Thursday, July 15, 2010

7-15-10 The End I hope

Well it's been a long hard battle, but for the time being, I have no detectable cancer in my body. I must get a CT Scan tomorrow because I was to get one this past week, but no one told me about it. The surgeon's right hand is not much good. He was to tell me a lot of different things in the Hospital and failed to do so, and he was to call and set up a CT Scan for me in Fort Wayne, but failed to do so. Dr. Rushing is very high on Dr Reiger, but not so much on her Doctor Assistant.

I got a good report from Dr. Reiger as to how the surgery went and how I am recovering. I think I mentioned that I was swimming but that I was not allowed to swim until I got permission from Dr. Reiger. Again that was to be told to me in the hospital, but it was not. I now have permission to swim in my pool but no where else for 7 weeks. I can exercise, but not to lift more than 15 lbs. My scars are still healing on the outside, and there are still stitches on the inside that need to be healed.

I'm scheduled to see Dr. Rushing in two months to see how things are progressing, but he feels confident that all will be well. I feel pretty good, but still have some pain in my chest or lungs. My scars are healing, but they don't have skin covering everything, so I have to stay out of any water that might have any little critters in it.

I don't think I mentioned it before, but my eyesight has been getting much worse in the past two months. I went to the eye doctor today to find out that I do have cataracts and will have to have my eyes checked and new glasses at least. It is caused by the steroids that I received with the chemo. If it ain't one thing it's another, these days. I've really noticed it when I drive and I can no longer read the street signs. I've also had trouble trying to read the paper etc. I really noticed it last week when I went to the gym and they have no sound on the TV's, just the closed caption. I could not read the fast moving caption part. I could read the head lines, but nothing else. Today when they tested my close up vision on my left eye, I could only read the really BIG letters. My right eye I could read down to the forth and fifth lines, but my left, line two. I'm talking BIG LETTERS.

Well kids for now I'm going to close the blog. I hope it is forever, if something else happens. I'll put it on FB and then maybe start doing the blog again. Let's pray that never happens again. Again thanks for all your prayers and concerns. It showed that over 150 people read this blog at one time or another. Thanks to all of you. Love Tom

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

7-7-10

It's Larry's 62nd birthday. He could stop working and take his SS and get Medicare. If I were him, that's what I did. Thank God for Medicare, and Sharon's medical from the State of California. It has saved us a small fortune in medical bills. It's bad enough having to pay all the co-pays, but to had to pay for the surgery's would have put us in the poor house.

Speaking of the poor house. We had our insurance canceled two years ago after the two water losses in the basement. One in June the other in January. We had to pay over $7,000.00 for our homeowners and then it was a $5,000.00 deductible and limited coverage on everything. They would only cover up to like a $500,000 on the house and $50,000 on contents. They then canceled our insurance this year because they said our credit was bad because we fought the insurance settlement with the guy from Service master and lost because they said I got paid so I had to pay this guy whatever he asked for. It didn't matter that I had a $1,000 deductible and he overcharged me some $3,000.00. The judge didn't even consider it. She just said if the insurance co. paid you, then you have to pay them what they ask for.

Well thank God they canceled me, because we found another Insurance Co. that wrote a real Homeowners Policy with the correct amount of coverage on the house and replacement cost on everything and full coverage on contents. It cost $18oo.00 a year. I tell you, you better look before you buy.

As for my health. I seem to be getting better day by day, but not near as quickly as I would like or that I expected. I tried taking just one pill at a time, but trust me that only worked for about an hour. I usually have to take two pill every 4 to 6 hours. If I let it get much longer than that, it takes too long to catch up. I had to get more pills today and found that they can't get me the really good pills, because they are #2 rated narcotics and that can only be gotten by written prescription. So now I have 90 of the weaker version but still limited to two every 4 to 6 hours. They told me to take 4 number 200 advill in the morning and the evening plus the pills. He said that should do about the same as the good stuff.

I have an appointment for the 14th of July to see the surgeon and Dr. Rushing. I should know more then and will let you all know. In the mean time, it will be little action on the blog. I'm swimming each day for about an hour. I try to do at least 10 min. at a time free style and then the rest of the time brest stroke or just cleaning to pool or whatever has to be done in the water. The pool is again in beautiful shape. When I can swim every day, the pool is always first class.

