Al's News and Views

Just Cruising

2011-02-09T16:33:00.000-08:00

WARNING: Our son Andrew is a wonderful person and very smart and, fortunately for him, he doesn’t take after his dad in some respects. If you ask Andrew a question he will answer it completely and correctly in a dozen words. In my case it will be answered in about three chapters. He gives me a bad time about pictures. If he sees something beautiful or worth capturing on film, he will take one shot. In my case it will usually be around ten or twelve shots of the same subject, just to make sure I get a good one. In any event, this is somewhat lengthy and I do apologize for that. Hopefully it will be as enjoyable to you as our recent trip and recounting the trip is to me.

Another thing I have to be very up front about is the fact that I am a real neophyte when it comes to cruise ships and cruising. I learned there were many people on this cruise who have taken 15 or 20 cruises or more. In fact they announced that one woman has spent something like 1,400 days cruising just with Princess Cruises. We met several people who had just gotten off one cruise ship and got right on ours to take another cruise. The first day we sat next to a couple from Tucson at lunch and they had just finished a cruise on the largest cruise ship in the world. They got off a ship which holds 6,500 passengers and got on our ship to cruise with us. And remember, it isn’t like you get on and will get off at the next corner – you are on for the full length of the cruise. We met a couple from Buffalo, New York. They have a lovely home right on the lake and enjoy their home but are sick and tired of the winters. They decided to get a winter home in Florida, Arizona or New Mexico or any place warm but decided with the cost of upkeep for two homes it would be a lot less expensive and more enjoyable to spend the winter months cruising. They had been on one cruise ship and at the conclusion of that cruise got on our ship.

There were many people in our own group who have taken multiple cruises and back to back cruises. There was one lady who has taken something like 45 trips just with Sun Tours. I am sure they were not all cruises but I am sure they were enjoyable and worthwhile.

JUST CRUISING

Being a farm boy from a small town in the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado, I grew up thinking that Cruising meant driving up and down the main street in town in my 48 Ford club coupe. When my mom asked what I was going to be doing, I said “cruising”. Among friends, we called it “dragging the gut”. With my 48 Ford, a sharp car in my opinion, and for several of my buddies, this was the past time and entertainment of the day. After all, there weren’t too many oceans, or even bodies of water, in that part of the world so this had to be our cruising.

I think the first experience I had with any kind of a boat was as a youngster on a trip to Denver. Lakeside Amusement park, which was adjacent to a lake had a motor boat that would take you for a ride out on this little lake. Up to that time, this was my big thrill on the water.

As I got older and more sophisticated, (who me – sophisticated) I actually went out on the ocean in big diesel powered motor boats deep sea fishing. I did this in Puerto Rico, Acapulco, Mexico, Vancouver, BC and a few other places. I loved being on a boat but wasn’t much of a fisherman. While others were casting for Swordfish, Barracuda, Sharks, Whales or whatever it is you fish for, I was busy casting for beer in the ice chest. But I still loved being on a boat.

My first experience on a big boat was a boat that held about 200 people and went from Pompano Beach, Florida to West End Bahamas. I remember a forward and an aft deck and a big room in the middle with long wooden tables classroom style and benches on either side. The tables had wooden railings around the sides of the table and I was to learn that this was to keep the dinner plates from sliding off the table onto the floor as the boat tipped and pitched back and forth. The weather was not too good that day and the boat pitched back and forth the entire trip. After we were underway we learned this was the first day the boat had gone out for several days because of the very bad weather. It looked like they were at least a day early in finally going out. In any event, while others were turning different shades of green and getting sick, I loved every moment. I was standing on the very front part of the forward deck with waves coming up and and splashing over the boat – and I can’t even swim. When I looked back and saw the crew from the kitchen and other crew members hanging over the rail on the side of the ship losing their “cookies”, I finally decided it might be time for me to go back into the cabin.

It might have been about ten years later that we had our first real cruise. This was back when the “Love Boat” was a popular TV show and as a result of that show many people started considering a cruise for their vacation. While there weren’t a lot of cruise ships at that time, more and more of them were coming on the scene and the costs were very reasonable. We went on a Caribbean cruise which was a convention trip with our company on the Carnival Line. This cruise was on their original ship, “The Carnival”. It was a wonderful cruise and so much fun. I have always looked back on that trip as the most enjoyable and relaxing trip I have had. I remember I took at lot of pictures of the boat and unfortunately just as I was ready to snap the picture, a girl in a bikini would walk in front of the lens. I ended up with a lot of great shots of the boat that were ruined because of some bikini clad girl getting in the way. I think I still have some of those pictures just to remind me how upset I was.

Since that first cruise, the ships have gotten much bigger and more elaborate and the cost is much more. I have thought about another cruise, but it seems like the only trips I have made in recent years have been to the doctor and/or the hospital. I have that routine down pat now so kind of feel like something different might be in order

THE EMERALD PRINCESS

This ship is supposed to be the second largest cruise ship in existence, however I heard while on the cruise that another ship has just gone into service which will make the Emerald Princess the third largest cruise ship.

The ship has a gross registered tonnage of 113,561 tons. That is over 225 million pounds if my math is correct. How can something like that float? The length is 946.8 feet. This would be roughly the length of three football fields end to end. It is 118 feet wide. That is almost 40 yards, or almost half the length of a football field. The ship can carry 3,573 passengers and a crew of 1,227, or about one crew member for every three passengers. (This is like an entire city of around 5,000 people) There 12 different places to eat and at least six of them are equivalent to five star restaurants, including one which requires a $23.00 per person cover charge just to come in, with all the elegance and choices of menu and service. There are six bars, clubs and lounges, a medical center, a photography video gallery, art gallery, casino, cyber golf simulator, internet café, library, health and fitness center, spa and beauty salon, boutique, and a variety of gift shops.

They have a beautiful and massive theater which probably holds around five or six hundred people or more and is designed so there are no bad seats. They also have a poolside TV screen which is 300 square feet with a 69,000 watt sound system where you can watch movies or TV shows – like NFL games. They have many forms of entertainment every night and sometimes different programs during the day for those who don’t want to go ashore while in port. This ship is so large there are parts of it we didn’t even discover until the last day.

The ship has four swimming pools, each with sauna baths, poolside bars, sandwich bars and whatever else you might want or need.

Here are some statistics that were almost as interesting to me as the trip. The food selection is vast and different every day. Below is an average of what this ship consumes on a daily basis.

Fish prepared daily – 1,500 pounds

Poultry cooked daily – 1,800 pounds

Pork and Pork products – 1,000 pounds

Veal – 400 pounds

Lamb – 460 pounds

Average amount of pastas made daily – 500 pounds

Average amount of potatoes cooked daily – 2,000 pounds

Average amount of vegetables cooked daily – 2,500 pounds

Average amount of soups made daily – 550 gallons

Average amount of salads served daily – 1,600 pounds

Average amount of shrimps used daily – 300 pounds

Average amount of mayonnaise used daily – 28 gallons

Average amount of sandwiches made daily – 1,500 each

Average amount of flour used daily – 1,700 pounds

Average amount of assorted pastries prepared daily – 6,000

Average amount of ice cream prepared daily – 90 gallons

Average amount of cakes and pies served daily – 300

Average amount of butter used daily – 500 pounds

Average amount of fresh fruits served daily – 7,000 pounds

Average amount of coffee consumed daily – 470 gallons

Average amount of coffee cream consumed daily – 62 gallons

Average amount of sugar consumed daily – 150 pounds

Average amount of dishes washed daily – 70,000

Average amount of glasses washed daily – 21,500

Average amount of detergent used daily – 30 gallons

Even though this ship is equivalent to a city of 5,000, I can’t imagine a city of 5,000 having this much consumption in a day. On the other hand, an average city of 5,000 would probably not eat nearly as well as the people on this ship do and so often. You can literally eat around the clock.

THE TRIP AND THE CRUISE

Sunday morning we had to be at the check-in counter at the airport by 6:30 am. We were up at 4:30 and left for the airport at 5:15. What a lousy way to start a vacation. We made it to the airport and parked the car and got the shuttle bus over to the terminal. It was especially cold that morning and the only way I could cope with it was by wearing a heavy winter jacket. I had to drag that jacket around with me until we actually got on the ship, and then I am sure I was the only one on the ship with a heavy winter jacket.

We boarded Southwest Airlines and had to fly to Las Vegas and change planes there. When we got to Las Vegas we got on another Southwest Flight which flew us right back almost directly over Albuquerque and just outside of Clovis and Lubbock and then east along the coast to Florida. I still haven’t figured out how this was an advantage to Southwest and it obviously wasn’t any kind of advantage to us. We were with a group of around 47 people on a tour arranged by Sun Tours in Albuquerque. Mary knew a few of these people as she had toured with them in Egypt and Europe. The rest of them we got to know well before the trip was over.

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale and our tour guide, Linda with Sun Tours, had everything arranged. We all had huge lime green tags on our luggage which made it easy to identify and Linda had arranged for a bus to pick us up (she has a special driver she always gets because he does such a good job, and he did.) All the luggage was loaded on the bus for us and we drove a short distance to a beautiful Marriott Court Yard Hotel and checked in for the night. The luggage was unloaded for us again and all we had to do is take it up to our rooms. There was a Bass Pro Shop just across the parking lot from our hotel and they had a restaurant attached to the pro shop. Linda had advised them to be ready for nearly 50 people and we went over and it was a busy place but they were ready for us. Their menu was nearly all seafood and/or spicy food.

MONDAY JANUARY 17^TH

Monday morning George and his bus came by and picked us up and loaded our suitcases and we were off to the docks at Port Everglades to meet our ship. An example of this special bus driver that Linda always requests is that he went a little out of his way to take us to a shopping center in Ft Lauderdale. Linda said that the Princess Cruise Line would allow each person to take one bottle of liquor on board the ship when you first went aboard. After that, if you bought liquor on one of the islands, you would have to check it when you came back on board and they would hold it for you until you got off at the end of the trip, but you were not allowed to take any liquor to your cabin from outside except this one bottle initially. You could buy liquor on the ship from the ship’s store but I guess they didn’t want competition from the islands. Mary and I could have cared less, but we did get a bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine just in case we wanted it and some of the other people wanted to take some wine or other liquor on board with them, so this gave us all that opportunity. George then took us to Port Everglades where our baggage was unloaded and proceeded to board the Emerald Princess.

The only times we handled our luggage, and it was heavy, was getting on the airplane in Albuquerque, taking it to our room at the hotel and back to the lobby the next morning. The rest of the time we didn’t touch it until on our return trip we had to find it at customs and go through customs and take it to the bus in Ft Lauderdale. And, of course, we had to get it to the airplane in Fort Lauderdale, and retrieve it and get it to our car in Albuquerque.

We checked in at the registration desk on the ship and received a Princess card which would be our room key and our money on board the ship for the duration of the trip. You couldn’t pay cash for anything except postage. Everything else went on your pre-approved card. I guess this was true even in the casino, even though I never went in. I guess any winnings were credited to you card as well. They did have our refrigerator stocked with soft drinks and bottled water. You could get a can of coke for $4.95. Mary has been trying to get me to cut down on coke, not that I drink that much, but all of a sudden her mission was accomplished. We found our room and roamed around the ship for awhile and eventually went back to our room and our luggage was there waiting for us.

Our room number was 731, which you would think would mean we were on the 7^th deck. Wrong – we were on the 11^th deck. The top deck was number 19 but the ship really only had 18 decks. They left out number 13. We had a very nice room with a balcony on the Starboard side of the ship. We had a huge closet, a queen size bed, refrigerator, flat screen TV, a desk, and a nice bathroom with shower. We opened the sliding glass door and we were on our own private balcony with chairs and a table and a fabulous view all up and down the side of the ship and the entire ocean and everything else on the starboard side of the ship. Our steward, Ben who was from the Philippines, came in twice a day and kept the room very nice for us.

One of the activities for the first day was a federally required Muster Drill to demonstrate and explain what to do and where to go in case of emergency. We had a demonstration of how to use the life jackets and what else to do in case of any emergency. At 5:50 pm Eastern Time the mooring lines were let go and we moved off the berth at Port Everglades. (One major difference between this ship and the Carnival ship we were on is that the Carnival and all other ships were brought into port and left port with the aid of tug boats. This ship used thruster and propulsion and the Captain could move it in any direction, sometimes even bringing it in sideways like parallel parking on the street, except the ship didn’t have to go backwards and forwards – it could also move sideways.)

When the ship arrives at a port and when you leave port, there is a Pilot Boat that comes out right beside the ship. It is easily identifiable as the lettering “PILOT” pretty much covers the side of the boat. A pilot from this boat actually gets on board the cruise ship and takes the ship in and out of the harbor. I guess they hoist him up with some kind of harness and a pulley as it is a long way up between the pilot boat and the bridge. Once you are out of the harbor he is dropped down onto the pilot boat which has by now pulled right up alongside the ship while it is moving.

TUESDAY – JANUARY 18^TH

At 7:30 am we anchored off the coast of Princess Cays. Shortly after we anchored they started lowering tenders to take us ashore on Princess Cays as there is no dock for the ship at this destination. Mary had signed us up for a tour on a glass bottom boat. We were probably anchored between about a ½ mile off the coast and we all went down to the gang plank and climbed aboard the tenders. They had them lined up one after the other, so it didn’t take long to get aboard but it was a little difficult. The tenders were bucking up and down in the rough seas as you were walking across the gang plank to get on. They had two men on the gang plank and two men inside the tender, all with life jackets on, to grab the arms and hold on to each passenger as they made their way from the ship into the tender. The seas were very rough at the time and it was an up and down ride as we hit the waves going over. I was in the very front row and banged my head on the ceiling a couple of times. I felt like I was in a giant tin can bouncing around in the water. Normally I would have enjoyed this, but my stomach wasn’t in condition for this kind of trip.

After we had gone down to the gang plank they announced the glass bottom boat tour had been cancelled because of the rough seas. When we got over to the island there wasn’t too much for us to do. We hadn’t come prepared to do anything else. Some of the people had fun swimming and inner tubing and just laying around in the sun, but we came prepared for the glass bottom boat tour and that is all. They had an area behind the small docks for the tenders, they referred to as the cheap merchandise. We went back and there were several booths of souvenir type stuff. We came back and pulled up lounge chairs with another couple and just sat on the beach. I got some great pictures of the ship sitting just off shore.

At 11:30 they had a barbeque for us and we got plenty of food and only then we discovered there were some nicer shops on the other side we hadn’t noticed. After we finished the barbeque we got in line for the next tender back to the ship and went back and got on board and wandered around the ship again. At about 3:30 pm everyone was back on board and we departed for St. Thomas.

An interesting note on Princess Cay is that it is the southernmost tip of the Bahamas and is a very small island. According to the Director, 46 acres of this island, the area where we docked with the tenders, is owned by the Canadian Railroad Line, which is also the owner of the Princess Cruise Line.

WEDNESDAY – JANUARY 19^TH

At 2:00 am we changed from Eastern Standard Time to Atlantic Standard Time and had to move the clocks forward one hour.

Tuesday night and all day Wednesday we were at sea. Throughout the day the Emerald Princess continued a southeasterly course towards St. Thomas, passing North of Caicos Islands and the Silver banks. At noon on Wednesday we were 35 nautical miles north of Hispaniola Island, and therefore the Dominican Republic.

We had plenty to do that day just exploring the ship and trying to learn where everything was. They have a very nice store on the ship that sells very nice and expensive jewelry, and throughout the trip they were making announcements and promoting the stores that would be available to us at the next stop. There is some kind of connection between the stores on the ship and the stores on shore as the ship really promotes the buying of jewelry, especially diamonds, when you go on shore. They also had a tremendous display or art and had several art auctions with some pretty high price tags.

THURSDAY – JANUARY 20^TH

We docked at St. Thomas at approximately 8:00 am Thursday morning. This leg of the trip had put us at sea for approximately twenty seven and a half hours. We went ashore and got on one of about 30 or so unusual taxies or tour vehicles. Almost all of the vehicles were fairly new Ford F-450 trucks that had a bed with five or six rows of benches facing forward, each bench holding five or six people, little steps on the side to get up onto the bed, and a canopy over the top. Our driver was a woman and her first name was America. You couldn’t understand anything she said and I made the mistake of saying something to her using one of about ten words I know in Spanish. She got all excited and thought I could speak Spanish and started trying to communicate with me in Spanish.

In St. Thomas they drive on the left hand side of the road. The roads are very narrow two lane roads and we found ourselves going up very steep hills only to turn on a blind hairpin curve where we would swing out into the other lane to be able to make the turn. Then we would go down a steep hill and go through the process again. It was a little nerve racking, but the drivers are all very adept at using their horns. Even big eighteen wheelers came tearing down the little mountain road, often using both lanes. Often it seemed that we were just inches from touching mirrors with another vehicle as we passed.

There is a little routine the drivers seem to use in each of the tour stops. They make a stop at some little place on the pretense of giving you a little break, but by coincidence this little place seems to always have various souvenirs, trinkets and some kind of refreshment for sale. I think they must be members of the same family or have some other cooperative association. On this particular trip we all of a sudden pulled off the road up to a building and we were parked at about a thirty degree angle up from the road with the vehicle right at the front of the building and the back almost to the edge of the road. When we got ready to leave, we were backing out onto this busy road on a blind curve.

Often when you make these stops other tour buses are coming in and pretty soon there is no place to park and one vehicle is trying to leave as another is coming in and they seem to be trying to use the same space to navigate. It starts to get a little nerve racking after awhile. You have to stop and remember these people do this day in and day out and this is their livelihood, so they probably know what they are doing. On one of the islands I made a comment that they must have lots of accidents. The driver said the previous year they had four vehicle fatalities and they were all on motorcycles.

A second stop we made on this trip was just off the road. Down over the bank of the road below us was the beautiful Magens Bay, a large horseshoe shaped bay with pretty clear blue water and sandy beaches. This was our destination on this tour. As we stood at the edge of the mountain overlooking the bay there was an abundance of lush green foliage. All of a sudden there was the head and face of an ugly creature in the bushes with a long tail that extended for several feet. It was a huge iguana which I believe was about the size of a small alligator. I took pictures of the iguanas and of the bay below and we got back in the bus/taxi/truck and went down this steep hill around the edge of the bay and into the park. The beach was fairly crowded but it was almost all people from different cruise ships in the harbor. I think there were three ships counting ours when we came in, so there were a lot of people but it a very long beach too. The parking lot was full of vehicles that had transported all these people to this place, some trying to get in and some trying to get out.

It was a nice beach and beautiful water. Mary is a great swimmer and I am a good talker and listener. She immediately got into the water and I had intentions of doing so. As I was sitting there a man came up from the water and we started chatting and pretty soon we were old friends who had never met before. He was from Connecticut and before it was all over I knew everything about him and his past and his family. When it was time to depart I had never made it into the water but I did have an enjoyable conversation with this man from Connecticut.

We all went back to the taxi/truck and got aboard for our journey up the hill and down the hill several times before we reached the downtown area of St Thomas. There were some beautiful shots of scenery from the top of these hills of the bay, the islands and the downtown area. As was pre-arranged, I am sure, we were dropped off right in the diamond district of down town. Some very nice stores lined the street with one store after the other selling diamonds and other high dollar jewelry. Once in awhile there would be a store selling high quality expensive crystal or leather and a few selling high dollar watches. (Thank you – I am doing just fine with my Timex and it works better than any other semi-expensive watch I have owned)

We were a little tired and hot and not in the market for a diamond just yet and discovered the restaurants were few and far between in this particular district. There was one diamond store after the other on all the streets in this area. We were supposed to go across the street at a specific time and get on a specific boat which would take us across the harbor to our ship. We finally found a little restaurant right on the street overlooking the spot we were supposed to go to board the boat back to the ship. We really just wanted to sit down and have something cool to drink, but we felt we should order something if we were going to take up their space, so we did and left most of it there – except the beer. I did force myself (because I always try to be polite) to drink all of the beer. Our timing was pretty good, we finished up just about the time the boat pulled up across the street and went over and got on. It was an old boat with a worn paint job in kind of a faded green. It had lots of bench seats and plenty of room for all who came to get on. I think the name of the boat was “The Maryland”, or “Indiana” or something like that.

On some of the tours the driver or guide wants to educate you on what is going on in their town or on their island and this boat pilot was one of them. I think he had some kind of axe to grind, but he immediately started telling us what was going on politically on St. Thomas. St Thomas is approximately 32 square miles and has a population of around 155,000. According to our boat pilot, the State of California has the highest paid State Legislature and St Thomas has the second highest paid, just a few dollars under the California scale. He was very upset about this and said they only worked a few days per month, got free car, free food plus this salary of close to $100,000. He spent the entire trip talking about this problem until the very end of the trip. After his political speech, at the end of the trip he was very open about asking everyone to leave him a tip. He probably makes as much as the lawmakers on this island.

As we left the harbor boat and made our away around the end of the harbor to the dock we walked by some large rocks next to the sidewalk. There on the rocks, soaking up the sun, were three huge iguanas. They are ugly, but I understand they are harmless. They look like they could tear a leg off or at least take a big chunk out of you. However on one of the islands later in the trip I was told they are vegetarians and are useful in keeping other insects, especially mosquitoes away. We did see iguana on a couple of menus at restaurants later on. They do say they taste like chicken – now that I think about it, the chicken on the ship did have a little bit of an unusual taste. Not really, the food they gave us was of the highest quality, I am sure.

At 4:44 pm the gangways were shipped and shortly afterwards all shell doors were secured for sea. At 4:54 pm we commenced to thrust off the berth and swing the bow to starboard. At 5:11 pm the local pilot disembarked and once the ship was clear of the Channel, we set various Southeasterly courses en route to the port of Roseau, located on the west coast of Dominica’s island. (How is that for nautical talk?) The above came directly from the message of the Captain in the daily report that is given to all passengers in their cabins through a daily guide to sea called the “Princess Patter”.

After dinner we went to the auditorium and watched a comedian, Rollin Moore from South Carolina, who was really good and very funny. Later in the week he had another show that was an X-rated show but they said children would not be allowed to go. Therefore, I was not able to see this show.

FRIDAY – JANUARY 21^st

At 7:59 am the local pilot was ready to board as we approached the island of Dominica at Roseau. Dominica is another small island of about 300 square miles and with a population of approximately 135,000. English is the official language of this island and US dollars, travelers checks and credit cards are widely accepted.

This is a unique island and became one of my favorites, partly because of the lush tropical scenery but mostly because of the people. The island is right in the path of the hurricane pattern and has been hit hard several times. The island gained independence in 1978, and as an independent country, it was devastated by Hurricane David in 1980. The following year the island’s first Prime Minister, Patrick John, was forced to resign and Mary Eugenia Charles stepped into his position. She worked with the people and for the people to bolster their agricultural economy, which is their primary industry, and at the same time protected the islands untamed beauty.

They have had plenty of setbacks because of hurricanes, unemployment and other issues, but they don’t seem to complain. They roll up their sleeves and get to work and make repairs and go on. They don’t have an unending source of government funds to bail them out like we do in America. (Of course most people in America forget they are bailing themselves out with their own money plus a substantial fee to the government for administering this giveaway program.)

