MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!
As the year winds down, we want to send our Holiday Greetings to one and all and thank each of you for your friendship and support over the past couple of years. We love you all and thank you for being our friends and extended family.
One year ago I was laying around in a recliner chair not able to do too much. I was in quite a lot of pain and trying to cope with the reconstruction of my stomach and trying to deal with the after-effects of surgery. Starting in March of this year I timidly started approaching a normal life and started back to work on a very part-time basis. I did a pretty good job of picking up speed and soon was back to a somewhat normal activity and have been going eight to twelve hours a day for four or five months now. I did have my flare ups and got set back a few times - but I am going full speed ahead now. Of course - full speed at my current age is less than half speed not too many years ago, but it's okay. I'm okay with the speed I'm going now. In fact, I don't want to go any faster. I get up to go get something now and by the time I get there I have forgotten what I got up to go get. Just think the mess I would be in if I went any faster!
As you might know, I went down to Houston for tests in October in preparation for surgery in November. I failed the tests - they found a new aneurysm in my right let (that makes three now - one in each leg and one in my chest) and they weren't too happy with the blood clots in my right leg - so they postponed the surgery. I am scheduled to go back for another round of tests in early January to see if I can have the surgery for the hernia. It has gotten to be a real pain in the - stomach area (I bet you thought I was going to say something else!) and I would really like to get it taken care of. I have been studying real hard with the hope that I can pass the test this time. Unfortunately this is one test you can't cram for or even cheat on. I did go to my heart surgeon here and had another doppler exam with the hope of finding something I could do or could stop doing that would reduce or eliminate the blood clots and aneurysms - but no such luck. They did say I have one blood clot in one of my main arteries in my right leg that extends from my groin all the way down my leg to below my knee, but they didn't give me any remedies to stop it or correct it. Guess I'm on my own as far as remedies are concerned. That could be dangerous! I'm thinking some home-made brew might be the solution!
I do have a pretty constant pain - sometimes pretty severe - in the abdominal area, but I am usually okay with pain. I can deal with most pain without too much problem. The big problem is mental. Sometimes I have to work pretty hard to keep my head screwed on straight. It is a little easy to get down in the dumps and start thinking negative and I can't tolerate that. I feel a positive attitude is what has gotten me through this thing so far, and I refuse to let myself get negative now. Sometimes I combine the two attitudes - I am positive that I am being negative and that is when I have to force myself to change my thought process.
All in all - I am in pretty good shape for the shape I am in and I think I might be clunking along for a few more miles once I get the repairs made. I am okay - everything is okay and just need to get this little event over with so I can start practicing for Olympics or the UNM football team.
My good wife, Mary, has recovered nicely from her hip replacement. She is too stubborn to be down too long. She was cheating on the rules of behavior given to her by her doctor and was up doing things she wasn't supposed to be doing just as soon as she got me out of the house. I kept coming home finding that heavy furniture had been moved, yard work had been done, things had been done which required someone to get up on a ladder. And when I cautiously agreed that it was okay for her to drive herself to an appointment and she ended up traveling all over town to the shopping centers, to lunch, to the hairdresser, etc. - I gave up on trying to be her warden. She did fall down in the yard while doing yard work and I didn't find out about that until she accidently told me she had an appointment with her surgeon. But, she is still planning on going to Egypt in January and I have learned - a long time ago - that there is nothing that is going to stop her. I am only grateful that she is the only stubborn person in the family. Just think what it would be like if I was that way.
Our son, John Leslie, in Dallas is through with his chemo - at least for now. He still has a problem with his lungs and a pretty constant cough. This was supposedly caused by some of the medication he was on. He is going to another pulmonary doctor for a second opinion and if that doesn't help I think he will go on down to Houston to MDAnderson for yet another opinion. I wanted him to go to MDAnderson initially, but it is a lot closer for him, and it is easier if he can get it taken care of in Dallas.
JL came over for Thanksgiving with four of their children. They went over to Oklahoma and picked up Sarah from college and Annie, Emily and Andrew and Sarah all came over for the big turkey day. Rebekah is still in England where she is attending school as a recipent of the Marshall scholarship program. She is working on her doctorate and will soon be smarter than her grandpa. Who isn't? Christopher had to stay home as he has a new job in Dallas and didn't want to take off and Leslea is in management at a large grocery chain and at Thanksgiving no one gets to take off. But, even missing a few members of the family, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were joined by Scott and Sheri and Sheri's mother for a great Thanksgiving dinner.
Andrew and Maria are coming in from Florida to spend a few days with us over Christmas. Andrew called a few weeks ago and talked about how cold it was in Florida. He said it had dropped down to sixty degrees. At the time, that sounded like a heat wave to us. We are looking forward to seeing them.
Scott and Sheri continue to take care of us old people here in Albuquerque. They have been such a blessing in so many ways and we are so grateful to them for being here for us. I should be taking care of Scott, but the roles are reversed here - he takes care of me. He goes to most of my doctor appointments and he and the doctor discuss my condition, my medication and treatment and I just sit there and listen. He and Sheri always research everything very thoroughly on the computer and it is because of them I went to MDAnderson and have been given, or taken off, some of the medications. Before we went down for the tests for the hernia surgery they did their research and almost immediately Scott started quizzing the doctor on what type of surgery he planned to do. They had discovered that the traditional surgery for this operation and been found to have some flaws and there was a pretty high mortlity rate for this surgery. I think the doctor was quite surprised that Scott was so knowledgeable about this subject, but fortunately he too was not in favor of the traditional surgery. As the plastic surgeon and Dr. Scott (my son) discussed my condition I was happy to just sit there as the token patient. It works for me!
It is going to be a great year for me and I wish the same to all of you. I appreciate your friendship and your help and your prayers. May God Bless you this coming year and may everything in 2009 be great for you - beyond your expectations!
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!!!!
AL
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
HOUSTON TRIP RESULTS
The last couple of weeks have been pretty much non-stop as I prepared for this last trip to Houston. As mentioned previously, they wanted reports and results on any and all medical visits and treatments I have had in the past five years. In addition, they wanted a list of all doctors I had consulted including names, addresses and phone numbers, and last but not least, they wanted a list of all medications I have taken and wanted me to bring the original bottles of each and all medications - including over-the-counter drugs. I spent the best part of the previous week running all over town getting this information and my suitcase was weighted down with all of this material as I departed for Houston.
We went down on Sunday and met with the plastic surgeon and his staff first thing Monday. As always, our son Scott and his wife Sheri had been busy doing research on all the potential treatments and risks involved and their research caused them to be concerned about the screen that is often used in this procedure. When Scott brought these issues up at our meeting with the plastic surgeon, the fact that MD Anderson is one of the most advanced treatment centers was once again demonstrated. They do not use the screen process. While this sounds a little unpleasant, they use the skin of a pig or cadaver and sew this into the abdomen to create an artificial lining or wall which your own lining will become attached to. (I am sure I am explaining this exactly right. It was somewhat over my head even though it was dealing with a subject somewhat below my head.) In any event, they did point out that they would remove the cells and DNA from this lining they would implant in my gut. I could just visualize myself getting excited or emotional and starting to "oink". Of course, my Mom always said I ate like a pig - so maybe something about this is appropriate. The plastic surgeon did go over all the potential risks including - death. Why did he have to say anything about death? I am already apprehensive about this whole idea to begin with.
After this meeting I had some lab work done. Within the few days I was in Houston, they sent me in for lab work four different times plus they stuck an IV port into my arm. I had so many holes poked into my arms I was afraid to take a drink of water for fear I would start squirting water out of both arms.
We next met with an internal medicine doctor and his staff and he was tough. He went through all my records with a fine tooth comb and changed several of my current medications. He was great though and called me on my cell phone several times after we left to confirm and/or re-confirm several of his instructions. These are top ranked high qualtity doctors and I don't get that kind of treatment from my own local doctors. MD Anderson is a top rated cancer treatment center with both doctors and patients from all over the world. I was amused that the internal medical doctor's name was Dr. Ho. Later in the week I had another doctor with the name of Dr. Lo. Then I became worried that maybe these were fictitious names to prevent you from tracking them down if something went wrong.
We then met with my cancer surgeon and his staff and he arranged for me to have some more blood work and added a doppler exam, a chest x-ray, and EKG, and a cat-scan of my abdomen, pancreas and bladder. These exams caused us to need to extend our stay in Houston an extra day. These exams are not painful but are not pleasant. However when I have had the doppler exam in Albuquerque some young guy in a barren office in an almost vacant building comes in wearing a pair of jeans with a partially white smock and looks like he has just thrown on the smock as he finished his job of delivering pizza. This company is contracted with Presbyterian to perform these exams. He has a lap top computer that his probes are connected to and he completes the exam in about fifteen minutes. I have to give him credit though, he did find the two blood clots in my right leg. The doppler exam in Houston was in a room with so much sophisticated looking equipment that I thought they might start cutting on me right there and then. This exam took almost two hours. The exam started with a female technician who did a very thorough job and after a lengthy exam she excused herself and brought back another technician, who she said was more advanced than she was and she wanted him to review the exam. The two of them looked at everything in detail and whispered back and forth as to their opinions. Next they summoned a doctor (Dr. Lo) who reviewed everything and gave me a whole new exam of both legs from start to finish. I went from that exam into the holding area for the cat-scan and finally got out of there around 7:00 pm.
Between the visits with the doctors and the doppler and cat-scan exams, we had a day off so went down to Galveston to see the results of hurricane Ike. There were a number of tree limbs and branches lining the streets in Houston and all the big billboard signs were pretty much destroyed as MD Anderson is in the South part of Houston. In fact, we were just a very short distance from the new stadium that the Houston Texan Football team plays in and this huge stadium as a retractible roof kind of like a convertible top. It was damaged and they said it couldn't be repaired before the end of the current football season.
As we got closer to Galveston the damage caused by Ike was almost unblievable. Sides of buildings had holes in them, roofs had tarps covering holes, some buildings were totally destroyed and some shopping strip malls were totally closed. As we crossed the bridge into Galveston, huge yachts, sailboats and all sorts of smaller boats lined the highway on the side and even one or two had been blown clear across the highway into the medium. Most of these boats looked like total losses. The streets of Galveston were lined with huge piles of rubbish and garbage. Almost every pile of litter had refrigerators and other kitchen appliances included in the rubble. It was really sad. Almost all of the traffic lights were not working and they had installed four-way stop signs at almost all intersections. One of my biggest concerns was a museum we had visited when we went down in April which houses a collection of World War II airplanes. The airport is not too far from the sea wall. We went out to the airport and there was a wire fence built around the airplane hanger and it was obvious that most of the walls of the hanger had been torn apart by the storm, but the framework of the hanger was still in place and we could see some of the airplanes inside. I am sure there was some damage, but it looked like all the airplanes were still in one piece. Scott had found a web site that was a restaurant right across the highway from the sea wall. This restaurant had a video camera that scanned the water across the highway out into the gulf. For some reason this restaurant, The Spot, was open for business so we stopped there for lunch. Scott had already returned to Albuquerque, so we called him and called Andrew down in Florida and waved to them on the camera as we sat on the patio and had lunch. It is amazing, but this restaurant is right across the street from the sea wall and it wasn't damaged. They never closed for the storm. They were out of food for several days, but the bar was open every day. Yet miles away from the sea wall, buildings were completely destroyed.
We got back to Albuquerque late Thursday and I was anxious to get to work on Friday. I sold a car on the 1st. and hadn't been back to work since. Instead I spent more than half the day going to my doctors here in Albuquerque. MD Anderson gave me two prescriptions they wanted me to start on immediately. Neither of these prescriptions were going to be covered by my insurance as Presbyterian has assumed they are not necessary - I guess, and one was around $750.00 and the other was something like $265.00. Because of my visits with the local doctors, I was able to have one of them converted to office treatments and this will eliminate the cost, and on the other I was able to get a "sample prescription" from my pulmonary doctor. So, while I spent more than half the day running around seeing my local doctors, it did save me around $1,000.00 - so I guess it was worth it.
I finally got to work late Friday afternoon - and now the bummer! I got a call from MD Anderson telling me they were going to cancel the surgery planned for the 21st. The exams showed that I still had fragments of blood clots in my right leg and it also showed that I now have an anuerism in my right leg. I already knew I had an anuerism in my left leg and one in my chest, but this one in my right leg is new. They said it was too dangerous for them to operate on me at this time, so they want me to come back in three months and go through this examination routine again.
I was really frustrated and depressed when I got this news. I had spent a lot of time and money to get everything needed for this examination process and had mentally gotten myself prepared for the surgery and the recovery process. Now nothing. I also missed a reunion I badly wanted to attend and a memorial service in Boulder for my niece, Erin. While I am still sad that I missed these events, my state of depression didn't last long. I am so grateful that I have been blessed with the exposure and experience of dealing with MD Anderson and so grateful that they are so thorough and sophisticated that they won't allow something to happen if there is any chance that it might be harmful. Now I just have to wait another three months and prepare myself to go back for another exam and hope that by then I will be an acceptable candidate for surgery. The hernia is quite painful and bothersome, but I can deal with it. The biggest challenge will be trying to remember everything I need to do to improve my condition so I can pass the test next time. I never was real good at passing tests - I'll just have to study harder for this one.
God Bless -
AL
We went down on Sunday and met with the plastic surgeon and his staff first thing Monday. As always, our son Scott and his wife Sheri had been busy doing research on all the potential treatments and risks involved and their research caused them to be concerned about the screen that is often used in this procedure. When Scott brought these issues up at our meeting with the plastic surgeon, the fact that MD Anderson is one of the most advanced treatment centers was once again demonstrated. They do not use the screen process. While this sounds a little unpleasant, they use the skin of a pig or cadaver and sew this into the abdomen to create an artificial lining or wall which your own lining will become attached to. (I am sure I am explaining this exactly right. It was somewhat over my head even though it was dealing with a subject somewhat below my head.) In any event, they did point out that they would remove the cells and DNA from this lining they would implant in my gut. I could just visualize myself getting excited or emotional and starting to "oink". Of course, my Mom always said I ate like a pig - so maybe something about this is appropriate. The plastic surgeon did go over all the potential risks including - death. Why did he have to say anything about death? I am already apprehensive about this whole idea to begin with.
After this meeting I had some lab work done. Within the few days I was in Houston, they sent me in for lab work four different times plus they stuck an IV port into my arm. I had so many holes poked into my arms I was afraid to take a drink of water for fear I would start squirting water out of both arms.
We next met with an internal medicine doctor and his staff and he was tough. He went through all my records with a fine tooth comb and changed several of my current medications. He was great though and called me on my cell phone several times after we left to confirm and/or re-confirm several of his instructions. These are top ranked high qualtity doctors and I don't get that kind of treatment from my own local doctors. MD Anderson is a top rated cancer treatment center with both doctors and patients from all over the world. I was amused that the internal medical doctor's name was Dr. Ho. Later in the week I had another doctor with the name of Dr. Lo. Then I became worried that maybe these were fictitious names to prevent you from tracking them down if something went wrong.
