next plan of attack. I will be starting on AVASTIN, which is the latest and most recommended treatment for the type of cancer I have. It is not a true chemotherapy and is hard to explain exactly what it is but if anybody wants to look it up at least they have the name of this stuff. So this Thursday, I have an appointment at the hospital to get a port put in which will be used for the IV of the AVASTIN, which I only need once every three weeks, however I will be there every Thursday for other miscellaneous things which include blood test and follow-ups, with most appointments being two hours or less. The only real side effect is because it is a blood thinner, it may cause bleeding. But on the bright side my wife thinks that the peroxide solution that I've been using for treatment was causing my blood to thin also, so I've decided to stop the treatment and use my extra oxygen water instead, so there's something I'm really not going to miss( the sun has come out tomorrow).

I also have an appointment today at the hospital to get a custom splint for my left hand, which has deformed into a reverse hook(Kind of like Capt. Hook of Peter Pan fame). I've nicknamed my left hand"Mr. friendly", because when I'm sitting in my wheelchair, it basically lays in my crotch all day and what really makes it look bad is when I get clonus, which is an uncontrollable tremor.

We celebrated my daughter's birthday a month late but had a great time at their place. We played balderdash, which when you have a family like ours, it is truly gutwrenching laughter. The only probably we have is getting me there since they live in BAY VIEW, you have to deal with spiral staircases ice and snow which is not very conducive for getting into and out of their house. But between my son and two Son in-laws, we managed to drag my sorry butt in and out of the house.

"Food, glorious food", it is so great to eat normal food again which I said I would do based on the MRI results, and since it showed growth, I figured why restrict the diet if it's not making a difference. I will still take my supplements, and try to keep the sugar content down and still try and eat fairly decent, but I'm not worried about it killing me. So Saturday I had pizza, Sunday I had lasagna, Monday I had a salad and an Arbys beef and cheddar sandwich, and on Tuesday some friends of ours brought over chicken fajitas which were excellent, I even had some ice cream on Saturday and Tuesday. Once again,"food glorious food".

I am now three wins and no losses on my chess matches that I am playing online, which I guess means that my brain is in turning into mush even though the cancer is spreading. As long as I don't become a blithering idiot, I guess I'll be okay.

My next blog will probably be next Friday, so I can let you know how my first treatment went.

pogo

Friday, February 26, 2010

MRI results

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

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