We toured several beautiful gardens and saw many beautiful flowers and other forms of vegetation. Our primary stop on this tour was the Trafalger Falls. Two beautiful waterfalls next to each other appear to be just pouring over the top of the mountain which is otherwise solid with green lush foliage. These are huge waterfalls with a tremendous flow of water. In order to get there, you do the same thing you do on the other islands, you go up and down hills on a skinny two lane road through twists and turns until you get there. The one major difference is that, without any notice, the sky opens up and it is raining on you. It is a soft and gentle rain but it comes down in a continuous flow. Then, again without warning, the rain stops.

On the final leg of the trip before we reached the falls, it started to rain again. It was coming down pretty steady as they parked the tour bus. I was so impressed when I stepped off the bus to be greeted by a woman who had an armful of umbrellas and she handed me one. They looked like they were used, in fact some of them had some kind of logo on them like a business name or sports logo, but they looked like they were clean and it was raining – so I was grateful. As she handed me the umbrella and I accepted it, she said; “Three dollars.” I suddenly realized she was not loaning me the umbrella but she was selling it to me. Wrong again! She was renting it to me. She instructed me to bring it back to her when I came back from the falls.

Once again, there was a little building you had to go through where you could buy souvenirs and other valuable merchandise. As we exited the other side of the building we were on a trail that led up the hill to a viewing platform where you could see the falls. It was a little dirt, or on this day muddy, trail about four feet wide with a step about ever two feet. As you climbed from one step to the next you were constantly going up. I surprised myself but I was almost trotting up the hill as the steps were perfectly spaced so I could just step from one step to the next. I was amazed, but the fact that we were almost at sea level as opposed to being a mile high might have made some difference.

About half way up I was starting to pant and was a little short of breath so decided to stop for a moment to catch my breath. Mary had found herself stuck behind some little old lady who was cautiously taking about five steps for every step on the trail. This was fortunate for me as I was able to just tell Mary I was holding up to wait for her instead of admitting I was out of shape.

As we progressed up the trail it got steeper and steeper and harder to go at the pace I had been going when I started. Pretty soon I was walking very deliberately. At the end of the trail there was an observation platform. There were three or four wooden steps twelve to fifteen feet long leading up to the platform and the platform itself was a large area perhaps twenty feet square with a floor made of wooden boards, probably 2 X 12, and a wooden railing all the way around it about four feet high. Thankfully it did have a roof which kept the rain off for awhile. The platform was pretty crowded and you had to kind of work your way up to the railing where you could see these two beautiful waterfalls. The guide had told us that one of them which was taller and thinner was called the “papa” waterfall. The other which was shorter and wider (she didn’t say fatter) was called the “mama” water fall.

As I was at the rail snapping pictures the platform became more crowded as more and more tourists were arriving. All of a sudden there was a commotion in the back and I thought someone had a heart attack or something. People were bending over and it was obvious that someone was on the floor. As I watched, a girl perhaps in her twenties or early thirties, was being helped up and she had shorts on and one leg was almost all black, probably from the mud. One of the boards on the floor and broken and her leg went down between the jagged edges of the broken board. She was crying but it appeared she was all right as people helped her off the stand. A guy standing at the entrance of the viewing platform, who I assume was her husband, said; “I did the most important thing – I saved the camera”, as he stood there holding up a camera. They immediately ordered all of us off the viewing stand and had us walk around the edge to get off. As we neared the entrance you could see that other boards were weakened and sagging as you walked across them in single file.

We were lucky as we did make it to the top and got to the edge and were able to take some pictures of these beautiful waterfalls. As we got off the stand there was a line of people halfway back to the starting point that were not allowed to go on the stand. We were the last people to be able to see the falls. It was obvious that it was not going to be an easy job making the necessary repairs as the only way to get materials up there would be by hand on that little trail with it raining off and on all the time. But this tour was closed to all after we left and this is one of the major tourist attractions on this island. It was a little spooky to think back on it. The extreme outer portion of the stand is out over a pretty substantial drop right down the canyon. It is supported by beams that come up from the hill below. When we got back on the tour bus our guide said they had been telling “them” they needed to make some repairs on the stand and no one would do anything about it. Forget about lawsuits. They give you a little green ticket (I still have mine) that states on the back; “The government of Dominica SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR:” and there are several paragraphs of what they won’t be liable for which includes anything you could think of. But the first paragraph says it all; “Any personal injury loss or damage whatsoever, howsoever occasioned by visitors – etc.”

In America we have professional gossips that get paid a lot of money. They are called newscasters and they work for the media. They pick up some little piece of information or gossip and blow it all out of proportion and start screeching this message out to the world. It is funny, but I guess this activity is not restricted to these newscasters. On this tiny island in the Caribbean I guess it happens too. When we got back to the ship at dinner, and several other times around the ship, people would say things like; “Did you hear about the accident at the falls. The platform collapsed and seven or eight people fell down the canyon and there were a number of people who were injured, etc., etc.”

During the evening hours we would have dinner at one of the many fine restaurants. We were assigned for the first seating every night at Botticelli Dining Room. Our seating was at 6:00 and we were always at the same table with a group from the Albuquerque tour. Actually this group included a couple from Baytown, Texas and a lady from Houston, but they were all part of the Albuquerque group. If we got in late or just didn’t want to go to this dining room, we could go to any one of the fine dining rooms. We went to Michelangelo and Da Vinci a couple of times and these were very nice and you would usually have four or five couples, who were strangers, sitting with you. This could be a lot of fun. One night we sat with two couples from Columbus, Ohio who lived almost in the same neighborhood and did not know each other before this time at dinner together. We sat with a couple from Buffalo, New York and a couple from Minnesota. The man from Minnesota was an actuary for an insurance company and when I mentioned the names of people I had worked with in Minnesota forty five years ago, this man knew these people. One guy from Edmonton, Canada started in on me right away wanting to know what I did and if I could help him with the new Governor in New Mexico as he was interested in doing something with uranium over around Grants. It was a lot of fun meeting these strangers. There were a couple of buffet style restaurants that had unbelievable selections of everything from soups and sandwiches to prime rib and fish, all kinds of salads, desserts, cheeses, and anything and everything else you might want. You could go to the International Café any time for something light. They had salads, sandwiches and pastries , and then you could get hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza and ice cream up by one of the swimming pools. One thing Mary enjoyed was afternoon tea at Da Vinci’s. They served tea, finger sandwiches and pastries and a wide variety of each. I even broke down and went once. I had to look around and make sure no one I knew was there. Old farm boys aren’t real adept at sipping tea with their little finger sticking up in the air. I thought I would never hear the end of what Emily Post would say about my eating habits and table manners from my wife.

In the evening there was always something to do. We saw a fantastic juggler one night, a comedian on another night and heard a great fifties type band one night. They had a beautiful auditorium that didn’t have a bad seat and we saw a couple of dance reviews there. We also saw couple of movies and a ventriloquist there. We left dinner a little early one night to go down to a lounge called “The Wheelhouse Bar” to watch the NFL playoff games on a big screen TV. Then there was shopping, sitting in the very nice public area in the center of the ship, strolling the deck, the swimming pool and just sightseeing on the ship. Some people we met never left the ship. They stayed on all the time we were in port.

We arrived in Dominica early in the morning and took our tour which included the Trafalger Falls and were back to the ship in plenty of time for our departure at approximately 6:00 pm. The ship set a southerly course along the Windward Islands.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 22^ND

During the night we passed the islands of Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines on approaching their capital, St. Georges. At 6:36 am the Captain took the vessel safely along our berth with the first line on pier.

Christopher Columbus sighted Grenada on his way to America on his third trip in 1498. The French settled the island initially and it was held alternately by the French and England until 1783 when it was ceded to England in the Treaty of Versailles. In 1974 the three island nation consisting of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique achieved independence, becoming one of the smallest independent countries in the Western Hemisphere.

The people of Granada love America and are very loyal to our country. Shortly after gaining the status of independence the people of Granada were suffering under a dictator who was amassing tremendous wealth for himself while the people were suffering and had nothing. They had several elections, and even though this dictator lost, he always retained his role of ruler. A lawyer whom the people loved and who also loved the people and the Country won another election and finally was able to be seated as the President of the Country. According to our guide he did much for the country, and the people and the country started to progress.

The President had a Vice-President, who was also Minister of Finance. The President had to leave the Country – I believe because of illness, and in his absence the Vice President started to take over. As Minister of Finance, in addition to being Vice President, he gave each of the soldiers an increase in pay among other things. When the President returned to Granada in a fragile physical condition, the Vice President ordered the army to put him under house arrest. He was taken to his home under the guard of army personnel and others. According to our guide, food was delivered to the President and the guards would eat it and give him the scraps. They also tortured him and he had burns all over his body from cigarette burns.

The people took to the streets and demanded to see the President. To appease the people, they had the President brought to the Capital, where in a much weakened condition, the people were finally able to see him. As soon as he had made his appearance, he was taken out the back door of the capital and he was assassinated. The people rebelled and took to the streets ready to riot. (Sounds much like Egypt today except not nearly as many people)

Even though Granada had been under British control for many years until very recently, Britain was very slow to respond. However Ronald Reagan and the United States of America responded immediately. He said that battle ships and air craft carriers and jets showed up immediately and he said that seven American soldiers gave their lives on their soil for the citizens of Granada. America helped them organize real elections and monitored them and helped them create a democratic form of government. In addition, the guide indicated that America has been there for them when they were victims of hurricanes and other disasters. They love America.

From my point of view, it was really nice to hear that there is someone who America has helped that appreciates it. How many zillions of dollars have we spent for the benefit of people who hate us?

Grenada was a favorite stop for me, partly because of beauty and partly because of the attitude of the people and their friendliness. This is known as the isle of Spice because it is the largest spice-producing island in the Western Hemisphere. They are the second largest producers of nutmeg in the world, producing about one third of all nutmeg that is consumed. One of their current problems is that the last hurricane wiped out about 50% of their nutmeg trees. It takes approximately ten years for a nutmeg tree to start producing, so they will have at least a ten year period before they can get their production up to the levels they were – assuming they don’t get wiped out by another hurricane. They have added light manufacturing and tourism to their economic base and have a national parks system and first rate facilities for diving excursions.

I mentioned we had to advance our clocks as we passed into a new time zone. During the winter they are on the Atlantic Standard Time and during Daylight Savings Time they are on Eastern Standard Time.

We toured a number of gardens and had all the different plants and spices explained to us and went to a small factory where they turn the plants into various spices. It was more modern than I expected but on a very small scale. We were able to sample several different spices and jams and Mary purchased some different spices.

We then went to a plantation that dated back to the seventeen hundreds. There are still some old stone buildings that date back to the original plantation. They have modernized the basement of one of the old buildings where they used to manufacture rum and they still make rum there. They had a little patio area where you could sample some of the different rums and I took it upon myself to continue to enhance the good image of America by sampling their different types of rum. After all, Mary sampled the spices and jams. Sometimes I even amaze myself at the sacrifices I make just to be a good citizen.

I am the person who is afraid to be late. I still like to leave for the airport at least 3 hours before flight time – just in case we have a flat tire, are slowed down because of an accident or some other unforeseen event. My good wife doesn’t tolerate this behavior and we usually leave the house a couple of hours before flight time and I am a nervous wreck the whole time.

At the beginning of the tour, our local tour director emphasized that we needed to be sure to be back at the ship when it was time for it to leave because they wouldn’t wait for us. That message got my attention. I just couldn’t see myself hitchhiking across the ocean. During our tours on the various islands I found myself constantly checking my Timex and getting a little nervous when our anticipated arrival back at the ship was near the time the ship was to depart. In Grenada I begin to feel like we were moving along a little too slow and was getting a little antsy when people started passing our bus and pointing down at the ground. Sure enough – we had a flat tire on the right front wheel. Now this isn’t a huge city. There is not a Big O tire store on every corner or even a filling station. We did have some luck though. There was a tire store down the street a few blocks and we pulled right into the bay and got our tire changed. I think we got back to the ship within about 30 minutes of departure time. I was a nervous wreck.

At about 3:00 pm the thrusters (get that – no tug boat or engine, it is like big jet engines I guess, that can move the whole ship sideways, frontwards or backwards) pushed the ship off the berth and then the engines took over to clear the swing from the berth and we were headed in a Westerly direction. We had the rest of the afternoon and evening to cruise the ship and dine in fine style. I guess I forgot to mention that one thing I liked the most is that almost every afternoon I could go back to the cabin and while Mary would sit out on our deck patio and read her electronic book – I would take a nap. And the very best part is that my cell phone never rang once. Of course I had it turned off and in my suitcase, but it wouldn’t have mattered – no one could reach me anyway. I just wasn’t used to such strenuous activities, and God only knows I needed to catch up on my beauty sleep.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 23^rd

Once again we sailed all night for approximately 20 hours. We sailed along the coasts of South America and reached Isla de Sotavento and headed Southwest and rounded the southern tip of the Dutch Island of Bonaire at approximately 11:00 am, about 21 hours after leaving Granada.

Bonaire is totally different than any of the other islands we had visited. It is a very small island, approximately 16 miles long and around 4 miles wide. While the other islands had been lush and green with lots of rainfall, Bonaire was hot and dry and the predominant plant on the island is cactus. They have lots of cactus in all different shapes and forms. In fact they have one marvelous idea that I thought could go over big here. In Albuquerque most of the houses have a cinder block wall surrounding the yard. In Bonaire they have a lot of cactus fences. They have a cactus plant that is tall and skinny, about the form of a large plastic pipe, called the candle cactus. They weave these together along with some bamboo shoots and make a solid fence that no one is going to try to climb over. They have very little agriculture as they have very little rain fall and a very short growing season. This year has been a little bit of an exception. By mid January they have had rainfall equal to what they normally get all year long. In fact there were several sites we didn’t get to see, including a huge group of flamingos, because the road to these sites was under water. They have a couple of grocery stores and the food is very expensive because of the cost of getting it there. The guide said that you don’t go to the grocery store with the intention of getting anything specific, but you go to get whatever they may have. There are a lot of goats on the island, some of them are wild, and that is their main source of meat. And some do eat iguanas.

I had a special interest in Bonaire as our youngest son, Andrew in Florida, had been down there scuba diving several years ago. Of course it freaked me out when he called one day and announced that he had taken up scuba diving in Florida. This is after he had already freaked me out when he called and said he had taken up sky diving in Texas and later in Florida. In my mind I could just see him out in the ocean surrounded by sharks and other sea monsters. When he called and said he was going to Bonaire to scuba dive I had these visions of him going into a jungle where there was no humanity, living in a grass hut and jumping into this strange ocean where there had to be lots of sharks. I was relieved to find that there is in fact a town there, even though it isn’t too much more than I had envisioned.

There are only approximately 15,000 people living on this island. Our ship contained people equal to about 1/3 their total population. The island is considered one of the premiere diving locations in the world I guess, and according to our guide about 98% of the tourist trade is there to go diving. On the south side of the island, where our ship docked, the water is beautiful with some islands surrounded by beautiful white sand beaches. According to our guide there are no sharks in this water and this is where all but the professional divers dive. (Why couldn’t have Andrew told me that instead of letting me worry for five years or so.) The north side of the island does have sharks and rougher water and some of the professional divers go there. About 85% of the island is National Park land and in addition to the attraction for divers they have a sanctuary for wild mules and an abundance of flamingos.

This island has been under the control of the Dutch and just this year, after petitioning the Dutch government, they were granted statehood by the Dutch. So they are now an official state of the Dutch. This has immediately given them many benefits which they like. They now get free medical and dental coverage, the Dutch have developed a desalinization plant and all of their water is that which comes from the sea. I don’t know how they got along before as they have almost no rainfall. Education is free and if they want to go to college they can go to Holland and go to school for free. The Dutch have developed a wind generation plant for them and have a row of the windmills (not like the ones in Holland) to generate power for the island. You don’t need to be a citizen of Bonaire to get these free benefits, you only need to be a resident. Our tour guide is from Wisconsin and she loves it in Bonaire.

It is a nice and interesting island and the people are nice but there isn’t much to see there. It would be like trying to create a tourist event with a tour between Grants and Gallup. What is there to see other than some unusual and sometimes pretty country side? In fact, the points of interest were so limited that they would stop the bus to point out a bird in a tree. The highlight of the trip was when the bus driver took us past his house to show us where he lived. Not too much else to talk about.

As mentioned, the ship does have a medical facility and I guess they monitor everything that goes on over the entire ship constantly. They make note of anyone who falls overboard, or is thrown overboard, anyone bitten or eaten by a shark, anyone who has a heart attack, etc. There was an announcement from the Captain of the ship followed by a memo that was delivered to every cabin that a serious condition of some kind of gastrointestinal problem had developed and the records in the medical department showed an immediate and sharp increase in passengers with this problem.

As a result, the ship immediately put into effect procedures to try to help minimize this problem which caused each employee on the ship to work an additional six to eight hours per day. They constantly started walking up and down all the halls with disinfectant cloths wiping everything that people touch. This included all hand rails, and they are everywhere on both sides of each hall, all the railings on the ship, every door knob, every elevator button – anything and everything that people could touch. In addition, at the fine dining rooms we visited, there was always a nice silver tray with rolls for dinner, each setting had a nice dish for the butter, there were salt and pepper shakers on each table, and now all of these were gone. The servers now had to come around with the bread in a basket and when you pointed – not touched – at the roll you wanted, they would remove it with tongs and put in on your plate. They would issue the butter the same way and they would ask if you wanted salt and pepper and come over and they would sprinkle this on your food. This took some getting used to but they didn’t let this affect their level of service.

They pretty much hovered over you so that if you needed something they were right there. They were great! You could easily notice they were also dead tired, but they kept on smiling and giving the best service you could ask for. When you went into one of the pubs or buffets for lunch, they had a hand sanitizing machine at the entrance and you were not allowed to enter until you had sanitized your hands. There was some talk about the ship having to be quarantined, but I guess these actions reduced or stabilized the problem as it was never quarantined. This would have been a major problem for the ship as once it returned to Florida it was scheduled to go right back out again. People had paid to go on a cruise plus make their way to Florida to do this. Can you imagine taking time off from work or planning your vacation around a cruise, the expense to get to Florida, and the expensive cost of the cruise – only to be told that the cruise had been canceled.

At sunset we started a new journey as we left port and sailed off to Aruba. I did get some beautiful shots of the sun going down on the ocean during this time.

MONDAY JANUARY 24^TH

After sailing through the night once again, we passed north of Curacao then rounded the northern most tip of Aruba and began the approach to the pilot station where the local pilot boarded the ship at 6:15 am. Shortly afterwards the ship slowly maneuvered towards our berth and made fast portside at 6:45 am.

Aruba, in my opinion, is the most beautiful of the stops. It is very Americanized and very commercialized and is a very lush and green island. As beautiful as it is, this is the only stop we made where we did not have a tour planned, and it is a good thing I think. We simply stepped off the ship and there were two huge very nice metal buildings, one for each gang plank, that you stepped into and immediately you had vendors of every sort of merchandise. The difference was that these all looked like quality people and their merchandise was quality. In fact that was pretty true of all the vendors out on the main streets of Aruba. It was more like going to a craft show as opposed to going to a flea market, which many of the other vendors on the other islands more closely resembled.

The main street in Aruba was just about a block from the end of the pier and there were very nice stores, shopping centers and a very nice luxury hotel with high end stores right within a few blocks of us. With the exception of this nice hotel, it appears that most of the high end hotels, and I am sure some shopping areas, are on the north end of the island. You could see the cluster of high end hotels clear across the island, but then it wasn’t all that far.

We only walked about a block and found The Hard Rock Café outlet. The Hard Rock Café is actually located in one of the big hotels on the north side of the island, but just a month or so ago, they opened an outlet just for shirts and pins on the main street because so many tourists wanted their merchandise but didn’t want to have to go across the island to get it. Our son Scott and his wife Sheri in Albuquerque collect Hard Rock shirts and pins every place they go and Mary had brought them some from Egypt, so we wanted to get them some from Aruba to add to their collection.

Across the street there was a very large two story building – similar to a strip mall shopping center I guess, and it was a pink color that you couldn’t ignore. We went in and wandered around the shops and then went on down the street to the nice hotel, back across the street to the open air market vendors and then we found a Baskin Robbins and went in and had some ice cream. It was a very casual and laid back morning and I enjoyed that for a change.

From the time we got on the ship, on a daily basis, they were promoting diamonds and encouraging people to shop for diamonds on the islands. From what I saw and heard this was probably good advice. Mary said she had a customer in Albuquerque who purchased a diamond on one of these cruises and I think she said he paid $4,000. I guess he was concerned about what he did and had it appraised by a reputable jeweler when he got home who said it was worth much more than that.

According to the promotions on the ship, Diamonds International is the top diamond company in the world and has exclusive access to many of the top diamond mining companies and cutters in the world. Diamonds International only has agreements with 74 very selective retailers in the world and many of these are in the Caribbean. I think there were four or five on the tiny island of St. Thomas and nine or ten in Aruba. Mary has been interested in an alexandrite ring as this is her birth stone, and it is very pretty. I have inquired at a couple of the top national jewelry stores in the States, and haven’t found any. I believe most if not all alexandrite comes from Russia and for some reason is not readily available to the United States. We went into Milano Diamond Gallery and found several pieces of alexandrite jewelry. This is a first class establishment not unlike any of the top jewelry stores in America. The people are dressed very well, very professional, knowledgeable and helpful. However they are almost like used car salesmen when it comes to the selling process and I can’t blame them for that. They have people coming off the ship and they have one shot at them. Within a few hours that potential customer will be gone forever. We looked at a small alexandrite ring with diamonds and the salesman said it was $1,450.00 but immediately he said he would take $1,200.00 for it. When we didn’t respond right away, he got me a stool (I must have looked bored or disinterested) and he asked if he could get me a drink. When I said I didn’t want a drink, he offered to get me a beer. I thought it was a pretty ring and I could tell we could get the price down a little lower and was ready to buy it, but Mary already has a number of rings including a new very nice diamond. In addition, she does not make snap decisions. They could offer it for $100 and she would still think it over. On the other hand I walk into the store and see something and buy it. Many times I get home and what I bought doesn’t even fit. I don’t want to mess around with trying things on – “Okay – I’ll take it” is my mode of operation. I am grateful that she has more sense than I do.

I mentioned that they promote the diamond shopping on the ship. We went into the Milano Diamond Gallery and there was a female cruise director from our ship standing behind the counter with her Princess Cruise Line badge on talking to customers about the different jewelry. In fact they had some promotion on the ship whereby if you came to this store you would get a charm bracelet and your name would be entered for a drawing for a nice watch. So, as I said, there is some obvious connection between the ship and the diamond stores on the islands, which is okay. I think you still probably get a pretty good deal regardless of who is involved.

You could buy liquor on the ship at a much lower cost than you would at home, and name brand cigarettes were about half the price per cartoon that they are here. You are limited on how much you can bring back custom free, whether it is diamonds, cigarettes, liquor or whatever. They have two kinds of cigars, a Cuban cigar and another which is supposed to be almost identical to the Cuban cigar but it is not made in Cuba. One of the items you can’t bring back to America at all is the Cuban cigar. I guess we are still mad at Fidel.

At approximately 5:00 pm we cleared our berth and headed on a northwesterly course across the Caribbean Sea towards Port Everglades, Florida.