I tell you more when I know it, probably on the 14th or so. Love to all Tom

Saturday, July 3, 2010

7-3-10

Well, I finally got someone over here so I could do some chores. My brother David was so kind as to come over on Thursday. Since then we have been on the move. Thursday we got the pool up enough so we could at least get in, but we were shooting for 85 so it would be comfortable. Friday it finally reached its mark, but first we had to do some chores.

Our first stop was to the butcher shop to pick up a case of steak. Then we headed for Kroger's so I could refill the house. We had been gone since June 3rd as far as my shopping was concerned. As Sharon always says, you do the shopping, because it has to be what you want and how you want it so everyone is happy. I don't know why she says that, but it must be true if Sharon always says it.

We also had to go to the bread store because we had no bread at the house of any kind. My last bit of a bread product was an old flat bread from the freezer.

We also went to the Cony Island to have a great breakfast. If you have never had a cony breakfast, you just haven't lived. I've been trying to tell them to have a special with a omelet and then cony sauce over the top and cheese on top of that. For some reason they just don't want to do it. They have all the typical breakfast specials, but the one thing that they could have that no one else could have, they just will not do. I've tried to tell them that I am a food expert, but they just don't seem to care. Since at least half of the Fort Wayne police force eats breakfast there every day, I guess they think they know more than I do.

So after our chores were done and our breakfast complete, we headed back to see how the pool was doing. It was flat ass perfect, 85 degrees and a beautiful clear and worm afternoon. Sharon came home for her afternoon nap and after she got up she came down and watched us swim. You can't really call it swimming for me yet, but I do get under the water and I must mention I don't have anything on. I have been trying to get some of the bandages to fall off of me. When the surgeon did it, she took the skin with it. They did all fall off yesterday after the swim. I still have plenty of stitches, but they said it's ok as long as they are not open, to keep them exposed to the air etc..

I'm still having to take pain pills about four to six hours, but I'm going to try today to only take one pill each time as apposed to two that I have been taking. We'll see how that works out. The good thing about that is that if you feel you need another, you can take it, since you can take two every four to six hours. As for the rest of my health, my BP was 123/76 and my HR was 84. My BS was bit high because we went to the Essen House for dinner last night and I had some things I should not have had. We then came home and when Sharon finally arrived, we watched a movie together.

Well I'm going to get David up and we are going to go buy fireworks for tonight and tomorrow. I've also just been asked to go to the Lake from my neighbors who just moved up there while we were in Carlsbad. They miss us already. So I'll sign off for now, I'll start again on Tuesday. Tom

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

6-30-10

I have found out that you forget a lot when your on pain medication. Sharon asked me today if I applied my medication for my radiation recall. I remember thinking I should do it, but I never carried out the thought. That has happened a lot recently. I keep thinking it's Tuesday because it has only been two days since I've been home and that means it's Tuesday not Wed. That makes sense doesn't it. It seems perfectly logical to me.

My BS is still a bit screwed up. It was 189 this morning. My BP was 112/71 and my HR was 73. I found another insulin pen today that I can use when my BS is too high in between meals. I don't like to use them, but when you are trying to get regulated, it's the only thing to use. Hopefully it will be corrected by the weekend.

Brian, Darrin, and the kids took off for Tim's in Northern Michigan at around 2pm today and will be gone until Monday. I'm home alone, so if anyone wants to come over and cook etc. feel free to do so. You can actually do what ever you want too. The pool is in great shape and warm. I'm easy to please food wise, and I'm a brilliant conversationalist. I broke, so don't expect any money, just plenty of thank yous and pleases. I'm very easy to take care of as long as you do it just the way I like it. Just ask Sharon, she has been doing it her way for 47 years.

Hopefully by the time the kids get back, I will be off the drugs and able to drive the car I let them barrow for the week. It's great having Darrin and Riley home, but there not actually here very long at all. We did get a chance to be with them in Carlsbad, so it is about as long as we ever get to see them. I think there was a song about that. "I'm going to grow up just like you dad."

