Blog Update 08/26/2017

I saw my oncologist, Dr Ganti, last Tuesday and had a CT scan from the head to the hips. Received good and bad news from Dr Ganti. The bad news is the cancer is growing, I have had a lot more pain in my abdomen than usual, he said this was the lymph nodes getting bigger, so the current cancer medicine isn’t doing the job anymore. The good news is he has two other treatments he wants to try. So, we will see how that all pans out.

Tuesday, I still am having surgery on my right arm. It was schedule for a 5:30 am check in and surgery at 7:30 but for now has been changed to a 10:00 am check in and surgery at 11:30, all subject to change. I will be glad to get the surgery done and eventually use my arm again.

I believe God will show Dr Ganti the right treatment to use and that the surgery will be a success but I can use all the prayers I can get. So please pray for me.

That’s all for now

God’s Blessing to all.

We had a great weekend, Carl & Merilee came down from Mitchell, SD Friday night and stayed through Monday. Sunday Jim & Jo AuBuchon, Jim and I were roommates when we were stationed at Dyess AFB in Abilene, TX. He & Jo were on a two-week sojourn of the Midwest and stopped by to say hi. It was great visiting with them.

While Carl & Merilee were here we played Canasta and Rummikub. I remember playing Canasta with my grandmother and my brothers and sisters. We had a ball playing then and we still enjoy it today. It was great having them visit.

I went to the orthopedic doctor last Thursday and after looking at the x-rays he said the bone wasn’t healing as it should. I have two choices, continue the way we are going now, that is do nothing, or he can surgically put a plate over the fracture and screw it into place.

I called the oncology case manager and asked her to ask my oncologist if he thought surgery would be ok. I didn’t want to do anything detrimental to my treatment regimen. She called back a day later and said we could go with the surgery, she has started the ball rolling, the surgery would be done outside the VA and so she will get everything set up and then all I have to do is show up for the appointments she set up for me. I probably should have done this from day one but hind sight is always better than foresight.

This weekend we are going to Wisconsin to watch some baseball and visit with the kids and on our way home we will stop in Ames to see Tiffany and family.

What a great weekend we had in Wisconsin, the weather was beautiful and we saw great ballgames. Grandson Mason was playing in a wooden bat tournament. (That’s all we had was wooden bats) It was a good tournament, a bit warm on Sunday but overall very nice. Mason caught all three games on Sunday minus two innings. He was a tired kid by the end of the day. Madyson helped me by getting me some refreshments. All in all, it was a fabulous weekend.

Monday morning, we get up and my back is killing me, muscle spasms from left shoulder blade to the right shoulder blade. I was prepared though I got some medicine a week or two before to help alleviate the pain and it did the job by lessoning it.

We left Wisconsin for Ames IA to see Tiffany and family. We stayed at the GrandStay Hotel & Suites, it was a nice place. We had a living room with kitchenette and a bedroom with king size bed. There must be different sizes for a king size bed because the one at the GrandStay and the Hampton Inn are different in width. We got to visit with Tiffany and family and had dinner with them. We went to Old Chicago, it was right next door, the food was pretty good, the service was very good, we had a good time visiting with them.

Headed home the next day, Sarah did all the driving coming home and I will say she did a great job.

I received a call, on our way home, from the orthopedic nurse saying that I am set for surgery on my arm on Aug 29. I want to get it done as quickly as possible and probably should have had it done when we came back from Arizona. I waited because I didn’t want to surgery if we didn’t have to but the arm is not healing and so I will now have a plate screwed onto the humerus so the bone does not move and with therapy hopefully I will be able to use it again. Also, the bone may heal itself over time.

The bad thing about this is Sarah’s 50^th class reunion will be Labor Day weekend and my 55^th is the following weekend. We had to cancel all our reservations.

That is about all that has been happening around.

Until later.

Blog update 07/12/17

We left right on time Friday morning the 23^rd of June. We got to our first stop about 45 minutes east of Omaha on I80. This is my first stop of any eastbound trip, as I was heading into the restroom I checked for my billfold and it wasn’t there. I had left home without it, now we had no choice but to go back and get it because we planned on being gone for about three weeks. So, we back tracked, got the billfold and headed out again.

Our plans were to meet up with Robert, Sarah and the kids for dinner. I was a bit worried we wouldn’t make it but we did. My dad had a saying he used a lot, “I never pass up a water fountain”. My saying is “I never pass up a restroom”, the problem is my saying always adds more time to our trips.

We had a great dinner at a restaurant called The Rock Bar & Grill, very good restaurant but they don’t have a website.

Saturday night we saw granddaughter Madyson perform at her dance recital. She was great. Her solo was fabulous. She does an aerial, that’s a cartwheel without touching the floor, scares me every time she does it. The recital was great, I am not much in sitting and watching all these different performances but I did enjoy the whole recital.

Sunday, we saw grandson Mason play two baseball games. It is fun to see the growth of the kids in their particular sport and interest. Mason had come a long way in his skills as a baseball player and I know he will continue to grow in the sport. Madyson is phenomenal in her solo, she puts more expression in her face and body and it just takes the dance to a higher level. Love watching both of them play.

Madyson and family are on their way to the Nation Dance Competitions in Myrtle Beach, NC, I know she will do well.

We left Beloit on Monday the 26^th and headed for Thibodaux, LA for Sarah’s brother Bill’s 60^th wedding anniversary. We overnighted in Cape Girardeau, MO and the following night at Canton, MS. Since we were going to get to Thibodaux a day earlier than I planned I thought I better call ahead make sure we could get in a day early. We could and we did. 

We booked in at the Hampton Inn.Out first night was not very memorable, we stay at the Hampton Inns a lot and this was the first one where we have had a problem. The room was very humid and just didn’t feel good, I didn’t sleep very well, but then again, I don’t sleep that well anymore anyway. The next morning Sarah went to take a shower and the gizmo on the spout wouldn’t come up for the shower. She calls down to the front desk and the lady says try twisting it. Now I don’t every remembering I had to twist gizmo to make the shower work, twisting didn’t do the job. Sarah calls back down the front desk and the lady asks if we wanted to take a shower in another room. Now wouldn’t you think if they had another room for us to take a shower in, why wouldn’t they just offer us that room. We said no, then the lady says do we need two beds, we said no, so she said we could move to another room with a king bed, fine with me, she said she’d bring up the new key, Sarah asked her to bring a cart.

Our new room was a king whirlpool room, it was two rooms, very nice. Since we were going to be here for a week it was a nice upgrade. We had a great time, we got to see folks we haven’t seen for a long time or in my case ever. Sarah thoroughly enjoyed going through old pictures with her brother and others from Mable’s side of the family. Bill’s kids, Teresa, Brenda and Chuck and their spouses did a great job on hosting the anniversary party on Sunday.

Of course, we went to eat at Bubba’s, it wouldn’t be a successful trip if we didn’t eat their. They have a fantastic shrimp/oyster po’boy sandwich, however I opted for the shrimp/oyster platter, delicious.

I got to play Rummikub with some of the great nieces and nephews and cousins, I got beat more than I won. I loved every minute of it.

The week went by too fast, before we knew it we had to pack to continue our road trip. On July 5, we bade Thibodaux a fond adieu (as the French would say, I think) and headed the car west to Houston.

We had road construction in Lake Charles, LA which delayed us over an hour. We arrived at our hotel a little after 4:30pm. We stayed at the Hilton Houston Westchase, this is the first time in many years we have stayed in a hotel with a bellhop, it was great Sarah didn’t have to handle any of the luggage. We had a very nice room with breakfast included. I chose this location because it was only a mile from our friends Jose and Emma. Plus, we had plans to visit with Sylvester and Joyce on Friday.

Emma had prepared dinner for us that night so we went to their house a bit after six. Dinner was delicious and I ate too much. For desert, she had Island Way Sorbet, I loved them. She bought them at Costco so I will have to see if they have them here.

On Friday Sarah and I went over to Sylvester and Joyce’s house, we went to lunch and had a great visit with them. Sylvester and I served together in Vietnam. He was asking me if I remember certain people and I couldn’t. I can remember a few names but not many.