TUESDAY JANUARY 25^TH

We spent the night at sea as we were going to do for all of this day and tonight and tomorrow and the next night. This gave us more opportunity to explore the ship and take advantage of some of the entertainment on the ship. It was very enjoyable time and not boring at all.

In the afternoon we went to an event up at the main swimming pool. They brought two 300 pound blocks of ice up on the edge of the swimming pool and two chefs came out with hammers and chisels and within about fifteen minutes each carved a beautiful ice sculpture. One did a fish and the other did a bird and they were perfect. On the Carnival Line there were a lot fewer people, but as I recall they had one large dining room where everyone ate in shifts at different times. Each night they had a new beautiful ice sculpture to decorate the dining area. This was the first and the only ice sculpture we saw on the Emerald Princess.

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26^TH

(From the Captains daily report) Upon clearing the Windward Passage, Emerald Princess altered course to the northwest and set various courses to sail along the Cuban coastline at a distance of 15 nautical miles off our portside. Throughout the morning we maintained this heading following the various Traffic Separation Schemes (I guess this is somewhat like Air Traffic Control in the sky) which are frequent in they are due to the increased amount of traffic travelling from the Panama Canal to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. We entered the Old Bahamas Channel, which lies between the northeastern shores of Cuba and the Great Bahamas Bank, continued to follow this route until early evening. Once clear, we entered into the Santaren Channel and the Florida straits before setting a direct course for Port Everglades.

It would seem that just floating across the ocean for an entire day would be boring, but I enjoyed it a lot. First just looking at the water and the changes in the patterns and color because of sun and clouds is very interesting. I am afraid that I took way too many pictures of this type of scenery which you would never see except on the ocean. Then, because of the traffic mentioned in the Captain’s report, we started seeing a number of other ships. There were cruise ships, tankers, cargo, and container ships, which also made a new kind of picture taking for me. As large as our ship was, sometimes the water was rough enough that you would notice the “rocking of the boat” and during one of these periods I looked out and there was a lone little sail boat out there miles from any land. The roughness of the sea was much more evident as you watched this little sail boat. The bow of the little sail boat would appear to go straight up in the air as it rolled over a wave and then it would pitch down and you would think it was going straight down to the bottom of the ocean.

It was scary and uncomfortable just watching this little boat. You couldn’t help but imagine that someone was out there all alone and battling the sea and certainly going to capsize at any moment. I am sure they must have known what they were doing, and I am sure if there was any sign of potential danger the Captain would have lowered a tender and rescued whoever was out there. It was just something this old farm boy doesn’t see every day. Another interesting sight was a lighthouse. We hadn’t seen any form of land for hours, which made me think the nearest land must be a hundred miles or so away, and all of a sudden there is this little mound of land way out there with a light house on it. The land area was very small and didn’t extend much beyond the base of the light house. Another weird thought entered my mind. How much dirt did they have to haul out there in the middle of the ocean to build a pillar of dirt to support that light house. I can visualize someone with a wheelbarrow (of course I know you can’t push a wheelbarrow across the ocean – I’m not stupid, you know) but using some kind of vessel to take a little load of dirt and dump it in the ocean and another on top of that, then another and so on. It was strange to say the least. Obviously there was some kind of land formation where the lighthouse stood, but it was small. It appeared to just barely accommodate the base of the lighthouse.

On this day Mary, for the first time, had a chance to go up and test out the swimming pool and relax on the lounge chair soaking up a little Caribbean sun, and of course - read. Meanwhile, I was snapping shots of every wave, every cloud, and every ship that passed and having the time of my life.

On this, our last day on the ship, our tour director called a meeting for all of us in her group to go over disembarkation details. We were to meet in the Skywalkers Night Club. This was early in the afternoon and no one but us was there as we got instructions about putting our luggage out for them to take down to the hold, going through customs, retrieving our luggage, finding the bus, etc. It was very helpful, and this is just one small thing which causes me to think going with a group on a tour is better than going it alone. She has been there and done that and you don’t even have to think for yourself.

Tonight we were supposed to have our suitcases packed and outside the door to our cabin and during the night the stewards would come and get them and take them down to the hold. Can you imagine that if every person took an average of just two suitcases the stewards would be moving 7,000 suitcases that night. They did it and did it very quietly. It was like the tooth fairy – you didn’t even know they had come. The big trick was that you couldn’t pack anything you were going to need to wear or use the next day. They were not going to go down and dig through all those suitcases so you could open yours up to get your toothbrush.

THURSDAY JANUARY 27^TH

When I got up it was still dark outside but we were in the process of getting close to and entering the docks at Port Everglades, Florida. At this point you couldn’t see anything except the outlines created by lights around the dock, on the bridges and on the buildings. The local Pilot boarded the ship at 6:15 am (we had to turn the clocks back again as we traveled in from Aruba) and soon after we were tied up at our designated berth.

We got dressed, made sure we weren’t leaving anything behind and said “goodbye” to our lovely cabin, #731, and went up to deck 15 The Crown Grill and had a little nourishment and proceeded to disembark.

I was expecting mass confusion with 3,500 people on board disembarking at the same time, but it really was very smooth. They are set up to deal with this. We were funneled into a huge room where all of the suitcases were set out and we had to go and find ours. This was really very easy because of the big green tags. We got our bags and got in a fast moving line and started to go through customs. I had visions of having to open all the suitcases and wait as the ruffled through everything, but it was very easy. I showed them my passport, he asked if I had bought anything, I responded I had bought 4 T-shirts, he looked at me and said “go on”. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, but it is obvious that the honesty that naturally shows on my face was the key factor in causing the Customs Agent to let me slip right through.

The cruise was over! All gone! Now back to the start of the real world. We got our suitcases and located George’s bus and headed for the airport. This time he didn’t stop at a liquor store. We got to the airport, dragged our bags to the Southwest Airlines counter and got checked in very quickly and headed up to the gate. I think we had an hour and a half or something like that to wait so I got some good Dunkin Donuts coffee and sat down. (Everything on the ship was just great, but I didn’t enjoy their coffee. I am used to Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks and Costco)

We finally boarded the plane and the same thing happened on every flight. My boarding pass was group “A” and Mary’s was group “B”. If I wasn’t such a genuine gentleman, I could have ditched her 4 times without any problem. But because I am such a gentleman, I always saved her a seat. She never liked the location of the seats I selected, but I did save her a seat.

From Ft. Lauderdale to Houston Hobby I was in the middle seat, which I never do and which I hate. There was a guy sitting by the window and there were two seats beside him so I slipped in and saved the outside seat for Mary. It was a good move on my part because I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with this guy. He was a real nice guy and very much down to earth and he is a professional race car driver. I loved listening to this guy and learned a lot about car racing. It is very scientific and very technical. Later in the flight I learned that he not only races cars but is a Mechanical Engineer. Then as we were about to land in Houston, I found out that he has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas. His sister sat right behind us and she is a professional comedian.

We had several hours layover at Houston Hobby, an airport I have become very familiar with over the past three or four years. We got something to eat and just relaxed until it was time to board, me again with an “A” boarding pass and Mary with a “B” (at least Southwest Airlines knows who wears the pants in this house – if they only knew!) We had a bit of a bumpy ride into Albuquerque and we discovered as soon as we started down the ramp that the weather in Albuquerque hadn’t changed. It was as lousy as it was when we left. However, we anticipated this and packed the winter coats that we had needed to wear to get to the airport in one suitcase right on top. As soon as we dragged the suitcase off the carousel we opened it and grabbed our coats and were so grateful to have them.

A punctuation mark to the whole trip! We got on the bus, by now it was around 7:30 pm, went to the Park and Shuttle lot, got our bags off the bus, got in the van – and it was dead as a doornail! We had just put a brand new battery in less than six months ago and it had a 72 month warranty – but that wasn’t going to do us any good now. Fortunately, the Park and Shuttle van driver noticed we were having trouble and came back and jump started the car and we were finally on her way home. It was tough to leave the beautiful sunshine and the poolside deck chairs in any event, but to come back to this – WOW! We just may have to go back to the Caribbean real soon!!

WE HAVE LOADS OF PICTURES – MAYBE AROUND 300 ON FACEBOOK AND A FEW OF THEM ARE PRETTY GOOD. JUST GET ON FACEBOOK AND YOU CAN SEE ANY AND ALL OF THEM. If you are not on face book, don’t worry about it. You don’t have to let anyone know who you are and no one will bother you and you can only read those things you want to read, and there is no cost.

UPDATE ON STATE OF FAMILY AND HEALTH

2010-05-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

The Houston trip has been here and gone for awhile now, and I'm am Super pleased to announce that after two and a half years the cancer appears to still be in remission and that is good. It would be better if I could say that it is permanently gone, but this is the next best thing. In fact, in my mind, it is permanently gone. The plastic surgeon said the repair job he did to the stomach lining is still holding up - which is good. The only negative here is that I, according to him and my wife, will still have to wear that awful wrap around my torso into the unforeseeable future. Again, this is better than any other alternative.

The Houston trips, twice a year since the surgery, are always about the same. Travel down on one day, go in for blood work and the CAT Scan the next day, see my cancer surgeon the following day and the plastic surgeon that afternoon or the next day. While I don't enjoy the CAT Scan, it is the one activity that legitimately uses a day. By the time you check in (no food before this process) and have a couple of the toxic like cocktails, get an IV injection and actually have the examination, you have used up the best part of the day. Any part you haven't used up is used up not feeling too good. The Doctor exams are short and sweet - if and when you finally get in to see the doctor. It is usually two to three hours after your scheduled time before you get in. This last time I was scheduled to see the plastic surgeon and 1:30 pm and got in at 5:30 pm. You do waste a lot of time doing nothing, but I learned a long time ago that it is something absolutely worth waiting for at MD Anderson.

I left Houston with the news that everything was looking good and with a schedule to return in another six months for another review. I understand that this routine will continue for a period of five years from the date of surgery. I am projecting that by the time I finish these visits I will be able to find my way from the airport to MD Anderson and other nearby locations without assistance. Most folks don't realize this, but Houston is one of those rare cities where the sun comes up in the North and sets someplace on the other side of town. With no mountains to relate to, it is impossible to know which way you are going. I saw a FedX truck driving down the street on this last trip and I swear I saw it driving down the street the first trip. That poor guy has been driving around for two and a half years and hasn't found the address yet. I know exactly how he feels.

The instructions I received from my Houston doctors were to come back home and check in with my local doctors for follow up exams in the areas of their expertise. I know I have praised the doctors I have had at MD Anderson, and for very good reason. I also have been blessed with some great doctors here at home. There is a monthly magazine published and the name of this magazine is; "ALBUQUERQUE" - some kind of a coincidence, I would guess. Anyway, in March they featured; The Top Docs of Albuquerque. Most of my Docs are listed and a couple who are not should be. One of my favorites is my heart doctor, Kathleen Allen. She is tough!! You want to mind your "P's and Q's" just so you won't have to answer to her, but she is good - very good. Prior to my cancer surgery the actual surgery was delayed several times because they discovered blood clots in both legs and an aneurism in one leg and one in my chest. I went in to see Dr. Allen when I got back and have had two doppler exams an EKG and a nuclear EKG over the past couple of weeks. I think the nuclear EKG, which I had yesterday, consists of liquified waste from some type of horrible weapons system, and if so it is appropriately named. Oh - I do hate that exam! They inject this toxic waste material into your system and all of a sudden you feel this intense heat throughout your body, it is hard to breathe, your heart starts pounding like it is going to come right through your chest and you feel like you are going to explode right there on the table. In a matter of a few minutes - which seems like a few hours - it is all over and all you have left as a souvenir is a headache and an upset stomach. I did take it upon myself to administer a little of my own first aid treatment as soon as I could excape, and did stop for a fantastic green chili cheesburger, fantastic fries and a glass - or was it two - of home brew.

Dr. Allen really is a great doctor for many reasons, but before the exams she scheduled an appointment for me to see her after the exams. At the last minute she cancelled my appointment with her and said; "There is no reason why you should have to pay another $40.00 co-pay to see me, I will just call you with the results. She did call first thing this morning and reported THERE ARE NO BLOOD CLOTS AND MY BLOOD IS FLOWING BEAUTIFULLY!!!

So all is looking great - except - I am having a problem with my oxygen level which in turn is causing me problems with fatigue and "running out of gas (energy) during the day. I am on oxygen again at night and am considering having a portable unit with me at work so I can take a swig or two when I run down. Just the mention of it at work has created kind of a circus atmosphere that I don't think I will be able to deal with so that may not happen.

ABOUT FAMILY:

Mary is leaving for a short trip back home to West Virginia tomorrow to visit her sister, brother and her cousin and nieces and nephews. This involves a stop in Indianapolis, Charleston, W.VA. and Pittsburgh. She will also visit the cemetary where her mother and father are buried in the Shinnston and Clarksburg areas. She will leave there and meet me in Dallas where we will attend the high school graduation of our granddaughter, Lesley Ann (Annie). Our son Andrew and his wife, Maria live in Satelite Beach, Florida and we are proud to consider Maria's daughter, Mary, our grandchild too. She is also graduating from Fiera High School in Florida, where her mother teaches and coaches. We would love to get to Florida for this graduation also, but right now it is about all we can do to get to Texas. Anyway, our congratulations to Mary - we are very proud of her too.

Another of our granddaughters, Sarah Kirbo, has just blessed us with our first Great Grandchild, a 10 poud baby girl named Serenity. The baby was born in Weatherford, Oklahoma and the day before her arrival we were glued to the weather station as it seemed the whole state of Oklahoma was being hit by tornados. We are grateful that none of these twisters hit Weatherford or thereabouts, and we are extremely grateful for Serenity and are looking forward to seeing her and her mom and dad as soon as possible.

Last but not least, my little brother John is recovering from a knee replacement. He had his otherl knee replaced a few years ago and enjoyed the surgery so much he decided to do it again. We are all victims of some wrong choices in our younger life which cause us problems as we get older. It is hard for me to think of anything I ever did wrong that would have contributed to my health problems, but it is fairly easy to see where John went wrong. For those who know the family, you will remember that while I was the shy and bashful type, little John was out there cutting the rug - as they used to say. It must have been the jitter-bug (anyone younger than 55 probably doesn't know what that is), but John was a good dancer in the day. Anyway - get well and follow the docs orders - as I have - and all will be okay!

God Bless to everyone

AL

HOUSTON AGAIN !

2010-04-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

Once again it is time for a trip to Houston. It has been a year now since they sliced me open for a second time to repair, or I guess replace, my stomach lining with a pig skin. I have always been a big fan of football, so I guess a pig skin in my belly is appropriate. It has been about two and a half years now since I had the cancer surgery. I have been told twice recently that only 20 out of one hundred people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer qualify to have the surgery I had. Out of that group who qualify for the surgery, only 20% - or 4 people out of 100 survive for two years. I know that I have been so abundantly blessed and I am so very grateful for this.

As I think back there are so many people who are responsible for me being alive today. First the doctor in the emergency room who found the tumor. I finally tracked down the name of this doctor. Dr. Mark Sagarin, at Presbyterians Ana Kaseman Hospital spent almost seven hours giving me tests, and every doctor I have talked to has said they don't know how he even found the tumor. It was so well hidden and he wasn't even looking for this. They thought I was having a heart attack when I first went in. But he was so thorough and deliberate that he did find it. However, even after he found the tumor, the people at Presbyterian Main who did the CAT scan couldn't positively identify the tumor. Then the surgeon I was sent to pretty much blew the whole thing off and asked why I would want to do anything about it. He stated I could probably live several years without doing anything about it. I was blessed again by another Presbyterian doctor, Dr. Thomas Riley an endocrinologist. He found the tumor and with a camera device he inserted down through my throat was able to provide proof of the tumor. One of the greatest blessings of all was my own son, Scott. Scott is an engineer and very thorough and very smart. He accompanied me on all of my visits and started doing research on everything related to my condition. By the time I saw Dr. Riley, Scott had a stack of research material he had created and took to the meeting with Dr. Riley. Scott had discovered MD Anderson in Houston and both Scott and Dr. Riley wanted me to go to one of the major cancer institutes for surgery. MD Anderson appeared to be the best and it was also the one nearest to us. Actually, Scott and Dr. Riley had a high level conference with me being a spectator, but they decided I should go to MD Anderson. Dr. Riley was the only one person at Presbyterian who favored me going out of the system for this surgery and he gave me a referral to MD Anderson.

Even after the referral by Dr. Riley, Presbyterian denied my request to go to MD Anderson and said I would need to have the surgery done at Presbyterian in Albuquerque. Another blessing was that Presbyterian was required to notify me of an appeals process I was entitled to, and once again, Scott went into action. Scott created a letter to the appeals board in New York and both Presbyterian and I were obligated to accept their decision. Based on Scott's appeal, the Board ordered Presbyterian to allow me to go to MD Anderson and to pay for the costs.

At this point there was no guarantee that we would be accepted by MD Anderson. They are very straight forward in their approach. If they don't feel they can do anything positive for you they will not accept you as a patient. They said they didn't want to waste my time or my money if they were not convinced they could help me. I went through all the examinations at MD Anderson and they reported that I definitely did have pancreatic cancer and they felt they could help me and accepted me as a patient.

We went back down to Houston in June and rented an apartment and started a program of chemo and radiation. I was doing oral chemo and going in for radiation treatments every day. There was no pain involved in this course of treatment, however the radiation was what destroyed the lining in my stomach. While there was no pain involved, I started feeling the affects of the treatment and was soon feeling weak, tired, somewhat nauseated - and probably for the first time in my life - a little grumpy and hard to get along with. (The last part might be disputed by my good wife Mary and others who have had a close association with me for some time.) As always, my son Scott was with me on every visit and every examination as was my good wife Mary. After being in Houston for a couple of weeks, my son John Leslie came in from Dallas to spell Scott so he could come back home and go to work and then my son Andrew came in from Florida. Among the other many blessings I have had, the most important is the great support team I have from my own family. And of course, this support team has been increased by the many friends and relatives I have who have kept me in their prayers and have encouraged me and supported me through all of this.

My blessings have continued in the form of a fantastic staff of doctors in Houston. My primary doctor and surgeon who performed the ten hour surgery, Dr. Jason Fleming, is also a professor at The University of Texas School of Medicine. Dr. Javelie was my Oncologist and created the protocol for my chemo and radiation treatment and then Dr. Baumann, the plastic surgeon who put the "sausage" lining in my stomach. In addition to all of these people there are numerous staff and support people who were just fantastic. The one thing that is perhaps different at MD Anderson is that on each visit the support staff is different. I guess you have to be high quality just to get into the University of Texas, let alone the School of Medicine. Many of the practicing physicians and students are from foreign countries. For the most part these are people who are in medical school who rotate through the various departments as part of their training in medical school, but they are all high quality people. In fact following my first surgery, we had a girl come in and I noticed her tourquoise necklace and found out she is from Albuquerque.

With all the many blessings, this journey has not been without some bumps in the road, starting with the conflict with Presbyterian about going to Houston. While I was in Houston going through the chemo and the radiation, as I said, it was not painful but it did have a significant affect on how I felt. During this period I started getting calls from some wretched woman in Albuquerue telling me that the charges for treatment I was racking up would not be paid as I had not been approved for these treatments. This was very distressful and I felt almost helpless as I was in the middle of treatments and I couldn't stop, I was in Houston which made it difficult for me to communicate with these people in Albuquerque and I was already stressed out about my condition, finances and too many other things. I did finally get this resolved once I returned to Albuquerque and I think this woman was fired once I got a chance to review this whole problem. In any event, I did tell them I did not ever want to talk to this person again during my lifetime, and that was accomplished.

I came back to Albuquerque and had a few unpleasant experiences with chemo treatment I had here in preparation for surgery. One time my blood backed up into the chemo cannister and another time the needle came out and it was pumping the chemo directly into my hand. I looked down and my hand was almost the size of a football. When the chemo was completed in Albuquerque and I was ready to go back to Houston for the surgery, I once again started having problems with Presbyterian granting an approval for this trip. Out of the clear blue sky, a lady whom I have never met, at New Mexico Oncology - where I was getting my local chemo treatments - called me and said she heard I was having some problems and volunteered to be an advocate for me. Within a short period of time, this lady, Mabel Coker, called me and told me everything was approved and I was on my way to Houston again.

After about a year I started to develope some major disfigurement in my abdominal area and was having a sifnificant amount of pain. When I went to Houston for my next examination they discovered I had a several hernias in the stomach area, which I was told was normal. They scheduled me to come back for another surgery for this. However in preparation for this surgery we discovered I had developed blood clots in both legs and had an aneurysm in one leg.
I was put on blood thinner and kept going back for tests and they kept postponing my surgery until about one year ago I went down for another four hour surgery where they inserted the pig skin as a new lining for my stomach.

After the second surgery I was off work for about a month and started back on a limited schedule. This is another great blessing I have had. My employer and all the associates I work with have been absolutely wonderful and fully supportive during this little ordeal. We have an eoffice where all phone calls and emails come in from potential customers. We are assigned different shifts in this office and during my recuperation period other associates graciously gave up their shifts so I could sit in the eoffice full time. This was about all I could do as I couldn't actively move around, go on test drives, open up hoods and trunks and all the other activities involved with selling a car. Everyone has been great. My employer basically told me to come when I wanted and to leave when I wanted. No wonder it has been listed by Forbes Magazines as one of the top one hundred companies to work for every year for the past six years.

When I finally got out of the eoffice and started doing some limited work outside, it wasn't long until I developed a severe pain which turned out to be yet another hernia in the groin. This was like tinker toys compared to what I had already gone through but I did have to go in for another surgery to get that hernia repaired. I was off work for another week or so and have been back at work since sometimes putting in up to twelve hours a day. There have been times when I am just completely wiped out and I guess it shows as other associates or managers have told me to go home, but I am getting stronger and am pretty much able to hold my own now. I do have to wear the elastic wrap around my body all day long and I can feel it almost every time I breathe and for sure when I stand up, sit down or move around. But that is a small element of pain compared to everything else.

In the meantime, while everyone has been so good to me and taken such good care of me, Mary had to have a hip replacement and Scott has had to have surgery on a knee. Also during this time John Leslie was also diganosed with cancer. His treatment was a little different than mine. His treatment was chemo with a pump inserted into his chest. I never had that and am happy I didn't. However, he did not have to have surgery. Even without surgery, his treatment was tough on him and he lost a lot of energy and was pretty well worn down for quite awhile. He lost all his hair as a result of the chemo. My hair stopped growing for awhile but I never lost much if any. The latest tests indicate his cancer is gone, another fantastic blessing. I would much rather have any disease or ailment than to have any of my family have it. I guess I fancy myself as being tough, but I am not tough when I see people I love in pain or hurting.

Mary just finished a nasty bout with pneumonia. I got up on Saturday morning about seven to go to work and she was sitting in a chair fully dressed and was going to drive herself to urgent care as she was having severe pain in her chest and back. I got dressed and took her to urgent care and they examined her and took some xrays and said they couldn't find anything wrong and gave her a couple of prescriptions. She came home and went to bed and they called later in the day to tell me they couldn't find anything in the xrays. Three days later they called and said the radiologist had looked at the xrays and decided she had pneumonia. She then went to her own doctor who confirmed this and she came on back home and just kind of had to wait this whole thing out. She is a very active person and to see her just lying around and sleeping during the day was really out of character for her. But now she is back going to jazzercise every day, working in the yard, cleaning house, moving things around and cooking, so I guess she is cured.

