Sunday After Chemo

Well, I survived the third chemo session pretty well. I’m still wearing the pump. One of the components of the chemo treatment is injected slowly over 48 hours and I wear a little pump in a fanny pack for a couple days. I’ll have to admit I never pictured myself as a fanny pack kind of a guy. When it’s finished, Verva disconnects it and we take it back the next time we have chemo.

I seem to have more numbness and tingling in my fingers when exposed to cold than before. That is an expected side effect and I just need to remember not to grab ice cubes out of the refrigerator. No nausea, no other issues other than a need to nap. I understand that chemo won’t always be like this – that there’ll be a time later where I will have some issues with nausea, etc. but we’ll just wait and see.

I was looking over my blog entries. I have made 28 postings and received 140 comments. The comments mean a lot to us and we love getting them but I can’t answer the comments through the blog. I like getting e-mail and my e-mail address is is under my name on the contributor list on the right hand side of the blog page. So if you’d like some dialog, send me an e-mail.

One day at a time - piece of cake.

Chemo #3

This afternoon I go down to MDA for my third chemo treatment. We spent most of yesterday there – blood work, nutritionist, and an appointment with the doctor. At MDA, you don’t just get to see the doctor, you also get to visit both the clinical test administrators who seek pretty detailed information on how you are responding to the chemo and how you are feeling. I have to keep a daily log sheet which they review with me every 4 weeks. You also get to visit the physician’s assistant who goes over your condition in detail and answers any questions you have. In between, the nutritionist and the social worker drop by. Eventually you even get to see the doctor.

The overall feeling and judgment is that this chemo is working pretty well for me. I am the first person in the 11^th test group for this trial and each group gets a higher dosage so, right now, my group is getting the highest dosage in the trial. All the staff there always tries to decide how I’m doing by whether or not I’m smiling. I will admit there have been a couple times that I was a little grouchy and didn't smile much. Most of the time now I really do feel pretty good. You can see this by the picture of me writing this blog entry.

Notice that I shaved my head – not because my hair was falling out but in support of Brittney’s rehab efforts.

I probably won’t write an entry over the weekend – the chemo does make me pretty tired for a couple days.

One day at a time – piece of cake.

Home Again

We got back from Rockport yesterday afternoon after a great couple days. The weather on Monday was perfect and we had a great trip out to look at the whooping cranes. You take a boat from Fulton Harbor down to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge. The birds winter in the refuge and you can see them quite well from the boat.

There are generally two adults and an adolescent in each group. Each group claims about a square mile of territory. This flock at Aransas migrates 2400 miles from the Northwest Territories in Canada. There are 237 birds in the flock and there are a total of 518 birds when you count the non-migrating and captive birds in the U.S. In 1941 there were only 16 birds. These birds stand 5 and a half feet tall and are truly spectacular.

It was a good trip and we saw many other birds ranging from peregrine falcons to American Oyster Catchers. We headed for home on Tuesday with several stops along the way.

We have a quiet day today and a day full of doctor appointments tomorrow and chemo on Friday. We were glad for the change of scenery and I was glad I was able to drive us down there and back. I couldn’t have done that two weeks ago.

One day at a time – piece of cake….

Sunday

Each day that passes I seem to feel better. The chemo’s working on me and I can tell. While I still have no appetite, eating’s easier and I haven’t lost any more weight. Our attitude has changed over the past weeks from one of fear and despair to a much more positive outlook thanks to the people at MDA, our family and our friends (and, of course, a chemo treatment that’s working). We’re looking at treating this like a chronic illness – one that will have to be dealt with but one that is survivable.

We’re not taking the 5^th wheel out today like we planned. The cold weather makes it difficult for me to do much outside because one of the chemo meds makes my fingers numb in the cold. and that would include hooking up, setting up and messing with the 5^th wheel. The trailer will have to wait for warmer weather. We are, however, heading for Rockport (about 250 miles SW of Houston on the coast) as soon as I get done writing this. Our good friends, Mike and Leslye, have offered us their house there for a couple days and we’re grateful. The weather’s lovely, clear and cool, and tomorrow we’ll take a boat ride out to see the whooping cranes and do some walking and birding. We’ll be back Tuesday night or Wednesday. No postings until we return.