Jose had done some research on the painted churches, https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=20+painted+churches+of+texas&qpvt=20+painted+churches+of+texas&qpvt=20+painted+churches+of+texas&qpvt=20+painted+churches+of+texas&FORM=IGRE. I wanted to see them but I wasn’t feeling very well so we didn’t go, maybe next time.

I met Jose at St Ambrose College, that’s before it became a University. Anyway, Jose and I grilled the steaks for Saturday night dinner, we worked in the kitchen for our room and board. After I came back from Thanksgiving with my family I asked Jose where he went, he said he stayed on campus, he had come over from Cuba and his family was still there. I told my mother this and she said to invite him home at Christmas, I did, he came and had Christmas with us. It went so well, in fact, when I went into the military he took my place and the holidays. It was great, Jose is a terrific person and married a beautiful person Emma. We were at their house every day, most days we went back to the hotel so I could take a nap which I evidently needed because one day I slept and hour and a half. Over the course of our visit we played 40+ games of Rummikub and I was reintroduced to canasta. I had not played canasta since I was ten or twelve and we kids would play with my mom’s mother. Thank you for a great time.

Saturday night Sarah’s cousin Becky and husband Ken came to the Rio Ranch restaurant next to the hotel and we had dinner with them. Becky is and anesthesiologist and Ken is a retired Air Force officer, I don’t remember his rank but I know if was up their close to a general or something. He is a great photographer and freelances now. He has some great pictures, https://www.mach3photography.com/, check out his website. It was great seeing them.

We left Houston Monday morning and went through some of the heaviest rain I have seen in a while. To make matters worse the spray off the road was blinding at times, but we made it out of town without any mishaps. I had hoped to get through Dallas without any trouble so we took the Dallas tollway. I wanted to miss all the construction on I35, well we didn’t quite get out of Dallas event free. We were slowed down considerably by a wreck, when we reached the site of the wreck it looked like someone had side swiped this car and vanished because there was only one vehicle there.

I had decided we were going to stay in either Norman OK or Guthrie OK depending on what time we got out of Dallas. We weren’t too late so I go us reservations for Guthrie. Now in our car we have a service, I pay for it, called Destination Assist, I click on the screen and we get a live person asking where we want to go. I said the Hampton Inn in Guthrie OK, she said ok and downloaded the directions to the navigation system in the car. Now I just clicked on OK without verifying the address of the location that was downloaded. That is an important item, since it was the wrong destination although we didn’t figure that out until we got to Oklahoma City. Now I knew Guthrie was on I35 so I wasn’t too concerned when the navigation said to take I235 through Oklahoma City, but I became a bit concerned when it had us going west off I235. Sarah kept telling me we were going the wrong way but I got to the point where I wanted to see where this was taking us. Well, it took us to Cushion OK, I’d never heard of the place. We came into town and it said turn right, I did, and that is when it got interesting. I saw a police car sitting on the opposite of the road and thought nothing of it until I saw the pretty red and blue lights on this car behind us, I thought we were in a parade or he was going somewhere. The somewhere was us, as soon as I pulled over so did he. I thought “wow a welcoming party, how did he know I’d never been here before”. I now know someone in Cushion OK, Sgt Henderson. He was very nice and said I was doing 44 in a 35 zone. He asked where we were going and I flat told him I was lost. He laughed and I told him about the navigation system and the Destination Assist. He told me I should have stayed on I35 and I wouldn’t be lost. He was a very nice officer and gave us directions to the Hampton Inn, we were eighteen miles from it. He said to drive safe and keep the speed down, no ticket.

We did finally get to the hotel about six thirty, I was hungry and tired, so we went for pizza. I know it wasn’t anything very glamorous but filling.

The next day we headed for Omaha and got home about four thirty.

We were gone nineteen days, stayed in six different hotels, and put 3,048 miles on the car and we had a great time.

Thanks to everyone for helping this to be a great trip.

Update 04/3/2017

A few days before we were scheduled to fly out of Omaha for our cruise, the airline sent me an email saying the departure time of our return flight out of San Juan had changed. So, I called the airline and sure enough the change gave us approximately fifteen minutes to change planes in Atlanta. Since I don’t walk very fast anymore, so we changed to a later flight at 8pm. This would give us a three-hour layover, which was fine with us.

So, Sunday the 26 of March, Daniel came over and picked us up at 4am and took us to the airport. We had a bit of a wait but I don’t like to have to rush in the airport. It was a good thing too, I had to be stripped searched because I set off the scanner. I couldn’t go through the big x-ray because I can’t raise my right arm over my head. My belt and suspenders caused the scanner to beep. The TSA guy asked me if I could take off my belt and suspenders. I said I could but then my pants would fall down. He didn’t think that was good so he took me off to the side. He asked if I wanted to go to a room or have him do his thing out in front of God and everyone. I told him, I don’t have much modesty left after what I have been through so do it here. After he was done he said I could go. It didn’t take very long so Sarah and I headed to the gate area.

Now, I am not a very good flier anymore because I have to go to the bathroom a lot so I tend to visit the restroom by the waiting area a lot before we board the plane. The first leg of the trip was to Minneapolis so it wasn’t too bad, no trips to the restroom. In Minneapolis, we hooked up with brother Larry and his wife Kathy. We would be meeting sister Tara and husband Paul, sister Colleen and husband Darrius in San Juan, Puerto. Anyway, we got on the plane and got settled in our seats.

 After a discussion with our son Daniel, he had recently flown to Thailand on business, he told me to fly first class because it would give me more room. I am still wearing the brace and so I sprung for the extra expense, I am very happy I did that. Now either I have gotten bigger since I last flew or the seats have gone through a shrink machine, it is most likely the former. The seat was comfortable the tray you use for lunch comes out of the armrest between seats and it does not give at all, it was very close quarters. I would have had enough problems without the brace but with the brace it was trying to put a blow-up bed back in the box it came it. It can be done but it takes some work at it. All in all, we had a good flight and was just happy we got to San Juan safely.

We also received an email a week before the cruise was to leave that because the ship had a propulsion problem our cruise would be cut short by a day. We were all bummed out but when life gives you apples you make apple pie. I know that isn’t the saying but I like apple pie more than lemonade.

We spent Monday seeing things in San Juan. Larry, Tara and I rented a cab to take us and spouses on a two-hour tour of San Juan. Our cabbie Chris was great, we started with Old San Juan and then the newer places and the beaches and ended with some places he said not to go to at night.

We stayed at the Sheraton Old San Juan, a very nice hotel and within walking distance of some very nice restaurants.We had some great food, we ate at the same restaurant La Cueva del it was great. Marissa was our server and she was a lot of fun.

There is a lot more history in San Juan than I ever knew, so it was time well spent. One of the two forts we saw was, https://www.nps.gov/saju/index.htm, Castillo San Cristóbal Castillo and Castillo de San Cristobal, what I found interesting was the two forts were connected by underground tunnels, these forts were a couple miles apart.

We boarded the ship at eleven, that was the earliest we could get on and since we had a day and a half cut from the cruise I wanted to get as much use as I could out of the ship. Now those of you who have been on cruises know that it is a feeding frenzy, food everywhere and I got as much of it as I could. We were in Aqua Spa class, we had a suite with a deck so we could sit on the deck and watch the world go by. My brother was next to us so we could talk without much problem, but there was a cabin between Tara and Colleen and I so we just yelled at each other.

Our breakfast and dinners were taken in the Blu room, very nice setting. Our server was Wilmer and he made each meal a delight. He was from Columbia and had been working cruises for five years. All the people on the boat were great, even the captain. I had my picture taken with her but I can’t find it so you will just have to take my word for it.

We returned to San Juan Saturday morning and was off the boat and to the airport by 10:30. Again I went through the strip search procedure and they found nothing that concerned them. We got on the plane and arrived in Atlanta about 4:30. Now as I said earlier I had changed our flight because we wouldn’t have enough time to get to our connection, as it turned out we could have made it, but to change flights it cost a couple hundred dollars, I wasn’t going to do that. So, we waited for our 8:00 flight, with an arrival time in Omaha at 9:35pm. Well let me tell you, due to a maintenance paperwork screw up at La Guardia airport we didn’t get home until midnight. We boarded the plane on time, deboarded an hour later and reboarded an hour after that. They finally got it all straighten out and we arrived back in Omaha at midnight.