This upcoming trip to Houston has added yet another frustration. About a month ago I went to my primary care doctor and asked for a referral for this trip. After a couple of weeks, when I heard nothing, I started calling and first I was told I needed to request an authorization not a referral. So I started calling almost every day and I got the run around every day. Each time I was told that someone would call me the next day but no one called. I didn't know whether to cancel the trip or just go down and hope that Presbyterian would accept the charges. I didn't feel comfortable with gambling somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 if they should come back, which would be typical, and say they would pay because it was not pre-authorized. MD Anderson does have a slight association with Presbyterian here with an MD Anderson radiation facility at the Presbyterian Hospital here. I have met with the Oncologist here but have never had any treatment from them. As a last resort I called them and within a couple of days another "Angel" called me and she took over and within a few days I finally got authorization to go down as originally scheduled.

With all the "Crap" coming out of Washington I was truly concerned and still am. At one point there were comments to the affect that we should not waste money on the older people as they are going to die anyway. Instead we should give "free" coverage to all of the illegal immagrants and others who have elected not to purchase health insurance coverage. I have paid my premiums for years - a hefty premium at that. I paid for years when I didn't have any health issues. That is what insurance is all about. I have no problem with providing health care to those who truly can't afford it otherwise, but it isn't always about not being able to afford it. I have spent the best part of my life in association with the insurance business. I know so many times people make a choice - they spend their money on cigarettes and beer, on boats, on pickup trucks and campers, vacation trips etc., and then say they don't have any money to buy insurance protection. They are making a choice - if it is a bad choice, that should not be someone elses problem. When it gets to pre-existing conditions, I am personally aware of so many people who don't want to "waste" their money on insurance until they need the protection. The guy who thinks he is a stud and has a wife and four kids but can't see the need for insurance and then goes to the doctor and is told he has a heart condition and wants to buy insurance. That is like asking the insurance company to insure the barn after one corner of it is on fire. To me this is not a small problem - it is an additonal burden that someone who does have the worry of a medical condition doesn't need. I have made plenty of bad decisions in my life and they have cost me, but I have paid the price for these decisions - I have not asked for a "bailout" or for anyone else to take responsibility. Anyway, there is some good to everything. I figure they are going to keep me around for awhile - which means I am going to live - just because they need my tax dollars. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Thanks to all of your for your support and blessings over the past few years - I will continue to survive, maybe not forever but for a long time to come!

AL

2009-11-11T19:56:00.001-08:00

UP AND RUNNING - I THINK!

As some of you know, it has been awhile since I published a blog and the reason is an attack - or more appropriately - a continued attack of gross stupidity on my part.

My computer became lame and it reached a point where it was extremely slow and undependable - much like it's operator, and it was becoming difficult to get along with - again much like it's operator. My very wonderful son Scott, and his equally wonderful wife Sheri, either felt sorry for me or got tired of hearing me moan and groan as I called them repeatedly with a message like; "What's wrong with this *%#&*! computer! It doesn't work. I hit all the keys and punched all the buttons and it still doesn't work".

I created a huge sense of guilt for myself because of all my whining and fussing - they presented me with a brand new computer. It is beautiful! It is pink - if you can believe that. Or more unbelievable is the fact that I was receptive to having a pink computer. There are three good reasons for me graciously accepting a pink computer. First, it is pink because Dell made a contribution to breast cancer for every pink computer it sold. That in itself is reason enough. I would drive a pink car, live in a pink house and wear pink clothes if it would help the fight against breast cancer. The second good reason is that it was a gift from my wonderful son who has been a very giving and generous person his whole life and who has been with me every step of the way in my little battle with cancer and with other battles I have had. Third, I used to think I was too macho to do anything like use a pink computer. Now that I'm old I realize there is nothing macho about me - and there really never was - I just didn't realize it. So, "Thanks once again Scott and Sheri - you are very special people!"

Along with this new pink computer came a new keyboard and a whole new display on the screen and everything is in a different place and there are different symbols on the screen and the keyboard does things I am not used to and won't do the things I am used to. So, even with this new wonderful computer - we still have the old operator with all the old broken elements that don't compute with the computer. I am so old that I am actually afraid of the computer. I sit here and stare at it in disbelief and am afraid I am going to hit the wrong key or say the wrong thing and it will self destruct. In fact, because it is pink, I was afraid at first that my correspondence would have ruffles and lace around the borders. The long and the short of the whole thing is that I have a new computer but Scott still gets calls from me with; "How's it going?, How was your day?, How's the dog? Oh, by the way - how to you make this computer find the letter I typed yesterday?" In fact I try to casually get my wife to call Scott and then; "Oh by the way - while you are talking to Scott, why don't you ask him how to - - - - .

Okay a little update on health issues. Went in to Presbyterian today and had another doppler exam on my legs to check out my blood clots and aneurysms. Got a good report and it appears they are no worse and are probably a little better than they were last time. They were pleased, and if they are pleased I will accept that as something positive. In addition to this good news, I went to my own doctor and had a blood test last week and - according to him - I no longer have any indication of diabetes. I mentioned that I had been told that once you have diabetes you will always have diabetes. He said that my blood tests indicated that in the past I definitely had diabetes but the current blood tests show that I no longer have it. I guess that is probably because of the good clean living I engage in! Then my cardiologist told me that my cholesterol was perfect - this, after having had a problem with cholesterol for at least the past twenty years. I really think the main reason for the vast improvement in both areas is related to the weight loss I had after the cancer surgery. I lost one hundred pounds after surgery. That was not a bad thing as I was way over-weight before. I have gained about twenty five to thirty pounds back and need to keep it where it is from now on. The cancer surgery was tough but the only other option I had to get rid of a hundred pounds of ugly fat was to cut my head off and even the cancer surgery is a better option for me.

I still have a couple more exams and check-ups to go through in the upcoming days and months but I have gotten pretty well used to it. Any more I know what to expect, and even though I don't enjoy the routine it is something I can easily tolerate. If I had been more astute about regular check-ups and doing the things I should do in the past, I might have been able to avoid some of the problems I have had. But, back then I was Mr. Macho!

My Cardiologist pretty much set me straight on the "Macho" business. About fifty years ago, on a dare, I got a tattoo way up on my right arm. It is an eagle surrounded by a wreath of flame - The Flaming Eagle. It was nothing distasteful - it was a symbol of "Machoism" in my earlier years. My Cardiologist is a woman doctor, and a very good doctor whom I really appreciate. During my examination I was down to my underwear and she looked over and said; "Oh, do you have a fondness for humming birds?" At first I couldn't figure out what she was talking about, then I realized that she was calling my eagle a humming bird. You talk about deflation! I thought I was going to start crying - she called my eagle a humming bird! Of course, that eagle has been hanging around on my arm for around fifty years and I don't even think about it any more. I have given it about the same attention that I have given my own health. He automatically gets washed when I take a shower, but I never comb his hair or trim his feathers or spruce him up. And, I have lost a lot of weight and some of that has been in my arms, so I guess it makes sense. I'm just glad she didn't ask why I had a dead sparrow on my arm.

Anyhow, all is okay - in fact it is great. I am very lucky and very grateful for everything that has happened over the past couple of years. When I was in Houston last month, my cancer surgeon said they had recently discovered that if you survive pancreatic cancer for two years, the mortality rate drops way down. They don't know why, but their research proves this is true. My two years is up at the end of this month!!!

God Bless all of you - have a wonderful Thanksgiving and very Merry Christmas!!

AL

Back from latest trip to MD Anderson

2009-10-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

[again posted for my father while he works out the Windows Vista interface... -- Scott]

I will get this blog problem I am having solved soon, in the meantime a brief update.

It is kind of funny in one way, but I have spent the first part of this week in Houston and I really haven't done that much physically, but I am worn out. I think just the trip, sitting around the various offices and clinics and waiting - waiting and waiting takes it toll. The exams were not that difficult or painful, but still the whole process is not fun. Also, I think there is an element of worry and anticipation as you wait to find out what the results of all the tests are.

In any event, I have some very good news. I have had a number of people in the medical profession tell me that the mortality rate for pancreatic cancer is about 75%. Obviously, the mortality rate for all of us is 100% - we are all going to go some time, but when people in the medical profession learn that I have had pancreatic cancer their eyes get big and they saying like; "No kidding - and you are still here - wow." or something to that affect. Those comments have had a bothersome affect on me for sure, but there isn't too much I can do but keep on going.

I learned this week for the first time that two years is a magic number. If you make it for two years your chances of it coming back drop significantly. My two years is up!! The tests show no new tumors and everything is looking good.
I do have an aortic aneurysm and it has increased in size from 3.5 cm six months ago to 3.9 cm. A reading of 5 cm is considered dangerous so I am still okay, but I guess I will start visiting my cardiologist now to see if I can reverse this number.

I recall when I first went down to MD Anderson I asked if smoking caused pancreatic cancer and was told that smoking does cause cancer but it had nothing to do with the cancer I had. Now they are telling me that smoking is one of the major causes of pancreatic cancer. I don't smoke any more but I did for years and I know I was offended or put off when people told me I shouldn't smoke. My attitude today is that if you know someone who smokes or someone you love smokes, do whatever you can to get them to quit. I know from experience when you start preaching to someone about something the tendency is for them to resist even more. I don't know how you can get someone to listen because I never listened - but do what you can to help them quit. It can be done - I know, but better if done earlier than later.

We were a little nervous as Hurricane Rick was supposed to be creating a problem in Houston Wednesday night, but it was downgraded to a tropical storm and never really did anything bad. In the meantime, I guess Albuquerque had heavy rain for two days straight while we were gone.

Anyway - all is good! Now that I have quit smoking and have reached the two year mark I guess that all I have to do is start drinking purified water, sucking purified air and not eat anything and I will be okay. I'm off the smokes for good but will have to work hard to develop the kind of diet I am supposed to follow. But I will try hard and won't be as stubborn as I was about smoking for sure.

God Bless and thanks for your friendship and prayers!!

AL

Another trip to Houston

2009-10-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

(posted for my Father who was having problems logging into the blog and used email instead. He arrived at the hotel in Houston tonight -- Scott)

Too much has been going on and my small brain has not be able to cope with all of it. I had some computer problems and now have a new computer and the Blog Program I have been using changed something and I can't access it now. I am sure it is a simple matter of me making a call and following instructions - but that is too much for me. I am mad at them for changing something and then forcing me to talk to a computerized menu of instructions to get it all worked out, so I will just pout for awhile until I get in the mood to do what needs to be done. I have also been very busy with work and don't get a chance to do too much, or am too tired to do it, when I get home late at night.

I am going back down to Houston tomorrow for another check-up and hopefully everything will be okay. I am still wearing my elastic belt (girdle) every day. I guess it will be part of me for the rest of my life. I still have pain in my abdomen pretty much all the time and I guess that is just from all the cutting and sewing. But I am okay with it - I am so used to it I would probably miss it if it wasn't there. I have had some concern lately about the surgery I had in April. As you may know, they had to replace the lining in my stomach because of the damage that was done by the radiation I went through. They use a fairly new process where they relined my stomach with pig skin. Now I am concerned that I might be stricken with the swine flu. If it's not one thing it's another!

Since my last Blog entry - I have had another hernia surgery here in Albuquerque and several visits to the dentist. I didn't think anything would ever be more painful and difficult than the cancer surgery. I had forgotten about the dentist. I hate to go to the dentist! Dentists were invented to take the place of executioners and others who practiced various forms of torture in days past. I only took two days off during the month of September and one of those days was spent with the dentist. I had a tooth broken off at the gum which they cut out in little bitty pieces and then they pulled three others and created a partial plate to fill that gap in the front of my face. I would sign a contract to work every single day for the rest of my life if there was some form of guarantee that I would never have to go to the dentist again if I did this.

*A little side story related to my dental problems. Years ago when I had an insurance brokerage agency, I got a call from someone who wanted some insurance. I met with this person - whom I had never met before, and discovered he was a football coach at the University of New Mexico. I had seen his picture in the paper and seen him a couple of times on T.V., but I did not know him. In the process of completing the paper work I asked where he was born. He replied that he was born in Gunnison, Colorado. I mumbled something to the affect that I had fond memories of Gunnison, Colorado. He stared at me and asked why I had said that. I went on to tell him that the first football game I ever played in, some guy from Gunnison kicked me right in the mouth during a kickoff. He stared at me for a moment and asked me when this had happened. I gave him an approximate date and he responded; "That wasn't in the third quarter by any chance was it?" I thought for a moment and said; "Yes, as a matter of fact I think it was!" He then said; "I always did feel bad about that - I didn't mean to kick you in the face!"

This was in the days before we wore face masks - in fact I think I was the first person in our school who had a face mask. And - this was the beginning of a problem I have had with my front teeth for the rest of my life - up until now. As of now I don't have the problem any more as I don't have the teeth any more.

Like they say; "no matter where you go - there you are." It is amazing how often you will meet someone who is a total stranger and then learn they are someone you know or someone who knows someone else you know.

The upcoming trip to Houston should be pretty easy, at least compared to some of the others. MD Anderson is very systematized and they have a routine which never seems to change. The first day will be blood tests and other evaluations and then the CT-Scan. The CT-Scan is a real pain in the butt in more ways than one. You can't eat before you go in, then you have to report at noon to be checked in, then you have to drink two bottles of this horrible stuff which temporarily makes you swear you will never put another thing in your mouth. You are in a large room with probably fifty to seventy five people who are waiting for the same ritual of torture. As you look around they all look like grumpy, tired and hungry refugees from some kind of concentration camp - just like you do. They are not dressed up in their finest - for sure. They are, like you, staring at the big board with all the names listed in hope that their name will suddenly appear and they can get this ordeal over with. And, because you are in a hospital environment where they are always concerned with germs and the spread of germs - the temperature is not cool - it is absolutely cold. So, you sit there shivering, sipping on the asbestos tasting drink, staring at the walls, occasionally glancing through a six month old magazine for the umpteenth time - waiting your turn. Finally they call your name and you go back to this little dressing room where you remove everything but your socks and put on this flimsy one-size-fits-all gown. It only has one string - the string on the other side is missing, and you are supposed to reach behind your back and tie the gown shut and there is nothing to tie it to anyway. I have a hard enough time tying my shoes and they are right in front of my face. There is no way I will ever be able to tie something behind my back. At this point they show some real compassion - they bring you a heated blanket. Now you sit in this tiny cubical and wait, and then wait, and then wait some more. You are tired of waiting, the blanket is no longer warm, you are freezing, and now all of a sudden you need to go to the bathroom. It is just like magic - as soon as you build up the courage to try to sneak out of the little cubical and slip down the hall to find the bathroom, an attendent comes in to take you into the room where the big machine is. The CT Scan itself only last about fifteen minutes, but you have now been there for five hours waiting for this event to take place. After the scan you have to go to a nurse station where they do some monitoring and pull the needles out and put the band aids on and you are worn out.

The way the system works is you have all these tests and examinations on one day - Monday in this case. Then you have to hang around Houston on Tuesday and then come back in on Wednesday for consultation with the surgeon, the plastic surgeon and any other specialists. If you have an appointment first thing in the morning with the doctor, chances are he is already behind schedule. We have waited until noon when we had a 9:00AM appointment. But that is okay - if it sounds like I am complaining, I am not. I am absolutely grateful for everything the people at MD Anderson have done. They have a system that sometimes tests your endurance, but it works and it is the best in the world, in my opinion. In Houston there is always something interesting to see and do. The day off in-between gives you a chance to kind of refresh and relax. I understand that Houston has a good China Town and I think we will check this out on this trip and get some good Chinese food.

Sorry for the long email. If my system was working it would be a long Blog entry instead!!

AL

A STITCH IN TIME SAVES NINE - BALONEY!

2009-06-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

One more time! Yesterday I went in to let them cut on me again. I've been sewn up so many times that Mary is starting to use me as a source of thread for her sewing projects. As I think I mentioned before, I am just going to have them install a zipper so they won't have to cut into me each time.

Actually, I'm a pretty nice guy - sometimes, and I feel sorry for these doctors. They spend years and lots of money getting their degrees which enable them to cut on people. And, after all the sacrifices they make, they spend the rest of their lives just practicing. Every doctor you know "practices" medicine. Football players and baseball players practice a little bit each year and then they get to go out and play in front of a crowd of cheering fans and they make big bucks for this. The poor doctor just goes on year after year practicing in some little room with a single person audience (me on the table) and a few on lookers. I just feel sorry for these guys so every opportunity I get I give them a chance to practice a little more.

As you may remember, I had the big operation in Houston in April where they cut me open from the chest down to my belt buckle to remove four hernias and do some scraping and cutting of other things they found down there - including the doctor's wrist watch he had left in there by accident during the first operation. I'll be darned if I didn't get home and after awhile I developed a whole new very painful situation which turned out to be another hernia. This is one where the intestine drops down through a hole into the groin area - and boy does that hurt. This problem is insignificant compared to the cancer surgery and the other hernias, but it has been the most painful of all.

It took me about a month to be able to get in to see the doctor and once I did he was ready to operate right away. I saw him last Thursday and he operated yesterday - Monday. He assured me that the incision would be small - about the size of a credit card. It made me feel good it would be a small incision but then when I thought about it, maybe he was suggesting that the surgery would be dependent upon the size of what my credit card could pay for. That caused me new worry as I realized that it would indeed be a very small incision - maybe the size of a pin hole - if it was dependent upon what the credit card could support.

After all the pain and suffering these people (doctors, wife and son) have put me through, they treat me like a child. They wouldn't let me drive to the hospital by myself. I can drive better when I am disabled than some of my substitute drivers can drive when they are at the top of their physical form. Anyway, I had to let my wife drive me and when we got there we were the first people for the day. I checked in at the appropriate cubical and was instructed to go sit in the waiting room and wait for the nurse to come and fetch me. There was no one else in the waiting room but me and my wife and pretty soon this lady came walking through with a folder in her hand yelling for "Alberto". She wandered around for a bit and left and returned twice more with the same announcement. Finally I said; "I'm Albert and I don't think there is anyone else here." She said; "I have been looking for you - I came in here calling for you, why didn't you answer?" I said; "My name is Albert." She said; "It's Alberto in Spanish" Maybe I should have gone to Houston for this operation after all. Or, mayber I forgot to push #1 indicating I wanted to speak English.

At MD Anderson in Houston, you talk to a nurse or some kind of aide and they ask about your medications and from that point on every person you talk to has it right on the computer screen. Here I talked to several different nurses and each time I had to go through the list of my medications for each one. I am sure that none of the lists were the same - I don't remember all that stuff. One lady wanted to know about my prior operations and I told her about the cancer surgery and the hernia operation in Houston. She got this surprised look on her face and said; "You never had your tonsils out?" Well - yes I did when I was about five years old. She wanted to know each and every operation I have ever had. This covers a big part of a century - I tried hard to think of everything and she kept pressing me for complete and accurate answers. I had surgery on my knee about thirty five years ago. "Which knee?" I don't know - it was either my right knee or my left knee. You would think I was going to have open heart surgery.

Mary dropped me off and stayed with me until she had to go to work - someone has to supplement that credit card. Then she came back on her lunch hour just as the took me to the recovery room. Scott and Sheri brought me home and Scott was real careful going over the speed bumps - thank God. We dropped off the prescription for my pain medicine and they brought me home and said they would pick up the medicine in about an hour and come back.

On their way back they called and asked if I would like to have them bring me a malt. That kind of turned me off and I asked them to stop and get me a green chili cheeseburger instead. That sounded nourishing to me. Just before they got back I had to rush back to the bathroom and regurgitated anything and everything I have eaten for the past six months, so when they came in with the green chile cheeseburger I asked if they had ever eaten one before and told them they were going to get to eat one now.

I messed up a bit last night and by accident took a double dose of pain pills and didn't realize it until this morning. I sure did sleep good last night and most of the morning. I also got a mighty scolding from my parole officer. It was an honest accident, but in retrospect I am sure glad I did it - by accident of course.

All in all - I know I am still a very lucky person. Everything is okay. In between these little episodes I have sold a few cars and that is fun for me. I have some more people at work that look after me and take care of me. They kind of fill in for Mary and Scott. I seem to always have someone who is supervising my behavior. Everyone is very generous and the customers are all nice and life is just a lot of fun.

Hopefully this is the last "cutting episode" for awhile. But, if I didn't have health issues to talk about I would have to talk about something like politics - and that would be more sickening than any operation.

God Bless!!

AL

POST - HOUSTON

2009-06-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

Just a note to bring everyone up to date since Houston. Compared to the cancer surgery in late 2007, this wasn't too bad but it still knocks you down a bit. I believe I was off work approximately six months after my cancer surgery and it has only been two months since this last surgery and I have been working again the last four or five weeks. The first month I had a pretty constant awareness of the surgery as it hurt almost every time I moved. Just as things were starting to get a little better I developed another very sharp pain in my lower abdomen that pretty much made it impossible to work or do anything. I finally got to a doctor and I guess I have another - new - hernia (at least one) in my lower abdomen and groin. If you've ever had a really bad tooth ache and you just can't get away from the pain and you think you're going to go crazy if you don't - that is what this is like.

I guess the radiation I had in Houston, and maybe the chemo, pretty well destroyed a lot of the tissue that holds everything together. Whenever I take something out of the microwave and see how the solid matter has been changed into a bubbling, gurgling liquified mass, I think that this must be me after radiation. However, I'm not complaining! I guess any other course of action - or maybe a course of inaction, and I wouldn't be here to complain. I'll just hang around and complain for as long as I can.

When I finally hurt so bad I decided I would go to a doctor, I discovered my primary care doctor was on vacation. So, I was scheduled with a substitue doctor I had never met before. This doctor was a female doctor - which I wasn't prepared for. I am, after all, still an old fashioned male chauvinest. Under normal circumstances I would have left, but I was hurting so bad I stuck around. I was reluctant to have any doctor exam my lower abdominal area and groin - let alone a female doctor, but I was hurting so bad I didn't really care at the moment. She said I definately had a pretty bad hernia and maybe more than one.

I really didn't want to go back to Houston again for another surgery because of the expense of just going down and staying there, plus the time involved. I had several conversations with the surgeon's office in Houston and they agreed it would be alright for me to have this surgery in Albuqueruqe. After all, they wouldn't be replacing the lining in my entire abdomen as the did in Houston - at least I hope not.

The hernia or hernias I now have are no major thing. A lot of people have hernias like this and it is no big deal. However, regardless of how bad it is, the pain was driving me crazy - in fact I almost went to the emergeny room one night before I saw this doctor. The doctor who examined me referred me to a surgeon who is supposed to be very good and I went upstairs to make an appointment and learned he is booked up for almost a month. I am scheduled to see him on June 25th. This is just for an appointment to see him. The surgery will be sometime after that. The doctor did get me a very uncomfortable belt to wrap around me to reduce the pain and that helps some. Now I have a body wrap from my chest down to my hips from the first surgery and I have this other belt to strap on. I feel like I am wearing a suit of armor. If I happen to catch a stray bullet I know it will just bounce off. I can barely bend over to pick anything up if I drop it.