We then met with my cancer surgeon and his staff and he arranged for me to have some more blood work and added a doppler exam, a chest x-ray, and EKG, and a cat-scan of my abdomen, pancreas and bladder. These exams caused us to need to extend our stay in Houston an extra day. These exams are not painful but are not pleasant. However when I have had the doppler exam in Albuquerque some young guy in a barren office in an almost vacant building comes in wearing a pair of jeans with a partially white smock and looks like he has just thrown on the smock as he finished his job of delivering pizza. This company is contracted with Presbyterian to perform these exams. He has a lap top computer that his probes are connected to and he completes the exam in about fifteen minutes. I have to give him credit though, he did find the two blood clots in my right leg. The doppler exam in Houston was in a room with so much sophisticated looking equipment that I thought they might start cutting on me right there and then. This exam took almost two hours. The exam started with a female technician who did a very thorough job and after a lengthy exam she excused herself and brought back another technician, who she said was more advanced than she was and she wanted him to review the exam. The two of them looked at everything in detail and whispered back and forth as to their opinions. Next they summoned a doctor (Dr. Lo) who reviewed everything and gave me a whole new exam of both legs from start to finish. I went from that exam into the holding area for the cat-scan and finally got out of there around 7:00 pm.
Between the visits with the doctors and the doppler and cat-scan exams, we had a day off so went down to Galveston to see the results of hurricane Ike. There were a number of tree limbs and branches lining the streets in Houston and all the big billboard signs were pretty much destroyed as MD Anderson is in the South part of Houston. In fact, we were just a very short distance from the new stadium that the Houston Texan Football team plays in and this huge stadium as a retractible roof kind of like a convertible top. It was damaged and they said it couldn't be repaired before the end of the current football season.
As we got closer to Galveston the damage caused by Ike was almost unblievable. Sides of buildings had holes in them, roofs had tarps covering holes, some buildings were totally destroyed and some shopping strip malls were totally closed. As we crossed the bridge into Galveston, huge yachts, sailboats and all sorts of smaller boats lined the highway on the side and even one or two had been blown clear across the highway into the medium. Most of these boats looked like total losses. The streets of Galveston were lined with huge piles of rubbish and garbage. Almost every pile of litter had refrigerators and other kitchen appliances included in the rubble. It was really sad. Almost all of the traffic lights were not working and they had installed four-way stop signs at almost all intersections. One of my biggest concerns was a museum we had visited when we went down in April which houses a collection of World War II airplanes. The airport is not too far from the sea wall. We went out to the airport and there was a wire fence built around the airplane hanger and it was obvious that most of the walls of the hanger had been torn apart by the storm, but the framework of the hanger was still in place and we could see some of the airplanes inside. I am sure there was some damage, but it looked like all the airplanes were still in one piece. Scott had found a web site that was a restaurant right across the highway from the sea wall. This restaurant had a video camera that scanned the water across the highway out into the gulf. For some reason this restaurant, The Spot, was open for business so we stopped there for lunch. Scott had already returned to Albuquerque, so we called him and called Andrew down in Florida and waved to them on the camera as we sat on the patio and had lunch. It is amazing, but this restaurant is right across the street from the sea wall and it wasn't damaged. They never closed for the storm. They were out of food for several days, but the bar was open every day. Yet miles away from the sea wall, buildings were completely destroyed.
We got back to Albuquerque late Thursday and I was anxious to get to work on Friday. I sold a car on the 1st. and hadn't been back to work since. Instead I spent more than half the day going to my doctors here in Albuquerque. MD Anderson gave me two prescriptions they wanted me to start on immediately. Neither of these prescriptions were going to be covered by my insurance as Presbyterian has assumed they are not necessary - I guess, and one was around $750.00 and the other was something like $265.00. Because of my visits with the local doctors, I was able to have one of them converted to office treatments and this will eliminate the cost, and on the other I was able to get a "sample prescription" from my pulmonary doctor. So, while I spent more than half the day running around seeing my local doctors, it did save me around $1,000.00 - so I guess it was worth it.
I finally got to work late Friday afternoon - and now the bummer! I got a call from MD Anderson telling me they were going to cancel the surgery planned for the 21st. The exams showed that I still had fragments of blood clots in my right leg and it also showed that I now have an anuerism in my right leg. I already knew I had an anuerism in my left leg and one in my chest, but this one in my right leg is new. They said it was too dangerous for them to operate on me at this time, so they want me to come back in three months and go through this examination routine again.
I was really frustrated and depressed when I got this news. I had spent a lot of time and money to get everything needed for this examination process and had mentally gotten myself prepared for the surgery and the recovery process. Now nothing. I also missed a reunion I badly wanted to attend and a memorial service in Boulder for my niece, Erin. While I am still sad that I missed these events, my state of depression didn't last long. I am so grateful that I have been blessed with the exposure and experience of dealing with MD Anderson and so grateful that they are so thorough and sophisticated that they won't allow something to happen if there is any chance that it might be harmful. Now I just have to wait another three months and prepare myself to go back for another exam and hope that by then I will be an acceptable candidate for surgery. The hernia is quite painful and bothersome, but I can deal with it. The biggest challenge will be trying to remember everything I need to do to improve my condition so I can pass the test next time. I never was real good at passing tests - I'll just have to study harder for this one.
God Bless -
AL
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Count Down To Houston
Early next Sunday, a week from today, we will be headed back to Houston. As mentioned before, this trip is just for testing and assuming all goes well I will go back on October 21st for surgery.
Even though this trip is only for testing, it has become a challenge for me. I guess everyone knows the economy is pretty soft now and it has affected the car business like everything else - maybe even a lot more. Plenty of people want to sell or get rid of cars, but most are holding off on buying. It is still a fun thing for me just because I love cars and I love people, but it has become a very difficult job. I will spend all day - many times twelve hours at a time, and only see two or three customers during that time and probably two thirds of them are just looking or killing time. Sometimes I think people come in just because they have nothing to do and they charge admission to go to the zoo. They can come to our place and kill an hour or two (and an hour or two of my time too) without any cost. A great place to bring the family on a week-end! It's like fifteen or twenty people (sales associates) standing around a pond with fishing poles and there are only two or three small fish in the whole pond. It is hard work, but the thrill of seeing someone come in with a chip on their shoulder and ready to do battle because of their past experience with car dealerships and leave laughing and excited and even hugging you because of the experience they have with us. Yes, there is a paycheck involved, but it is almost insignificant compared to the pleasure you get from making someone happy and catching them completely off guard because the treatment they get is totally different than they expected or have had anywhere else.
As stated, it is a very full time job just trying to catch those few fish in the pond but the upcoming MD Anderson trip has made it even more difficult. They have sent me a letter with their requirements for this initial visit. They want a list of all of my doctors, addresses and phone numbers. I will probably have a list of a dozen doctors or more as it is kind of like a game with these guys. You go to one doctor and he refers you to another. The second doctor does his routine and refers you to yet another and so on and so on. I'm not even sure I can remember all the doctors I have been to. I am thinking of taking the yellow pages and giving them a dart and just letting them throw the dart at the yellow pages. I am sure that where ever the dart lands it will be on a doctor I have visited. In addition to wanting to know who my doctors are, the want ALL cardiac test results for the past five years, including all stress test results, echocardiogram reports, electrocrdiogram. They want all pulmonary function tests, all CAT scan results and reports from any and all other doctors I have visited in the past five years. They want all medicines - in their original bottles, including over-the-counter medicines, herbal supplements, inhalers, etc. If you are a diabetic, which I am, they want all recent blood sugar logs. My blood sugar logs are going to be very recent because I got tired of pricking my finger a long time ago and determined that my diabetes was in pretty good shape and kind of forgot to keep track of it like I'm supposed to. So, this past couple of weeks I have been very diligent about pricking my finger and squeezing the blood out and testing it - just so I will have a log to show them.
While trying to deal with the problems of our current economy and putting in twelve hours a day to do it, I keep getting interrupted by the need to bounce all over town from Doctor to Doctor to sign forms that will give them permission to give me these records to take down to Houston. After I have given them permission to give my personal medical records to me - (does that make sense?) I will have to go back to all of them and pick all of these records up. So. I am actually not putting in twelve hours a day at work. I am putting in sometimes up to sixteen hours a day which is broken into many small segments. I doubt if there is twelve hours left over to work. Go to a doctor's office, bounce off to work, leave and go to another doctor or two, go back to work, etc.
There is good in everything! While I get a little ticked off at having to do all this running around, I realize that possibly I am here today because MD Anderson is so thorough and exacting about every little detail. They don't mess around! They are going to know every molecule in my body on a first name basis before this is all over. I love them for that. In fact, I think I might just throw in the name of my barber as kind of a bonus to show my appreciation.
Presbyterian, my health care coverage plan, has this program which is free and designed to help you do a better job of taking care of your health problems. It is called "Lifemasters" and this program has Registered Nurses who call you and interview you over the phone. It is really a very good and thoughtful program and these people are all very nice and if I wasn't such a grumpy old man, I would really appreciate it. But they set you up on a schedule and call once or twice a month to check up on you. In my case they call fifteen or twenty times because I am never here when they call. I just can't see sitting around the house waiting for someone to call to ask me about my wieght, my diet, my exercise, my blood sugar levels, my pills, etc. The truth of the matter I forget, but even if I didn't forget I might find it difficult to arrange to be home at 10:30 in the morning on Tuesday next month. I have a hard time remembering what I am supposed to do tomorrow. Anyway, they caught me off guard last week and caught me just as I was ready to leave for an appointment I was already late for. She advised me that our conversation was being recorded and then assured me that the call would probably not last more than fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes! You can ask me how I am and I can tell you okay in about 30 seconds. Anyway, she started asking me all these questions and then wanted to know what medications I was taking and what the dosage was. Now I don't carry a list of that stuff around with me and have a short memory on top of that - and sometimes I accidentally forget to take a pill or two. So my response was; "Well, I got this one pill - it's kind of long and skinny and it's a pale pink color, then I got this one that is round and kind of flat and I think it is orange, then there is this one that is also orange but it is fatter and it is really nasty - if you aren't sick when you take this pill you will be after you take it". I counted one day and I think they have me taking something like seventeen pills of some kind every day. How am I supposed to remember all that?
In fact, one morning I laid all my pills out - I don't like to take pills so I just put them all together and toss them all into my mouth and hold my nose and take a big gulp of water and it's all over. But I also have a capsule that I am supposed to put in an inhaler and you puncture this capsule with a needle in the inhaler and suck this stuff in through your mouth. I had this capsule laying out with all my pills and before I realized it, I had tossed that in my mouth with all my pills and swallowed it. Once I realized what I had done I thought that maybe that was not a good thing so I called Walgreens and asked the pharmacist what the warnings were for this capsule. She didn't know and had to look it up. She started reading all the things she had but the first thing was; WARNING - do not ingest this capsule! Well, I'm still here, so whatever terrible thing could have happened didn't so I guess I'm okay. I have segregated that capsule from the rest of my pills though.
Well, you can see that it's a struggle for me to just get through life on a daily basis. It wouldn't be all that bad if all I had to deal with was cancer, but all these care givers, nurses and other practitioners are kind of upsetting my routine. I can see why people think that old people just sit around home now. That's all they have time to do if they are complying with all requirements of the people who are trying to help you maintain your health.
Assuming I will be going back to Houston for surgery the last of next month, I have a new worry. I know a plastic surgeon is going to be involved and I couldn't figure out why. Someone told me they will put a screen like thing inside me to hold the hernia in place. That doesn't make any sense to me. Where I grew up a screen was to keep the flys out. Will I have to go back and have them take the screen out and put storm windows in when it gets cold? The more I think about it, I don't know if I should go through with this. I might just get some duct tape and wrap around my tummy to hold everything in and go on with life. It would be a lot less expensive and I wouldn't have to take all these pills, take all these phone calls and visit all these doctors.
To all the wonderful people who are going to be at the reunion in Colorado - I wish I could be there, but know that I will be thinking of you and love you all!!
ALBUQUERQUE AL
Even though this trip is only for testing, it has become a challenge for me. I guess everyone knows the economy is pretty soft now and it has affected the car business like everything else - maybe even a lot more. Plenty of people want to sell or get rid of cars, but most are holding off on buying. It is still a fun thing for me just because I love cars and I love people, but it has become a very difficult job. I will spend all day - many times twelve hours at a time, and only see two or three customers during that time and probably two thirds of them are just looking or killing time. Sometimes I think people come in just because they have nothing to do and they charge admission to go to the zoo. They can come to our place and kill an hour or two (and an hour or two of my time too) without any cost. A great place to bring the family on a week-end! It's like fifteen or twenty people (sales associates) standing around a pond with fishing poles and there are only two or three small fish in the whole pond. It is hard work, but the thrill of seeing someone come in with a chip on their shoulder and ready to do battle because of their past experience with car dealerships and leave laughing and excited and even hugging you because of the experience they have with us. Yes, there is a paycheck involved, but it is almost insignificant compared to the pleasure you get from making someone happy and catching them completely off guard because the treatment they get is totally different than they expected or have had anywhere else.
As stated, it is a very full time job just trying to catch those few fish in the pond but the upcoming MD Anderson trip has made it even more difficult. They have sent me a letter with their requirements for this initial visit. They want a list of all of my doctors, addresses and phone numbers. I will probably have a list of a dozen doctors or more as it is kind of like a game with these guys. You go to one doctor and he refers you to another. The second doctor does his routine and refers you to yet another and so on and so on. I'm not even sure I can remember all the doctors I have been to. I am thinking of taking the yellow pages and giving them a dart and just letting them throw the dart at the yellow pages. I am sure that where ever the dart lands it will be on a doctor I have visited. In addition to wanting to know who my doctors are, the want ALL cardiac test results for the past five years, including all stress test results, echocardiogram reports, electrocrdiogram. They want all pulmonary function tests, all CAT scan results and reports from any and all other doctors I have visited in the past five years. They want all medicines - in their original bottles, including over-the-counter medicines, herbal supplements, inhalers, etc. If you are a diabetic, which I am, they want all recent blood sugar logs. My blood sugar logs are going to be very recent because I got tired of pricking my finger a long time ago and determined that my diabetes was in pretty good shape and kind of forgot to keep track of it like I'm supposed to. So, this past couple of weeks I have been very diligent about pricking my finger and squeezing the blood out and testing it - just so I will have a log to show them.
While trying to deal with the problems of our current economy and putting in twelve hours a day to do it, I keep getting interrupted by the need to bounce all over town from Doctor to Doctor to sign forms that will give them permission to give me these records to take down to Houston. After I have given them permission to give my personal medical records to me - (does that make sense?) I will have to go back to all of them and pick all of these records up. So. I am actually not putting in twelve hours a day at work. I am putting in sometimes up to sixteen hours a day which is broken into many small segments. I doubt if there is twelve hours left over to work. Go to a doctor's office, bounce off to work, leave and go to another doctor or two, go back to work, etc.
There is good in everything! While I get a little ticked off at having to do all this running around, I realize that possibly I am here today because MD Anderson is so thorough and exacting about every little detail. They don't mess around! They are going to know every molecule in my body on a first name basis before this is all over. I love them for that. In fact, I think I might just throw in the name of my barber as kind of a bonus to show my appreciation.