It was a long day but we had a great time on the cruise. The best part of it was being with family, the food etc. was also very good.

I hope we can get together sometime this winter for a few days.

That’s all for now.

Update 3/14/17

I have been remiss in getting this out, so I decided today was the day.

We stayed the last weekend of our time in AZ with my sister and her husband, Darrius & Colleen. They have sold their home and have bought a townhouse which is still being built. We saw the model of their new place and I figured I could stay there for a month or so but I was told no by Sarah. I would not stay that long a week at the most

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Sunday, February 26, we headed for Sierra Vista, AZ. I didn’t get to see the Buffalo Soldiers Museum at Ft Huachuca on our way to Mesa because it was closed. That was a holiday weekend so I figured the 27^th of February would not be a problem. WRONG!!! The museum is closed on Sunday and Monday. We wanted to head out the next day so we went out at nine when they opened and did get to see some of it. Sarah saw more than me because part of the exhibits were upstairs and I wasn’t feeling up to negotiating any steps. We left after a couple hours.

Our plan was to get to Alamogordo, NM and stay there for the night. A few miles after we got on I-10 eastbound the neon sign across the interstate showed we had to get off and follow a detour because the road was closed due to dust storms. The detour was up to Safford, AZ and then followed Hwy 70 back to the interstate. We arrived in Alamogordo around six, so the detour took about two hours.

From Alamogordo, we went to Liberal, KS, spent the night there and left the next morning for home arriving about 5 pm. It was sure nice to get home even with the cold weather.

I did bring a cold home with me so I went to my primary care doctor and got some medicine for it. I seem to be getting better.

Today I went to see my oncologist and he said all looked good and I will see you in three months, good news.

Next week, Wed, I go to the eye doctor for an annual checkup, might need a new prescription. On Thurs I see the orthopedic doctor and hopefully my fractured humorous will be healing nicely.

This weekend we are going to WI to see the kids there and I am sure it will cost me for their report cards. Then it is a stop in Ames, IA on our way back to see Tiffany and family. That will cost me also as Alexa is getting A’s and on the honor roll. I don’t mind because I want the kids to do well in school so they can do whatever they want when they get to college.

March 26, we fly to Minneapolis and then to San Juan, PR. My brother Larry and his wife Kathy will meet us in Minneapolis and we’ll all be on the same flight. My sister Tara and her husband Paul will arrive in San Juan an hour or so after we do. My other sister, Colleen and husband Darrius, are flying there on Saturday to determine which restaurant we are going to eat at Sunday night. On Monday, 27^th, we board Celebrity Cruise Lines ship the Summit for a cruise of the Caribbean. We are going to have a ball, I am looking forward to this trip like none I have been on before.

Nothing else going on so I will close for now.

Blog Update 02/17/17

Our time here in Mesa is coming to an end. We arrived at the Goodlife RV Resort on January 1 and have for the most part enjoyed every minute of our stay.

Now we are down to the last two weeks.

Let me catch you up on what has been going on. I fell in the bathroom of our hotel room on January 1 and ended up going to the ER at the Phoenix VA. After x-rays and an orthopedic consult, they put me in a brace to immobilize my arm.

(In case I didn’t say before, I fractured the right humorous. I go back to the VA tomorrow for x-rays to see how the fracture is healing, hoping for the best. (I am writing this after my Dr. visit and I received very good news.  The Dr. said the bone is still healing, per the x-rays, and that I should continue wearing the brace until I visit with the orthopedic Dr. In normal.)

We haven’t done all the things we wanted to do while here but we have kept plenty busy. We had the pleasure of having dinner with Gordon & Cheryl, friends we met at the VA in Omaha. Steve & Teresa, we worked at Cal-AM with them, we went to dinner and had a great visit. We met Rick & Jana, coworkers from Cal-AM, at the RV Café, a restaurant started by Cal-AM. Had a great visit with them and enjoy their tales of traveling. We were able to get together with Nikki, Jack & Meredith, I worked with Nikki at Ruan. She is a massage therapist and teacher of same here in the Phoenix area. It was great seeing them again and catching up on their lives.

We have not done a lot of sightseeing except for the Mesa Flea Market, South Mountain Park, Wrigley Mansion and the Heard Museum. Also, a ride on the lite rail system.

The Flea Market is, in my opinion, a bunch of stuff you don’t need that is displayed two or three times in each of four long tents a quarter to a third mile long at least. You can find anything and everything in these tents, even things you didn’t know existed.

South Mountain Park is a great place to view the valley from 2,000 feet plus. The road is narrow and winding go up the mountain but a very pretty drive. Coming down there were two guys in front of us on skate boards, they had to hit speeds of 40+ mph, very dangerous. I hope they made it to the bottom safely.

The Wrigley Mansion is an interesting place, http://www.wrigleymansion.com/, the view is phenomenal and the food is great. I enjoy visiting this place.

The Heard Museum is very interesting, http://heard.org/,  was interesting. I will admit I didn’t pay to go through the museum but I looked at everything else. There were a couple of sculptures on the grounds pertaining to Native Americans being in the military, I found those and the writings to go with them to be very enlightening.

Tests today February 17 we went to canyon lake and took a boat ride on the lake on the boat the Dolly, https://dollysteamboat.com.  Canyon lake is one of 4 or 5 lakes in the area and have 20 some miles of shoreline, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canyon_Lake_(Arizona).  But at a small ride is a very seek a ride through one of the canyons on this lake.  After the boat ride, we went into tortilla flats and had lunch.  One of those things on my bucket list was to have prickly pear ice cream and I accomplish that today.

It is supposed to rain this weekend so I doubt that we will do much of anything.  In fact, we are in the process of planning our route home for when we leave a week from tomorrow.  It seems, the Omaha and the entire Midwest has had as good as or some day’s better weather men we have had here in Arizona.

I do have one more bucket list item I want to take care of the four we get home and that is visiting the buffalo soldier’s museum at Fort Huachuca, AZ.

So, we are leaving here a week from tomorrow with a couple stops here and there on our way home.  We should be back in a law by March 6 orbit four.

We have terrible WIFI here in this park and so I hope I will build a sendup this blog, will try.  If it doesn’t work, I’ll wait until I have better WIFI a service and send about them.

Hope all is well with everyone and we will continue this when we get home.

Update 12/17/2016

I am dictating this blog so please forgive any errors the time this

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We went to Ames Iowa two visit with Tiffany and your family, Matt, Alexa and Bryon.  We stayed at the Hampton inn in Ames and the kids came to the hotel and we had Christmas with them there.  As always, I asked Alexa where she would like to go eat for dinner.  Her choice was Applebee’s, which is always a good choice.  We had a great meal and a fun time visiting with Tiffany and family.

The next day, Sunday, we went to church at 8:30 AM and was on the road to Beloit Wisconsin by 930.  The weather forecast for the day was some snow and maybe sleet.  As we left aims it was snowing but not that bad until we get to Iowa City and the snow became heavier and more abundant.  From Iowa City to Beloit the roads were slushy but very passable.  We arrived in Beloit at approximately 3:30 PM, which was about an hour later than I thought we would get there.

In Beloit, we stayed at the Hampton inn, my favorite place to stay there.  We went over to Robert and Sarah’s.  Madyson was a girl scouts but Mason was home and we visit with everyone until Madyson got home.  When Madyson got home we opened presents, the kids received a book of Guinness World Records for 2017, they had told their parents they wanted this book, but it was what they wanted.  They each received another gift are two and as in years past we gave the parents some money.  

We went to Beloit for two reasons, to have Christmas with the kids and to attend Mason’s band concert.  Since the band concert wasn’t until Tuesday night we filled the day is doing various things.