I have had a lot of luck and many blessings, and one of the blessings I have had is the fact that I work at CarMax. I know they have been listed as one of the top 100 companies in the nation to work for by Forbes Magazine for five years in a row. While that sounds nice, and it really is nice, it never had the impact on me that I guess it should. But now I know. They allow me to come in when I feel like it. I am not even on the schedule. I can't really do anything physically (my wife and son keep reminding me that I am not supposed to lift anything over five pounds), and it is painful for me to get into and out of cars - so I really can't demonstrate a car to anyone, so they have me just sitting in an office answering the phone and emails. They have a great web site which shows every car we have in the country - between 20,000 and 25,000 cars, and people look at this web site and see a car they want that is in Nashville, Baltimore, Orlando, Las Vegas - or anywhere else, and they call or email us and we transfer the car in for them. I do all of that and then hand the customer off to someone else and they take care of actually demonstrating the car and selling it when it comes in. I get half the sale for that and the other sales associate gets half. The only problem with this arrangement is that we have a lot of half cars running around Albuquerque. I try to always get the front half because in New Mexico you don't need a license plate on the front end of the car - just on the back end. It is kind of funny seeing a half a car driving down the freeway though. The poor guy with just the back half doesn't even have an engine to propell his car - but he has lots of luggage space. The strange thing about this arrangement, you would think the other employees would be resentful because I am getting some kind of special treatment. They all go out of their way to do anything they can to help me. None of them have objected in any way. I do make a little money, but I work there because it is a really neat place to work. It's like another family.

To add to my current discomfort, I got up the other morning and opened up some of my mail. There was a bill from my insurance company stating that the cost of this little procedure in Houston was $23,706. The surgery only lasted four hours! But I guess they did put me up in the hospital for a few days, gave me a CT Scan, some medicine and pain medication - and I almost forgot - this wonder elastic thing I have to wear around my body every day. In addition to that, our out of pocket cost - just for going down and staying through the whole thing was close to $5,000. But the part of the bill that got my attention was the last column that said my part of the bill was going to be$11,303. My coffee wasn't black enough to get me through that little shock. I called the health care plan and got a very nice lady - but she did not speak English very well - and I was concerned that she wouldn't even understand what I was talking about. I surely didn't understand much of what she said. But, she did act interested and kept excusing herself to go look at my records and finally excused herself to go speak to her supervisor. Finally she got back on the phone and said; "No - No, you no have to pay that much. You pay two hundred fifty dollar - you okay." I asked if she was sure and she assured me she was - so we will see.

We had a nice visit from our oldest son, John Leslie from Dallas and he wife Leslea and two of their six children, Emily and Andrew, this past week. He came back to Albuquerque for his 30th class reunion - I think. This is the first reunion he has attended and I don't think either of our other sons have ever gone to a high school reunion. I guess when you have seven or eight hundred people in your graduating class it doesn't mean as much as it does when you have 33. And, I guess, I have only been to three reunions myself. One for every eleven people in my class. Anyway they all had a good time and we enjoyed them and Scott and Sheri who came up to visit with them. For some reason, when JL comes over here - which isn't often, he loves to go out and work in the yard. He and his mother and Andrew spent two solid days really shaping up the yard - cutting bushes I didn't want cut down, trimming shrubs more than I liked, and otherwise just taking control of the whole yard. Seriously - they did a fantastic job and I really do appreciate it. Mary enjoys working in the yard but she has had to do everything by herself since my surgery. I am not even allowed to push the power mower. I really do feel guilty watching her work very hard out in the yard while I sit in a chair on the patio.

Hope to get back to normal soon, but in the meantime I appreciate how lucky I am and am just thankful that everything has turned out as well as it has so far. We will be in touch soon.

ALBUQUERQUE AL

NO MORE HOUSTON - I HOPE!

2009-05-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

THIS ONE IS A LITTLE LONG - I APOLOGIZE! BUT - IT WILL PROBABLY BE MY LAST ONE - AT LEAST ON THIS ONE SUBJECT.

My immediate question to myself is; "Why I am sitting here doing a Blog Entry when I have been off work for two weeks or more?" "Don't I have more productive things I could be doing?"

More productive - yes, more fun - no! There are a lot more productive things I could be doing if I could only do them, but there aren't too many things I can actually do right now. First, almost any movement I make hurts - not a whole bunch most of the time, but it just flat out hurts to move at all. You know that someone has been tinkering with your body.
Secondly, the good doctor did put the fear of God into me this time about taking care of myself and following the rules - which means not doing much physically for awhile and in some cases forever.

He has restricted me to lifting nothing more than 5 pounds (I was sure he said 8 pounds, but my daughter-in-law and son were right there and they swear he said 5.) Of course, they are not always to be trusted when it comes to a difference in opinion between me and either of them on the subject of what the doctor said. Any way you look at it, 5 pounds is not much weight; maybe a blank sheet of paper, a pen, my name badge (good thing I have a short name), my proxy key and a light lunch. On the other hand - 5 pounds could allow 20 "Quarter Pounder" hamburgers - okay, cut that number in half because we need to allow for the weight of the french fries, lettuce and a pickle slice. Still you would at least have 10 Quarter Pounders - that's something to look forward to each day.

The real reason, and the big reason, I am spending my time doing this blog is I enjoy doing it. For me it is fun, it is therapeutic and it has been a very positive tool for me in coping with this little problem of cancer. I have heard from many others who have felt it has been a positive tool for them or people they have passed it on to, so I do get some sense of satisfaction from the thought that this jumbled mess of words with all sorts of grammatical and punctuation and spelling errors will possibly help put a smile on someone's face. It is also remotely possible that I might even provide some information once in awhile that will be useful.

My last Blog Entry under the banner of "Hurry Up and Wait" was a little pre-mature. The real demonstration of "Hurry Up and Wait" was to take place a few days later - when I actually started to leave for Houston.

I was frustrated about everything that was going to happen that day, April 23rd, before it even happened. I have this personality defect (one of many which I have) which causes me to become anxious and nervous and all worked up over anticipating a problem that hasn't even occured - but could possibly occur. Today when everyone complains about having to be at the airport an hour and a half before flight time - don't worry about me. I have already been there for two or three hours. I worry about; "What if I have a flat tire on the way to the airport, have a wreck, run out of gas, can't find a parking space, get a speeding ticket, etc." I have all of these "What If" conditions tied to every activity I am involved with all day long.

This particular Monday the 23rd I was destined for an overload of frustration. The night before I had been up late packing for this trip. At this point I didn't know how long I would be gone, what I would be able to do, how long I would actually be in the hospital - so what do I take? Just in case, I took enough "stuff" to open a small clothing store, a library, a convenience store and first aid station. I also took a half dozen folders on different projects I was working on, including income tax, just so I would be sure to have something to do. Needless to say, I never touched these folders. So, on this Monday morning - after being up most of the night deciding what to take - I got up at 4:00 am - I am sure I got at least one hour of sleep that night to start loading the car.

This Monday morning it was cold, damp and dark as I started dragging everything out to the car. (I even bought a brand new suitcase for this trip. It is basically a small bedroom on wheels) I drug that oversized suitcase all the way through the house out to the garage and opened the garage door (where my wife's car sits all snug and warm and dry and taking up so much space I can hardly get past it with my suitcase) and opened the big garage door to the driveway to a blast of cold air that made me want to go back and crawl back into bed.

After stumbling over a garden hose someone left in the driveway and tripping over a few cracks in the concrete driveway, I am ready to reach into my pocket, get the keys to the car, unlock the door and load my suitcases.

I stick my hand deep into my pocket and search around until I locate my key ring which contains approximately forty keys. I think I can still remember what maybe five or six of these keys are for. The other thirty-five or so keys - I can't remember for sure. I think there is one key that might have been a key to my first apartment when I was a young bachelor. Gosh - that was a long time ago. There is one that looks like it could have been a key to my office - maybe that was from a time I got promoted and got a bigger office, or moved to a different office building or maybe to a different company - who knows. It could be 20 years and 10 states away from today for all I know. Then I do have this one beautiful key that is blue and orange - my Denver Bronco Key. It is supposed to open the front door to the house but it doesn't. It doesn't do anything but look good - a Bronco tradition. The guy who made that key for my wife hated the Broncos and was an admitted Cowboy fan and probably sabotaged that key so it wouldn't work. I like it - so I keep it
anyway.

I have gone through this routine many, many times and keep promising myself that I am going to figure out what all of these keys are for and get rid of those that have no purpose. I am not sure how I will do that - go around to all the apartments I might have lived in as a young bachelor and try the key on the doors, or go back to all of the office building I might have had an office in and check out the keys. But I know for sure - if I get rid of just one key - within a week I will discover what that key was for and I will desperately need that key (probably a key to a fortune) and it will be impossible for me to replace that key. So for now, I will just play it safe.

The problem is that with this system, this time of discovery always happens under the same circumstances. I pull out this handfull of keys when my hands are full, it is dark, it is raining, my cell phone is ringing, etc. So I kind of stumble around in my pocket with my fingers feeling each key to see, if by the feel, I can discover the key I actually need.

This system usually causes the keys to slip through my fingers onto the pavement, sometimes wet pavement, as I bend over to pick up the now slimy or wet keys and start the process all over again. And it always happens that I will eventually find the right key, guide the key to the lock on the door holding it between my thumb and little finger and go to insert it into the lock - when I drop it one more time just for good mesure. Kind of a punctuation mark to the whole process. Of course this creates a mild explosion of profanity, which is either amusing or frightening to someone who might be out walking their dog at three in the morning.

Now you can understand why I am so uptight when I need to meet a schedule of any kind. All of these unforeseen obstacles which attach themselves to me to test my skills and strength of character really do delay me.

Okay, I now have the car open and have wrestled my suitcases inside the car (no wonder I had four hernias that had to be repaired) I am all ready to roll now and - Oh Wait!! - Crap!
I am standing here in the middle of the driveway with the garage door open and the garage door opener in my hand. Now if I hit the little button, the garage door will close and I will still be on the outside with the garage door opener in my hand. The garage door opener needs to be back inside the house on the kitchen table. (Don't ask me why - I don't write the rules - I just obey them.) So I go back into the house and place the garage door opener on the kitchen table and now I am inside the house with the garage door opener but the garage door is shut again. I am getting nowhere fast!

I have six outside doors to my house and because of little challenges at each of these doors, like a heavy swing set in front of one door, a lawn mower in front of another, total darness outside another, etc., none of these doors are potential choices.

But a solution has just exploded in my mind. I will close the garage door with the garage door opener, I will place the garage door opener on the kitchen table - as I have been instructed to do, I will go to the front door - where I know the lock is difficult to work with and the motion detector light is burned out (someone keeps forgetting to replace it) and make my exit.

I drop the set of keys two more times and finally I get the inside house door locked. I insert the key into the outside glass door and it will not turn either left or right. I struggle and twist and curse and finally it turns to the left. Now it won't turn back. It has my key - the door is in the locked position and it won't give my key back. Finally I force it back into the unlocked position - afraid that I am going to snap the key off right in the lock - and I am now able to extract my key, but it is getting late and I need to get to the airport. I unlock the inside door one more time and go in and write a note so that when my wife wakes up she will know the outside glass door is not locked. I write the note and go back out to tape it to the door when it hits me - it might not be a good idea to tape a note to the front door stating that it is not locked. The inside front will lock after all, so I decided to leave the outside door unlocked and will wait until I get to the airport and call Scott ahd have him call his mother and give her the news. I was not about to call her at 4:00 in the morning to tell her that I had gone off and left her asleep with the front door unlocked.

So here it is - it seems that half the morning has been spent - and I am still in my driveway. I still have to get out of my driveway, drive to the airport, drag my baggage inside, check in, go through security, go stand by a post with a number on it and eventually get on the plane. Still plenty of opportunities for something to happen and totally screw up my day.

I haven't even gotten to the part that has me the most upset. The schedule I have received from MD Anderson has me on a non-stop program for today that is so tight that I will - at some point - need to make a decision on whether to spend a few minutes to go to the bathroom or to blow my nose. I will just have to wait and see which becomes urgent first.

By the time I got to the airport, I ws too uptight to even think about eating anything - which under current circumstances would have probably made me sick - so I didn't eat. I got to Houston and had just enough time to get from the airport to the hotel and check in and go across the sky-bridge to the Main building of MD Anderson and check in for blood/specimen collection. Actually I was lucky and made up a little time (good cab driver) and was able to check in for Blood/Specimen an hour early. It was a good thing as there were more than hundred people in line and they were running an hour behind schedule - but at least I didn't lose too much ground. I was scheduled to do check in/prep for CT Scan at 3:40 pm - which gave me approximately an hour to eat for the first time for the day. There was no way I was going to eat before going in for the CT Scan, so I went on up and got ready for this procedure. In the meantime, Scott and Sheri arrived from Albuquerque and were there when I finally got through with the CT Scan around 7:30 PM. It had been a very long day and I still hadn't eaten all day, but after the CT Scan I am never hungry anyway. Scott and Sheri talked me into going down to Rice Village next to Rice University for something to eat and I ate something - can't even remember what it was.

That was one of the longest Mondays in my life - I think it was about 48 hours long and I was totally wiped out at the end of the day.

Tuesday we had an off day and Scott and Sheri had never been to Galveston Island, so we went down there for the day. It is a neat place with a beach and sand and sea shells and they had a good time collecting sea shells. Then we went to the "Spot" a restaurant and bar right across the street from the Sea Wall. This place never closed during the hurricane and it is right across the street from the ocean. Buildings fifteen, twenty and forty miles and more away from the Sea Wall were destroyed, but the Spot stayed open the entire time. They have a video camera on the patio so we ate out there and Scott and Sheri called their friends back home and had them pull up the web site and waved to them as they ate their lunch.

We went to the Aquarium which has to be one of the very best in the Nation. It is worth going to Galveston just to see this aquarium. You walk in and see an army of penguins - must be at least fifty of them -swimming in this glass pool that is three stories tall, some of them are just walking around, some shooting through the water - boy they can really propell through the water at a high speed and others are just standing around.

You walk down a pathway that is circular and winds up or down and you have tanks of all types of beautiful fish on both sides and then over the top of you swimming back and forth. The have a great collection of sharks swimming around, some great looking sea turtles and even new born sea horses.

We went down town to an area called the Strand. It is an old historic area with old buildings that go back several hundred years. This was the original downtown area of Galveston. This is a well known shopping and tourist area with all kinds of neat shops. When Mary I are were down there the last part of the year the place was bustling with all kinds of activity and lots of tourists. This time only two or three shops were even open. The rest will filled with carpenters building walls, ceilings, floors and getting ready to try to go back into business. The whole area was just gutted during the hurricane. The sidwalk in this area is a good two feet above street level, and with me standing on the sidewalk, the water mark during the hurricane ws a good two to three feet above my head. That means the whole area was under ten to twelve feet of water. Imagine downtown Albuquerque, Denver, Santa Fe, or any other city being under 12 feet of water for as far as you can see.

I didn't get a chance to eat all day Monday until late at night after the CT Scan, so Scott and Sheri made up for it on Tuesday. We started out with a big breakfast buffet at the hotel, two hours later we were having lunch at the "Spot" in Galveston and now one last stop before we leave Galveston. Galveston has a Rain Forest Cafe and Scott and Sheri are fans of this restaurant and make sure to visit this restaurant in each area they travel to if one is there. (They do the same thing with the Hard Rock Cafe) So roughly two hours after our first lunch we stopped at the Rain Forest Cafe and had another lunch. This time I just couldn't force myself to eat. I ordered and took about one bite.

Wednesday we were back to the regular routine. We had an appointment with the Cancer Surgeon at 10:00 AM and they were hopelessly behind schedule. Next we had to go through the patient check in for the surgery and anestehsia assessment. We then dashed over to Mays Clinic for an appointment with the Plastic Surgeon which was scheduled at 2:30PM and we finally got in to see him at 5:00PM.

Scott threw me a curve while we were visiting with Dr. Baumann, the Plastic Surgeon. Scott is normally very sophisticated and intellectual during the conversations with the doctors, and when Dr. Baumann finished going through everything - what was going to happen, why they would do the things they were going to do, the recovery process, etc., he asked if there were any questions. Scott immediately asked; "After the surgery, will my dad be able to play the piano?" Dr. Baumann had this puzzled look on his face and replied; "Of course - he will be able to play the piano - shouldn't be any problem at all." Scott said; "That's great - because he can't play the piano now." Unfortunately, it looks like one of my many undesirable personality characteristics did in fact slip through to my son, Scott. Anyway, when it is all said and done, I guess I will go buy a piano and start taking lessons.

Thursday we just puttered around and went downtown Houston to the Hard Rock Cafe and just killed time. I had talked to Mary several times during the week and she was really sick. It seemed there was no way she was going to be able to even come over, but she did come in Thursday night and after a real tough week at home was set to get up early the next day for the surgery.

I guess things happen for a reason, but all of the frustration I had just trying to end work and get ready to go to Houston, all of the tight schedules we had with appointments for the week and all the other little surprises kept me so distracted that I didn't have much of a chance to think about the surgery - much less worry about it. That was good.

As they did the last time, they scheduled me for surgery at 5:00 am Friday morning. And as happened last time, because it was still dark when we went in for the surgery, I had the feeling that the surgery had started at night. So shortly after 5:00 am Friday morning I have an empty space in my mind of what happened for the next 24 to 48 hours. Scott said he spent the first two nights with me, but I have no recollection of that. This surgery was in the same section of the hospital as my last surgery and other than being on a different floor, everything was pretty much the same.

The first thing I remember was sitting there (I must have been sitting up in bed) staring at a huge clock on the wall. The big hand ws pointed at 12 and the litle hand was pointed at 1. This meant it was one o'clock. (I learned that in 7th grade and still remember it) There was a door to my left and it ws slightly open and I could see some people - like nurses and administrative people moving around out there.

I remember yelling for someone to come in and saw a couple of people glance up and then go back to whatever they were doing. I started to become angry - and this not me or my personality. I started yelling loudly and started ordering someone to get in there. I guess I made sufficient fuss as pretty soon this tough unsmiling nurse came in and asked what my problem was.

I told her; " I was supposed to have surgery here. I had surgery here once before and it was a beautiful building and everything was very nice and now you have me down here in the basement in the supply room - what is going on?" "My family is supposed to be in to see me at one o"clock and they won't even be able to find me down here in the basement." She replied; "It is one o'clock in the morning. Your family has been here all night. You have already had your surgery - and you are not in the basement - now go to sleep." (I later found out that I was on something like the 14th floor and it was almost identical to the floor I had my last surgery on. Different circumstances - different perception.)

The next thing I remember was that my whole stomach area really hurt. My cancer doctor had cut me open and gone in to check on the previous operation and move a few pieces around a bit - and best of all find there was no sign of cancer. The Plastic Surgeon went in and cut away the excess flesh and remains of not one hernia but four hernias and tucked everything in neatly and sewed a patch over the entire stomach area. The four hernias are pretty much guaranteed to be from doing things I shouldn't have done - lifting heavy tailgates, third row seats and other acts of lifting. I have an elastic belt that goes over the entire stomach area that I have to wear 24 hours a day for the next six weeks and after that I can take it off only while sleeping.

I was then introduced to five drainage ports which were implanted into five holes in the bottom of my stomach area with clear plastic tubes which dangle down to about my ankles. Attached to each of the tubes are containers called grenades. They are also clear plastic and actually are about the size of a real grenade and they look like a grenade. This is the most awkward and inconvenient things I have ever had to deal with. First - it hurts like Hell every time you take a step or move as this grenade is sewed into the hole in the belly and it has weight and each and any movement causes it to swing back and forth and pull and tug at the sitiches and the hole. It is very awkward to just move or even get dressed. But they help the situation some by a holster that goes around your neck and the grenades now dangle about chest high instead of all the way down your leg. Still hurts, but not as bad. These grenades have to be cleaned and monitored each morning and each night as you measure the amount of fluid in each container until hopefully there is none.

After a few days, I had it down so I could wear this gear up around my shoulders and let them hang down over my chest and you couldn't tell I had anything hanging there. That is mostly because I am so skinny now I could have a watermelon in there and no one would notice.

I had to start walking as this is a requirement with all surgery. I started right away and pushed myself each day to do as much as I possibly could. They brought me a walker and I used it for a couple of days and then parked and made it on my own two legs from then on.

They discharged me from the hospital on the 23rd and Scott and Sheri came on back to Albuquerque the next day. Mary and I went back to The Rotary House, where she had been staying since she came down. We stayed there for the next 7 days until we had our final appointments with both surgeons on the 30th. We were in a very nice hotel which is connected to all the hospital facilities by sky-bridges, so there were plenty of different places to eat and plenty to see. It was a good place to kind of wind down.

On the 30th we had our final two appointments with the doctors, the Cancer doctor at 11:30 and the Plastic Surgeon at 1:00 PM. I had called and warned them that we had to catch a plane later in the day so we couldn't have any massive delays. They told me to come early for the first one and they would work me in. I got there at 10:30 am - an hour early and they were already two hours behind schedule. I did get in finally about noon, I did get in for just a shake of hands and a "Good-Bye", but that was all that was really necessary with the Cancer people. We got in right on schedule with the Plastic Surgeon and they examined everything and removed 3 of the 5 grenades and showed my wife how to remove the other two when we got home. (We removed the last one tonight, and in addition to being three to four feet long on the outside, there was around one foot of tube inside me.) After they removed the 3 in Houston, it was hardly noticeable that I had anything under my shirt. I wondered what would happen if the security guard asked; "What do you have under your shirt?" "Oh nothing - just a couple of grenades."

The last few nights in Houston they had flash flood warnings and tornadeo warnings in the area we were in and even told people to stay off I-45, the interstate to the airport. It is always bumper to bumper in good weather, so in bad weather it is not a place to be. So, while it is completely out of character for me - I made sure we were at the airport around three hours before flight time - just in case. Scott and Sheri met us at the airport in Albuquerque just to lift my suitcases and followed us home to get them in the house. They are really such a blessing - and now because of Scott ,I may become a famous piano player too.

I am pretty well wiped out - just a short trip out to CarMax for a few minutes really did me in for the next day. It is going to take awhile - but I will be back on my feet again. At least I know now that I am not Super Man and am going to have to change my ways a little.

God Bless and thanks for your support and prayers over the past couple of years.

AL

HURRY UP AND WAIT

2009-04-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

While many of you know what has been going on in my life for the past couple of years, I have a few new friends (bet you didn't think I had any friends) who are not aware of this brief history. For that reason, I need to do a little instant replay of the past. I apologize - I don't mean to bore anyone with this little repeat. If you already know about this old stuff - it's okay if you want to just shut your eyes for a few minutes as you read through this stuff you already know. Whenever you get to a part you don't already know about - go ahead and open your eyes again. That is what I do when I read a book that is a little boring. I just shut my eyes as I read a part I don't like and open them again when I get to an exciting part.