Presbyterian, my health care coverage plan, has this program which is free and designed to help you do a better job of taking care of your health problems. It is called "Lifemasters" and this program has Registered Nurses who call you and interview you over the phone. It is really a very good and thoughtful program and these people are all very nice and if I wasn't such a grumpy old man, I would really appreciate it. But they set you up on a schedule and call once or twice a month to check up on you. In my case they call fifteen or twenty times because I am never here when they call. I just can't see sitting around the house waiting for someone to call to ask me about my wieght, my diet, my exercise, my blood sugar levels, my pills, etc. The truth of the matter I forget, but even if I didn't forget I might find it difficult to arrange to be home at 10:30 in the morning on Tuesday next month. I have a hard time remembering what I am supposed to do tomorrow. Anyway, they caught me off guard last week and caught me just as I was ready to leave for an appointment I was already late for. She advised me that our conversation was being recorded and then assured me that the call would probably not last more than fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes! You can ask me how I am and I can tell you okay in about 30 seconds. Anyway, she started asking me all these questions and then wanted to know what medications I was taking and what the dosage was. Now I don't carry a list of that stuff around with me and have a short memory on top of that - and sometimes I accidentally forget to take a pill or two. So my response was; "Well, I got this one pill - it's kind of long and skinny and it's a pale pink color, then I got this one that is round and kind of flat and I think it is orange, then there is this one that is also orange but it is fatter and it is really nasty - if you aren't sick when you take this pill you will be after you take it". I counted one day and I think they have me taking something like seventeen pills of some kind every day. How am I supposed to remember all that?
In fact, one morning I laid all my pills out - I don't like to take pills so I just put them all together and toss them all into my mouth and hold my nose and take a big gulp of water and it's all over. But I also have a capsule that I am supposed to put in an inhaler and you puncture this capsule with a needle in the inhaler and suck this stuff in through your mouth. I had this capsule laying out with all my pills and before I realized it, I had tossed that in my mouth with all my pills and swallowed it. Once I realized what I had done I thought that maybe that was not a good thing so I called Walgreens and asked the pharmacist what the warnings were for this capsule. She didn't know and had to look it up. She started reading all the things she had but the first thing was; WARNING - do not ingest this capsule! Well, I'm still here, so whatever terrible thing could have happened didn't so I guess I'm okay. I have segregated that capsule from the rest of my pills though.
Well, you can see that it's a struggle for me to just get through life on a daily basis. It wouldn't be all that bad if all I had to deal with was cancer, but all these care givers, nurses and other practitioners are kind of upsetting my routine. I can see why people think that old people just sit around home now. That's all they have time to do if they are complying with all requirements of the people who are trying to help you maintain your health.
Assuming I will be going back to Houston for surgery the last of next month, I have a new worry. I know a plastic surgeon is going to be involved and I couldn't figure out why. Someone told me they will put a screen like thing inside me to hold the hernia in place. That doesn't make any sense to me. Where I grew up a screen was to keep the flys out. Will I have to go back and have them take the screen out and put storm windows in when it gets cold? The more I think about it, I don't know if I should go through with this. I might just get some duct tape and wrap around my tummy to hold everything in and go on with life. It would be a lot less expensive and I wouldn't have to take all these pills, take all these phone calls and visit all these doctors.
To all the wonderful people who are going to be at the reunion in Colorado - I wish I could be there, but know that I will be thinking of you and love you all!!
ALBUQUERQUE AL
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
UPDATE ON HEALTH ISSUES AT HURT HOUSEHOLD
Mary marlin is doing great in her recovery from surgery for hip replacement. It wasn't too long ago that she was shuffling around with a walker. She graduated to a cane and now gets around the house often without even the cane. She takes it easy and goes where she has some support of a table or counter or wall, but she has become much more active at just walking without any kind of support.
At first I was doing almost everything for her because she just couldn't do it herself. I had to lift her leg up into bed, she couldn't get the utensils out of the cupboard to fix herself something to eat, do the laundry or just about anything. But she is proud and independent and she just keeps trying and as soon as she can do something for herself, she won't allow me to help her with it or do it for her. She has faithfully gone to rehab and worked hard at getting better. I know at times she is in pain, but she doesn't ever complain about the pain and refuses to give in to it. I admire her and respect her a lot for what she has accomplished and for her attitude of independence.
One thing she can't do, and it frustrates her, is bending over to pick something up off the floor. She has a tool - a grabber - she can pick things up with if the grabber can get hold of it. But something like a sheet of paper, or a plastic card - like a credit card or driver's license, she just can't pick up. I think it will be a long, long time - if ever, before she can pick those things up off the floor. She dresses herself, including putting on her shoes and socks with the grabber.
We still have one area of conflict. It brings me back to the days when we had a teenager in the house. She wants to drive. I think we are going to need to take some time to go around the neighborhood and practice putting on the brake without any warning and pushing down hard on the brake pedal. It is her right leg which is damaged and that is the brake leg. In Albuquerque you need to be prepared to put on the brake quickly and hard. It seems you can get a drivers license in New Mexico by simply buying a box of ceral. The license is in the bottom of the box.
I have kind of learned that some of us guys don't give our ladies nearly enough respect. We take what they do on a daily basis for granted and even expect it. Let me tell you - what they do just runnng the household is a very tough and trying job. For those who work outside the home in addition to running the house - it's amazing! If you aren't happy with the condition of the house and the way things are done, let me suggest you offer to take care of everything for even a week. Fix meals, wash dishes, wash clothes, put things away, dust, keep the house clean and pretty, shop, etc., etc. This will help you appreciate what they accomplish on a daily basis. It is easy to think that we have a "real" job while all they do is sit around the house. The house job is as tough as most of our so called "real" jobs and they get little if any financial reward for it - often not even a "Thanks". And, of course, many of them have a "real" job in addition.
I think she felt sorry for me, and I think she was also concerned about the sorry job I do of keeping the house in order, so she surprised me by hiring a girl to come in and clean the house once a week. I did try really, really hard, and in my eyes I was doing a pretty good job. In fact I was rather proud of my accomplishments. But when she told me she ws going to get a girl to come in and help out - I had to try real hard to contain my joy. That was the best news I had heard in a long time. But it backfired on me. She got real strict with me - almost demanding, about me cleaning everything up real good because she didn't want the cleaning lady to come in and see the house in a mess. I thought we were getting the lady to take care of the mess. She even made me mow the front yard. So my elation was soon destroyed as I learned that I had to do an especially good job of cleaning so the house would be all nice and clean for the cleaning lady. I do have to admit - even after my super thorough cleaning job, the cleaning lady had enough to do to keep her busy all day.
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Our oldest son, John Leslie in Dallas, continues to have his ups and downs. I understand what he is going through to some extent as the chemo therapy just about wiped me out before it was all over. I guess the chemicals accumulate in our system and towards the end you have all of these strange chemicals that have been absorbed into your whole body. It is difficult to describe how it affects you and how you feel unless you have gone through it. But - it aint no fun!!
He has days, usually after his chemo therapy, where he can't even get out of bed. Then within a few days he will be out with the kids at a ball game, going to work and doing a pretty normal routine. I think he has suffered some from depression too, and I am familiar with that as well. However, I have been able to have fun with the whole routine I went through because I do see so much humor in the things that occur each day. I have also been able to see some good that comes from this whole processs. I hope he can adjust his thinking a little to accept this whole thing a little better. It isn't fun and I will be the first to admit it is a lousy experience, but there are so many who have it so much worse - I can't complain too much. We have both been very blessed and very lucky compared to so many others.
He did have another PET scan and it appears the results were very favorable. It appears the tumor has shrunk and it indicates there are no cancer cells in the tumor at this time. He has developed a pretty constant cough and they did find a spot on his lungs. He has never smoked in his life, so it has to be something else. They think it is caused by the chemicals he is getting so they are changing some of them.
To add to his stress, someone stole his pickup truck from in front of his house the other night. Going through treatment for cancer - or any disease is bad enough but it is the issues outside your health problem that can really get you down. Life goes on and the outside worled doesn't know and really doesn't care how lousy you feel. You still have to pay your bills, deal with the government, all the people out on the street and at work. You are not exempt from real life.
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I am scheduled to go back to MD Anderson in Houston next month. I am hoping I will get a letter in the mail today from Presbyterian allowing me to go. Otherwise we will be engaging in another conflict which just adds to the difficulty of this trip. The worst part of the conflict is not knowing whether or not they are going to allow the trip. It just adds to the stress of something that is already stressful enough.
This trip is supposed to include all kinds of tests, probably including another CAT scan to see if all the cancer cells are still gone, which obviously I hope will be the case. The tests are to not only to determine the presence or absence of cancer, but to measure my overall health and my ability to withstand another surgical procedure. Assuming all tests including lab reports and evaluations from the internal medicine people are okay, I will return to Houston for more surgery on October 21st. (Almost exactly one year since my cancer surgery) This surgery will be to repair a pretty massive hernia at the site of the cancer surgery. The worst part of this will be the recovery period where I will probably not be able to do much physically. In fact, that is probably one of the main reasons I have the hernia to begin with. I think that once in awhile I might have cheated a little on the activities that were allowed following the cancer surgery. There were certain things I was not supposed to do. I think I accidently did a few things or made a few minor exceptions to the rules on the basis of; "It probably won't hurt if I lift this one time, or lift the tailgate on an SUV one time" Guess what - it not only hurt, it has kept on hurting. It is really painful all the time right now. Guess I showed them - didn't I!
I missed my class reunion and a big family reunion last year while I was having cancer treatment and surgery. Some really super people - old classmates of mine, Jackie and Glen Edwards, have been working hard to put together another class reunion which will include five classes. I was so looking forward to this and was just short of guaranteeing I would be there. The reunion is on the 4th of October in my home town of Center, Colorado, and I have to be in Houston first thing Monday morning the 6th. There is, from a practical point of view, no way I can make this reunion.
After all, there aren't that many 747 jetliners landing in Center, Colorado with it's population of less than 2,000 people these days. I guess I could take the Wells Fargo Stage Coach to Espanola and hitch hike to Albuquerque to catch a plane. Actually, Jackie Edwards offered to get me a ride to Alamosa the morning of the 5th to catch a plane home, and I could fly out of Albuquerque. But that would be cutting it way to close and I always have a zillion things to do before I go down to Houston, and I am always pretty stressed out before I go down.
I really feel bad about missing this reunion and visiting with old friends and class mates. I feel real bad because I know that Jackie has done a tremendous amount of work and put a lot of effort into this project and I hate to let her down. I really needed to go to the class reunion as I am a guy with little or no class to begin with. Maybe it would have helped!
I had thought about trying to reschedule the appointments in Houston but it has taken several months just to get this appointment. Everything has to be coordinated with the surgeon's schedule and this is when he can see me - so I guess I better show up.
One of the things that has made it tough the past six or seven weeks is dealing with appointments. I need to get Mary to physical therapy three times a week, then pick her up and bring her back home. She has other appointments with her primary care doctor, her surgeron, lab work, x-rays, prescriptions, etc. In addition, I have another list of doctors I am supporting financially plus my CAT scans, lab work, coumadin clinic and more prescriptions. It is almost a full time job going to the doctor. In addition I am trying to work and put some effort into my own insurance related business. I had appointments with three different doctors just for myself one day recently. Almost all of my doctors are in the same facility and I had three appointments one week and none of these people could see me on the same day. I had to make appointments for three different days and make three seperate trips. Just the gas alone to make all these trips can be a challenge. I guess the only cheap gas you can get any more is that which you get from eating a chili dog. The hot dog and the bun plus a splash of chili is still not that expensive.
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There has been an ulterior motive for Mary to work so hard to regain her mobility after surgery - without complaining. She had already made up her mind that we were going to go to Florida in September to see our youngest son, Andrew, and his family. That was her carrot and I guess it worked. We just got back after spending a week with Andrew and his wonderful wife, Maria and daughter Mary.
We had a great time and were busy every minute. We had plenty to eat and some wonderful food, including alligator tail. Pretty good stuff and if you should go down to Melbourne, Florida and run into an alligator without a tail you will understand the reason.
We took a couple of tours of the waterways and saw a multitude of multi-million dollar homes, most with yachts and/or other big boats at their private docks plus a number of dophins and all kinds of birds. Andrew and Maria have a beautiful home with a swimming pool on Satellite Beach which is two big bridges away from Melbourne on an island near Coco Beach.
We spent a day at Kennedy Space Center where they launch the space ships and shuttles. Andrew and I tried our hands at being astronauts in a shuttle simulator. It is supposed to give you the sensations the astronauts experience as they prepare for launch. You are elevated into a position which is supposed to simulate laying on your back for take off and then it shakes and vibrates and roars as you see massive orange flames and clouds of smoke out the window. It reminded me a lot of my 1948 Ford I had in high school. We viewed the actual launch site and numerous exhibits. One interesting fact is the crawler that takes the shuttle to the launch site. I believe it travels at about two miles per hour on cleats like a caterpillar tractor except they are much larger. Each cleat weighs one thousand pounds and the crawler gets 46 yards per one gallon of diesel.
Inside the exhibit room, my wife and I have a little different protocol. I go in and look at the displays and pictures and I am out of there. She reads every word on every plaque and really learns a lot. From my point of view - a picture is worth a thousand words - just show me the picture.
We went to Orlando to Universal Studios and saw a performance of The Blue Man Group and it was fantastic. I had heard a little about this group but wasn't really impressed until I saw it in person. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
This trip was good medicine for both of us and it was great to see Andrew, Maria and Mary. Now the plan is for me to work every day between now and the surgery and then on with the surgery and recovery period. I guess my surgeon for the cancer will start the operation and then a plastic surgeon will take over. The new cars are all made of some form of plastic - so, why not me? At least I can stop worrying about rusting whenever I take a shower!
So long for now -
Albuquerque Al
At first I was doing almost everything for her because she just couldn't do it herself. I had to lift her leg up into bed, she couldn't get the utensils out of the cupboard to fix herself something to eat, do the laundry or just about anything. But she is proud and independent and she just keeps trying and as soon as she can do something for herself, she won't allow me to help her with it or do it for her. She has faithfully gone to rehab and worked hard at getting better. I know at times she is in pain, but she doesn't ever complain about the pain and refuses to give in to it. I admire her and respect her a lot for what she has accomplished and for her attitude of independence.
One thing she can't do, and it frustrates her, is bending over to pick something up off the floor. She has a tool - a grabber - she can pick things up with if the grabber can get hold of it. But something like a sheet of paper, or a plastic card - like a credit card or driver's license, she just can't pick up. I think it will be a long, long time - if ever, before she can pick those things up off the floor. She dresses herself, including putting on her shoes and socks with the grabber.
We still have one area of conflict. It brings me back to the days when we had a teenager in the house. She wants to drive. I think we are going to need to take some time to go around the neighborhood and practice putting on the brake without any warning and pushing down hard on the brake pedal. It is her right leg which is damaged and that is the brake leg. In Albuquerque you need to be prepared to put on the brake quickly and hard. It seems you can get a drivers license in New Mexico by simply buying a box of ceral. The license is in the bottom of the box.