On Monday, we had lunch with Robert and a restaurant called Hhffrrrggh Inn, don’t ask me where they came up with that name I’m not even sure how to pronounce it.  We had a great visit with Robert and the food was delicious.  We gone to eat Sunday night at a restaurant called lucky Lucy seven, or some like sent.  Next door was a sushi restaurant that Roberts said was very good, Sarah said it was good when she didn’t eat raw fish.  So, on Tuesday we decided to give it a try.  It was very good, I really enjoyed it, and Sarah even bought some of their Tea.

Tuesday night was the band concert, Mason plays the saxophone.  The auditorium in the middle school is very nice.  We sat stage left and was able to see Mason as the played his instrument.  I always sit at the end of a row, or if it’s church in the back pew, because since I’m an old man I sometimes, most likely often, have to get up and go to the restroom.  The concert consisted of the sixth grade, seventh grade and eighth grade bands and each band performed 2 to 4 songs.  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to all of them.

As we entered the auditorium though the band boosters were having a bake sale.  Now I cannot pass up any type bake sale, I always purchase something.  And this time was no exception, I bought some chocolate chip cookies, actually it was a donation you still paid for the cookies.  After the concert, we went to Culver’s for ice cream.  Since we were leaving the next morning and the kids had school we said our goodbyes at this time.

The trip home was a lot better in that there was no show on the roads and we made good time getting back to Omaha.

On December 8 I had an appointment with the orthopedic oncologist.  He took new x-rays and the x-ray showed the bone fracture healing on its own.  In fact, the new bone growth was more than double from the previous x-ray.  The Dr. said we would continue with the same treatment, that being I wear a sling and that I get another x-ray in the middle of January.  I was very happy with the results of the visit because as of now I do not need surgery.

I will attempt to get this new x-ray done at the veteran’s hospital in Phoenix Arizona.

Our plan is to leave for Phoenix on or about December 28.  We have a park model rented at good life RV resort and in Mesa, we have rented it was Sarah’s sister Cynthia.  We hope to arrive in Mesa on or about January 1.

On December 11 we headed for Burlington to visit my brother Larry and his wife Kathy. The have a very nice home located in the Village Coop of Burlington. They have a third floor corner or end unit, I love it because it has a great view. Sarah and Kathy went to concerts of Jill's kids, Matthew and Emily. Jill is Larry & Kathy's daughter. Tuesday Sarah and I visited with my aunt's, mom's side of the family, they live in a townhouse, very nice. We had a great visit.

Later that day we went to Caleb's basketball game. Caleb is a great nephew, the son of Brad and Jenny, Larry & Kathy's oldest. Caleb plays for the West Burlington Falcons, they were playing against my alma mater Notre Dame, but family won out and I rooted for the Falcons. It was a good game with the Falcons winning. We came home on Wednesday.

That about does it for now, and for those folks who are in the south the current temperature here is 7°.

Until later stay warm, drive safe.

Othopedic Consultation

OK we’re going to try this again; I will try dictating my blog.

For the past couple of months, I have had a pain in my right arm which I attributed to the radiation by hand for the bone cancer in the arm.  Two weeks ago, I went and saw my oncologist because of the pain, he took in x-ray been discovered I had fractured my humerus.  They gave me a sling to use until I could see an orthopedic oncologist.  Now I didn’t even know there was such a person as Orthopedic oncologist.  My oncologist put in a request for a consultation with the Orthopedic oncologist, who is located at the University of Nebraska medical center.

So, the request for the consultation was submitted on a Tuesday November 1.  On about the 7^th of November I received a call from an individual at the VA telling me that I was going to be turned over to the choice care plan people and they would be handling my orthopedic oncologist appointment.  

On the 8^th of November five received a call from an individual with the choice care plan, they asked me a bunch of questions and said that they would get a hold of the orthopedic oncologist, Dr. McGarry, since the request for the consultation was marked urgent the orthopedic oncologist would have to see me within two days of the request.  The following day I received another call from the choice care plan people, a different person from the one I talked to before.  This individual said approximately the same thing as the first individual, but this person asked me if I would be willing to have an appointment with someone other than Dr. McGarry.  I said that would be OK with me.

I didn’t hear from anyone for a day or two so on the 10^th of November I called Dr. McGarry’s office myself and was able to talk to his nurse.  She indicated the Dr. McGarry could see me on November 14 so I took the appointment.  Now on the 11^th of November the person from the VA who I initially talked to call me back.  He told me that I was being taken away from the choice care plan people and would be handled by the provider of agreement people.  So, on November 14 we were on our way to my orthopedic oncologist appointment and I received a call from a Dr. Coffee’s office stating that I had an appointment with him on November 16. Needless to say, I kept the appointment with Dr. McGarry and canceled the appointment with Dr. Coffee.

The x-ray that was taken on the 1^st of November showed a fracture of the right humerus, but the good news is it also showed the bone healing itself.  Dr. McGarry said that everything looked good as of that x-ray and because I told him I wanted to go south January 1 he scheduled another appointment for December 8 at which time another x-ray will be taken to determine if the healing process is proceeding the way he wants and if it isn’t then we will talk about surgery.  So, in the meantime I am using a regular sling, the doctor’s office called the VA to get me a different type of sling.  Bottom line is I feel good, my arm hurts if I use it for almost anything, but the good news is that it is healing itself.

In the meantime, I’m sitting here at home and I received a message on my phone from my youngest sister, Tara, stating that she wants to go somewhere and would like the rest of us siblings to bill also.  I figured because she just retired a weaker so ago she is getting cabin fever already and needed to get out of the house.  So, we are all going on a cruise to the Caribbean next march.  I spent the last couple of days getting our reservation in for the cruise, researching and finding the least expensive plane tickets out of Omaha and booking a hotel reservation for the day before the cruise.  The cruise departs from San Juan Puerto Rico and returns to send one five days later.  Now I have never been to the Caribbean so there should be a very interesting trip, and it is one that I’m looking forward to going on.

So, you might ask what am I going to be doing and for the next 120 days.  Well here it is, next week we are going too Dallas Texas for thanksgiving, Sarah’s and niece Theresa and husband Ben are graciously hosting the family for thanksgiving dinner.  Carl and Marilee are coming down to our place with their motor home and we’re all going to Texas together.  Cynthia is writing was Sarah and I and we will be returning to Omaha on November 27.  Carl and Merilee will be leaving from Dallas and going to Arizona for the winter.  Our plan is to go to Beloit Wisconsin the first week and of December to have Christmas with the kids up there.  Than either on the way up or the way back from the Beloit Wisconsin we will stop and see Tiffany and family in Boone Iowa.

On December 8, I see Dr. McGarry and a decision will be made at that time as to whether I need to have surgery.  If I must have surgery hopefully it can be completed in time for me to go to Arizona January 1.  Our plan is to spend January and February at Good Life RV resort in Mesa Arizona.

We will leave Mesa on March 1 and proceed to visit John and Cindi, who will be camped south of Benson, AZ.  From Benson, I want to go to Roswell New Mexico so I can see where the aliens landed and check out all the information I can find on area 51.  That probably will take too long to do all that that I’ve never been there and I would like to see the place.  I also hope to go to Abilene TX to visit Dyess AFB where I was stationed for two years in the Air Force, I probably will recognize anything about the base but I was still like to visit it.  We would also like to go see Dave and Shari who will be camping in the hill country itself or west of Austin, TX.  From there it’s back to Omaha and filing are income tax and getting ready to go on our cruise.

So, as you can see I haven’t been up to much but I’m always tired, I guess that might be a sign of getting old because some days when I’m tired I fall asleep in my chair.

There isn’t much more to tell so I will sign off for now and update this 000Blog after my Dr. Appointment on the eighth of December.

I hope everyone has a very happy, safe, enjoyable thanksgiving.

Update 11/1/2016

I am going to try dictating as a message and about my experience today.  We will see how it goes.

I want to let you know all about my visit with my oncologist Dr. Ganti.  And I have been having pain in my right arm and I thought I would see if we could get an x-ray done today.  I was told to go to the VA this afternoon for an x-ray.  After the x-ray, I met with the Dr. He said, I fractured the humerus and in my right arm.  He believes this was the result of the radiation treatment that I received this summer.  The Dr. is setting up an Orthopedic consultation for next week.  We will see what they have to say about a treatment.  In the meantime, I am using an arm sling to immobilize the arm as much as possible

.