In 2007 I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and ended up going to MD Anderson in Houston for treatment and eventually surgery. I spent the month of June and part of July going through radiation treatment and chemo therapy in Houston and was back and forth for examinations and treatment for most of the year. The year ended with surgery - the Whipple procedure - in late October 2007. This was a ten hour surgery where they basically remove everything from the stomach area and put it up on your chest or put it on a shelf or something. I don't know exactly how or what they do as I was not there for the ceremony - I was "out of it". They did tell me that they did cut and throw out a bunch of pieces from my stomach area and tossed them in the trash or something and glued or welded or used duct tape to put everything back together again so everything would work the way it was supposed to. I have always visualized them cutting me open and finding a cache of green chili cheeseburgers, French fries, tacos and other forms of my type of nourishment in the stomach. Whatever they did toss out ended up causing me to lose about 100 pounds. Warning! Don't try this at home!

During 2008 I made a number of trips to Houston for follow up examinations. In fact I have made so many flights on Soutwest Airlines I have been given a Frequent Bathroom pass for any of their flights. This allows me to use any restroom on a Southwest plane as long as it is not already in use. This demonstrates what a great bunch of people they are at Southwest Airlines. As you may know - and I now know, they are kind of well known for the little teeny-weeny bags of peanuts they give passengers on a flight. I remember I felt insulted the first time this SW girl came up and asked; "Do you wanna peanut?" I thought she was referring to me as the "Nut" and was asking me if I wanted to use the restroom.

All of these exams proved I am cancer free - I guess, but all this cutting caused me to develop a huge and painful hernia which covers almost all of my stomach area. My weight loss caused me to kind of look like I had just come out of a concentration camp - a bag of skin and bones. But I had, or I should say I still have, a large protrusion in my stomach area. Now I know how some of you girls feel in the eighth month!

Anyway, the end of the end was supposed to come late in 2008. They scheduled me to go down to Houston in October for preliminary exams, with surgery scheduled for late November. The surgery was to be for fixing this hernia and to go back in to check up on the repair job they did inside my stomach. Rumor has it the Doc is also looking for a few tools he hasn't been able to find since he did my Whipple surgery, so I have an idea he may be looking for those too. I did go down in October for the tests and was all prepared to go back in November for surgery. Unfortunately I have never done too good on tests. A few days after I got home, they called me and told me they had discovered a new aneurysm. (this makes three for me - shows how competitive I am. You got two? I'll see your two and raise you one!) They also found some new blood clots - so they decided to postpone the surgery scheduled for November.

This really messes me up when I have made plans and schedules to accomodate these trips and they change the schedule. For example, as a patient at MD Anderson, I can go down to the basement and get a free haircut. I try to time my need for a haircut around these trips and when they change the schedule it totally messes up my hairdo. Of course it messes me up with other little things like my job, time off, taking out the trash at home, etc. It is very stressful.

They rescheduled me to come back in early 2009 for some more tests and I guess i passed this time, so they invited me to come back for surgery the first part of March. Now I am supposed to have two different surgeons working on me. (I remember when being a two car family was a sign of affluence. I am stating a new trend by being a two surgeon guy.) Anyway, my cancer Doc is supposed to open me up and go down and examine his previous work to see if everything is still hooked up the way it is supposed to be and then a plastic surgeon is supposed to come in with Super Glue - or something and put me all back together again.

Just prior to my surgery date in early March, they called and told me the plastic surgeon was not going to be there on that date (after I had already made arrangements to take time off from work, get someone to take out the trash, get someone to pick up the mail - and of course made plans for a free haircut) so, they rescheduled me to come down the end of March. Just prior to the new re-scheduled date at the end of March, they called and told me my cancer surgeon would not be able to be there on that date - so they rescheduled me for tests starting April 13th and surgery on April 17th.

I now have my fingers crossed that I can get out of town before the phone rings with another cancellation. It isn't that I am looking forward to this little exercise on the operating table, I would just like to get it over with. It's kind of funny, but when I went down the first time it was for a very major surgery and I was not really afraid or apprehensive about anything. I didn't know what to expect, so I was just fat, dumb, and happy about the whole thing. They took care of the fat part right away by lopping off around 100 pounds. And I wasn't all that happy by the time I woke up from the surgery, so that took care of the happy part. However other aspects of my personality remained the same. While this surgery is supposed to be tinker-toys compared to the first surgery, I still have vivid memories of what I went through following the first surgery and I am not at all excited about going through that again.

Sometimes I don't know whether to have fear or joy, but again - still being almost fat, kind of happy and still dumb as a rock - helps me overcome the fear part. I will have to go on lovenox (self administered injections with a long needle in the belly) three days prior to surgery. I had to go to a clinic this morning for all the details and instructions. When I was asked for the details or what had happened and why, the nurse got this wide-eyed startled look on her face. She said; "you had pancreatic surgery in October of 2007 - the survival rate for that is only supposed to be six months." I am sure glad I didn't know that before the six months was up or I might have quit showing up for work. But it has been right a eighteen months now - so I think that she must have had this mixed up with something else. In any event - I don't plan on cashing in for some time yet. I never did read instructions or pay attention too much to the rules. My only fear now is that I might die from extreme old age (I guess - according to others, I have already reached the old age mark) before they finally get me scheduled for this next surgery.

As the date grows near, I am starting to feel the anxiety and pressure - not from the upcoming surgery but from all the little details I have to take care of first. In any event, I guess I'd better stop now and hurry up - so I can wait!

2009-04-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

THIS IS A TEST BLOG TO SEE WHAT THE ADDRESS IS.

I'M JUST A BIG "CUT-UP"

2009-01-14T20:42:00.000-08:00

I went back down to Houston last week and went through the examination process again, and even though the results were exactly the same as they were last time, and even though they cancelled the surgery last time because of the results, they are going to go ahead with the surgery now. I love MD Anderson, but this was one wasted trip - the first one - and it does get to be expensive to just run down to Houston and spend three or four days in a hotel. But on the other hand, the expense is small in relation to the big picture I guess.

I will go back around the first of March and will go through the whole examination process again, including the CAT- Scan and other tests related to the cancer - just to make certain there is no new evidence of cancer. I believe the surgery is scheduled for the 6th and it will start with my cancer surgeon going in to examine things from the cancer surgery - and as he put it; "clean up anything that needs to be cleaned up". I got the impression that he is missing a couple of tools of some kind and wants to see if they might be inside me somewhere. He did remove a good part of my stomach and re-arranged some of the pieces that were left and tried to hook them all up together and get them to function. I guarantee they were not compatible and working together at first. I get this mental picture of duct tape and bailing wire and maybe some small timbers propping things up down there inside me. To be honest - it has sure felt like something like that is down there at times.

When my cancer surgeon is finished - the plastic surgeon is going to come in and make me beautiful - I guess. I get some mental flashes of this process also. Maybe I am going to have a clear plastic stomach so they can examine me easier in the future. Just get some windex and clean off the plastic and look right in. They can watch all the little corpsuckles or - whatever is down there - and make sure they are functioning properly - hopefully marching in step, or whatever they do. They can even see what I had for lunch. No more cheating on my diet. "Don't tell me you had fruit and vegetables for lunch. We see Potato chips, a Big Mac and a taco - who are you trying to fool?"

I guess this surgical experience should be tinker-toys compared to the cancer surgery which lasted almost ten hours, but I am more apprehensive about this one than I was about the cancer surgery. Ignorance is bliss - and I didn't know what to anticipate for the first surgery. I was just fat, dumb and happy about the whole thing. I still don't know what the surgery was all about, but I do have some vivid memories of what the recovery was like - and those are not pleasant memories. I just wish there was some kind of pill I could swallow that would straighten all this out without going through this cutting and recuperation process. But on the other hand, it wasn't too many years ago that they didn't even have the ability to do what they have done for me - so I am very lucky and grateful.

When I was down in Houston, I was reminded - once again, just how very lucky I am. Each time I see people who are so much worse off than I am and most of them have a smile on their face and a great attitude. Many of them are young people too. It is hard to imagine a child or teenager or young person in their early twenties going through something that is a lot more serious than I have to go through in many cases.

In the meantime, my good wife is down, or over, or up - in Egypt somewhere. I have no sense of direction - I get lost in Houston, so don't expect me to have any idea of what direction Egypt is from here. I think the first day between flying and waiting in airports she spent somewhere around 24 hours traveling. I am sure that was a hard day and hope that she holds up okay. She still has some small challenges with her hip replacement - but something like that won't ever keep her from doing what she wants to do. I believe there is a nine hour time difference from here to there - so I guess it is already tomorrow there. I might show up at the airport to pick her up on the wrong day - if today is supposed to be tomorrow or tomorrow is supposed to be yesterday - who knows! I should have just given her cab fare I guess.

After spending a few years in the automobile business - I just can't help but to relate myself to some of these cars I see each day. You can buy the fanciest most expensive car they build, but after a certain number of years and miles it starts to break down and wear out. You can fix the engine - or even do an engine transplant - but other parts that may be worn are not always compatible with that new engine. And, even if they are compatible, there are lots of different parts to break down even after you get the engine fixed. I see myself now as having had a major component of my engine fixed, but I know right now that I have a little rust in some areas of the body, need some work done on my under-carriage and springs and probably have some wiring that needs to be patched up or replaced. But fortunately I am not leaking any fluids at this time - except when I barely scrape my hand on something the blood flows like water for several days. The good news is that if I can hold on for awhile - I might even be considered a "Classic" and be worth even more than I am today.

I will probably give you one more account prior to going back to Houston if anything worth reporting happens.

God Bless and wishes for a great 2009!!

AL

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2008-12-09T16:11:00.000-08:00

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

HOUSTON TRIP RESULTS

2008-10-12T05:31:00.000-07:00

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

Count Down To Houston

2008-09-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

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

UPDATE ON HEALTH ISSUES AT HURT HOUSEHOLD

2008-09-10T20:56:00.000-07:00

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

THE PAINS OF HURT

2008-07-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

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.

THE FINAL JOURNEY

2008-06-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

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!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

2008-05-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

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

UPDATE FROM ALBUQUERQUE

2008-05-05T19:09:00.000-07:00

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.

UPDATE ON CANCER AND RELATED NEWS

2008-04-10T15:51:00.000-07:00

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

ANNIVERSARY

2008-02-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

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!

Going, going, gone !

2008-02-03T13:22:00.000-08:00

If you read the Albuquerque Journal, you just saw this exact same headline a couple of days ago - Going, going, gone! I want you to know - I did not copy their headline. I had actually started putting this blog entry together before this issue of the paper was printed. In fact, if anything, they probably stole it from me. I do have this problem from time to time where different elements of corporate America spy on me to get some of my better ideas and then claim them for their own. I do, after all, have such an abundance of these ideas.

Actually, the Journal was making reference to Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards dropping out of the primary races. My reference was along the same lines but more of an appeal.

I was going to ask you - and will ask you at this time - to be aware, and keep your eyes open over the next seven or eight months, and if you should all of a sudden come across a little pile of clothing in the middle of the sidewalk - a pair of trousers, socks and underwear, a Denver Bronco sweatshirt, and a cap - please stop for just a few seconds and give this little pile of rubbish a brief moment of reverence as opposed to just dumping it in the trash.

This little bit of clutter on the sidewalk - just might be me - or what is left of me. Everything else will have evaporated. So, I am kind of like Giulani and Edwards. They are dropping out of the primary race. I am getting close to dropping out of the human race!

My last blog entry on December 30th, I gave a report of my weight loss and how it had come down from around 250 to 172 in a little less than a year. Now it is down to 158 - or I am losing about 1/2 pound per day - on average. That is why - in six or seven months there will not be anything left of me but my belt buckle and the other remenents mentioned above.

As I mentioned in my last entry - the recovery period has been the very toughest past of the process for me, and while I should be bouncing off the walls and ceiling with joy because the surgery was so absolutely successful and all of the cancer has been removed, I find myself in the grumpy negative frame of mind because of all I am going through with the recovery. This is the main reason for the delay in getting this blog entry out - I hate negative and am not really interested in writing all of you - whom I consider my favorite people and best friends and complaining.

The loss of weight has caused a loss of energy as well and I just feel guilty when I sit around the house not ccomplishing anything. I used to never watch TV and I am now becoming an expert. I have even figured out which of the four different remotes does what. I have watched the political rubbish and that is enough to make you so sick you wouldn't notice anything else.

I have worried about the weight loss - after all it has to stop some place short of the belt buckle and Bronco shirt - and I have gone to my own doctors here. I have had numerous blood tests, x-rays, EKG's, and everything checks out okay. And the doctors all say I am doing great. How can I be doing great when I am evaporating away into thin air? It is just all part of the process - I guess. I finally decided enough was enough when I passed out at home a couple of times. First time I was here alone, the second time Mary was here and heard me come crashing down in the hallway. The second time I went down backwards and put a nasty lump on the back of my head when I hit a cabinet with my head. Right away, my good wife who is always on the spot, decided we needed an ice bag on my head. We haven't had an ice bag in the house for years - we never need one. Without a moment's hesitation, she was up and back with this nice cool sensation on the back of my head - a bag of mixed frozen vegitables. Next time I get a haircut I will need to remember to ask the barber to trim the corn around my ears. (You might like it if he would also trim some of the corn around my blog entries - sorry about that.)

There are a couple of other factors that affect me and might not affect everyone else. I am not a good patient. I go to the doc and they want to put me in the hospital and after arguing they agree to let me come home if I promise to stay home for two weeks. Three days later I am feeling better - so I go to work. The doc gives me a bottle of pills and both the doc and the bottle tell me to continue to take the pills until they are gone, After three or four days I am feeling better - no more pills. With my current problem it doesn't seem that it ever gets better and if it does it is in microscopic elements. I never get to the point where I can ignore the doctor's advice.

This past week I hve gone to two more doctors - an Endocrinologist and a Gastroenterologist. They both told me how great I was doing and one of them told me I had just gone through the most serious surgery you can have and 25% of the people who have this surgery don't survive. I mentioned this last time - they keep reminding me of this. I guess it is to make me grateful for being alive - which I definately am. So - What do I have to complain about? They are going to take me back in and put me under and go back in through my throat and check evrything out again just to make sure there isn't a bottle cap or a chicken wing or something down there that is fouling up the works.

Another major thing, which maybe only affects me, is something I never thought about. Before I was dignosed with cancer - I was an old man by a lot of people's standards. However - I didn't know that. I worked with young people - some young enough to be my children and some even young enough to be my grandchildren. I loved it - I enjoyed working and socializing with these people - they were fun and they kept me young. As long as I could avoid looking in a mirror as a reminder that I was just an ugly old man - I got along fine. Life was good, I enjoyed life, I loved these people I worked with and happiness was all around. And of course I also enjoyed dealing with people my own age and even older. I just enjoy people - period.

That person that I was and enjoyed being is dead now. He no longer exists. I am still an old man but I am aware of the fact that I am an old man every moment I am awake. Maybe it was time I grew up and acted my age but I don't want to be hung up in the closest some place until they decide to get rid of me. I know - this whole thing is stupid - but it has been one of the hardest things for me to deal with. I am used to getting up and going to work and inter-acting with people all day - I have done this all my life. Now, I am pretty much stuck at home and I crave just being with people. I look like someone from a third world country who gets a cup a rice once a month.

But - it is all going to get better - I am confident of that. I have started back on the exercise program and will have the procedure down my throat, go back to Houston in April - and there will be rebirth of Superman - fear not!!!!

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It has been almost a year now and you have been my fantastic friends and supporters and have made a huge positive difference in my attitude and recovery. The blog has been fun for me and it has also been very theraputic for me. As we wind down with cancer news, I will keep you inofrmed as best I can, but I will continue to do a blog on some other subjects and try to make it a fun thing. I will let you know when it will be coming - if you like it (which I hope you will) great, if not - that is okay too. I will still love you!!!!

AL

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

2007-12-30T16:45:00.000-08:00

A belated Merry Christmas and a very happy and successful New Year to all of you!!!

Sorry for the time it has taken me to get this latest blog entry out - December has been a tough month for me. Actually, it has been the toughest part of the whole process - and it doesn't make any sense.

The reason it doesn't make any sense for December to be the toughest month is that my son Scott, and I, just returned from Houston on December 20th from a follow up check up and the news was great! All of the doctors were genuinely excited about the results of the tests we had this time. Everything is perfect! All internal repairs have healed properly and the best news is there is no more cancer. As a result of this report, there will not be any more chemotherapy (Thank God) unless something else turns up, which they don't expect.

This is absolutely fantastic news - what more could a person want? I guess until we were down there and actually face to face with the doctors, I wasn't all that sure that everything was okay. The recovery period has really been tough on me.

In fact at one point I scheduled appointments with my own primary care doctor and pulmonary doctor here in Albuquerque as I was certain that something dreadful was wrong. They both examined me, took x-rays, had lab work and both said everything was fine. They both emphasized that I had gone through a very major surgery and considering what I had gone through - everything was great. In fact, they both kind of treated me like some kind of a hero. The pulmonary doctor told me that a lot of people don't survive this surgery. I am sure happy I didn't discuss this with him before the surgery. My primary care doctor is a wonderful person and a wonderful doctor. He is Navajo and has practiced medicine for some time and is very knowledgeable and always takes plenty of time to explain in detail everything about your condition. He said he had patients who had almost every kind of surgical procedure including some of the most extreme involving heart and pulmonary, but he never had a patient who had gone through this particular surgery called the Whipple Procedure. I was his first! He even called me a hero!

Since being discharged from the hospital and coming home for recovery, I have experienced one of the most miserable times in my life. I have had a lot of pain from the incision on my stomach which was nearly 50 staples, then there was a lot of internal surgery where they removed a big part on the pancreas, a large part of the small intestine, my gall bladder and several other things they discovered and didn't know what to do with. Then to do all of this, they had to spread my rib cage apart and that left me with a really sore frontal area which went all the way around to my back.

I worried a lot about all the pain I had and couldn't help but relate what I had gone through to another experience of mine. I am not a handyman. On occasion I have had to try to fix a leaky pipe under the sink or somewhere else in the house. The routine is (1) try to find the tools I need. This is usually a one to two hour process as I finally end up finding the pair of pliers I am looking for in a kitchen drawer because my wife has decided that is a handy place for her to find them when she needs them. Then the nice long screwdriver - it has obviously been used to stir paint and is in a corner in the garage and the crescent wrench is laying exactly where someone dropped it when the finished using it six months ago. (2) go to hardware store to get parts I will need to fix leak. (3), (4), (5) repeat step (2) as I return to hardware store because I got the wrong part or it didn't fit or something else caused it to be a rejection. (6) crawl into a little space under the sink through a door that was made to accommodate a midget, twist around until you are on your back facing the repair job you need to make, your back is killing you because you have your spine resting on the edge of the bottom of the shelf, and now that your are facing the work to be done, you realize your arms are still outside the little cubby hole you have forced yourself into. (7) extract yourself and with careful study and calculations get your arms and tools inside the little space below the sink and start the repair job. (8) let wrench slip at least one time and come crashing down on the bridge of your nose or your forehead, disconnect old pipe and allow stagnant water to pour down on your face and then call your wrench, the sink, and anything else in site - all kinds of horrible names. (9) Complete repair job and extract yourself from the cubby hole and look in bathroom mirror with a sense of pride as you have fixed the leak and it only took nine hours. (10) turn on the faucet and watch as your shoes get wet and everything under the sink is now soaked as water is spraying from six different directions from the one pipe you just fixed. (11) call the damn plumber! He is only going to charge $300.00 but he can't get to you until next Wednesday and you will have to take the day off because he can't say exactly when he will be there - sometime between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm.

Now every time my belly would start hurting - which was almost constantly, I couldn't help but wonder if something might have come loose down there or if something was leaking. They did some major repair work - creating new connections, moving things from one place to another, etc. Did they use enough duct tape, did they tie a double knot on the string, did they get the right pipes connected? They closed me up and didn't leave a window to check on how things were going down there. With my own personal experiences with plumbing mishaps - can you blame me for wondering?

When I first came home they gave me an ample supply of pain medication with few restrictions on using it. I used it extensively for about the first ten days but I didn't like the side affects. I was having goofy dreams, waking up thinking I was in conversation with someone who wasn't even there and then remembering things and not being able to tell if this was one of my dreams or if it actually happened. The pain medicine also made me very lethargic. I was content to sit in a chair all day long and just stare off into space. I didn't want to do anything. I didn't even want to eat. I was very happy to just sit there until I dozed off. I didn't like anything about the pain medicine except it was great for eliminating the pain. But, I decided I would rather deal with the pain than the side affects, so discontinued the pain pills.

In addition to the pain from the surgery, I have a bad back and I just can not lay on my back for more than a few minutes without my back killing me. It is like a body sized tooth ache. When I was in the hospital I was in a hospital bed which hurt my back - but I was on the pain pills and even had an IV that I could turn on any time I wanted to which would increase the pain medication. From the time I was discharged - November 5th, until December 20th - 45 days total, I did not sleep in a bed. I had to sleep in a recliner chair. I could not sleep on either side or my stomach because of the stitches, and my back was now worse than it had ever been because of pulling my ribs apart. The recliner chair was not perfect - in fact I would wake up roughly every hour to hour and a half - but the bed was impossible. This whole thing added to me being tired most of the time too.

The big issue has been my weight. Weight has always been a BIG issue with me, but a little different than what I am dealing with now. Where do you think some unkind person came up with the name - "FAT ALBERT" ? One day someone saw me going into the Post Office and said - "There goes Fat Albert - Hey - that would be a great name for a cartoon character on TV." Another time some big shot military types saw me at the airport and said - "There goes Fat Albert - Hey - that would be a great nickname for that big clumsy looking slow airplane we have in the fleet." Now I am getting even - they are going to have to cancel the TV cartoon and put the airplane in the junk yard. An abbreviated diary of my weight is as follows:

250 - When tumor was first discovered - Feb16th, 2007

245 - First visit to MD Anderson in Houston - Mid May

237 - After two weeks of daily chemotherapy twice a day plus radiation once a day

232 - After 4 eight hour sessions of chemotherapy in Albuquerque

227 - Night before surgery in Houston

209 - Day I was discharged from hospital in Houston

189 - After two weeks recovery at home

179 - Houston on December 20th

172 - Today - December 30th

My weight loss has been just a little under 80 pounds during this time. I have had little to no appetite, almost any food I think about eating just doesn't taste good at all and I can't eat it, and almost anything I eat almost immediately causes pain in my stomach. This adds to my tiredness and lack of interest in doing anything - including things I normally really enjoy doing - like this blog. I also apologize to many of you for not being too responsive to emails since the first of December. I have just been wiped out. Finally I came in one day and discovered I had more than 500 unread emails. I am so very sorry and hope I haven't offended anyone - I have just not had the ambition to do even something so simple as that.

A year ago - 2006 my wife was in London to celebrate New Year's Eve with her granddaughter. I was at home by myself taking care of all the chores, feeding sheep, milking the cows, cooking, sewing, domesticating all over the place. Also at this time we had a record breaking snow fall. We had between 16 and 18 inches of snow at my house. I am sure that amount of snow does not impress many of you, but for Albuquerque - it is a whole bunch. As I said - it was a record breaking snow fall.

Exactly one year ago today, I went out on the drive way and slipped and fell hard on my left knee. This was a knee that needed surgery but they had not done the surgery because of an aneurysm they found behind that knee and an aortic aneurysm they found in my chest. In any event - I now had all this snow to deal with and a knee that was hurting.