I have kind of learned that some of us guys don't give our ladies nearly enough respect. We take what they do on a daily basis for granted and even expect it. Let me tell you - what they do just runnng the household is a very tough and trying job. For those who work outside the home in addition to running the house - it's amazing! If you aren't happy with the condition of the house and the way things are done, let me suggest you offer to take care of everything for even a week. Fix meals, wash dishes, wash clothes, put things away, dust, keep the house clean and pretty, shop, etc., etc. This will help you appreciate what they accomplish on a daily basis. It is easy to think that we have a "real" job while all they do is sit around the house. The house job is as tough as most of our so called "real" jobs and they get little if any financial reward for it - often not even a "Thanks". And, of course, many of them have a "real" job in addition.
I think she felt sorry for me, and I think she was also concerned about the sorry job I do of keeping the house in order, so she surprised me by hiring a girl to come in and clean the house once a week. I did try really, really hard, and in my eyes I was doing a pretty good job. In fact I was rather proud of my accomplishments. But when she told me she ws going to get a girl to come in and help out - I had to try real hard to contain my joy. That was the best news I had heard in a long time. But it backfired on me. She got real strict with me - almost demanding, about me cleaning everything up real good because she didn't want the cleaning lady to come in and see the house in a mess. I thought we were getting the lady to take care of the mess. She even made me mow the front yard. So my elation was soon destroyed as I learned that I had to do an especially good job of cleaning so the house would be all nice and clean for the cleaning lady. I do have to admit - even after my super thorough cleaning job, the cleaning lady had enough to do to keep her busy all day.
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Our oldest son, John Leslie in Dallas, continues to have his ups and downs. I understand what he is going through to some extent as the chemo therapy just about wiped me out before it was all over. I guess the chemicals accumulate in our system and towards the end you have all of these strange chemicals that have been absorbed into your whole body. It is difficult to describe how it affects you and how you feel unless you have gone through it. But - it aint no fun!!
He has days, usually after his chemo therapy, where he can't even get out of bed. Then within a few days he will be out with the kids at a ball game, going to work and doing a pretty normal routine. I think he has suffered some from depression too, and I am familiar with that as well. However, I have been able to have fun with the whole routine I went through because I do see so much humor in the things that occur each day. I have also been able to see some good that comes from this whole processs. I hope he can adjust his thinking a little to accept this whole thing a little better. It isn't fun and I will be the first to admit it is a lousy experience, but there are so many who have it so much worse - I can't complain too much. We have both been very blessed and very lucky compared to so many others.
He did have another PET scan and it appears the results were very favorable. It appears the tumor has shrunk and it indicates there are no cancer cells in the tumor at this time. He has developed a pretty constant cough and they did find a spot on his lungs. He has never smoked in his life, so it has to be something else. They think it is caused by the chemicals he is getting so they are changing some of them.
To add to his stress, someone stole his pickup truck from in front of his house the other night. Going through treatment for cancer - or any disease is bad enough but it is the issues outside your health problem that can really get you down. Life goes on and the outside worled doesn't know and really doesn't care how lousy you feel. You still have to pay your bills, deal with the government, all the people out on the street and at work. You are not exempt from real life.
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I am scheduled to go back to MD Anderson in Houston next month. I am hoping I will get a letter in the mail today from Presbyterian allowing me to go. Otherwise we will be engaging in another conflict which just adds to the difficulty of this trip. The worst part of the conflict is not knowing whether or not they are going to allow the trip. It just adds to the stress of something that is already stressful enough.
This trip is supposed to include all kinds of tests, probably including another CAT scan to see if all the cancer cells are still gone, which obviously I hope will be the case. The tests are to not only to determine the presence or absence of cancer, but to measure my overall health and my ability to withstand another surgical procedure. Assuming all tests including lab reports and evaluations from the internal medicine people are okay, I will return to Houston for more surgery on October 21st. (Almost exactly one year since my cancer surgery) This surgery will be to repair a pretty massive hernia at the site of the cancer surgery. The worst part of this will be the recovery period where I will probably not be able to do much physically. In fact, that is probably one of the main reasons I have the hernia to begin with. I think that once in awhile I might have cheated a little on the activities that were allowed following the cancer surgery. There were certain things I was not supposed to do. I think I accidently did a few things or made a few minor exceptions to the rules on the basis of; "It probably won't hurt if I lift this one time, or lift the tailgate on an SUV one time" Guess what - it not only hurt, it has kept on hurting. It is really painful all the time right now. Guess I showed them - didn't I!
I missed my class reunion and a big family reunion last year while I was having cancer treatment and surgery. Some really super people - old classmates of mine, Jackie and Glen Edwards, have been working hard to put together another class reunion which will include five classes. I was so looking forward to this and was just short of guaranteeing I would be there. The reunion is on the 4th of October in my home town of Center, Colorado, and I have to be in Houston first thing Monday morning the 6th. There is, from a practical point of view, no way I can make this reunion.
After all, there aren't that many 747 jetliners landing in Center, Colorado with it's population of less than 2,000 people these days. I guess I could take the Wells Fargo Stage Coach to Espanola and hitch hike to Albuquerque to catch a plane. Actually, Jackie Edwards offered to get me a ride to Alamosa the morning of the 5th to catch a plane home, and I could fly out of Albuquerque. But that would be cutting it way to close and I always have a zillion things to do before I go down to Houston, and I am always pretty stressed out before I go down.
I really feel bad about missing this reunion and visiting with old friends and class mates. I feel real bad because I know that Jackie has done a tremendous amount of work and put a lot of effort into this project and I hate to let her down. I really needed to go to the class reunion as I am a guy with little or no class to begin with. Maybe it would have helped!
I had thought about trying to reschedule the appointments in Houston but it has taken several months just to get this appointment. Everything has to be coordinated with the surgeon's schedule and this is when he can see me - so I guess I better show up.
One of the things that has made it tough the past six or seven weeks is dealing with appointments. I need to get Mary to physical therapy three times a week, then pick her up and bring her back home. She has other appointments with her primary care doctor, her surgeron, lab work, x-rays, prescriptions, etc. In addition, I have another list of doctors I am supporting financially plus my CAT scans, lab work, coumadin clinic and more prescriptions. It is almost a full time job going to the doctor. In addition I am trying to work and put some effort into my own insurance related business. I had appointments with three different doctors just for myself one day recently. Almost all of my doctors are in the same facility and I had three appointments one week and none of these people could see me on the same day. I had to make appointments for three different days and make three seperate trips. Just the gas alone to make all these trips can be a challenge. I guess the only cheap gas you can get any more is that which you get from eating a chili dog. The hot dog and the bun plus a splash of chili is still not that expensive.
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There has been an ulterior motive for Mary to work so hard to regain her mobility after surgery - without complaining. She had already made up her mind that we were going to go to Florida in September to see our youngest son, Andrew, and his family. That was her carrot and I guess it worked. We just got back after spending a week with Andrew and his wonderful wife, Maria and daughter Mary.
We had a great time and were busy every minute. We had plenty to eat and some wonderful food, including alligator tail. Pretty good stuff and if you should go down to Melbourne, Florida and run into an alligator without a tail you will understand the reason.
We took a couple of tours of the waterways and saw a multitude of multi-million dollar homes, most with yachts and/or other big boats at their private docks plus a number of dophins and all kinds of birds. Andrew and Maria have a beautiful home with a swimming pool on Satellite Beach which is two big bridges away from Melbourne on an island near Coco Beach.
We spent a day at Kennedy Space Center where they launch the space ships and shuttles. Andrew and I tried our hands at being astronauts in a shuttle simulator. It is supposed to give you the sensations the astronauts experience as they prepare for launch. You are elevated into a position which is supposed to simulate laying on your back for take off and then it shakes and vibrates and roars as you see massive orange flames and clouds of smoke out the window. It reminded me a lot of my 1948 Ford I had in high school. We viewed the actual launch site and numerous exhibits. One interesting fact is the crawler that takes the shuttle to the launch site. I believe it travels at about two miles per hour on cleats like a caterpillar tractor except they are much larger. Each cleat weighs one thousand pounds and the crawler gets 46 yards per one gallon of diesel.
Inside the exhibit room, my wife and I have a little different protocol. I go in and look at the displays and pictures and I am out of there. She reads every word on every plaque and really learns a lot. From my point of view - a picture is worth a thousand words - just show me the picture.
We went to Orlando to Universal Studios and saw a performance of The Blue Man Group and it was fantastic. I had heard a little about this group but wasn't really impressed until I saw it in person. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
This trip was good medicine for both of us and it was great to see Andrew, Maria and Mary. Now the plan is for me to work every day between now and the surgery and then on with the surgery and recovery period. I guess my surgeon for the cancer will start the operation and then a plastic surgeon will take over. The new cars are all made of some form of plastic - so, why not me? At least I can stop worrying about rusting whenever I take a shower!
So long for now -
Albuquerque Al
Saturday, July 19, 2008
THE PAINS OF HURT
What's in a name? I remember my youngest son Andrew coming home from elementary school in a grumpy mood with a frown on his face wanting to know why our name was Hurt and why we couldn't change it. Other kids at school had been making fun of him because of his name. I can think of a lot worse names he could have had, but at the moment I am sure that was the worst possible name he could have been stuck with in his mind.
Youngsters won't know who I am talking about, but it used to be that every time I met someone or even called on the phone, the other party always had the same comment; "Where's your horn?" - making reference to the once famous and now deceased jazz trumpet player, Al Hirt, in New Orleans. Even though he didn't spell his name right, he was popular and well known all over the world at that time and especially down in New Orleans. Our oldest son, John Leslie, went to Tulane University in New Orleans and when I called down there they would always get excited when I announced myself as Al Hurt and then get disappointed and/or disgusted when they learned I was not the real thing.
What does the name Hurt have to do with anything. Nothing, except it is proving to be a very appropriate name for me and members of my family.
First we had my little experience with cancer and the treatment and surgery. Next we discovered my oldest son, John Leslie, had a a form of cancer - Hodgkins disease, which he is currently undgoing treatment for. Then we discovered I have two blood clots in my right leg and I am on medication to try to resolve this problem. I still need to go back down to Houston for surgery for the hernia that developed over the stomach after the surgery. I learned my mother was ill and had been taken to the hospital in Denver and went up to see her. While I was there she passed away and we subsequently went back up to Denver and then on down to Center for two funeral serices for Mom. Our daughter-in-law, Sheri, made a huge sacrifice in terms of pain and/or comfort to drive up to Denver and back with us as she has been undergoing treatment and physical therapy for a very difficult and painful back problem.
Now my good wife, Mary Marlin, who is the picture of almost perfect health, must have felt left out on the issue of pain and the responsibility she had to live up to the name "Hurt". She got on the band-wagon with the rest of us a week ago Friday with her own little episode to make sure that we continue to provide funds to members of the medical community so they can continue to send their kids to college and live in a life style far beyond on own reach.
As I said, MM is an example of almost perfect health. She has been going to jazzercise six days a week for twenty years. In fact, while she was in Houston taking care of me as I went through surgery and the recovery from that surgery, she found a place in Houston where they had jazzercise classes and would get in the car and drive out to that location in a neighboring community to attend jazzercise classes each day . Of course Jazzercise is not the only activity she is involved in. When she is home she is out in the yard working each day and we have a huge yard. She is in better physical shape than most people thirty years younger than she is.
On Friday the 11th, she called me around 7:30 in the morning and she was actually laughing as she talked to me. She said; "Hi - I am at jazzercise and I am laying on the floor and I can't get up and they have called an ambulance to come and get me." WOW!! That was not something I was expecting at any time - especially at 7:30 in the morning.
I got over to jazzercise as quickly as I could to find a half dozen firemen down on the floor with her taking vitals etc. as everyone waited for the ambulance. She was in extreme pain but was still laughing and kidding around with the fire department people.
She had been doing a routine which she had done many times before but as she moved to her right her foot caught on something on the floor which caused the floor to be a little sticky and her foot didn't slide and she went over on her right side. While they didn't know it at the time, she had broken her leg right at the point where it attaches to the ball in the hip joint. So she had nothing holding her leg to her body except muscle and tissue. When they lifted her up to put her on the stretcher for the ambulance I thought she might pass out from the pain. She would certainly do that before she would cry or scream in pain as most others would do.
This was just the beginning of a very painful day for her. I don't imagine she realized how many pot-holes and bumps there are in the streets of Albuquerque until she took that ambulance ride. When she got to the hospital they had to transfer her to a bed in the emergency room which was another experience of excruciating pain. Then they wheeled her into the x-ray room where they had to lift her up a bit to slide the x-ray board under her, lift her up again to remove it then wheel her back to her room. The doctor came in and discussed the x-ray and pointed out that the bone was broken right at the ball and a hip replacement with a new ball and socket and metal rod implanted into the leg bone would be necessary. We waited and waited in the emergency room until they found a room for her in the hospital and finally she was wheeled up to her room where once again they had to transfer her from the emergency room bed to her hospital bed. Finally about 8:00 pm Friday night they took her into surgery - where once again she was transfered - this time onto the operating table. She came back from recovery around 10:30 Friday night. I came home and finally got to bed around 1:30 am Saturday morning and was wiped out - but my day was nothing compared to hers.
Saturday morning they got her up and she was only able to take about four tiny steps and that was very painful for her. By Sunday morning she was getting clear across the room with her walker - slowly and painfully - but pushing herself to do more each time. This has to be a real frustrating experience because there are so many things you are used to doing that you can't do in her condition - some of them never again. You drop something and you bend over to pick it up. Not now - she has a little device with a clamp on the end and a magnet that she must use to pick things up. She can't bend over to put on her socks or tie her shoes. She has a device to put her socks on then she pulls this device up over her foot to get her socks on. She will not be allowed to bend her leg ninety degrees or more from now on. She is tough and she is a competitor and doesn't give up or give in easily. She is already talking about getting back to jazzercise (I can see some friendly discussions in the future on this subject), but she is upbeat and in good spirits about the whole thing and I admire her so much. As I look at her, I think she must have suffered more than I did through the cancer surgery. I know I am not as brave as she is.
Tuesday of this week she got another ambulance ride as they transfered her to Health South which is a rehabilitation facility. She has been undergoing therapy and doing a great job. Everyone is amazed at the progress she is making and we hope to have her home again around the middle of this next week. She is going to be very limited on what she can do for awhile as she will still be using a walker for some time. You can't carry anything while you are pushing a walker so she won't be able to cook or even get something out of the refrigerator. I tell people that my objective is to figure out a way she can push the lawn mover and use the walker at the same time.
Anyway - Mary Marlin has done her best to validate the use of the "Hurt" name and we all appreciate it so much.
AL
PS - My apologies to so many of you. I have wanted and needed to send so many of you a note in response to your kindness and your notes of the past. I have gotten way behind! I am kind of like the butcher in the meat department at the grocery store. He accidently sat down on the meat grinder and got fired because he got a little behind in his work. Right now I have nearly 900 messages of incoming mail and I need to respond to many of them. I just haven't had time - but I promise I will get back to all of you eventually.
God Bless - I will be back in touch soon.