We did get to go to Wisconsin to see Mason and Madyson play ball.  Mason had a football game on Saturday the 22^nd.  It was the championship game for their league.  Mason’s team and all the team members received a trophy.  Madyson had a baseball game on Sunday. They have a double header they won both games. Mason had a single ballgame on Sunday but they unfortunately lost by one run.

On Sunday Mason had an accident with a hedge trimmer. He accidentally cut his middle finger and broke the end of the bone.  It took 14 stitches to close up the wound, he will have to see an orthopedic surgeon to determine if he will be surgery to repair the bone.  Hopefully he will not need the surgery.

 

We are still planning on doing some traveling over the next few weeks.  This Friday we are going to Kansas City and hope to see my newest great-great nephew and his brother and sister.  Then we are having dinner with Steve and Lynne and possibly with Zach and Olivia.  (Cynthia is going with for us also.)

We have reservations, Jan-Feb, for a park model in Mesa Arizona at Good Life RV resort.  We are also planning on traveling in Texas in the month of March.  We plan on being home by the last week of March.

Well this dictating thing didn’t go to badly. I am not the greatest grammatically enhanced person, please overlook although grammatical errors.

Later.

Long Update 09/23/2016

It has been quite some time since I wrote a blog, to be honest I just haven’t taken the time and I didn’t feel like there was much to say, but today I will remedy that.

I believe the last time I wrote anything was the last of July. So here goes.

Sarah and I had lunch with John and Cindi, we worked with these folks our first year in Mesa. It is always great seeing them, Cindi is great and John is ornery. We always have a good time with them.

Sarah’s brother Bill and his wife Mable came to visit for a couple of days. They flew into Omaha on their way to the Cain reunion in Mitchell, SD. Amy, Sarah’s niece, put together the reunion, not many came but a great time was had by all. Cynthia drove Bill and Mable to the reunion and then to a couple of Mable’s family members. They all returned to Omaha and Bill and Mable flew home from here. It was great visiting with them. Bill, also, introduced me to a new wine I had never heard of, I believe it was called Reid, it is a Merlot and very good.

August fifth Sarah and I headed to Beloit, WI to visit Robert, Sarah, Mason and Madyson. Mason had baseball games on Saturday and Sunday, I wanted to see them all. There were four games, two each day, and they were all good games. Mason’s team came in third out of six teams and the teams they played were the twelve-year-old group, Mason is on the eleven-year-old team. It was a great weekend.

August 9 we started with a Cancer Support Group at the VA. There are only five of us in the group, two of us have our spouses with us. It is interesting from the stand point that I haven’t heard some of the things they are talking about and other topics I am familiar with but this reinforces the ideas with me. We went around the room and told our story. In my narrative I said that in Vietnam I drove an ambulance, we would take the wounded off of a plane and transport them to the Navy hospital or the Marine hospital. One of our members is a retired Navy corpsman and got on me about calling the Marine base hospital a Marine hospital, she said there are no such thing as a Marine hospital it is a Navy hospital. Technically she is correct, but we called it the Marine hospital for clarification of where the wounded were going. She understands but still insists we should have called a Navy hospital.

Met with my new primary care provider, PCP, Dr Berry. Nice young man, most everyone is younger than me anymore, we had a nice visit. He is the fourth or fifth PCP I have had since going to the Omaha VA. Only two have left the VA and the others have taken other positions within the Omaha VA. As one of the ER nurses told me, once you start at the VA you don’t leave.

Speaking of the ER, these are the nicest folks ever. They will do whatever it takes to make your visit as hassle free as possible. I have yet to meet a person at the VA here who doesn’t have your best interests at heart. I have yet to have a bad experience.

Carl and Merilee had to bring their new motorhome to Camping World in Council Bluffs for some warranty work. They stayed with us for a few days until it was done. We always enjoy their company.

August 31 I got my monthly treatment of Zometa, this for my bone cancer, and a couple liters of fluids. It seems I need fluids about every 10 to 14 days, I am told I get dehydrated from the cancer.

September 1 we headed out for Burlington with a lunch stop at Mt Pleasant to see Dave and Shari. I don’t remember the name of the place we had lunch, it is on the Skunk river south of Mt Pleasant. Anyway the food is fabulous and very reasonable. I had a tenderloin, one of my favorites, who am I trying to kid, food is one of my favorites. Dave and I had pie for dessert and it was great, of course we had ice cream on it. It was good to see Dave and Shari.

We were headed to Burlington for my aunt Marcella’s 90 birthday party on Sunday. The event was held in the community room of the village cooperative of Burlington my brother and wife live in. It was the perfect place to have the party, plenty of room and lots of parking outside. There were approximately fifty people who came to see me aunt in addition to relatives. In fact, there were a couple people who showed up that I had not seen in 40 plus years. It was a great time.

My doctor has always told me if I felt good go do something. So Sarah and I took off on the 9^th for Carl and Merilee’s in Mitchell, SD for a trip to Door County, for you that don’t know Door County is in Wisconsin. We left Saturday morning in their new motorhome and were gone for ten days.

We spent the first night in West Salem, WI at a campground, I don’t remember the name, a nice campground but a bit pricey. We were going to go to church at 7 pm but when we go there no one was there, I guess they haven’t updated their website. So we decided to get something to eat. As we were driving through Bangor, where the church was, we spotted the Village Inn, a local bar and restaurant. I had prime rib, not too bad, I have had better but still this was good. I always ask for REAL horseradish not this creamy stuff they normally serve, usually I get it. I have had one restaurant where I couldn’t get the real stuff because they didn’t have any. For shame on them.

Sunday we went to church and then headed out for Oshkosh, WI and the EAA Museum. We stayed two nights at the Hickory Oaks campground in Oshkosh. We ate at the Dockside restaurant that night and you can skip this one if you are ever in Oshkosh, not very good.

If you have never been to the EAA Museum, it is a must see. (A side note. We lived in Wisconsin for twelve years and didn’t go to the museum. Our boys accuse us of never taking them anywhere when we lived there. My response is, I didn’t want to deprive them of the pleasure of seeing all this with their own kids. That didn’t go over too good with them.) We spent several hours in the museum, if you want to read all the descriptions of all the items it would take a couple days to get through all of it.

We had a late lunch at Friar Tuck’s, this is a great restaurant we all liked the food here.

Merilee and I like lighthouses. In fact, back in 2001 we all went to Hawaii for our twenty fifth anniversaries. While on the big island of Hawaii we had a rental car and were going to go see a macadamia nut factory but when we got there it was closed, it was January 1, 2001, New Year’s Day, I didn’t even give it a thought the place would be closed. So we saw on the map that there was lighthouse a few miles away. We headed toward it not knowing we were going to go through an area where the local volcano had erupted a few years ago and the lava flow went right through this area. But we were determined to see the lighthouse so we continue on not worrying about the road condition because we had a rental car. When we finally got to the light house it was a big disappointment. It was nothing but a steel structure like the windmill towers you see on farms in the Midwest, except instead of blades on top this one had a light, bummer.

Anyway, Oshkosh had two lighthouses listed on their map, we headed off to find them. The first one, Bray’s Point Lighthouse, we found, it wasn’t very big and was nothing to speak of and it was located in someone’s yard, with no good way to get to it. Merilee got a picture of it, I never did. The second one, Asylum Point Lighthouse, we also found but never go to see it. It seems it is on the grounds of the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. We tried to drive back to the lighthouse but couldn’t find any road that led to it. So we gave up on trying to see it.

Tuesday morning, we were up and headed for Door County. Our first stomp was at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, WI, https://www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Shrine_of_Our_Lady_of_Good_Help. Instead of trying to explain what this site is and the history of it I will let you go to the two links above. You will want to click on the Peshtigo fire link, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshtigo_Fire in the Wikipedia article to get the total story behind the shrine.

After a couple hours at the shrine we continue our journey to Bailey’s Harbor campground in Bailey’s Harbor, WI. We got the camper set up, I wasn’t much help but I did help where I could and stayed out of the way otherwise. For lunch we went to Bailey’s Cornerstone Pub I believe that is the name. I had their clam chowder which was very good. Merilee had some walleye and it didn’t sit very well with her. So we didn’t go back there again.