They next day - New Year's Eve (while my wife was in London enjoying all the sites, watching the fire works, enjoying champagne, living the life) I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico shoveling snow. As an old farm boy, I wasn't going to mess around with one of those sissy aluminum snow shovels that you would send your wife out with - no way. I had me a big old scoop shovel that you use to move grain with in big heaping loads. I started putting heaping loads of snow on my trusty scoop shovel and hurling the load out into the middle of the street like a man should do. Now this snow was wet so these loads were even heavier than they normally would be. There was a snap - then a sharp pain and then the left arm went limp - as I tore a muscle in my left arm.

New Year's Day - I went to work and we had something like 300 cars we had to move and practically park on top of each other so we could plow the rest of the lot and then move the cars back. Right in front on the show room on the concrete apron, one of my co-workers slipped on the ice and started to go down. I grabbed for him and both of my feet went straight up in the air and I came down on the concrete on the back of my head. Those who were there said my head bounced off the concrete at least six to eight inches.

I spent New Year's day in the emergency room. Did I mention that at this very moment - my wife was in London having a good time while I was in pain in the emergency room?

So, 2007 did not start off in a very positive manner from my point of view. But this wasn't the end. I had been having this shooting pain in my chest for several weeks and finally decided it wasn't going to go away. In fact I started to become a tiny bit nervous about it. So I called the cardiac doctor and left a message that I was concerned there was a problem with my aneurysm. It took his nurse a week or ten days to call back but she said there was no problem. If it was my aneurysm, she said, I would be on the floor. She said she thought it was a hernia and to call my primary care doctor. I left a message with my primary care doctor and it didn't take his nurse long to call me back. I was having lunch with a co-worker and they had just delivered this huge hamburger with french fries and a beer when my cell phone rang. The nurse said they were sure it was my heart because of my medical record. We argued a bit as I assured her it wasn't my heart, but she insisted and told me to get to the emergency room immediately. Are you kidding me? They just brought my hamburger, fries and beer. She called back almost immediately and wanted to know if I had someone to drive me and we got into
another argument as I insisted that I would drive myself and I would go slow.

The date of this little episode was February 16th - just shortly after the start of the year, and I will always remember that date because that is the day of my son Scott's birthday. On this day I spent 7 hours in the emergency room and this is the day they discovered the tumor on my pancreas which turned out to be cancer.

With this kind of beginning in the first 45 days of the year, it would be easy to just give up and go under cover for the rest of the year. However, even though they discovered I had cancer early in the year, this in itself was a blessing and even though I went through some pain and suffering with the treatment prior to surgery, then the surgery, and now the recovery - these events from start to finish have been filled with blessings. First they found the cancer, next I discovered MD Anderson, I had successful chemotherapy and radiation treatment in Houston and in Albuquerque, I had the best of the best for surgeons, I survived the surgery and the very last thing in the report that everything is great and they got all the cancer.

God Bless my family, all of you and hundreds of people - many I don't even know who have made this a truly blessed year for me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!!

OPERATION - "OPERATION" (?)

2007-11-13T07:54:00.000-08:00

Whenever the FBI or CIA or even the Sheriff's office has any kind of a major activity or event - they call it an operation. They don't just say; "The FBI had an activity last Saturday night and arrested 100 people and confiscated ten tons of drugs". No Sir - it was an operation! I guess this means it was a coordinated event involving a lot of people who all hoped for the same outcome - or something like that. Therefore, in my opinion - my operation is entitled to be referred to as an "Operation". If we were in a Military setting right now we could be talking in code with great secrecy and suspense about - "OPERATION - OPERATION".

HA! - There is certainly nothing very exciting about my operation. We have been discussing my cancer since we fist started going down to Houston in May and you folks have held my hand and kind of led me through this frightening part of life with your love and support. You have all been so very special and important to me as we added one step or phase to the last one. Finally the day did come for the operation and I guess we need to share this event then close the book on this chapter of my life.

I have been a little reluctant to even talk about this last part for several reasons. First, I now realize that many folks - including some of you, have had issues in your lives - including medical issues, that have been so much more severe and challenging than mine. This makes me understand and appreciate how kind you have been to me but also makes me feel like a big wimp for even talking about my issues.

Another problem about talking about the operation is that I wasn't there! Well, of course I was there, but I don't remember squat about the event. I could have been on a trip to the moon for all I knew. I do believe that family members who are close to me took advantage of this opportunity to conspire against me with all the rules and regulations the doctors supposedly passed on to them to enhance my well being during recovery. Like - get up each morning - put hand-cuffs on patient, give stale dry cereal for breakfast and warm brown water (coffee substitute) for nourishment. Convince patient that he would rather listen to gospel music than watch football on TV. Continuously remind patient that he is not allowed to drive automobile for at least another two weeks leaving him with a feeling of helplessness.

It is true I don't remember much and what I do remember is possibly not accurate. I remember going into surgery at night. My son, Scott, remembers taking me in at 5:00 am for surgery and I am sure he is correct.

This was a major surgery with lots of cutting and sewing and clamping etc. This also included a lot of drugs - morphine, codeine and other pain medicines. I have never been through anything like this before and I didn't like it too much. All of a sudden you are dealing with events that are in your mind but are not real. They seem so real it is really a shock when you finally find out it isn't real.

I believe the surgery was around ten hours and they removed a good part of my small intestine and some other parts that seemed to be unnecessary and clamped me back together. I was in intensive care for a couple of days then put in with the main population.

When I was moved into my own room, I mentioned to my Doctor the weird and frightening experience I had in the surgery room. I told him it seemed so real that I was shocked. It was like a dream - I dreamed I was in a nice grey pin striped suite - which I know I was not. I am sure you have seen the heavy duty packaging tape that is like clear plastic and reinforced by little strands of wire or thread to make it stronger. I remember my hands being bound together at the wrist with this tape and I remember twisting and trying so hard to break loose from this tape. I remember hearing voices in the next room and yelling out; "Help me!" and, "Can you hear me?". over and over again. I remember yanking at a hose about three feet long and pulling that hose out of my nose.

As I explained all of this to the doctor he just smiled at me and was very patient and kind. I was embarrassed and apologized and told him I hoped I had not caused any kind of a problem with this wild dream. He very kindly and gently said; "That's okay - don't worry about it. It happens sometimes - you didn't know what to expect." I said; "You don't mean that I actually did and said those things!" He just said - "It's okay - don't worry about it." I guess proof that this actually happened is evident by a big chunk that is missing out of the top part of my left nostril when I pulled the hose out of my nose.

I was moved into a private room where I spent something like the next 20 days. MD Anderson is a nice, new, modern facility which probably has everything that anyone one else has and then some. It is still a hospital room! I was in a lot of pain for the first week and Scott actually stayed there and slept in a chair several nights and then Mary took over and stayed for several nights. - I JUST HAVE TO SAY IT ONE MORE TIME - MY FAMILY IS SO WONDERFUL AND HAVE DONE SO MUCH FOR ME AND WORKED SO HARD TO HELP ME BEAT THE CANCER RAP. I AM SO VERY, VERY LUCKY AND LOVE ALL OF THEM SO VERY ,VERY MUCH! This includes all members of my family. My sons, John Leslie in Dallas and Andrew down in Florida, were not able to physically be in Houston for most of this process, but their abundance of love, care and concern was felt and appreciated. My dear 94 year old Mother, my brother, brother-in-law, sister-in-laws, cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, grandchildren - everyone of you was more powerful medicine than anything they did on the operating table or anything they could put in a bottle.

At the hospital I continued to have these very real dreams that really shook me up when I realized what was happening. I would be having a very pleasant conversation with someone I knew and it was so real - it was like they were sitting right in front of me. The conversation would reach a point where I would need to take some physical action - give them a business card, write a check, get their address, etc. I would start feeling around on my lap on my chest - anyplace for what I was looking for and suddenly open my eyes to a pitch dark room with no one in it but me. That is really freaky! It really did upset me when this would happen because of the immediate confusion it would cause for me.

(I did come up with one fairly reasonable theory. Because I had such a few friends when I was younger - maybe this is a way to invent friends I could not have had otherwise just to compensate for this lack of love and friendship in the past.)

At the hospital we would be awakened at least six to eight times each night to check blood, oxygen, heart rate, tire pressure or anything else they could plug into. It was hard to get to sleep in the first place and then they would peek through the door and as soon as you closed your eyes, "Okay - Mr. Hurt, we need to check your blood." "But someone else just checked it - you passed them in the doorway as you were walking in. My blood is tired - it needs some sleep."

In our spare time when we were not having our blood checked, they wanted us to exercise. I have something like 40 staples in my stomach, my back hurts, I am having conversations in my room with people who do not exist - and they want me to exercise! The exercise routine was to walk laps. There is this big nurses station right in the middle of the floor with patient rooms all the way around it. We were supposed to take our little tree with the tubes and wires and push this little tree around in this circle to get our exercise. I had a little trouble with this until I started pretending it was a NASCAR event and my car had to pass everyone else. Once I got a little competition involved it made it more interesting.

I proved you can never be too careful. If you aren't careful, one of these days when you least expect it, something will jump up out of the bush and bite you. Example; Some years ago for some event - maybe Christmas - my wife bought me some slippers. Now these aren't just any ordinary slippers - they are bright red fuzzy slippers. Looks like I have a bright red baby lamb on each foot as I stroll down the hall. Whenever I got this gift I quickly decided it was no big deal. I never wear slippers anyway, so I could just kind of slide these someplace where they would not exist and this would be easier than trying to have a discussion about why real men do not wear bright red fuzzy slippers. Little did I dream at the time that one day these bright red slippers would end up in my suit case headed for the hospital where I would be wearing them in front of everyone.

It is bad enough that everyone has to look at the open back side of your nightgown while you are doing your laps, but to call every one's attention to it with your red slippers is way too much. I am out there trying to win a race and this one guy from Jacksonville , Florida kept un-nerving me with comments about my red slippers. I just came here for a little operation, now I need counseling for this personality defect I have discovered.

The last week of October I was released from the hospital to the Rotary House Marriott which is just across the street from MD Anderson. Went in on 27th and had the balance of the staples removed and was released to come home on November 1st. That was a tough day - just packing for a trip, getting the tickets, boarding passes, rental car, suitcases, etc - is a choir. Mary had to do all of this by herself as I was ordered not to lift anything more than three pounds. It was a super tough day for her as she moved around like the energizer bunny. Lots of bumps on the streets, to the airport, on the runway and even in the sky - made trip pretty rough for me. I did spend almost all day Friday in bed and am still hurting, but it will get better.

One final note for those of you who have known me for awhile. Night before last I weighed in at 203 pounds. That is what I weighed in high school! I was right at 250 to 260 when I started this journey in May. I looked in the mirror the other night and just couldn't figure it all out until I realized that the big bulge I was used to seeing on the front of my shirts was not part of the pattern. That bulge was created as the shirt slid down over my front side. Now it is straight up and down from chin to belt. Isn't that exciting? NO! Now I see this old man with all this loose skin who looks like a scare crow. Just can't seem to win!

I will be back in touch - don't know when or how - but do once again thank each and every one of you for making my life enjoyable and worth living because of your friendship.

AL

FINALLY - IT'S ALL OVER - I AM A SURVIVOR!!

2007-11-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

Thank God for everything good in my life and especially the past eight months during this battle with cancer. As I look back over these months there are maybe a thousand different stories - some very short, that have meant much to me and from which I have learned so much about myself and life in general. In the next few weeks as I sit around doing nothing,I will share some of these stories with you. I have said many times that I have been so abundantly blessed in so many ways that I almost feel the disease of cancer was in itself a blessing to me as it became a tool to wake me up to so many things I was ignoring or neglecting. One of the most recent blessings came yestereay when I had my final review with the doctors at MD Anderson. First, my operation was a great success and all cancer has been remvoed from my body at this time. Second, all of the signs and indicators for a very successful recovery are present. And, most important, I learned for the first time ever that MD Anderson only accepts 7% of all applicants for this surgery and I was lucky enough to be one of the few that was accepted.

I have learned that every day is a new day with new surprises, and while some of these surprises may seem to be disappointments on the surface, they are often new opportunities and joys which have just been disguised as disappointments. If we face these events in a positive manner and accept them we soon find they were not designed to be disappointments but blessings.

Yesterday was the final day at MD Anderson. We have checked out and are now in the hotel for the balance of the week. We go back on Friday for a final examination and then back to Albuqueruqe on Saturday or Sunday. I won't be doing much as their recovery program calls for one week of recovery for every day in the hospital, which in my case will mean around 15 to 16 weeks of recovery. I will be pretty well limited during this time as I am on a strict diet and no heavy activity (no lifting of anything more than five pounds). For once I am seriously listening to the instructions as I do not want to go through what I have just been through again. In any event, I will be getting more blog entries out within the next few days to bring you up to date.

Thanks to all of you who blessed me with your thoughts and prayers. My apologies for not responding to those of you who wrote or called. I was pretty much out of it for the past couple of weeks.

I AM A SURVIVOR!!!!!

AL

Starting day 5 (after surgery) [from Scott]

2007-10-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

Even though I'm writing this instead of my Dad, he is reading your comments so please continue to feel free to respond. Your support is much appreciated!

We've had some pretty rough nights. One of Dad's problems is that he has always had back pain from being in bed for long periods of time. The epidural pain medication is amazingly targeted to specific area and it doesn't help the back pain at all. So occasionally extra medication is needed to make that tolerable.

The folks at MD Anderson are very focused on pain management and are always quick to respond. It's not pain free but at least it's manageable.

Dad has been up and walking laps around the patient area for several days now pushing along his tree full of IVs and monitors with wire and tubes everywhere.

Today they decided his blood oxygen level is high enough without supplemental oxygen that he no longer needs to use the supplemental oxygen. That's one set of tubes down! Actually, his oxygen saturation levels are better than before the surgery I think.

We've been taking turns staying in the room at night and typically you're lucky to get 30 to 45 minutes in between being woke up.

Every day Dad looks notably better then the last. The Surgeon came in today with an associate and told us that the lymph nodes and the "margins" (cutting area where they removed the tumor mass) were cancer cell free. That means it looks like a clean removal and that there wasn't any local spreading of the cancer. All very good news.

Now we try to get of the pain medication and wait for the digestive system to wake up so he can start taking liquid food by mouth. We'll have to watch the blood sugar and see how that works out too.

Cheers,
Scott

Surgery update from MD Anderson [from Scott]

2007-10-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this entry because my Father isn't able to yet, and we thought we'd better pass on some status.

Dad had to start fasting Saturday night and we checked into the surgery area around 5 AM on Monday morning. We were able to spend a little time with him, but it was a pretty busy room with about 12 people being prepped for surgery in this first group. They wheeled him back about 7 AM and the surgery started at 8 AM. First they used an laproscopic scope to look at the outside of his stomach to make sure the cancer hadn't spread. It hadn't so they proceeded with the surgery.

We received updates about every 2 hours and finally the surgeon spoke with us when he was done at about 6 PM. Everything went very well. Several biopsies they performed of other areas such as the liver turned up negative. The tumor itself was largely dead tissue from the previous radiation and chemotherapy treatments. They did have to remove a little part of one vein that the tumor was touching, but they were able to sew it back together without needing to reconstruct it with a vein from his leg.

The told us it would take 3 to 5 days for them to check the tissue they removed to make sure that there were no cancerous cells where they cut, which would indicate that they may have left some behind. They believe they had a clean removal.

Dad was in the recovery area receiving dedicated care until about noon the next day (today) when he was moved to a regular room. He's pretty uncomfortable, with a fair amount of pain, even with the epidural pain medication and he has a lot of tubes and wires hooked up to him as well. Right now they are mostly concerned with his breathing and recovering from the effects of being under anesthesia that long.

They hope to be able to get him on his feet soon to help with recovery, but he won't be able to start taking anything by mouth for another day or two.

Once he is feeling up to it, he may dictate an entry to me.

Cheers,
Scott

P.S. My Dad's insurance has decided that if he needs any more CAT scans that he should use the economy method (pictured as follows).

2007-10-20T00:38:00.000-07:00

Pancreaticoduodenectomy

This is what is going to happen to me! If I had known this I wouldn't have come!

This means they are going to do a surgical procedure to remove part of the pancreas and part of the small intestine. They may also remove part of the main artery if they find cancer has spread to it.

They gave me a booklet to tell me what was going to happen. It is a good thing they gave me the booklet at the end of the program instead of the first part. It says; "You will have tubes placed during surgery, a jetunostomy tube (J-tube) and a gastrostomy tube (G-tube). A J-tube is a feeding tube that is inserted through the abdomen and into the small intestine. The J-tube is used until you are able to get enough nutrition by mouth. (I don't get any food until the fourth day and that will be clear liquids. My "last supper" will be Saturday night, so that means no food from Saturday night until clear liquids on Thursday. I can hardly wait!) The G-tube is inserted into the stomach and acts as a vent to help control nausea and vomiting. An epiduran lines or tube will be placed in the lower back to give a continuos dose of pain medicine and a tube will be put down my throat to assist in breathing. I will look like a Christmas tree with all these cords hanging from my body - but no lights. I sure hope there is an Angel on the top of the tree.

Most patients stay in the hospital 6 to 14 days. I wonder why?

In addition to this booklet that scares the living daylights out of me, I had to read and sign a form that says I understand all of the potential complications and side-affects, including death!

I thought I was coming down here this time for a visit with the Surgeon prior to surgery. I thought I was going to either be bored stiff or get into a lot of trouble with six days to kill between seeing the surgeon and the operation. No such luck! Today - Friday, is the first day I have had off. I have spent six to eight hours at the hospital each day this week. I had to meet with the Internal Medicine doctor, I had to meet with the Anesthesialogist, I had to make two trips to the lab for blood work and then yesterday I had to spend two hours getting a doplar exam so they could check out and measure all the veins in my legs. They are going to harvest these veins to replace veins they have to cut in my abdomen.

I had forced myself not to think about this surgery and I am glad I didn't have all this information before or I might have gone South. But, I am a tough old ugly guy - so not too much will change I guess. I will still be old, I probably won't be as tough for awhile, and I can't get much uglier - so not too much to change.

I guess I won't be communicating too much in any form for a few days, so I want to thank all of you once again for your support during this past ten months or so. Your friendship has been the best medicine I could ever ask for.

AL

READY FO SURGERY

2007-10-10T06:22:00.000-07:00

This will be a quick note just to bring you up to date, and will probably be my last Blog entry for thirty days or so.

Finally got everything cleared. The vascular surgeon here in Albuquerque said there is no problem with my aneurysm as far as surgery is concerned. He feels surgery for the cancer is over-riding any potential problem with the heart. He has conveyed this message to MD Anderson and everything is ready to go - unless we run into another snag of some sort.

I will go to Houston next Tuesday, the 16th, meet with the surgeon the 17th, meet with the rest of the team for prep on Thursday and Friday and go into surgery Monday the 22nd. It is anticipated that I will be in the hospital for ten days and need to stay in Houston until around November 6th. I will come home for a period of recovery with at least one trip back to Houston for follow up sometime in November.

I made it through the radiation and chemotherapy and other procedures with some discomfort, but nothing major. I avoided thinking about the surgery and will continue to try to not think about it. It doesn't sound like it is going to be a pleasant experience, but I know some of you have gone through this kind of thing - and much worse in some cases. I am really not a baby - just a coward!

Right now I have to remind myself that the most unpleasant fact I have to deal with is the fact that too many people know I am a Denver Bronco fan. How embarrassing! However I have found a solution to this problem. When people give me a bad time about being a Bronco fan, I just say; "Oh - I thought you asked if I was a Rockie fan." How about those Rockies!!!!

Anyway - there is no turning back now. Whatever happens is going to happen and I am ready for it. Thanks to all of you for your fantastic support, your thoughts and your prayers and love.

I love you all and will be back to see you soon!

AL

GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS

2007-10-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

GOOD NEWS: My last Blog entry was full of good news as far as I am concerned. My cancer is very much under control and I am in a position to have the affected part of the pancreas removed. In addition, it is GOOD NEWS as far as I am concerned that MD Anderson functions the way they do. They gave me radiation and chemotherapy up front to kill as many cancer cells as possible so cancer cells wouldn't spread when they operate. Also, I have talked to many who had surgery before chemo and radiation treatments, and they were too weak to undergo the chemo and radiation treatments after surgery. I am a tough old guy and it was difficult for me to make it through these treatments. I can't imagine doing this while trying to recuperate from surgery. Another element of GOOD NEWS once again relates to the MD Anderson method of doing business. They hold committee meetings with all the people potentially related to the problem to discuss the case. My case came up in the committee meeting, and I was told there were approximately sixteen to seventeen people involved, including five or six surgeons.

The BAD NEWS is that during the committee meeting everyone was quite excited and pleased with my progress and condition as far as the cancer issue is concerned. However, the CAT-Scan revealed that my aortic aneurysm had increased in size and there was a presence of at least one small blood clot. I was supposed to leave for Houston today to visit with the surgeon and prepare for surgery for the cancer. Obviously the trip has been cancelled and I now have an appointment on Thursday with a vascular surgeon here in Albuquerque. The aneurysm must be taken care of before the cancer surgery can be considered and I have a short window of approximately ninety days maximum to get this done.

Another piece of GOOD NEWS was a letter I received yesterday in response to the appeal I filed on the visits that Presbyterian had said they were not going to pay - because "They were not in the system". The appeals people said they were closing my case because Presbyterian had gone ahead and paid all charges. I am sure this is because of the lady who is acting as my Advocate, because Presbyterian's attitude has totally changed. Anyway - that is very good news to me also.

In addition to the GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS related to my health, I had some something else happen which I will put into the GOOD NEWS category. My cousin Bill and his wife Jean went out of their way to come through Albuquerque yesterday to pay us a short visit. Bill and I are the same age - which also means he is a young man, and we were in the same class all the way through school starting in about the third grade. They live in the state of Washington and I think I have probably only seen Bill twice in the past thirty years. It was really good to see Bill and Jean, even though the visit was short. I am afraid I wasn't much of a host because of everything else that was going through my head, but it was a good visit anyway.

Our grandfather Hurt was dead before either Bill or I was born, so neither of us knows too much about him. He was a prominent man and listed in the "Who's Who" for the state of Colorado. He was supposed to be very wealthy and lost most of his wealth on his death bed, as he died during the great depression. He owned a lot of land in Colorado and he had a ranch in New Mexico. I had planned to visit the old ranch site which is down around Elephant Butte, but never got around to doing it. Bill went on the Internet trying to locate the present owners, the location, etc. Bill discovered that the new Space Port, which is partially owned by the owner of Virgin Airlines, is located on the land that was our grandfather's ranch. Kind of interesting, but I am not going to ask for any favors - like a ticket on a space flight. On the other hand, my wife would probably be willing to pay top dollar for such a ticket - for me - as long as it was a one way ticket.

Who knows what will happen next. I suppose I could get an ingrown toe nail, or need to have my tonsils removed for a second time, or even develop hemorrhoids which would further delay my cancer surgery. I really do want to get this thing over with - it will be a year in February. But, the GOOD NEWS items in this report are far greater than the BAD NEWS items, so I think we are going to be okay.

ALBUQUERQUE AL

FINAL APPROACH - READY FOR LANDING!