Youngsters won't know who I am talking about, but it used to be that every time I met someone or even called on the phone, the other party always had the same comment; "Where's your horn?" - making reference to the once famous and now deceased jazz trumpet player, Al Hirt, in New Orleans. Even though he didn't spell his name right, he was popular and well known all over the world at that time and especially down in New Orleans. Our oldest son, John Leslie, went to Tulane University in New Orleans and when I called down there they would always get excited when I announced myself as Al Hurt and then get disappointed and/or disgusted when they learned I was not the real thing.
What does the name Hurt have to do with anything. Nothing, except it is proving to be a very appropriate name for me and members of my family.
First we had my little experience with cancer and the treatment and surgery. Next we discovered my oldest son, John Leslie, had a a form of cancer - Hodgkins disease, which he is currently undgoing treatment for. Then we discovered I have two blood clots in my right leg and I am on medication to try to resolve this problem. I still need to go back down to Houston for surgery for the hernia that developed over the stomach after the surgery. I learned my mother was ill and had been taken to the hospital in Denver and went up to see her. While I was there she passed away and we subsequently went back up to Denver and then on down to Center for two funeral serices for Mom. Our daughter-in-law, Sheri, made a huge sacrifice in terms of pain and/or comfort to drive up to Denver and back with us as she has been undergoing treatment and physical therapy for a very difficult and painful back problem.
Now my good wife, Mary Marlin, who is the picture of almost perfect health, must have felt left out on the issue of pain and the responsibility she had to live up to the name "Hurt". She got on the band-wagon with the rest of us a week ago Friday with her own little episode to make sure that we continue to provide funds to members of the medical community so they can continue to send their kids to college and live in a life style far beyond on own reach.
As I said, MM is an example of almost perfect health. She has been going to jazzercise six days a week for twenty years. In fact, while she was in Houston taking care of me as I went through surgery and the recovery from that surgery, she found a place in Houston where they had jazzercise classes and would get in the car and drive out to that location in a neighboring community to attend jazzercise classes each day . Of course Jazzercise is not the only activity she is involved in. When she is home she is out in the yard working each day and we have a huge yard. She is in better physical shape than most people thirty years younger than she is.
On Friday the 11th, she called me around 7:30 in the morning and she was actually laughing as she talked to me. She said; "Hi - I am at jazzercise and I am laying on the floor and I can't get up and they have called an ambulance to come and get me." WOW!! That was not something I was expecting at any time - especially at 7:30 in the morning.
I got over to jazzercise as quickly as I could to find a half dozen firemen down on the floor with her taking vitals etc. as everyone waited for the ambulance. She was in extreme pain but was still laughing and kidding around with the fire department people.
She had been doing a routine which she had done many times before but as she moved to her right her foot caught on something on the floor which caused the floor to be a little sticky and her foot didn't slide and she went over on her right side. While they didn't know it at the time, she had broken her leg right at the point where it attaches to the ball in the hip joint. So she had nothing holding her leg to her body except muscle and tissue. When they lifted her up to put her on the stretcher for the ambulance I thought she might pass out from the pain. She would certainly do that before she would cry or scream in pain as most others would do.
This was just the beginning of a very painful day for her. I don't imagine she realized how many pot-holes and bumps there are in the streets of Albuquerque until she took that ambulance ride. When she got to the hospital they had to transfer her to a bed in the emergency room which was another experience of excruciating pain. Then they wheeled her into the x-ray room where they had to lift her up a bit to slide the x-ray board under her, lift her up again to remove it then wheel her back to her room. The doctor came in and discussed the x-ray and pointed out that the bone was broken right at the ball and a hip replacement with a new ball and socket and metal rod implanted into the leg bone would be necessary. We waited and waited in the emergency room until they found a room for her in the hospital and finally she was wheeled up to her room where once again they had to transfer her from the emergency room bed to her hospital bed. Finally about 8:00 pm Friday night they took her into surgery - where once again she was transfered - this time onto the operating table. She came back from recovery around 10:30 Friday night. I came home and finally got to bed around 1:30 am Saturday morning and was wiped out - but my day was nothing compared to hers.
Saturday morning they got her up and she was only able to take about four tiny steps and that was very painful for her. By Sunday morning she was getting clear across the room with her walker - slowly and painfully - but pushing herself to do more each time. This has to be a real frustrating experience because there are so many things you are used to doing that you can't do in her condition - some of them never again. You drop something and you bend over to pick it up. Not now - she has a little device with a clamp on the end and a magnet that she must use to pick things up. She can't bend over to put on her socks or tie her shoes. She has a device to put her socks on then she pulls this device up over her foot to get her socks on. She will not be allowed to bend her leg ninety degrees or more from now on. She is tough and she is a competitor and doesn't give up or give in easily. She is already talking about getting back to jazzercise (I can see some friendly discussions in the future on this subject), but she is upbeat and in good spirits about the whole thing and I admire her so much. As I look at her, I think she must have suffered more than I did through the cancer surgery. I know I am not as brave as she is.
Tuesday of this week she got another ambulance ride as they transfered her to Health South which is a rehabilitation facility. She has been undergoing therapy and doing a great job. Everyone is amazed at the progress she is making and we hope to have her home again around the middle of this next week. She is going to be very limited on what she can do for awhile as she will still be using a walker for some time. You can't carry anything while you are pushing a walker so she won't be able to cook or even get something out of the refrigerator. I tell people that my objective is to figure out a way she can push the lawn mover and use the walker at the same time.
Anyway - Mary Marlin has done her best to validate the use of the "Hurt" name and we all appreciate it so much.
AL
PS - My apologies to so many of you. I have wanted and needed to send so many of you a note in response to your kindness and your notes of the past. I have gotten way behind! I am kind of like the butcher in the meat department at the grocery store. He accidently sat down on the meat grinder and got fired because he got a little behind in his work. Right now I have nearly 900 messages of incoming mail and I need to respond to many of them. I just haven't had time - but I promise I will get back to all of you eventually.
God Bless - I will be back in touch soon.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
THE FINAL JOURNEY
We made the final journey to lay my dear Mother to rest this past weekend. We drove to Denver on Wednesday, had a service at Crown Hill on Thursday, drove to Center on Friday and had another service for her at the Center United Methodist Church on Saturday.
Even in this time of sadness there was joy. First, my Mom was where she wanted to be - united with her husband who passed away in 1985 and her daughter, Anne, who died in 1986. Her great granddaughter, Rachel, daughter of my son John Leslie and his wife Leslea, who was stillborn is also waiting for her, as well as her brother Web and her mother and father Ralph and Ella Allison. Another reunion will be with her precious dog and faithful companion, Lucy, her little white poodle. She had said repeatedly that when Lucy died she would want to leave this earth also. It wasn't too long after Lucy died that Mom's personality and attitude seemed to change some. She was tired and just wanted to go home. Those of us who are still here on earth will miss her greatly, but she has wanted this day to come for some time and there is a sense of joy that her wish has been fulfilled.
Another joy was the evidence of all the friends she had who so greatly admired and respected her. Both services were very well attended even though most of her friends have already passed away. But Mom touched the lives of many people, some many years younger than she was.
Yesterday would have been my Dad's birthday and the wedding anniversary of Mom and Dad - a fitting punctuation for the end of her life her on earth.
Among the many people who came to honor Mom and say goodbye were my cousin Jim who flew in on a private plane form Southern California, my cousin Dave who came in from Northern Illinois, my niece Dana and my niece AnnaLee and her family all from San Jose, and my own son John Leslie from Dallas. JL insisted on coming even though he is undergoing chemotherapy and treatment for cancer at this time. It was tough on him and I appreciate and respect him for coming. My Aunt, Virginia came down from Fort Collins and my cousin Myralee and her husband Mel came in from Grand Junction. There were many others and I apologize for leaving anyone out, There were many who couldn't be there for one reason or another but it was a joy to witness all the wonderful people she had a friendship with.
We drove up to Denver with my son Scott and his wife Sheri in their BMW X5. I have taken that trip many times as I commuted from Albuquerque to Cheyenne for five years. I know it takes roughly eight hours from Albuquerque to Denver after stopping for gas, to eat and just a rest stop or two. Scott kind of laughed at me when I said eight hours - or maybe it was more of a sneer, when he repeatedly told me it didn't take any eight hours - and then went on to prove it. As a back-seat driver, I quickly learned it was best to just close my eyes and snooze.
My niece, Piper and her husband Lance, had everyone over to their house in Denver and had a nice spread laid out for us to enjoy as we had a chance to visit with some family members and friends we hadn't seen for years in some cases. I had the pleasure of visiting with some great people, Glen and Jackie Edwards, who were class mates of mine back in the old days. Glen is a retired Professor at the Colorado School of Mines and was an outstanding athlete - Little All American in high school and a brilliant student. He was fullback on our football team and I played the position of tackle. When I went in for my surgery last year the doctors were puzzled by all the indentions in my back. I was supposed to block for Glen as he ran the ball. He was fast and I was slow. When I wasn't going fast enough or in the direction he wanted me to go - he would simply give me a shove and run right over me. The cleat marks from his shoes are forever in my back - like a tattoo. No wonder I have had a bad back my whole life. Jackie was a cheerleader, the Home Coming Queen, class President - and just a little Miss America in terms of high school life. They are great people and I appreciate their friendship so much.
Even though Glen is brilliant - he is getting a little older, which may affect his memory some. I say this because both Glen and Jackie came up with some stories about my behavior and activities as a high school student which couldn't possibly be true. However my son, Scott and his wife Sheri, were taking this all in like it was gospel truth. Scott has some memories of my being a little strict sometimes when he was going to school, and it was like an evidence gathering time for him. Anyway - it's too little too late to do him any good now.
Saturday we drove down to Center through the mountains and it was a journey I hadn't taken for some time, but it was absolutely beautiful. Again, there was some argument about how long this journey should take and once again Scott proved his point.
My cousin Sue has an absolutely beautiful house just a hundred yards or so from the banks of the Rio Grande river. This house could be in any upscale magazine about homes and she designed it pretty much herself. She had another spread for everyone and we enjoyed lots of visiting with family and some of the local people. This group included my cousin Dave from Illinois and his classmate Joe Replogle. Now where my friends Glen and Jackie Edwards might have had some lapse of memory, these people at Sue's house came up with some stories of my behavior which were downright lies. No one could have behaved that badly! Anyway Scott and Sheri were once again taking all of this in. I am thinking I might have to move as Scott and Sheri live right here in Albuquerque and I think they are trying to gather evidence to exercise some kind of revenge for my stern dictates when Scott was in high school and college. But it worked - he is a fine young man today - thanks to me!
We went to Center - my home town, on Saturday and had a lovely service at the United Methodist Church. The ladies at the Church prepared another spread of food for everyone and even offered to send food home with those traveling. Many people from town and the surrounding communities came to the service and we are all so grateful and pleased for that. This was mom's home and these are her people.
Before going to the Church for the service, we stopped at Skeff's Food Center which has been owned and run by the Skeff family for around eighty years I think. The Skeff family are on my very favorite people list and I think the world of all of them. Joe and Betty were there and later came to the Church service. Sadie was not in as she was with brother George in Denver, but Joe was talking to them on the phone when I walked in so I had a chance to at lest say "hello" to them. I had talked to Kelly who is a Professor at Stanford Medical School just a few days before, so the only one I missed was Raymond. They are a fantastic family as far as I am concerned and it was great to see them.
As I said, even sadness can bring joy and I personally felt very happy at the end of the trip.
One side note concerning the ongoing treatment we are having. JL is going through chemotherapy and then the following day he goes in for some kind of a shot that is supposed to build up the marrow in his bones. The bones are solid so as the marrow increases inside the bone it creates a tremendous amount of pressure and pain all over his body, especially in the joints. So, he has a real up and down feeling to deal with. He will get to the point he is feeling good and the next day he is hurting and miserable. He is having some problem with his stomach too which is totally unpredictable. I am still experiencing the same thing myself and know exactly how he feels and it isn't any fun. But with all of this he still insists on going to work and to all of the sporting activities of his children. I think he is planning on going to camp with Andrew, his youngest son, in the next week or two.
They put me on the steroid type medication to help me gain weight and it worked. I shot up from 152 to around 185 in no time at all. I am not sure how this works because while it caused me to eat it also made me sick at my stomach, but enough stuck around to cause me to gain weight. I got to the point where I didn't want to gain any more - 185 is about right for me and I don't want to get back up to 250 - so I quit taking the medication. Now I really have to watch my intake so I don't gain any more.
I came up with a unique diet program. I ate at a restaurant the other day (I wont mention any names) but the food was horrible. I ordered turkey with dressing. The turkey was dry as a bone - sort of like the sole of a shoe or a shingle from the roof, the dressing tasted like leftover leftovers and they gave me a dumpling which was like a glob of dough covered with some foul tasting gravy. Even the coffee was bad. I used to get mad at this kind of food service and vow never to come back. Now I am creating a list of restaurants - this one is at the top of the list, and I will only use this list to choose where I am going to eat. The thought is that if I only go to restaurants where the food is horrible I will automatically keep from gaining weight. I just won't eat the stuff. There is another place - a fast food restaruant - and I will mention the name because I really do like their food. They just can't get it right. I like Wendy's for hamburgers. I go in and order a burger with mustard, pickle, lettuce and tomato. It comes back and has ketchup, mayo and onions on it - all the stuff I didn't want. Even though it is printed plainly on the ticket what I want - they just don't get it. I decided I was being too tough on them, so I ordered on the basis of what I didn't want. Giver me a burger WITHOUT ketchup, mayo or onion. I stood there and watched the young man make my burger. First, a big slob of mayo, then onions, then ketchup. I will keep coming back here also. Another idea of genius from me! Sometimes I am amazed at some of the brilliant ideas I come up with.
Another thing about the fast food restaurants which has nothing to do with the food or a diet. The bill came to $6.37 - I gave the young lady a ten dollar bill and 37 cents in change. She just stared at me and said she didn't have any change in her register. She just couldn't figure out how much to give me back. So, I scratched around in my pocket and opened up my wallet and was lucky enough to come up with exactly $6.37. She opened up her cash register drawer and it was full of change - she just never passed 4th grade math.
Keep in touch - God Bless!!
Albuquerque Al!
Even in this time of sadness there was joy. First, my Mom was where she wanted to be - united with her husband who passed away in 1985 and her daughter, Anne, who died in 1986. Her great granddaughter, Rachel, daughter of my son John Leslie and his wife Leslea, who was stillborn is also waiting for her, as well as her brother Web and her mother and father Ralph and Ella Allison. Another reunion will be with her precious dog and faithful companion, Lucy, her little white poodle. She had said repeatedly that when Lucy died she would want to leave this earth also. It wasn't too long after Lucy died that Mom's personality and attitude seemed to change some. She was tired and just wanted to go home. Those of us who are still here on earth will miss her greatly, but she has wanted this day to come for some time and there is a sense of joy that her wish has been fulfilled.
Another joy was the evidence of all the friends she had who so greatly admired and respected her. Both services were very well attended even though most of her friends have already passed away. But Mom touched the lives of many people, some many years younger than she was.