That afternoon we drove up to Northport, WI, I wanted to show everyone the ferry, http://www.doorcounty.com/business-directory/washington-island-ferry-line/, that takes people to Washington Island, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Island_(Wisconsin).

Wednesday we were looking for some place for breakfast and one of the Workamper at the campground, who Carl knew from Whirlpool, it is a small world, said to go to the Sandpiper restaurant, http://www.maxweltonbraes.com/. Great food and plenty of it.

Then it was off to find the Bailey’s Harbor Lighthouse, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baileys_Harbor_Light, not a very good one.

The second one, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cana_Island_Light, was much better. There were 97 steps to get to the top of the lighthouse, I didn’t even attempt it but Sarah, Carl and Merilee did as shown in this picture.

I bought a book so I could say I was there. An interesting tidbit, I read the lighthouse keeper was paid $600 per year and the assistant was paid $300, this wage was unchanged for 30 years, I hope they didn’t have to buy their own food.

That afternoon we took a boat ride on Lake Michigan to see some more lighthouses and a sunken ship, http://shorelinecharters.net/gillsrock.html. As far as the lighthouses go it was a bust, we weren’t able to tour any of them but it was neat to see the different types and the sunken ship was a ship that sank just after the civil war, so there wasn’t much left of it. I enjoyed the boat ride but I really enjoyed the narrative by the captain. The boat was not very big twelve passengers and I was sitting up front so I could hear his explanations and ask questions. It was a good experience.

One of the interesting things the captain said was the state of Wisconsin won’t approve any more permits to build boat docks. So if you buy or build with water access you won’t be able to build a boat dock. I looked it up and here is the story on it, http://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/html/stories/2000/jun00/pier.htm.

That night we wanted pizza and someone told us about Joe Jo’s Pizza and Gelato, http://www.doorcountypizza.com/, so off we went in search of this place. Now something happened there that I have never experienced before. I wear a Vietnam Veterans hat a lot and I had it on that day. When we went into the restaurant I had it on, but I took it off when we sat down at the table. We had been there for fifteen minutes or so and the couple sitting behind us got up to leave and the one lady came over and asked if I was a Vietnam Veteran, I said yes, and she gave me money to buy a Gelato. I said that wasn’t necessary but she insisted and so I said thank you. I admit one of the reasons I wear the hat is so people won’t forget the Vietnam Veterans, a lot of them didn’t get a very nice welcome when they returned to the states, I don’t wear it so people buy me meals or deserts. However, when that happens, if it happens again, I will politely say it isn’t necessary but I will not argue with the person either. I do get a thank you for your service now and then and I find it is mostly people under fifty who say that. Regardless of the reason or circumstances the acknowledgment is greatly appreciated and I say that for ALL veterans.

Thursday Sarah Ann’s, Robert’s wife’s, parents, Dick and Terry, met us in Egg Harbor for lunch and then we went shopping. After a bit we headed for Fish Harbor for more shopping. Fish Harbor has a main street that is maybe two or three blocks long with nothing but shops all of which are unique to the area. Dick and Terry left a little after five, they had to pick up their dog by six or so.

For dinner we went to PC Junction, Bailey’s Harbor, WI, http://www.pcjunctiondoorcounty.com/. This place has a train that delivers your meal, if you are seated at the bar. I understand in the summer time it is near impossible to get a seat at the bar. The food was good and I did buy a shirt.

The next day Friday it was time to pack up and move on. We were headed to Beloit. Our original plans had us being in Manitowoc, WI to see the Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, http://www.wisconsinmaritime.org/index.php. They have a WWII submarine there which you can take a tour of, but we decided to stay another day in Bailey’s Harbor and skip the museum, it turned out to be a good decision.

We were able to get into Pearl Lake campground, http://www.pearllake.com/. This campground does not allow visitors; I don’t understand that but that is their rule. If you are a scuba diver or want to be this is the place to go, the lake has an airplane and other various items in it for divers to dive on.

That night Mason’s football team was running onto the field at the varsity football game. We went to watch and I was surprised the varsity team let the younger ones run onto the field in front of them. The cost to get in to the game was $1.00 for old people like me and $3.00 for others. They had a pretty good crowd but I understand the home team lost.

Saturday we went to watch Mason plan football, he is the center and defensive guard. It was fun to watch him and to see how much better he is from a couple years ago.

After lunch with the kids at Noodle and Company, http://order.noodles.com/menu/noodles-beloit. Not a lot of variety, noodles and different toppings etc. but good. We headed for Spring Green, WI.

We couldn’t get into the only full hookup campground I could find in Spring Green so we went to Lone Rock, WI and the Fireside Campground, http://firesidecampground.com/index.html. Not a bad campground, the owners are new. The campground is over two hundred acres and there looks to be a lot of potential.

Went to church that night in Avoca, WI, at St Joseph Catholic Church. After church we were hungry so on our way back to the campground we found The Woods, a bar/restaurant in Lone Rock, WI, http://www.woods-bar-grill-the.hub.biz/. I had prime rib and it was good, but not the best I have ever had.

Our reason for being in the area was to see The House on the Rock, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_on_the_Rock. I had been there in the 1970’s but no one else had been there so we went to see it. It has expanded greatly since I last saw it and they have added a couple new features to the house. It took us over five house to tour the place, I was beat by the end of the day. I did buy two books, one is a picture book of what you see throughout the place and the other is about the original owner and how the house built and the collection of items you see.

After walking all day, I was beat. I said I wanted two drinks with my dinner. We stopped at Arthur’s Supper Club, http://www.woods-bar-grill-the.hub.biz/. I had the special, a Turkey dinner with the trimmings. I also ordered a whiskey old fashion, it was very good. So I ordered another one. The server brought the second drink and a few minutes later a third drink. She said they made two by mistake, I got three for the price of two, not a bad ending to a tiring day.

Monday we got up and headed for Mitchell. We got there around seven, unloaded the camper, ordered pizza for dinner and went to bed.

Tuesday, Amy and son Jasper came to the house and we all loaded into her van to go to breakfast. We went to the American Legion. They have a big building, with dart tournaments and bingo, looks to be a very active group.

Thank you Merilee and Carl for the great time traveling with you.

Sarah and I headed for Omaha about ten and got home by two thirty.

Yesterday was Eli’s sixth birthday so we went to lunch with them at the Red Robyn, it was a good time.

Without going into a lot of detail we are going to Mesa, AZ for January and February 2017. I have a few things to work out with the VA here and in Phoenix but the oncology case manager said it is all doable, so we are going for it. We have rented a place at Good Life RV Resort in Mesa and we hope to see a lot of the people we knew when we were there before.

I guess I have rambled on for too long, that is what happens when I don’t write for such a long time.

One commercial, please ask you friends and acquaintances to donate to my GoFundMe account so we can buy some more t-shirts for the veterans undergoing chemotherapy here at the Omaha VA, https://www.gofundme.com/db7q945h. Thank you.

Thank you for all the prayers and support you have given me in the past and I ask for your continued prayers.

Until later, take care and safe travels.

Bone Cancer

It has been a while since I have posted so I thought I would try to get one out today. I feel better than I have in a long time.

Here's what has been going on in my world. As stated in my last blog the doctor wants me to start getting an infusion of Zometa once a month. So that we have the least amount of chance for bone infection in the future the oncologist wanted an oral surgeon to assess my teeth for future dental work. The dentist did x-rays and examined my teeth and said I would need to have six teeth removed.Three upper and lower in the back and three lower front. So I had all six removed on June 9th, then I had to wait for 2-4 weeks for the gums to heal. The surgery wasn't too bad, the dentist was very good and kept the gums numb so I didn't feel any pain or not much anyway.

June 17th I started radiation for cancer in my right humerus, the cancer caused so much pain in my right arm I could not use it for anything. The radiologist said the pain would begin to diminish almost immediately and should all be gone with a month or so. I went through ten treatments, every day for ten days minus weekends. I have about 85% of arm usage back and it keeps getting a little better everyday.