2007-09-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Houston late last night following a couple of days of restaging tests and consultations. Monday was spent getting chest, abdomen and pelvis X-rays, and in the afternoon the dreaded CAT-Scan. Wednesday we met with the Oncologist and reviewed the results of these tests and the progress to date.

Mary went down with me on Sunday and it was a very good trip - full plane between Albuquerque and Dallas and another full plane between Dallas and Houston, so was a little more cramped than I like. On the return flight last night, we had a direct flight from Houston to Albuquerque with a total of 33 passengers on board. The gate agent threatened us that if we each didn't go round up 5 more passengers we wouldn't take off because the 33 of us couldn't pay for the fuel. But we did take off as scheduled. Coming in when we arrived in Houston, we did decide to take a little different route and got off the Interstate right at the street next to Reliant Stadium, the new home of the Houston Texans. We were lucky that the game had been over for awhile and only a few stragglers were still leaving the stadium. Reliant sits right next to the old Astrodome and I remember when I thought the Astrodome was a giant stadium. You could probably put three Astrodomes inside the new Reliant stadium. It has a retractable roof they close if it is over 90 degrees or under 58 degrees. I suppose the close it for rain too - maybe even snow!

We were so hungry by the time we got there we went to a Tex-Mex restaurant. It was okay, in fact I would have probably appreciated it if I didn't know what real Mexican food tasted like.

Tuesday the X-rays were no big deal and I got through those in quick order. They also took some blood and weighed me. Then we go to the CAT-Scan. I have had four or five CAT-Scans in conjunction with this cancer thing. The ones I had at Presbyterian in Albuquerque - you had to take off your shirt. The one at NM Oncology, you didn't remove any clothing. At MD Anderson, you take off everything - including all underwear, except your shoes and socks. Now they have made one improvement. The last time you had to put on one of those gowns with two flimsy stings in the back and a whole lot of fresh air in the back. I can just barely tie my shoes without help - I am supposed to tie those strings that I can't even find back there? I wanted to overlap the gown and staple it shut, but that was not acceptable. I remember last time I wanted to just kind of shuffle down the hall sideways with my back up against the wall, but that didn't appear to be acceptable either. Now they have replaced the gown for men with trousers and a top. They are flimsy too, but at least it is better than the gown. I feel stupid walking around in the outfit to begin with, then you look down and you have a pair of shoes and socks on. It is like putting a neck-tie on a naked man when he goes to the dentist. Of course, those of you who know me realize I am very modest, very shy and very conservative. Or, you might say I am a coward and a chauvinist pig. Real men don't wear silly flimsy pajamas and no underwear down the hall in public!

The dress code is only one of the unpleasant events leading up to the CAT-Scan. They have this stuff (barium) you have to drink so everything on the inside will show up on the CAT-Scan. They usually have a banana flavor and an apple flavor. They announced they were out of both. Then the lady asked, what I interpreted to be, "Do you want a Barium?" I thought that was a stupid question. Of course I didn't want it - but did I have any choice? I just kind of stared at her and she asked the question several times. I finally realized she was asking; "Do you want a berry one?" So I took the berry barium - as if I had a choice. I was given two glasses - I think each one held at least two gallons, and had to drink those down. Then they sent me into another room where I sat around with other partially naked people in recliner chairs and got this thing injected into my arm so they could put iodine into my body during the CAT-Scan. And, those nice people gave me a little bonus. They gave me one more glass of barium. But I did learn one important thing I had never figured out before. You get a straw and you start sucking and just keep sucking and never take a breath til you reach the bottom of the glass. That way you only taste that nasty stuff once instead of each time you take a sip.

Okay - now we go into the room where they scan for cats. They have all kinds of wonderful instruments they use to tell what is inside of you. I won't go into the details, but there is a reason you don't have any underwear on. Dang - that's humiliating! Why don't they just get a flashlight and look down your throat. At least last time I had three male assistants doing the prep. Surprise! No male assistants - one female type is running the whole show. I am sure she is a very nice lady, but I could visualize her as a linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, or perhaps a Drill Sergeant in the Marine Corps. "Okay - Mister, roll over on your side!" If I had known all the little unpleasant exercises I was going to have to endure when I started this whole program, I may have just opted to skip the whole thing.

Finally finished this little exam, got dressed and left that horrible place. Even though I was fully dressed now, for the next few hours I had this self-conscious feeling that I was walking around naked with a pair of shoes and socks on. I just knew everyone was staring at me, laughing at me, pointing to me. No wonder I have crazy dreams and nightmares.

Scott came in Wednesday morning to help keep an eye on me and we picked him up at the airport with me driving the rental car. We had a three way argument about whether I was supposed to turn left or right at the next exit. Actually, it wasn't a three way argument - it was two against one and you can guess who the lone person in the argument was. I won't say who was right, but I could have been right if we were going South instead of North.

We met with my Oncologist in the early afternoon and this is a demonstration of one of many major differences between MD Anderson and Presbyterian. The Oncologist had a complete report including computer graphics on the tests I had the day before. One example of Presbyterian is on two different occasions my wife, Mary, has had an MRI and eleven days later in one case and a week later in another, the MRI had not reached the doctor who was supposed to read it and evaluate what was wrong.

Now the good part! There is a test - I think it is referred to as a CA-19-9 which measures your cancer cells. I don't know what the element of measurement is, but they told me when I first came to MD Anderson it measured 360 - which, according to the doctor, is very high. Because of all the chemotherapy and radiation I have had - plus the fact that I am such a wonderful patient who never violates any of the rules of my diet, exercise, medication and extra curricular activities - the reading has gone from 360 to 30, which I guess is almost a normal reding. And, the tumor was 4.5 centimeters when I started and is 3 centimeters now, and most of the tumor now is liquid with a very small element of cancer in it.

This is fantabulous news to me!!!! We can just skip the surgery - it is almost cured - I can go home and back to my normal way of life. No way Jose!! Between the doctor, my wife and my son, Scott - who by the way is a wonderful son but who has developed a kind of bossy attitude lately - now is the time for surgery. Now that most of these cancer rascals have been killed - we will go in and round up the rest of them and take them prisoner - and I will be cancer free. At least that is the plan.

Actually I think the Oncologist was very surprised at the results (He didn't know I was such a good reliable patient)and he even acted excited about the results. He tried to reach the surgeon, but the Surgeon was in surgery, so the Oncologist said the team would meet today and I was to call the Surgeon for instructions today. They didn't even give me a chance to call. While I was in the airport in Houston, I got a call on my cell phone and they had already made an appointment for me to come back next Wednesday for a pre-operative exam with the Surgeon. It sounds like they are getting ready to sharpen up the knives with the intention of using them within a few weeks. I guess I will go back down by myself Tuesday so I won't have Scott there to take notes to remind me what I am supposed to do and not do. That could be very convenient.

I always worry about the wrong things. For some reason, I have never allowed myself to worry too much about the cancer or the operation. I now worry about how I am going to make it from the airport to the hotel in a rental car without the committee to tell me which direction I am going and whether to turn left or right. I might end up in El Paso. I am also worried about missing out on the International Balloon Fiesta which is coming up in October, and I have a buy one - get one free coupon at McDonalds that will expire if the timing of the operation isn't just right. Dang!

Well, I guess that is all the news I have for now - but it is good news for the most part. They seem to insist they are still going to cut on me, so there goes my chance for a centerfold opportunity in John Deere Quarterly - but that's life.

Love you - God Bless You and thanks for your prayers and thoughts!

AL

FINALLY - BACK TO HOUSTON

2007-09-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my chemotherapy in Albuquerque - I think. Got a message today to remind me of an appointment with New Mexico Oncology on next Monday to review everything and consider the possibility of more chemotherapy. Sorry folks - I ain't a gonna be here and if I was going to be here I would find some other reason for not being able to come. The last chemo session on the 10th was the easiest by far but just the accumulation of all the chemicals has made me feel pretty bad until today. I decided I was going to die as soon as I got feeling good enough to do so. But Monday I will be back at MD Anderson in Houston, so forget about talking to me about any more chemotherapy.

In addition to not feeling very good, I have worked as much as I could and have been up late every night working on an appeal to both Presbyterian and a firm called Maximus in New York. Presbyterian is required to file a statement with Maximus if the refuse a request for a referral and then Presbyterian is required to notify me that I can make an appeal to Maximus and they are bound by whatever decision Maximus makes. I spent a lot of time creating this appeal and ended up spending the evening up to midnight several nights trying to put it together and use the right words. Unfortunately my temper got in the way of my good sense a number of times and I would have to go back and redo pieces and parts. When I finally finished, my wife took a brief look at it and rejected it, my son didn't like it and my daughter-in-law offered many changes, so the committee took over. They re-wrote the letter using parts of my initial offering and sent it off. They used the "Dear Sir or Madam" at the top and my name and claim number and "Sincerely" and my name at the bottom and a few of my words in between. At least I guess it is good to know they care.

There are Angels flying above me all the time. In addition to the letter, a lady called and left me a voice message. I have no idea who this lady is, how she heard about me, or knew what my problems were, but her message told me that I needed an Advocate to run interference for me and deal with the doctors and other parts of the medical provider services. She gave me a number to her direct line and told me to call her. I finally got around to calling her and reminded her of her call and told her maybe I needed an Advocate. She immediately told me she would act as my Advocate and she got some information from me and said she would start contacting all parties involved. Within a couple days, I received a letter from my Oncologist, on the letterhead stationary of New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants, LTD - with all the doctors names listed, stating that I had finished my chemotherapy treatments and he did recommend me for surgery and recommended that all remaining work, including surgery, be done at MD Anderson in Houston.

I received this letter at home on Friday. First thing the following Monday morning I called MD Anderson in Houston and asked them to request a referral from Presbyterian. I told them I had a letter from Dr. Liebmann suggesting that I needed the restaging exams and surgery at MD Anderson. The lady at MD Anderson replied; "I know - I have that letter right in front of me."
She said she would request the referral. As soon as I got off the phone, my phone rang and it was a lady from Presbyterian calling to tell me they were going to approve my trip to Houston this next week and it would be covered. This is a lady who was assigned to me when I first started having problems with Presbyterian. She is somewhat an advocate and she has been helpful, but she is still on Presbyterian's payroll and a big part of her job is to pacify me and keep me from causing trouble. The fact that she called and gave me approval will make it very difficult for Presbyterian to back out now.

One month ago I had this exact same visit planned and I got it approved ten days before I was to go down. Two days before I was to leave, Presbyterian called and said it wasn't approved and caused me to run all over town to different doctors to get approximately the same exams - not nearly as extensive and thorough. Now Presbyterian is going to pay for me to go and do these exams. This has delayed my treatment by at least one month and it has cost them more money as they did have to pay for these exams in Albuquerque.

As I said, the last chemo sessions was the easiest. In fact it was so easy I went to the Healthplex the next day and walked three miles and did a light workout on the upper body machines. The next day I felt horrible - not from the exercise but from a sick feeling throughout my whole body. That has hung with me for about ten days and finally today I felt almost human again.
The bad thing is that I have lost about eighteen pounds since I first went down to Houston and about thirty eight since a year ago. The thought of any kind of food was nauseating. All of a sudden I have my appetite back. I am like a Hoover sweeper going through the house sucking up almost anything - like sweet rolls, french fries, potato chips, hamburgers, etc. I still don't have an appetite for celery, lettuce, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. The doctors will be happy I am gaining weight as long as I don't tell them how.

New Mexico Oncology is a very nice new facility in a very nice area. Things got so bad that when I went down Jefferson street and got close to their facility, I would get nauseated. I mentioned this to the doctor and he said this was common. It is called anticipatory nausea.

At my last session, an elderly gentleman next to me had the same experience that I had on my previous visit. The needle came out of his vein and started pumping the liquid directly into his hand. However, they caught it right away and it didn't do nearly the damage that it did to me. The nurse told him he was lucky because at that point all they were giving him was saline solution. She said it could have been dangerous if they were giving him chemo at that point.
KINGS-X, TIME OUT, INSTANT REPLAY - HELLO! I called the nurse over and repeated what she had just said and told her they had pumped chemo into my hand and arm the week before and both got tremendously swollen and they still hurt two weeks later. She kind of dismissed me and my one sided conversation and left to do something else. Now, three weeks later, the swelling has gone down but it is still swollen and it still hurts some.

Only one more day at CarMax for awhile and it can't be too soon. Late yesterday I had a young man in his early twenties come in and wanted a test drive in a $35,000 Mercedes convertible coupe. It has a retractable hard top so nothing would do but we had to put the top down even though it was cold and the wind was blowing. As soon as we got out on the Interstate it started raining. First thing this morning I had a couple of guys come in who looked like they were still in high school and they wanted to look at every car on the lot, which is somewhere around 350. The policy is that you have to stay with your customer even if they are just looking around or killing time. These guys used up a good part of my morning. Then I had something happen that has never happened before. A van from a nursing home pulled up in the parking lot and this older gentleman with a white cane got out and came in. He wasn't totally blind, but his sight was poor. He said he wanted to buy a car. I put him on the golf cart and took him around very slow and finally he held up this bag he was carrying and told me he had 4500 one dollar bills in the bag. I think he probably meant he had 45 one hundred dollar bills, but in any event he had $4,500 in his bag. I apologized and told the man that we didn't have any cars in that price range - most of them don't meet our inspection standards. The least expensive would probably be at least twice that amount. Then I found out he didn't even have a drivers license and explained to him that we couldn't even sell him a car without a drivers license - that is a state law. I felt sorry for the old guy and suggested that maybe he should talk to his banker to see if it was wise for him to try to buy a car, and waited for his nursing home to come and pick him up. Another chunk out of my morning. This afternoon I had a man, wife and three children come in and they wanted a pickup truck. They needed one with a back seat and we found one they liked. It had a dead battery so we decided to take a similar one for a test drive. I told them someone would have to stay there as there were only five seat belts. The lady reminded me there were only five of them. She got a little upset when I said I had to come too, so she and the kids decided they would stay there. Then the man gives me a Mexican drivers license. You can't drive one of our cars unless you have an American issued drivers license. She had a New Mexico drivers license, so we decided to use her license. Then I said, if we were using her license she would have to come and she would have to be the one to drive. She is upset again. Finally we decided the husband and I would go on the test drive but I would do all the driving. I kept asking him questions on the test drive and he would nod and say; "Yah". I thought he wanted a Spanish station on the radio so I found him one and finally figured out he wanted to know how to turn up the air conditioner. I still haven't figured out how I figured that out, but he did say; "Yah" - so I think I must have done the right thing. We got back and through some motions and "Yahs" I finally figured out he still wanted to drive the truck with the dead battery. So, I went back up to the show room and got a battery charger - and walked back across the lot with this heavy thing and jumped the battery so we could go for a drive. Now I think this guy really wanted to buy a truck - it was a good customer. But I was getting exasperated when I had this wonderful thought. How bad do I want to make a sale? Not bad enough! We have a new sales person who is a wonderful person, does a great job - and he is from Mexico. Wham - brainstorm is coming!!
I run back into the showroom - "Ernesto - Ernesto - where are you?" "My wonderful friend, my distinguished colleague, my honorable associate and flawless friend - how would you like to have a gift, a gift of a truck sale with no strings attached - if you can just answer "Yah"?

Now this is bad - but this kind of thing has happened frequently since I started chemotherapy. I am going along great - when all of a sudden I hit this wall. At this point, I just flat don't care. Just let me out of here immediately, if not sooner. This is a time, I have learned, when I just immediately get dead tired, become angry, become sensitive over nothing, and in short become a jerk at times. I have also learned to get out of whatever I am doing immediately and forget it. I love cars, I enjoy selling cars, I love the people and there is a competitive aspect to it also. In the past I have stayed til midnight a few times when we close at 9:00 pm, just to make sure the customer is happy and satisfied. Not now - I will excuse myself and give away a sale rather than try to do something I can't do. However - it is all going to get better after I get past this cancer thing. I will sell cars to people who speak nothing but Japanese, Chinese, or even West Texas when I get through this surgery. I will so overwhelm them with my magnificent personality - they will be speechless and I won't need to understand their language.

We will get back to you after Houston - God Bless you and the very best to all of you!!!!

Albuquerque Al

CHEMO # 3

2007-08-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Chemo #3 is history - at least the activity of having it. The effects of it will probably linger on for some time. It is lingering hard today. I sure hope I run out of numbers pretty soon. I thought this was going to be the last one - but surprise! I get at least one more.

I spoke too soon after #2. I felt great the next day and went to work. Then I worked Wednesday and Thursday with the intention of leaving early, but as luck would have it, customers came in and I got involved in transactions that lasted up to and past closing time. I think I left work around 10:30 PM on Wednesday and around 9:30 PM on Thursday. Thursday at 9:15 PM I was paged to the front desk for customer service. As I approached the desk an old friend came running up screaming and hugged me. It was Cissy King who used to be the lead female dancer on the Lawrence Welk show. She said she wanted to buy a car. I explained we closed in fifteen minutes so she agreed to come back this week. When other sales associates found out who she was, all the old duffs like me came over right away to meet Cissy King. The youngsters had a strange look on their faces - like - "who the heck is she?" Then I had the big week end of touring Albuquerque and Santa Fe and was pretty well worn out all this past week.

I have been trying to figure out why I feel so lousy after these chemo sessions. Just sitting in a chair for eight hours wears me out, but I realized that for all practical purposes - I am spending eight hours getting poison put into my system. You can feel the effect of this almost immediately and it just gets worse.
I did have a meeting with the doctor this session and he is pleased with my results but surprised that I am even trying to work. He said the protocol I am following is a very heavy duty dose of chemo. I do know I am one of the first ones there and by the time I leave, almost everyone else is gone and some of them come in half way through my session. It creates a real strange sensation for me. I feel guilty for just kind of dragging through the day after I have had the session and procrastinating on doing things I should do, but I really don't have the energy or interest in doing anything. I also feel guilty because I know of people who have had it a lot worse than I am having it. I have heard of people going through chemo for 14 weeks, 17 weeks, 24 weeks, etc. I will go for four - but no more!!

I am still having a battle with Presbyterian. They now say they never approved surgery at MD Anderson, but they have said that at the end of my chemo session if they get a request from MD Anderson for a referral and if my chemo doctor says I should go there, they will consider doing it. My chemo doctor did say that he would report that I do need surgery and that he recommends MD Anderson. MD Anderson has already said this is the only way I have a chance of surviving - so I think I have a pretty strong case. I am going in any event - whether they want to be gracious and pay for it or not. I also have a lawyer lined up who specializes in Medical Malpractice - just in case.

It has taken a lot of time and energy to do battle with Presbyterian in addition to everything else, but I guess that is the way it is going to be. So, I guess I am looking at surgery sometime in October or early November.

Had another little incident with this chemo. I realized there was a funny sensation in my left hand. I looked down and my left hand was swollen to almost double it's size and my left arm was swollen. It looked like I had a boxing glove on my left hand. There was no pain but it looked like my skin would split if the swelling got any greater. I called the nurse over and for some reason the needle had come out of my vein and the chemo was just going directly into my hand and up my arm. It is a good thing I had taken my watch off and transferred it to my right arm before we got started or they would have had to cut my watch off. That would have been another $13.95 down the drain.

Those who know me well and who have noticed, know that I have very large hands. People never come up to me and say; "Golly you are good looking", or "You sure are a handsome man", or that is a "great haircut" or a "beautiful shirt".
Everyone says the same thing - "Damn - those are the biggest hands I've ever seen." This all comes from hard labor as a youngster where I dug potatoes with my bare hands, mined coal with my bare hands, dug trenches with my bare hands, and even ate with my bare hands. At milking time, as soon as I walked into the barn the cows would all take off running. I get criticized and I guess it is against the law, but I drive with my index finger. I just stick it between the spokes of the steering wheel and twirl that wheel around with one finger. So, anyway, I have huge hands to begin with and now my left hand is twice it's normal size. I realized I had a problem right away because I normally eat with my right hand and am careful to pick my nose only with my left hand. Now my left hand is swollen beyond the capacity of my nostril - so this means double duty for my right hand. I haven't eaten much today - partly because of the affect the chemo has had on my stomach and partly because I can't eat my normal diet of potato chips and hamburgers and hot dogs without using my hands. You just can't eat potato chips with a spoon or fork. As you can see, there is more to my stress than meets the eye.

My son Scott called today and said it probably wasn't good to have all this chemo just wandering around in my hand and arm and that I should call the doctor. My garage door broke and I got tied up and telling the repairman how to fix it and forgot to call the doctor - so if I can't pick my nose in the morning, I guess I better call the doctor.

I had to have a meeting and tests with the pulmonary doctor this week - one of the tests that should have been performed in Houston had my trip not been cancelled because of Presbyterian. Prior to the doctor coming in the nurse came in with her clip board and all the typical questions. She sticks the thermometer in my mouth and starts asking me questions. My weight has dropped a bit so I told her I had my wallet in my pocket last time. My blood pressure is always good so I told her that so she wouldn't have to check it, but she checked it anyway. She then started in on her questions and started with the statement; "I am sorry I have to ask you this - No I am not sorry I have to ask you this, Well really I am sorry I have to ask you this" I am starting to worry about what kind of personal question she is going to ask me. I am prepared to say "NO" - no matter what it is. That is always a good safe answer - I think.

By law - at least in New Mexico - once a year they have to ask you questions about domestic violence so that victims of domestic violence can have an opportunity to open up in a safe environment about this problem. All of a sudden my anticipated "NO" answer changed to a "YES". I showed her the scars on my back, the holes in my nostril from having a ring in my nose so I could be led around, the abuse I took when I forgot to put the seat down in the bathroom, for using a clean towel every day when I took a shower, for using a clean glass every time I took a drink, for not locking all the windows when I left the house. I mean this conversation went on and on forever. As I thought about it later, I was a little concerned. I could just see me driving up to the drive way as the Sheriff was coming out with my wife in handcuffs leading her to his car. Golly - she will problem yell at me about that too. Sometimes - you just can't win.

In addition to my chemo session, we had a little excitement here yesterday. The President of the United States was in town for a brief time. He was here for a fund raiser lunch for our Senator, Pete Domenici. The lunch was hosted by Larry Abraham. Mayor of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, a tiny community surrounded by the city of Albuquerque. We know Larry Abraham because he started his married life by building a two story house right up against our back yard wall so that when we sit on our patio all we see is this slab of adobe that goes straight up into the air. We used to sit on the patio and watch the tram car climb up the Sandia Mountains - a much more enjoyable sight. Our son, Scott, actually helped him build the house and worked for him some. So, some of the people in our neighborhood have advanced to bigger and better things. 350 people had lunch at Larry's house at $1,000 per plate while I was sitting there sucking up chemo.

The other big event is that my dear wife, Mary Marlin, was one of two tellers at her bank yesterday when it got robbed. The robber went to the other teller - which was a lucky break for him. Actually, this is the first time that particular bank has been robbed and it has been around for awhile. However, MM has been through three bank robberies - and in one she was the teller they tried to rob. When she will take on a bank robber - you have to understand why I had to open up with the nurse when she talked about domestic violence.

I am already dreading my next - and hopefully last, chemo session. I am thinking if I feel this bad because of the chemo - how am I going to feel following surgery? Maybe I will just go back to picking potatoes and forget the whole thing. Presbyterian would like that!

God Bless You

AL