Yesterday would have been my Dad's birthday and the wedding anniversary of Mom and Dad - a fitting punctuation for the end of her life her on earth.
Among the many people who came to honor Mom and say goodbye were my cousin Jim who flew in on a private plane form Southern California, my cousin Dave who came in from Northern Illinois, my niece Dana and my niece AnnaLee and her family all from San Jose, and my own son John Leslie from Dallas. JL insisted on coming even though he is undergoing chemotherapy and treatment for cancer at this time. It was tough on him and I appreciate and respect him for coming. My Aunt, Virginia came down from Fort Collins and my cousin Myralee and her husband Mel came in from Grand Junction. There were many others and I apologize for leaving anyone out, There were many who couldn't be there for one reason or another but it was a joy to witness all the wonderful people she had a friendship with.
We drove up to Denver with my son Scott and his wife Sheri in their BMW X5. I have taken that trip many times as I commuted from Albuquerque to Cheyenne for five years. I know it takes roughly eight hours from Albuquerque to Denver after stopping for gas, to eat and just a rest stop or two. Scott kind of laughed at me when I said eight hours - or maybe it was more of a sneer, when he repeatedly told me it didn't take any eight hours - and then went on to prove it. As a back-seat driver, I quickly learned it was best to just close my eyes and snooze.
My niece, Piper and her husband Lance, had everyone over to their house in Denver and had a nice spread laid out for us to enjoy as we had a chance to visit with some family members and friends we hadn't seen for years in some cases. I had the pleasure of visiting with some great people, Glen and Jackie Edwards, who were class mates of mine back in the old days. Glen is a retired Professor at the Colorado School of Mines and was an outstanding athlete - Little All American in high school and a brilliant student. He was fullback on our football team and I played the position of tackle. When I went in for my surgery last year the doctors were puzzled by all the indentions in my back. I was supposed to block for Glen as he ran the ball. He was fast and I was slow. When I wasn't going fast enough or in the direction he wanted me to go - he would simply give me a shove and run right over me. The cleat marks from his shoes are forever in my back - like a tattoo. No wonder I have had a bad back my whole life. Jackie was a cheerleader, the Home Coming Queen, class President - and just a little Miss America in terms of high school life. They are great people and I appreciate their friendship so much.
Even though Glen is brilliant - he is getting a little older, which may affect his memory some. I say this because both Glen and Jackie came up with some stories about my behavior and activities as a high school student which couldn't possibly be true. However my son, Scott and his wife Sheri, were taking this all in like it was gospel truth. Scott has some memories of my being a little strict sometimes when he was going to school, and it was like an evidence gathering time for him. Anyway - it's too little too late to do him any good now.
Saturday we drove down to Center through the mountains and it was a journey I hadn't taken for some time, but it was absolutely beautiful. Again, there was some argument about how long this journey should take and once again Scott proved his point.
My cousin Sue has an absolutely beautiful house just a hundred yards or so from the banks of the Rio Grande river. This house could be in any upscale magazine about homes and she designed it pretty much herself. She had another spread for everyone and we enjoyed lots of visiting with family and some of the local people. This group included my cousin Dave from Illinois and his classmate Joe Replogle. Now where my friends Glen and Jackie Edwards might have had some lapse of memory, these people at Sue's house came up with some stories of my behavior which were downright lies. No one could have behaved that badly! Anyway Scott and Sheri were once again taking all of this in. I am thinking I might have to move as Scott and Sheri live right here in Albuquerque and I think they are trying to gather evidence to exercise some kind of revenge for my stern dictates when Scott was in high school and college. But it worked - he is a fine young man today - thanks to me!
We went to Center - my home town, on Saturday and had a lovely service at the United Methodist Church. The ladies at the Church prepared another spread of food for everyone and even offered to send food home with those traveling. Many people from town and the surrounding communities came to the service and we are all so grateful and pleased for that. This was mom's home and these are her people.
Before going to the Church for the service, we stopped at Skeff's Food Center which has been owned and run by the Skeff family for around eighty years I think. The Skeff family are on my very favorite people list and I think the world of all of them. Joe and Betty were there and later came to the Church service. Sadie was not in as she was with brother George in Denver, but Joe was talking to them on the phone when I walked in so I had a chance to at lest say "hello" to them. I had talked to Kelly who is a Professor at Stanford Medical School just a few days before, so the only one I missed was Raymond. They are a fantastic family as far as I am concerned and it was great to see them.
As I said, even sadness can bring joy and I personally felt very happy at the end of the trip.
One side note concerning the ongoing treatment we are having. JL is going through chemotherapy and then the following day he goes in for some kind of a shot that is supposed to build up the marrow in his bones. The bones are solid so as the marrow increases inside the bone it creates a tremendous amount of pressure and pain all over his body, especially in the joints. So, he has a real up and down feeling to deal with. He will get to the point he is feeling good and the next day he is hurting and miserable. He is having some problem with his stomach too which is totally unpredictable. I am still experiencing the same thing myself and know exactly how he feels and it isn't any fun. But with all of this he still insists on going to work and to all of the sporting activities of his children. I think he is planning on going to camp with Andrew, his youngest son, in the next week or two.
They put me on the steroid type medication to help me gain weight and it worked. I shot up from 152 to around 185 in no time at all. I am not sure how this works because while it caused me to eat it also made me sick at my stomach, but enough stuck around to cause me to gain weight. I got to the point where I didn't want to gain any more - 185 is about right for me and I don't want to get back up to 250 - so I quit taking the medication. Now I really have to watch my intake so I don't gain any more.
I came up with a unique diet program. I ate at a restaurant the other day (I wont mention any names) but the food was horrible. I ordered turkey with dressing. The turkey was dry as a bone - sort of like the sole of a shoe or a shingle from the roof, the dressing tasted like leftover leftovers and they gave me a dumpling which was like a glob of dough covered with some foul tasting gravy. Even the coffee was bad. I used to get mad at this kind of food service and vow never to come back. Now I am creating a list of restaurants - this one is at the top of the list, and I will only use this list to choose where I am going to eat. The thought is that if I only go to restaurants where the food is horrible I will automatically keep from gaining weight. I just won't eat the stuff. There is another place - a fast food restaruant - and I will mention the name because I really do like their food. They just can't get it right. I like Wendy's for hamburgers. I go in and order a burger with mustard, pickle, lettuce and tomato. It comes back and has ketchup, mayo and onions on it - all the stuff I didn't want. Even though it is printed plainly on the ticket what I want - they just don't get it. I decided I was being too tough on them, so I ordered on the basis of what I didn't want. Giver me a burger WITHOUT ketchup, mayo or onion. I stood there and watched the young man make my burger. First, a big slob of mayo, then onions, then ketchup. I will keep coming back here also. Another idea of genius from me! Sometimes I am amazed at some of the brilliant ideas I come up with.
Another thing about the fast food restaurants which has nothing to do with the food or a diet. The bill came to $6.37 - I gave the young lady a ten dollar bill and 37 cents in change. She just stared at me and said she didn't have any change in her register. She just couldn't figure out how much to give me back. So, I scratched around in my pocket and opened up my wallet and was lucky enough to come up with exactly $6.37. She opened up her cash register drawer and it was full of change - she just never passed 4th grade math.
Keep in touch - God Bless!!
Albuquerque Al!
Monday, May 12, 2008
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL THE MOTHERS, GRANDMOTHERS, MOTHERS-TO-BE AND OTHER LADIES WHO WATCH OVER AND CARE FOR OTHERS. YOU ARE A VERY SPECIAL GROUP OF PEOPLE!
I am always a day late and a dollar short because I put things off. I think about doing things in plenty of time but don't actually engage the gears to do what I need to do until it is almost too late.
The other day I had an anxious moment when I realized I hadn't sent a card and flowers or candy to my Mother for Mother's day. Then I quickly remembered that she had recently changed her permanent address and I really didn't need to use any earthly means of communicating with her because she would know I was thinking of her and that I loved her. Mom is happier now than she has ever been and I thank God for blessing my life with such a wonderful mother.
For those of you in the Denver area or up North, we will have a graveside memorial service at 2:00 pm on Thursday May 29th at Crown Hill in Denver. Crown Hill is located at 29th and Wadsworth. Enter off of Wadsworth through the main gate and go west to the Tower of Memories, turn left around the circle and a little more than half way around the circle you will see the tent for the service and the Hurt family head stone.
On Saturday, May 31st., we will have a memorial service in our home town of Center, Colorado. The service will be at 2:00 pm at the Center United Methodist Church.
Whether in Denver or Center, we invite all of Priscilla's many friends to join us in saying farewell to her.
I just talked to my three sons and JL in Dallas is hurting but he is holding up. He is tough and he is stubborn, so he will make it through the treatment just to prove he can. I have been so blessed with three wonderful sons in addition to all other family members and relatives.
On the home front, I had someone from Santa Fe who was supposed to come in early this morning to buy an Audi. After I got up way earlier than I wanted to, he called to tell me he is going to wait awhile. I was all dressed up with no place to go, so decided I would take care of a few chores. I need to start now to get a referral to MD Anderson again so they can perform surgery on my hernia. From past experience, I know I will have to fight with Presbyterian again as they feel they can do anything here in Albuquerque that they can do in Houston. Not so!
I have also been having some swelling in my feet and ankles, so thought I would just make an appointment and get my doctor to take care of both issues. Kind of like killing two birds with one stone, except one of those birds is my two feet attached to my legs - so lets not be killing them too much. I expected to get an appointment sometime in the next week or two, but they had an opening right away - so I smeared on the Right Gaurd and a splash of Old Spice - and I was on my way.
Dr. Goodluck (better than having a doctor named Dr. Badluck) was quite concerned with my swollen ankles and feet. They were both swollen but the right one was quite a bit more swollen than the left one. He sent me over to the vascular lab for a Doppler exam - and sure enough, I have two blood clots in my right leg. I have an aneurysm in my left leg and two blood clots in my right leg. You could say I simply have a hitch in my get along! You ever see an old worn out car driving down the street with one wheel wobbling? That's me.
I spent the rest of the afternoon with a nurse who went over the treatment process for this. She spent two hours working up to the point where she said; "Okay, now you take this needle and hold it in your right hand - pull up your shirt and stick the needle in your stomach - right there." So, I jabbed that needle into my belly and had my first shot. I am supposed to do this every night. I told her I didn't mind going home and having a shot every night - but this is not what I had in mind. I was thinking of something out of a bottle with a splash of water and an olive. Oh well - some people have all the luck.
This treatment includes going in for blood work every morning and then a conference call with her and the doctor and anyone else who wants to join in each day. Then I have to go to coumadin clinic once a week. This is all going to be very time consuming, but I have stopped worrying about time. I am worrying about how many gallons of gas this is going to use up as I go back and forth to the hospital each day.
When I go to the doctor, he has one of those little carts on wheels he uses just to haul my file around. It is a good eight inches thick. I thought about donating my body to science when I get ready to leave this earth. I went over to the medical school and the professor said; "No thanks! We'll stick with frogs!"
More later - I hope!
ALBUQUERQUE AL
I am always a day late and a dollar short because I put things off. I think about doing things in plenty of time but don't actually engage the gears to do what I need to do until it is almost too late.
The other day I had an anxious moment when I realized I hadn't sent a card and flowers or candy to my Mother for Mother's day. Then I quickly remembered that she had recently changed her permanent address and I really didn't need to use any earthly means of communicating with her because she would know I was thinking of her and that I loved her. Mom is happier now than she has ever been and I thank God for blessing my life with such a wonderful mother.
For those of you in the Denver area or up North, we will have a graveside memorial service at 2:00 pm on Thursday May 29th at Crown Hill in Denver. Crown Hill is located at 29th and Wadsworth. Enter off of Wadsworth through the main gate and go west to the Tower of Memories, turn left around the circle and a little more than half way around the circle you will see the tent for the service and the Hurt family head stone.
On Saturday, May 31st., we will have a memorial service in our home town of Center, Colorado. The service will be at 2:00 pm at the Center United Methodist Church.
Whether in Denver or Center, we invite all of Priscilla's many friends to join us in saying farewell to her.
I just talked to my three sons and JL in Dallas is hurting but he is holding up. He is tough and he is stubborn, so he will make it through the treatment just to prove he can. I have been so blessed with three wonderful sons in addition to all other family members and relatives.
On the home front, I had someone from Santa Fe who was supposed to come in early this morning to buy an Audi. After I got up way earlier than I wanted to, he called to tell me he is going to wait awhile. I was all dressed up with no place to go, so decided I would take care of a few chores. I need to start now to get a referral to MD Anderson again so they can perform surgery on my hernia. From past experience, I know I will have to fight with Presbyterian again as they feel they can do anything here in Albuquerque that they can do in Houston. Not so!
I have also been having some swelling in my feet and ankles, so thought I would just make an appointment and get my doctor to take care of both issues. Kind of like killing two birds with one stone, except one of those birds is my two feet attached to my legs - so lets not be killing them too much. I expected to get an appointment sometime in the next week or two, but they had an opening right away - so I smeared on the Right Gaurd and a splash of Old Spice - and I was on my way.
Dr. Goodluck (better than having a doctor named Dr. Badluck) was quite concerned with my swollen ankles and feet. They were both swollen but the right one was quite a bit more swollen than the left one. He sent me over to the vascular lab for a Doppler exam - and sure enough, I have two blood clots in my right leg. I have an aneurysm in my left leg and two blood clots in my right leg. You could say I simply have a hitch in my get along! You ever see an old worn out car driving down the street with one wheel wobbling? That's me.
I spent the rest of the afternoon with a nurse who went over the treatment process for this. She spent two hours working up to the point where she said; "Okay, now you take this needle and hold it in your right hand - pull up your shirt and stick the needle in your stomach - right there." So, I jabbed that needle into my belly and had my first shot. I am supposed to do this every night. I told her I didn't mind going home and having a shot every night - but this is not what I had in mind. I was thinking of something out of a bottle with a splash of water and an olive. Oh well - some people have all the luck.
This treatment includes going in for blood work every morning and then a conference call with her and the doctor and anyone else who wants to join in each day. Then I have to go to coumadin clinic once a week. This is all going to be very time consuming, but I have stopped worrying about time. I am worrying about how many gallons of gas this is going to use up as I go back and forth to the hospital each day.
When I go to the doctor, he has one of those little carts on wheels he uses just to haul my file around. It is a good eight inches thick. I thought about donating my body to science when I get ready to leave this earth. I went over to the medical school and the professor said; "No thanks! We'll stick with frogs!"
More later - I hope!
ALBUQUERQUE AL
Monday, May 5, 2008
UPDATE FROM ALBUQUERQUE
Just a quick note to bring everyone up to date on this little group of people - hereinafter called family - in this obscure, remote and unimportant part of the world - hereinafter called Albuquerque, New Mexico. Actually, Albuquerque, New Mexico is the finest place in the world because others of undesirable characteristics (political ambitions, talking with their mouth full, basically obnoxious behavior, etc.) have intentionally been led to believe that Albuquerque is obscure, remote and unimportant, so they have no interest in the place.