I haven't traveled at all since April and I was wanting to go somewhere. So we went to Coralville where Carl & Merilee were camping and spent a couple of days with them. It was great my arm felt good and I was able to use it quite a bit, still a bit of a ways to go but getting there.

I saw the oncologist on Monday and he said all looked good, lab work looked pretty good and instead of seeing me in a month we are going two months. That was good news.

I still need to go to get fluids, it seems once a week or ten days, but I have no problem doing that. The folks at the VA are great, very accommodating and helpful.

Not much else going on so I will cut this short and say again, Thank you for all the prayers and support.

Until later.

05/25/2016

This may be a short post; it depends on my energy level.

For the past few weeks I haven’t been feeling the best I blamed it on the pain I was having in my back. I have a history of low back pain. Well it all came to a head Monday night. Last Thursday I stopped taking a pain pill because I was having some bad side effects food didn’t taste good, so cold turkey I quit taking the drug, gabapentin and tramadol. I think that is how they are spelled. I thought I was having withdrawals, the same effect as if I was using some street drug.

For some reason I always wait until nighttime to seek help, so nine thirty pm with Daniel driving, Sarah in the back and me in the passenger seat mourning like I was going to die. We get to the VA ER and they get me right in. In the course of events we find out the evening shift only has two nurses and one doctor on duty. I had full blood workup done, then a chest CT scan to rule the possibility of a blood clot. Finally, the doctor said they couldn’t find anything wrong so he gave me something for the pain and we came home.

I had an appointment set up with the oncologist on Tuesday, yesterday, I wanted to get to day.

Monday morning my primary care doctor called me, her day off but she took the time to call. We talked, I told her what was going on and she said the problems I was having wasn’t due to the drugs, she said there is something else going on, so she set me an appointment for Tuesday at noon.

Monday night I was going to the bathroom to get ready for bed and my lower abdomen bowled me over with pain, I thought I was going to pass out. I have never had pain like that before, well maybe the kidney stone I had many years back was close. Sarah calls 911, I could not move I hurt so bad. The Paramedics finally found our house and came in the house. The one PM was really good, actually they were all good, I was in so much pain I didn’t care if they were good or not. They asked me which hospital I wanted to go to and I said the VA. The PM said the VA is closed. I said the ER is closed when did this happen? No she said they are closed to any more ambulances for the night. So I ended up going to a hospital about eight miles from the house. I want to say the ride in the ambulance was one of the roughest I have ever been on. By time we got to the hospital my back hurt as much as my abdomen.

Again I went through a series of test, blood work and CT scan. They didn’t find anything other than enlarged lympnodes because of the cancer but they made a disc of the scan so I could give that to the VA the next day.

So yesterday we go down to the VA and I am to have a CT scan at 10 am. I told Sarah, before we left home, to bring some plastic bags because with food and drink not tasting good I probably would throw up. We get to the VA and I am so weak I can’t walk very far so we get a wheelchair for me. Sarah does a pretty good job of wheeling me around unless there is a bump she has some trouble getting over it. So anyway we get to the infusion clinic to get my port accessed, blood drawn and then I would go to x-ray for the scan. I tell the nurse about the last few days and she says you can’t have another scan so soon; the dye they put through the system can damage the kidneys. This dye, for those of you who have never had a scan makes you feel flush, warm and tingly and when it reaches the nether world you feel like you have wet your pants, I don’t know if anyone ever has, I know I haven’t. The nurse gets the scan canceled and pages my oncologists and she talks to him. He said he would come over and see me in the infusion clinic otherwise I would have to wait until 2:30pm. He comes in and says that all the trouble I have been having was due to the cancer, it is flaring up and doesn’t want to play the same game we have been playing up till now. (That is my take on what he said)

The doctor is changing the treatment I will be getting from now on. One of the drugs is a monthly infusion of Zometa, this is to curtail the growth of the bone cancer. But before I can start this treatment I have to be cleared by a dentist because of my tooth implant the dentist has to check my gums for any possibility of bone infection, I guess you don’t want an infection in the bone while taking this drug. The other drug is called Zytiga, I will have to take four tablets a day forever, it is to hold the growth of the prostate cancer. I will still have pain in the abdomen and elsewhere so I have morphine tablets for the pain.

This isn’t the way I had envisioned retirement but it is what it is, so Sarah and I will deal with it. These last few days has just reinforced what a wonderful friend, companion and spouse I have. I could not go through this without her help and strength, I thank God for her every day.

Please continue sending me the positive vibes and thoughts and most especially your prayers, I know they are there and it is a tremendous help to me.

Later.

March 30, 2016

What a month, we have had a high of 78 degrees and today, March 24, a high of 37 degrees,  I guess winter isn’t done with us yet, no matter that it is spring.

We went to Beloit, WI for Madyson’s birthday party. Robert & Sarah had the party at the local roller rink. I hadn’t been in a roller rink for ages, it brought back a lot of memories of roller skating. I use to be pretty good at roller skating and ice skating, well at least I enjoyed it. We had a great time with the kids and Madyson cleaned up on presents, the majority of them appealed to the creative side.

I have some trouble with getting dehydrated, I drink plenty of water, most days between 60 and 80 oz. of water a day. Evidently this isn’t enough because I still become dehydrated and have to go to the VA to get fluids. Sometimes I will go weeks without needing more fluids and sometimes just days, but the VA folks are very nice and accommodating and take care of me immediately. So I was getting fluids on Mar 12 and 18, hopefully this will last for quite a while.

On the 16^th I went to the dentist for more work on my tooth implant. The dentist did some scraping of the implant and said it looked good, so she screwed in a gold screw, I wonder if I am going to get a gold tooth, anyway she said all looked good for now. I go back at the end of the month to have an impression taken for a crown and then a couple more weeks and they will put the crown in and I will have my new tooth.

Last Tuesday we went to Ames, IA to see Tiffany, Matt and Alexa, Alexa’s birthday was on Monday so we got to see them and went out to dinner. Alexa is taller than Sarah and is becoming a nice young lady. We gave her some money for her birthday, she said she was going to buy some books at a book fair at school.

She loves to read and so I am glad to give her some money to help her get the books she wants. We had a great time with them.

Yesterday we went to Des Moines, staying in a Hampton Inn. We have several people we wanted to see while we are here, we try to see everyone but we usually don’t get it accomplished. This time we did pretty good. We had lunch yesterday with Sarah’s cousin Betty and husband Bob at Panera’s. I like Panera’s they have good food and great pastries. Last night we met Dick & Judi and John & Kathy at Smoky D’s for dinner. These were the first folks we met when we moved into our RV back in 2010. They are great people and we have a great time visiting with them. For various reasons we hadn’t seen them since 2014, so we had some catching up to do. Hope we can get together with them again before winter.

We met with our accountant and had great news, we didn’t owe any taxes. People ask me why we have an accountant, Greg Dahm in West Des Moines. I use to do our taxes until ten years ago or so I screwed up our taxes royally. I was referred to Greg and he was able to get it all straighten out for me and we have used him since.

Thursday we had a meeting with our financial advisor and found out we still a small amount of money to spend before the kids get it. Mike Canney, Morgan Stanley, is a great advisor and has done well with our investments, but more than that he has become a good friend and we cherish our friendship a lot. Ashley, Mike’s daughter, works with him and we can call her with questions and she is very knowledgeable about investments and is a great resource to get questions answered. We value this relationship and thank the Good Lord for it.

We met Laurie, Marci and Marie for lunch at the Chicken Coop. This place is right down the street from Marsh where these ladies all worked. We had a great time visiting with them. Without going into details it was fun to see them and getting caught up on all the news and goings on at Marsh. Thank you ladies for taking the time out of your busy day to have lunch with us.

Tonight we were to have dinner with Orren & Norma. Orren had developed a cough and a visit to the doctor said he had more than a cough so he stayed home.; Norma came out to the hotel and we visited a bit, then we went to dinner. Monterey Mexican restaurant was our choice and it proved to be a good choice. The restaurant was busy but the service was excellent and the food was hot and good. We had a very nice visit with Norma and hope the next time we are in town Orren will be able to join us.