The picture is of my main project team wearing “The Densmore Project” tee shirts provided by my hero, Rindy. These tee shirts are available for all team members.

One day at a time – piece of cake

Ethan Allen Memories

I am a big submarine fan and I recently ran across this picture of the Ethan Allen on the internet. It reminded me of the time during the late 60’s when I served on the USS Ethan Allen, SSBN 608. This was a Polaris submarine. She was the first of a class that were built from the keel up to carry missiles. I reported aboard at the height of the Cold War and I made four patrols. During the time I was aboard there was some question about the operational readiness of these boats and missiles after having been in service for a number of years. In spite of an extensive preventative maintenance program, live firings of missiles showed a high number of failures. We had fired single missiles on sea trails prior to patrol successfully but a number of other boats had problems.

The Allen was selected for a live firing exercise that involved firing seven missiles in a war time sequence. This meant every minute or two we’d launch. It was a major test. My job during the launch was to fire a flare in between each launch as a signal to the surface observers. We steamed out of Rota, Spain, to somewhere in the mid Atlantic and awaited the firing signal. When it came we fired seven missiles in sequence without a hitch including the flares between shots. The boat was submerged and each time we fired a missile it bounced up and down as systems compensated for the change in weight. All the missiles went downrange and impacted the target area. We received a Presidential Unit Commendation for the effort.

The picture here shows the boat underway. It looked pretty casual with the guys in shorts on the sail planes and the flag flying from the sail. It reminded me of our return to port with a broom tied to the periscope (“clean sweep”) and a 7-Up flag flying from the sail. The boat has the hull number painted on it (608) and this was not the case when I was on it. Then, hull numbers were painted over as part of deployment. The other picture is one of me in my “office” on the boat.

Going For A Walk

There is nothing like sitting around being sick for a month to make your first walk a challenge. The sky was clear, the temperature in the 50’s and a stiff breeze blowing so this morning Verva and I decided the weather was good enough to go for a walk. Holy cow, talk about no steam. I struggled back to the house after a ½ or ¾ of a mile wondering what the hell had happened. It’s amazing how fast one’s body weakens without exercise. I better do this everyday or I won’t be able to go out and pick up the paper in the morning.

Don’t know if any of you remember Travis McGee novels by John D. McDonald but I read them and enjoyed them several times over the years. Travis McGee lived on a houseboat in Florida and helped people out of jams. I recently found another author, Randy Wayne White, who writes a series of novels based on a character named Doc Brown. He’s a marine biologist who lives on Sanibel Island in Florida. They’re entertaining and good light reading.

Found the spreader for my tractor. When the wind stops and it warms up some I’ll get out and lay down 10 bags of pre emergent herbicide.

One day at a time, piece of cake…

Monday

It’s a big time stormy Texas day here. Thunder, lightning, inch an hour rain. Nice day to be inside. However, before it started I actually got out and ran some errands. Got the oil in my truck changed and renewed my safety sticker. Tried to find a new spreader to pull behind my tractor but was unsuccessful.

I seem to see changes and improvements each day. Much less hic-cups and each day it’s easier to eat. That’s not to say that I want to eat – my appetite’s gone south. But since I have to eat it’s better that the food goes down easier. This two week period will be interesting. I want to see if I have enough steam to go get my 5^th wheel and park it in the driveway and then maybe next week take a short trip down the coast. I also want to see if I can get back on track with our church expansion – I’ve missed a couple meetings but I think I’m still the Chairman of the Committee. I also need to get outside and start walking so that I don’t turn into a vegetable.

If I can do these few things, they will give us some indication of how the next 6 months will play out and we very much want to have some routine and normalcy back in our lives.