Anyway - three subjects: (1) My current state of well being, (2) My son's (John Leslie in Dallas) current health status, (3) My wonderful Mother, Priscilla.
As I wrote last time, I have had my third exam since surgery and still remain cancer free. That is super news as far as I am concerned and I don't think I could ask for anything more. I still have my ups and downs related to how I feel and how my stomach gets along with the food I choose to subject it to. I do have a lot of trouble with my stomach now and I do get tired and ache in and around my stomach and back - but who cares? I don't - I will ge glad to ache any place you want me to as long as I am cancer free.
Also, as I wrote last time, my oldest son, John Leslie, had exploratory surgery and they did find a tumor. It has been decided that he does have Hodgkins Disease. As thrilled as I am about being cancer free, I would gladly take any kind of a terminal cancer disease if I could do that in place of JL having to go through this. He has had the bone marrow exam and I think that tested out okay and he has had a port surgically implanted for his chemotherapy treatments. He will be having more chemotherapy treatments than I had, but mine were eight hours long and his will be four. I don't know what, if anything, they are going to do about radiation. One of the problems with JL is that he just wants to get busy with the treatment and doesn't really care what stage it is. When I ask him what stage it is or other details and/or reports from the doctors - he is only upset that they haven't started the treatment yet. I believe the treatment starts tomorrow. So far he has done a very good job of ignoring the instructions of his medical team. They told him not to drive after his exploratory surgery and he drove to Houston because one of the children was in some kind of a big tournament. He was told not to go to work after his bone marrow exam, and he went to work. Of course he has had a lot of practice in ignoring advice and even instructions from people skilled in giving such advice and instruction. Anyway - I still love him!
Third subject - my wonderful and fantastic mother. We went to Houston early in April and came back with good news. Even though the news was good, it was still a difficult trip from the standpoint of anticipation of both the exams and the results. And, as mentioned above, we went to Houston with the worry about our son on our minds. On Saturday, April 28th, my brother John in Denver called and told me he had taken our Mother to the hospital. She had fallen down and my brother wanted to make certain that nothing had been broken. Prior to going to the hospital, I guess my Mother had been having some slight difficulty with breathing. They found that Mom had not broken any bones, but some where and some how, she aspirated and her food, even though pureed, went into her lungs and she developed pneumonia and then she had a slight heart attack. My brother, John, called me and said he didn't think she would make it through the day. She was in a lot of pain and having a very difficult time breathing. He called again later and said she had improved some and we decided I would sit tight until we knew what was going to happen and what I could and should do.
I left Albuquerque Wednesday the 30th and went directly to the hospital when I got to Denver and spent most of the rest of the day with Mom. That afternoon she seemed to be very restless and kept trying to get out of bed. This is a standard procedure for her whenever she is in a hospital. Even though she was nearly unconscious, she has such a strong will that she just kept grabbing at things - including my arms, until she could get a grip on the bed rail. She wore herself out trying to breath and trying to get out of bed. She wore me out just trying to stay calm and talk her into going to sleep.
We talked to a lady at the hospital about hospice care and we selected one we thought would be the best and the hospital arranged for a representative to come over to meet with us. A very nice young woman came over and she looked at mom and reviewed her records and then sat down with us. All of us assumed that it was a "done-deal" and that Mom would stay in the hospital and start receiving hospice care in addition to the hospital staff. However, the nurse from hospice came in and after talking to the doctors and nurses and reviewing Mom's medical records said that Mom did not qualify for hospice care in the hospital. She did qualify for hospice care but it would have to be in a nursing home (we would need to pay around $5,000 per month for room and board) or move her back into John's home. They would furnish all equipment needed - including a hospital bed plus a registered nurse for a couple of hours per week and nurses aid help a few hours per week.
The thing, I guess, that qualifies Mom for hospice care is that she can not be fed as the food will go into her lungs and complicate the pneumonia problem. The only way she could be fed is with a tube in her stomach or through the nose with a tube. We felt absolutely certain from previous experience that she would not allow any kind of a tube any place. She has ripped them out in the past and would continue to do so. At this point the reality sunk in. Mom's life would soon be over - we anticipated maybe six weeks to a maximum of six months. We talked and accepted the fact that this would happen and decided the best thing to do was to move her back into John's house to the special apartment he had created for her in his home.
I dreaded going in on Friday morning and when I looked at Mom I couldn't see how she could possibly be moved any place. This poor little frail woman was gasping for breath even as she slept. In order for her to qualify to stay in the hospital and receive the hospice care, her condition had to be classified as "acute" - meaning that she could not survive outside the hospital. I didn't see how she could survive the ambulance ride back to John's place, and even if she did I couldn't see how John and his wife Nancy could survive as they would need to be with her in some form or fashion 24 hours per day.
I must say the people at the hospital and the hospice people were all just wonderful people in every respect. The girl from the hospice informed us that Mom would need to be moved by noon and they would arrange to have all the necessary equipment delivered to John's house. I made some comment about how difficult it would be for us to do all this on such short notice. The hospice girl sincerely apologized but stated that was a hospital rule and she couldn't do anything about it. The doctor said - "you can wait until tomorrow to move her." I kind of questioned that and reiterated the hospital policy, and without any discussion, the doctor said again, we could wait until the next day. That was a huge relief, but the doctor and the girl from hospice continued to talk and pretty soon she came back and said the doctor had said that regardless of what happened they needed to remove the oxygen tube from Mom, and if they did it now this would qualify her to be considered an acute patient and she could just stay in the hospital. This was the best news ever and I did tell the girl from hospice that I thought I detected a halo above her head.
The doctor made sure we understood that their only goal now was to make Mom comfortable. They were not going to try to cure her or make her better - just make her comfortable. He also assured us that removing the oxygen tube would not cause her any greater pain or discomfort.
Nancy went home and John and I stayed in the room with Mom. Around 2:30 or so a nurse came in and injected some form of medication to cause Mom to reduce her level of anxiety. A little later Mom started making some different noises than I had heard before and the nurse told us that Mom was starting to die. She said her system was starting to shut down. We both went to her bedside and spent the last minutes of her life talking to her, holding her hand, gently stroking her face and telling her how much we loved her. At 3:15 PM on May 2nd. she left our world. she had been 95 years old for exactly one month.
My mother was a great woman. Everyone who met her loved her. One testimony to this is the fact that Mom was only in the hospital one week. They have shifts of nurses, so only one nurse had worked with Mom twice. The rest had only worked with her for one day. However as the word spread that she had passed away, most all of the nurses came in with tears running down their cheeks. The girl form the hospice was among those who came in and mourned over her death.
Mom is better off now and she is where she said she wanted to be. She said that she wanted to go join her husband and she had told John and Nancy she would see them in Heaven.
We spent Saturday - Brother John's birthday - visiting the funeral home and cemetary and making arrangements. At the moment, it looks like we will have a memorial service in Denver at Crown Hill on the 29th and another in our home town of Center on the 31st. For those who don't know, Center is a small farm community town in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado and the town was founded by our Grandfather, James Hurt. For the most part, Mom's friends are the people of Center and the San Luis Valley. It is only appropiate to have a service in Center.
There is always something good in everything. One of the good things of this trip was the opportunity I had to visit with my Niece Piper and her husband Lance and their two very beautiful daughters. I also visited my Nephew Austin and his wife Carrie and their two very special sons. On the Sunday before I went to Denver, another Niece, Holly - Austin's twin, and her husband Eric were in the process of moving from Denver to Albuquerque. So, I did miss seeing Holly and Eric, but I will make up for it now that they are New Mexicans.
God Bless all of you. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!!
ALBUQUERQUE AL
PS - Hey I am getting pretty good with no functioning "spell check" on my computer. If I missed a word or two - I did it on purpose just to see if you were paying attention. My grammer ain't all that good neither - I need one of them grammer checkers too I reckon.
Anyway - three subjects: (1) My current state of well being, (2) My son's (John Leslie in Dallas) current health status, (3) My wonderful Mother, Priscilla.
As I wrote last time, I have had my third exam since surgery and still remain cancer free. That is super news as far as I am concerned and I don't think I could ask for anything more. I still have my ups and downs related to how I feel and how my stomach gets along with the food I choose to subject it to. I do have a lot of trouble with my stomach now and I do get tired and ache in and around my stomach and back - but who cares? I don't - I will ge glad to ache any place you want me to as long as I am cancer free.
Also, as I wrote last time, my oldest son, John Leslie, had exploratory surgery and they did find a tumor. It has been decided that he does have Hodgkins Disease. As thrilled as I am about being cancer free, I would gladly take any kind of a terminal cancer disease if I could do that in place of JL having to go through this. He has had the bone marrow exam and I think that tested out okay and he has had a port surgically implanted for his chemotherapy treatments. He will be having more chemotherapy treatments than I had, but mine were eight hours long and his will be four. I don't know what, if anything, they are going to do about radiation. One of the problems with JL is that he just wants to get busy with the treatment and doesn't really care what stage it is. When I ask him what stage it is or other details and/or reports from the doctors - he is only upset that they haven't started the treatment yet. I believe the treatment starts tomorrow. So far he has done a very good job of ignoring the instructions of his medical team. They told him not to drive after his exploratory surgery and he drove to Houston because one of the children was in some kind of a big tournament. He was told not to go to work after his bone marrow exam, and he went to work. Of course he has had a lot of practice in ignoring advice and even instructions from people skilled in giving such advice and instruction. Anyway - I still love him!
Third subject - my wonderful and fantastic mother. We went to Houston early in April and came back with good news. Even though the news was good, it was still a difficult trip from the standpoint of anticipation of both the exams and the results. And, as mentioned above, we went to Houston with the worry about our son on our minds. On Saturday, April 28th, my brother John in Denver called and told me he had taken our Mother to the hospital. She had fallen down and my brother wanted to make certain that nothing had been broken. Prior to going to the hospital, I guess my Mother had been having some slight difficulty with breathing. They found that Mom had not broken any bones, but some where and some how, she aspirated and her food, even though pureed, went into her lungs and she developed pneumonia and then she had a slight heart attack. My brother, John, called me and said he didn't think she would make it through the day. She was in a lot of pain and having a very difficult time breathing. He called again later and said she had improved some and we decided I would sit tight until we knew what was going to happen and what I could and should do.
I left Albuquerque Wednesday the 30th and went directly to the hospital when I got to Denver and spent most of the rest of the day with Mom. That afternoon she seemed to be very restless and kept trying to get out of bed. This is a standard procedure for her whenever she is in a hospital. Even though she was nearly unconscious, she has such a strong will that she just kept grabbing at things - including my arms, until she could get a grip on the bed rail. She wore herself out trying to breath and trying to get out of bed. She wore me out just trying to stay calm and talk her into going to sleep.
We talked to a lady at the hospital about hospice care and we selected one we thought would be the best and the hospital arranged for a representative to come over to meet with us. A very nice young woman came over and she looked at mom and reviewed her records and then sat down with us. All of us assumed that it was a "done-deal" and that Mom would stay in the hospital and start receiving hospice care in addition to the hospital staff. However, the nurse from hospice came in and after talking to the doctors and nurses and reviewing Mom's medical records said that Mom did not qualify for hospice care in the hospital. She did qualify for hospice care but it would have to be in a nursing home (we would need to pay around $5,000 per month for room and board) or move her back into John's home. They would furnish all equipment needed - including a hospital bed plus a registered nurse for a couple of hours per week and nurses aid help a few hours per week.
The thing, I guess, that qualifies Mom for hospice care is that she can not be fed as the food will go into her lungs and complicate the pneumonia problem. The only way she could be fed is with a tube in her stomach or through the nose with a tube. We felt absolutely certain from previous experience that she would not allow any kind of a tube any place. She has ripped them out in the past and would continue to do so. At this point the reality sunk in. Mom's life would soon be over - we anticipated maybe six weeks to a maximum of six months. We talked and accepted the fact that this would happen and decided the best thing to do was to move her back into John's house to the special apartment he had created for her in his home.
I dreaded going in on Friday morning and when I looked at Mom I couldn't see how she could possibly be moved any place. This poor little frail woman was gasping for breath even as she slept. In order for her to qualify to stay in the hospital and receive the hospice care, her condition had to be classified as "acute" - meaning that she could not survive outside the hospital. I didn't see how she could survive the ambulance ride back to John's place, and even if she did I couldn't see how John and his wife Nancy could survive as they would need to be with her in some form or fashion 24 hours per day.
I must say the people at the hospital and the hospice people were all just wonderful people in every respect. The girl from the hospice informed us that Mom would need to be moved by noon and they would arrange to have all the necessary equipment delivered to John's house. I made some comment about how difficult it would be for us to do all this on such short notice. The hospice girl sincerely apologized but stated that was a hospital rule and she couldn't do anything about it. The doctor said - "you can wait until tomorrow to move her." I kind of questioned that and reiterated the hospital policy, and without any discussion, the doctor said again, we could wait until the next day. That was a huge relief, but the doctor and the girl from hospice continued to talk and pretty soon she came back and said the doctor had said that regardless of what happened they needed to remove the oxygen tube from Mom, and if they did it now this would qualify her to be considered an acute patient and she could just stay in the hospital. This was the best news ever and I did tell the girl from hospice that I thought I detected a halo above her head.
The doctor made sure we understood that their only goal now was to make Mom comfortable. They were not going to try to cure her or make her better - just make her comfortable. He also assured us that removing the oxygen tube would not cause her any greater pain or discomfort.
Nancy went home and John and I stayed in the room with Mom. Around 2:30 or so a nurse came in and injected some form of medication to cause Mom to reduce her level of anxiety. A little later Mom started making some different noises than I had heard before and the nurse told us that Mom was starting to die. She said her system was starting to shut down. We both went to her bedside and spent the last minutes of her life talking to her, holding her hand, gently stroking her face and telling her how much we loved her. At 3:15 PM on May 2nd. she left our world. she had been 95 years old for exactly one month.
My mother was a great woman. Everyone who met her loved her. One testimony to this is the fact that Mom was only in the hospital one week. They have shifts of nurses, so only one nurse had worked with Mom twice. The rest had only worked with her for one day. However as the word spread that she had passed away, most all of the nurses came in with tears running down their cheeks. The girl form the hospice was among those who came in and mourned over her death.
Mom is better off now and she is where she said she wanted to be. She said that she wanted to go join her husband and she had told John and Nancy she would see them in Heaven.
We spent Saturday - Brother John's birthday - visiting the funeral home and cemetary and making arrangements. At the moment, it looks like we will have a memorial service in Denver at Crown Hill on the 29th and another in our home town of Center on the 31st. For those who don't know, Center is a small farm community town in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado and the town was founded by our Grandfather, James Hurt. For the most part, Mom's friends are the people of Center and the San Luis Valley. It is only appropiate to have a service in Center.
There is always something good in everything. One of the good things of this trip was the opportunity I had to visit with my Niece Piper and her husband Lance and their two very beautiful daughters. I also visited my Nephew Austin and his wife Carrie and their two very special sons. On the Sunday before I went to Denver, another Niece, Holly - Austin's twin, and her husband Eric were in the process of moving from Denver to Albuquerque. So, I did miss seeing Holly and Eric, but I will make up for it now that they are New Mexicans.