March 30, 2016 (cont’d)

Friday we headed for Burlington to visit with my brother Larry and his wife Kathy. We even got to see Jill and Brad, two of their children. We had a great time with them. We also saw my aunts, Millie & Marcella. Marcella will be 90 in August I believe, we took them to Mass on Sunday at St John’s, the church I grew up going to. I lived across the street from the school and church. The school and nun’s house are gone but I have some great memories of growing up there.

We left for home after lunch on Sunday. We stopped at the Iowa Veteran’s Cemetery just west of Des Moines, so Sarah could pick up some Vietnam Veteran Memorial pins from Candi a member of the DAR in Des Moines. The DAR, Sarah is a member, is giving these pins out to all Vietnam veterans.

Daniel called and said he didn’t get the turkey on the grill as soon as he intended and it wouldn’t be done until six. This worked out well for us because we arrived at his house a bit before six and was able to join them for Easter dinner. I was great and we even brought some home with us.

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We had a great trip and planning more to come this summer.

Until later stay safe and healthy.

March 3, 2016

A couple of weeks ago I woke up with a bite of some sort. My thought was it was a spider bite. Later that day I wasn’t doing too well so we went to the ER at the VA and I was dehydrated so I’m talking with the nurse practitioner and I showed her the bite, she didn’t know what it was from either. She suggested I see my PCP, primary care person. In the mean time I put Neosporin and a bandage on the bite. On Wednesday of the same week I had an eye appointment and when I was done I called my PCP to see if I could get in to see her. I got in to see her that same afternoon. She didn’t know what it was from nor did another doctor, they suggested I go to the cancer center and see if it was something related to my chemo. I went and asked my oncology case manager, she is a nurse, she didn’t know and neither did one of the oncologist. Crystal, the clerk, said it looks like a spider bite, she said her grandmother would get them once in a while, I said I agree. My biggest concern was getting an infection, so the oncologist ordered an antibiotic for me and within a week the bite was disappearing and is now gone.

This has been a great week so far. I had a CT scan on Tuesday, lab work also and then saw the oncologist. All looked good and the doctor said “I will see you in three months”. Praise the Lord. Thank you to all who have been praying for me.

So we have a busy couple months coming up, with trips to WI, IA and MO. Granddaughters Madyson and Alexa have birthdays this month so we are going to go see them. It should be fun and it will keep us busy.

I hope all is well with each person who reads this blog. Our weather has been interesting, one day it is 60 and the next it is 30, sometimes in the same day. I do know it is March and it will continue to warm up and the weather will change from possibility of snow to thunderstorms and tornadoes, but this is the Midwest and we expect to have changes in the weather, you never know what to expect.

Hopefully I will get my new front tooth later this month. It is a strange feeling having a front tooth missing. Ice slips right through the opening, going or coming, it doesn’t make any difference. I have dribbled down the front of me more times than I care to count. My one concern is the dentist told me to be careful because my teeth are somewhat brittle. I said you mean I am old and she just laughed. So we will see how it all goes.

That is all I have for now. Till Later, stay healthy and safe. 

Update February 9, 2016

I had my sixth chemo session last Friday, now we wait until I get a CT scan on March 1 and see the doctor the same day to see what the next step will be. I pray the doctor will say “I’ll see you in three months”. The chemo will have done its job and I will be good to do a couple of trips.

This last series of chemo had their moments of making me feel lousy, but I always felt I would come out of it and overcome the side effects. The one side effect that is difficult to get rid of is the tiredness, the feeling of weakness. My legs feel weak, I attribute the feeling to not walking enough, I don’t like the cold and if it is windy forget it I don’t go out. Now we have a treadmill and I have forced myself to walk on it, it is in the garage, so the temps are in the forties, no matter the temp outside. I had the garage insulated when the house was built, best money I spent. So I just have to force myself to get out and walk. One more side effect is the effects of prednisone, I feel and look like the statue of Buddha, my face has never been this round, I don’t believe. But again, it is partially due to lack of exercise, so I am going to make a push to walk more.

I received a Microsoft Band 2 for my birthday, it has quite a few features, http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/cat/All-Microsoft-Band/categoryID.69889600?icid=en_US_Store_UH_devices_Msband.

I’ll let you read about it if you want. The interesting thing about it to me is it tracks how well I sleep and then compares the results with others of my age group, if they can find someone still alive. I use a CPAP and it is supposed to put you into deep sleep, this device is indicating I am not getting to that point. Of course the fact that I am up three to four times at night to go to the bathroom just might be a factor in all of this. But then the consequences of not getting up to go to the bathroom are more unappealing to me than the lack of some sleep. Besides I can fall asleep in my chair during the day if I want too.

When my grandmother was still alive I remember going to her house and it would be 100+ degrees in there, or so it seemed, and she would be wearing a sweater and have a blanket on her. I always thought it was strange, not any more. I don’t have the house at 100+ degrees but I do wear a sweater and at times put a blanket over my legs. As I have mentioned before a side effect of one of the drugs I take are hot flashes and when I get one of those I take off the sweater but as soon as the sensation stops I get cold and put the sweater back on. I had a friend tell me once the best relief she found from the hot flashes was a cold shower, I haven’t tried that yet.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday already, where does the time go. I know a lot of people will be walking around tomorrow with a black spot on their foreheads, to remind us “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”. Here is a great explanation for the day, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday.

I had a phone call yesterday from a social worker at the VA. She said the oncology clinic had given my name to her as a cancer survivor and she wanted to know if I would be interested in taking part in a cancer survivor support group. I told her sure and she will be sending me information on the meeting.

This got me to thinking, when does a person become a cancer survivor? Is it after you have X number of treatments and you are still here or is it a certain number of days or years. For me I know I will never be free of cancer unless the Good Lord cures me of it. I will always live with the cancer, I accept that, and believe if I am ever free of it then I will have witnessed a miracle.

We were at our son Daniel’s for my birthday last Sunday and to eat smoked ribs, they were very good. We also watched Super Bowl 50. We had a great time and thank you Daniel for cooking the ribs.

A few years ago Sarah and I were in Green Bay, Wisconsin for a wedding. The only camp ground we could find was about thirty minutes south of Green Bay. One day we were looking for something to do and I came across a notice about a Shrine dedicated to Mary the Mother of God. Well being raised Catholic I thought we should go see it. I put the address into the GPS and we headed out, the location is out in the middle of nowhere and without the GPS I would have been hard pressed to find it, but it was worth the trip. Even if you don’t believe in miracles the story surrounding the events of October 8, 1871 make interesting reading. There were two events that are interrelated the Peshtigo fire and the survival of individuals who took refuge in a church while the fire surrounded them. Here are two links to offer more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrine_of_Our_Lady_of_Good_Help, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshtigo,_Wisconsin.

Reading about fire and talking about hot flashes makes me drink more water than I have ever drank in my lifetime. I haven’t had the problem of dehydration lately and I always wondered how I ended up with it to begin with. I have switched over to just bottled water now because I can measure how much I drink. Some days I feel like if you poked me in the gut I would spray water at the point of the poke.

We have quite a bit of snow on the ground right now but next week is supposed to be warmer so with any luck we will get rid of ALL the snow and not get anymore. Ha-ha, I know we will get more snow and have been known to get it all the way into April, don’t remember any in May but I wouldn’t doubt that it could happened. I just keep telling myself I don’t have to go out in the cold weather and the snow unless it is absolutely necessary.

I have been reading a lot  of books these past few months. Sarah got me started on a series of books where one of the main “characters” is a cat. They are mysteries, not difficult reading and usually I haven’t figured out the killer until the author reveals it at the end. The books are an enjoyable read, the authors are Sofie Ryan and Sofie Kelly, interesting enough the same person writes under both names. The other is Miranda James.

I am also playing the stupid Candy Crush Saga, Soda and Jelly, I have to quite playing them because they are so frustrating. However, my sister is ahead of me in Jelly and I am trying to catch up with her. She plays it a lot more than me so I don’t know if that will ever happen.

Well that is enough for now.

Until later.