God Bless all of you. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!!
ALBUQUERQUE AL
PS - Hey I am getting pretty good with no functioning "spell check" on my computer. If I missed a word or two - I did it on purpose just to see if you were paying attention. My grammer ain't all that good neither - I need one of them grammer checkers too I reckon.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
UPDATE ON CANCER AND RELATED NEWS
We got back late last night from Houston following several days of tests and examinations, and I am happy - once again, to announce the tests show no signs of cancer now. I had the blood tests, x-rays and CAT-Scan and everything looks like it is okay. For some reason, this series of tests seemed to be more difficult for me than the previous ones. I have been very tired and my stomach area hurts as though some one has been punching me. I remember I upset my wife late in the evening - I don't remember how or why, and she may have used me for a punching bag after I went to sleep. That is the only logical thing I can think of. Anyway, I am aching and sore today but I am sure it will go away.
Just the trip is a little tiring too. The day after the tests, we had a free day and drove down to Galveston. I hadn't been there for around 25 years and - like everything else - it has changed a lot. Went out to the Lone Star Flight Museum which is a big hanger housing some of the war birds from the World War II and Korea eras. I really enjoyed this as I had personally had some contact with some of these planes after the big wars when I was at the airport in Denver. I have even flown in several of them or the civilian version of them. Some of the old fighter planes and bombers were bought by some of the younger or middle aged wealthy people as toys. Planes like the P-51 were toys for the rich and famous of the day. The bombers were often used as corporate executive planes - obviously they had been refurbished and were very plush planes. It also reminded me that they just don't make things today like they did in the old days. I would say the old planes just had a lot more character than some of the newer models. Of course the same thing applies to the male species.
You might remember I was having a weight problem. I was down to 152 from 254! I reached a point where I looked like I had just come from a concentration camp. As I mentioned, the initial part of the surgery consisted of cutting me open in the stomach area. Just one long slice up and down my tummy. I think they had forty or fifty staples holding everything together after they finished. My stomach looked like a miniature railroad track with all those little staples. I got out of the shower one morning and saw myself in the mirror. At that point I was this skinny old guy with these tracks going up and down my stomach. I realized if I just stuck out my tongue, I would look just like a zipper.
After struggling with the weight problem and not finding any solution, my oncologist
in Albuquerque suggested Prednisone - a steriod type medication. He gave me a prescription and I started on it about month to six weeks ago and my weight has shot up to 173. I am very pleased about that but am concerned that it might keep going until I am back to 254. I used to get nauseated just thinking of food, now I want to eat anything and everything in sight. I took myself off the Prednisone for several days and then learned you are not supposed to do that. For some reason you are supposed to ease off the medication over a period of time. In addition to the fear of gaining too much weight, I heard from a number of people that Prednisone can have some harmful side effects. However, when I took myself off the medication I started getting sick again and had some other side affects so went back on until I could consult with the doctors in Houston.
The oncologist here in Albuquerque had suggested Prednisone as one of two drugs I could take. The second one, Marinol is a marijuana related drug. I couldn't make up my mind whether I wanted the steroid based drug with the probability of becoming a stud NFL star, or the marijuana based drug where I wouldn't care what I became. The docs down in Houston like the marijuana drug - Marinol best. Not too many people I talk to like the Prednisone.
I went out and got a prescription for the Marinol today - and guess what? My insurance doesn't cover this drug and it is around $1,100.00 for a little ole bottle of 90 pills. After I got all upset, I realized this isn't all that bad a deal. If I could buy gas this cheap - I would be getting gasoline for around $1.25 per gallon. It just depends upon how you look at these things. My insurance did say they would accept a request from my doctor for an exception - doesn't mean they are going to make one, just means he can request it. We will see what happens.
I mentioned earlier that my stomach area is a little tender. It was a whole bunch tender a short while back. I was carrying a stack of plastic cones across the show room floor several weeks ago and ended up flat on my face on the show room floor with plastic cones all over the place, including right under my entire chest and belly. These cones do not bend and they created some severe "ouches" in my abdominal area. You aren't going to believe this, but the reason I ended up on the floor was because I tripped over a Chevrolet Corvette. We have this beautiful black 2008 Chevy Corvette on the showroom floor with only 2,000 miles and we are selling it for only $68.000 +. Now you do know that Corvettes do have a low profile and kind of hug the road, it had no distinctive markings like racing stripes or stars or wild color paint. It was dark black and as I recall the showroom was overcast that day - so you could hardly blame me for a slight misjudgement which caused me to trip over this car.
Because of my recent condition, within seconds everyone had rushed over to me and were asking if I was alright, trying to help me get up, asking me what happened, etc. This is totally embarrassing! I do not like this kind of attention. If I had wanted attention I would have floated across the show room floor in a tutu. There is a wonderful lady at CarMax who is the HR Director. She laughed at me and told me she had fallen twice and broken her wrist each time. As painful as her fall was, the very first thing she did was look around to see if anyone had seen her fall. I hadn't thought of it before, but that is exactly what I did. Both knees were bruised and sore, my belly was hurting bad - but I looked around to see who had seen this old fool trip over a Corvette.
The Lord has taken good care of me and has guided me and provided for me in so many different ways. I am grateful and thankful for everything that has happened. Now I must once again ask the Lord for his blessings, his guidance and help. Llast week we learned our oldest son, John Leslie, was in the hospital in Dallas. I guess he has been undergoing tests for several months but had not said anything to us as he did not want to add to the problems we already had. At first they thought he might also have pancreatic cancer but decided he probably has lymphoma. They did exploratory surgery and did find a tumor the size of a grape fruit and did a biopsy. I guess there are many different forms of lymphoma and at this point the test results have not come back. At this point, all we can do is pray and I would ask for your prayers as well.
God Bless all of you. I appreciate you more than you will every know!
AL
Monday, February 18, 2008
ANNIVERSARY
Saturday - February 16, was a big anniversary for me. First, one year ago on February 16th, I spent seven hours in the emergency room at Kaseman Hospital and left there knowing that I had a growth or tumor on my pancreas that was probably cancer. This is not an event that most people would want to even remember much less celebrate, but it was to become one of the most important events in my life and I will never forget this date.
Without going into all the details again, this trip to the emergency room was full of coincidences which probably ended up saving my life. It was a major coincident that the emergency room doctor even found the tumor as it was so well hidden under other parts of my intestine - and on top of that, he wasn't even looking for this particular problem. He had been told, by me and by my primary care doctor, that I might be having a problem with my aneurysm or was experiencing some type of heart problem. I was so lucky to get this very thorough doctor, and this was just the beginning of a long list of blessings that I received during the past 12 months.
As a result of what happened on February 16, 2007, I have have twelve months of treatment, one of the most serious and complex surguries you can have, and the cancer has been completely removed from my body. I am now cancer free. To me this is definately an anniversary worth remembering and celebrating.
To make this date of February 16th even more special to me, is the fact that it is the birthdate of my wonderful son, Scott. He has been one of the major blessings to me during this past year as I have been engaged in battle with cancer. He has taken time off from work and gone back and forth to Houston with me, gone to all the doctor meetings, has done research on the computer about the treatments, the medications, etc., he was been with me when I had chemotherapy and radiation treatment in Houston. More than anything else, he has protected me from worry and concern about anything and everything he could. He has run interference for me on just everyday things so I don't have to be concerned about the routine challenges of everyday life.
I remember the night I left the emergency room around 11:00 pm I called Scott. At that point I was pretty shook up. I had just been told I probably had cancer and this was not something I was expecting. I called Scott and poured my heart out - not even remembering that it was his birthday. What a present! I feel guilty to this day for even calling him, but he took it like he does everything else. He was so understanding and sympathetic and helpful - it was like that was all he had on his mind.
A couple of other neat things happened on Saturday to just add frosting to the cake. A wonderful couple I have known for years, Joe and Bunny, called and I had a nice long visit with them. I hadn't seen them for years and then we got reunited several years ago when Joe and I were both going to the same physical therapist. Then we kind of lost track again until we ran into each other again at New Mexico Oncology when I was going through the eight hour sessions of chemotherapy at NM Oncology. They called to tell me they had run into a neat lady at NM Oncology who had pancreatic cancer - just like me, had gone to MD Anderson in Houston, just like me, and had experienced some problem with weight loss - just like me. However, she is a dietitian and has figured out a solution to her weight loss problem. She agreed to visit with me and I will be calling her tomorrow. This is yet another one of the wonderful experiences I have had on this journey with cancer. I have run into so many people or been introduced to so many people who were complete strangers who have become friends and have helped me so much with their individual stories and experiences and their support. They have embraced me as if we had a lifetime friendship and I was the most important person in their life.
Let's see - I already said I was adding frosting to the cake, so I guess I will have to say now we are going to add a big red juicy cherry to the top of the cake as I still had one more enjoyable event for the day. Because of Scott's birthday, Mary Marlin, Scott and Sheri and I all went out for a fabulous dinner. The Great American Steakhouse is at the corner of Tramway and Indian School Road and sits up on a hill and overlooks the city and the West Mesa and volcanoes. It is a beautiful setting, but much more important than that is the food. It has to be one of the best, if not the best, restaurants in the city. The food is absolutely outstanding and the portions are huge. In fact, as part of the standard menu, you can order an extra plate and two people can share a meal. I would guess that most people do that. A steak of any kind will almost completely cover the platter. In addition, the baked potato will cover half the platter, so you almost always have a portion of the meal hanging over the edge of a very large platter.
The one thing I love more than anything else at this restaurant is the chicken fried steak. I almost cried every time a server would wheel the cart past me with a chicken fried steak with every square inch covered with cream gravy. I just wanted to grab the steak and start eating it myself, or at least stick my finger in the gravy and lick off my finger. But, even with the meal sharing, I am the only person in our group that had this craving for chicken fried steak. My good wife did remind me that in the past, I would order the chicken fried steak and eat the whole thing by myself. She made some snide remark about that being one reason I used to be the size of the Good Year blimp. She actually didn't come right out and say it like that - she doesn't have to. You get the point. I have always tried to convince her that I order the chicken fried steak because it is the least expensive item on the menu. It is the financially prudent thing for me to do. I don't think she ever bought into it. Anyway, she ordered briskit and shared a few bites with me and then still came home with a box nearly full of briskit.
To celebrate Scott's birthday to the fullest, Scott ordered a bottle of wine. The server poured the wine into the glasses - serving Scott last. The server misjudged a little and when he got to Scott's glass, Scott got about 2/3 as much as everyone else. I was just ready to switch glasses with Scott - but didn't get the chance. I was ordered by good wife to give Scott my glass of wine. If you haven't figured it out yet, I am on a very short leash. Actually, this is the first taste of alcohol I have had since around the first of September. I used to enjoy a couple of beers when I came home from work at night. Now just the idea of drinking almost anything is repulsive to me. In fact I have doctors suggesting that I drink some beer just to try to gain some weight, but so far I have not done it. After a few tiny sips of the wine, I gave my glass to Scott. The taste was terrible as far as I was concerned. Scott and Sheri are good friends of the couple who own this restaurant, and while they were not there Saturday night, they left instructions for a bottle of wine to be delivered to Scott at his table when he came in as a birthday present from them. The server waited until we had bought a bottle of wine before they presented Scott with this bottle - I am sure this was not a intentional act, it just happened that way.
An interesting side-light to this whole thing, which is yet another blessing, is the fact that Scott and Sheri are friends with the people who own this restaurant. These folks had a baby who was born very pre-mature with some serious medical problems. I don't have all the details, but I think the little baby had been hospitalized almost since birth with these problems. Scott started going down to Houston to take care of me and came back and told these people about our wonderful experience and about the fantastic medical community in Houston. Again, I don't know the details, but Scott helped these people with information and research and they were able to get their baby admitted to Texas Children's Hospital. I think they had to do some battle with their insurance carrier, but were able to get the baby down to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. In fact, Texas Children's Hospital flew their private ambulance jet to Albuquerque and picked up the mother and baby and took them down to Houston and the mother was able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House in Houston. Within a matter of days the baby was much improved with the treatment she received in Houston. I believe they have been back to Houston a time or two since and each time they are transported on the ambulance jet of Texas Children's Hospital. Just another example of the blessings that flow freely among good people.
Well I talked about adding frosting to the cake and then talked about putting a big red cherry on top - but we haven't even gotten to the cake yet. Sheri, who has excellent taste in cakes, bought Scott a fantastic birthday cake and brought it up to our house and we came home after dinner and lit up the candles, sang "Happy Birthday" and started eating cake. Cake and sweets are another thing that I have a problem eating any more, but this cake was special. It had a special kind of frosting - it wasn't the typical frosting, and it was delicious. After we had some cake and ice cream, they cut off about half the remaining cake and left it with us. Mary is a sweet person - I mean she is sweet but she also loves sweets. Sunday morning she got up early to go to her jazzercise class and when I got up I noticed there was evidence that she had a good size piece of cake for breakfast. At least I hide the evidence. I wash off the plate and fork real good and then stick them in the dishwasher. I can always claim there were vegetables on the plate. You can't convict without evidence.
The recovery process is still going on. I am still doing everything I can think of to put on some weight. I still have about three doctor appointments each week. Last week I met with an Endocrinologist, the next day a Gastroenterologist, and the next day an Oncologist. They all had the same objective - trying to figure out why I am still losing weight and trying to figure out what to do to help me gain weight. They gave me a shot and out almost immediately and ran the camera down my throat into my intestine and said everything looked great and all the repairs had healed properly. There was some minor inflamation where they had attached the small intestine to the stomach, but they said that was normal and not a problem. I am talking to one of the doctors about getting on some form of steroid to build back the muscle mass and increase appetite. I am sure this will cause a stir in the baseball community and I will start getting all kinds of phone calls. I guess just see it now - in bright lights - "Home Run Hurt" - breaks all records set by Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Bary Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Pete Rose. Another doctor has cautiously suggested I try marijuana. It is being used here by a number of cancer patients. It helps reduce the pain and it increases the appetite. I am thinking I might use both the steroids and the marijuana at the same time. No telling where that baseball could go when I hit it.
There is at least one up-side to all the weight I have lost (155 now). I went down to the safty deposit box and found my wedding ring which I had not worn for years. When I first received it, it fit just fine, but it was made of some kind of material that started shrinking and after not too many years I couldn't even get it on my pinkie. Now it fits just fine again, and the only problem now are all the sad faces on pretty ladies with tears in their eyes as they have discovered I am in fact a married man. Please understand I have never done anything to lead anyone on or to suggest in any manner that I was not married. I am very married! But, you can't blame the poor ladies who see a gorgeous man without a wedding band - well they just start to assume things.
It is time to sign off. I will get you more news as soon as I have any!
God Bless and I love you all!!!
AL
ps - Spell check is still not working so I had to use the dictionary to help me and I am sure I didn't catch all the errors. It did take me about twice as long as it should to do this entry - I had to check on just about every word that had more than three letters. I never could figure out how you are supposed to look up a word to see how to spell it when you can't spell it to begin with - where are you supposed to look? If you knew where to look, that would mean you know how to spell the word - so there would be no reason to look!
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