Love to all Tom

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

6-29-10

Hi ya kids hi ya hi ya. Well I made it through the surgery and now I'm at home recovering. I do want to thank all of you for your prayers and concerns. I will now give you a funny blow by blow of what I can remember of the surgery days or is it daze????/

It's 5:20 am Friday the 25th. of June 2010. I'm in front of the check in lady, and she has no idea what she is doing or why she is doing it. She asks Matilda some questions and she too has no idea of what they are doing. We ask if we should take the ribbon of paper we just produced when we checked in. She's not sure and asks Matilda again. Matilda is not sure either. They both decide it's best if we both sit down and wait to be called on by Sapphire. When we get the call, Sapphire, as you might expect, is new, and has no idea of how to even work the typewriter. Yes, I said typewriter, the computer is not working. We find that Sapphire, is new, because she is from a crack team of fill-in's. It seems the POOL of fill-in's are being tested to see if they have any, who can actually, FILL IN.

We are finally escorted to an actual medical pool that is also being occupied by the FILL IN'S .COM club. This one does say RN on her name tag, so we expect she is actually an RN. Or at least we think so. She is now asking actual medical information. Such as are you here for an operation?????? Explain the procedure you are expecting. Are you able to do this procedure yourself???? No, she didn't say that!!!! I just thought she might say that at this point. She then asked all the stuff about my medical history and the medications I was on etc. After that, I was escorted to another exam room and a new nurse appeared. This one had no identification on her at all. When I ask her about that fact, I was told she forgot it in the car this morning. I told her I would wait for her to get it, she just laughed and continued to give me a BP test and a Blood sample for diabetes. I then asked her where she went to school, for what she asked? I said for Nursing. She then asked, are you kidding me, I said no I'm just shitting ya. No. I want to know where you went for Nursing. She went to a two year accelerated program from Ivy Tech. I wanted to ask which parts did they eliminate in order to accelerate the program.

I finally met up with a real doctor and she was just that, a real doctor. She was Asian, but she could type faster than Cate, so I knew she was good. It turns out she went to Yale and was quite smart. She then handled all the other information until we met with the actual team that was to do the surgery.

The doctor that was going to handle putting me to sleep was a resident from Australia and she was in her final year of residency. More on her later. Dr Reiger was the last person I met with before the actual surgery. She again explained what she was going to do and how long it would take etc. We had been told up to four hours, but she said it would not take more than an hour and a half. With that I was escorted into the operating room after I kissed Sharon good bye.

In the operation all I can remember is how damn cold it was. When I saw Dr. Reiger in winter thick gloves, I panicked, but by the time I could say anything, I was asleep and the next thing I could remember was waking up in recovery.

Eight hours later I was finally sent up to a room. The floor that I was to be on for the next four days was completely full. I don't remember much until Saturday morning. The effects of the drugs were just wearing off and I was getting a bit testy. All I can really remember is telling the nurses that I was not going to take their drugs that I have much better drugs of my own. Believe it or not, the one nurse bought that line. As it turns out, so did the doctor that was on call for my surgeon. He said I could take my own pills except for the diabetes medication. He said they had perfected a great diabetes procedure and I would have to take theirs. Believe it or not, their's sucked. I still had to take it. I will not get into the disagreements, but they never got my blood work below 180, and it was as high as 320. Today my BS was 152 after only half a day on my system. I will not go into all I had to do to be able to get home yesterday, but let's just say I had to challenge the doctor on call to a foot race. I said I felt just fine, but they made me get off all the medication for pain and all my injections before I could leave. I did, but it was not easy to do so. I'm now on just pills for pain, but I am able to do it. It will be a week or so before they get all the tests back, but I'm sure I will free from any detectable cancer at that time. I have it from a good source. God. He told me that I would be OK, at least for now. He did say however that prayer was still a darn good idea. Thanks all, I love each and every one of you. Tom

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

6-22-10

For those of you that thought I dropped off the face of the earth, you were wrong. I just could not get to the computer. At the CBI you are only allowed to use the computer for 20 minutes at a time. I have a hard enough time just signing in, much less answering any e-mail etc. I could not write much in the time left over. I then came home to find that my internet was down due to a storm on Friday. So today we got the new Router and now I can communicate again.

I hope I have not lost too many viewers, I'm scheduled to go to the hospital Thursday and I will have my surgery at 7am on Friday. If they can do the scope type surgery, I'll be out in two or three days, if they have to do more than scope, I will be in another day or so. I have to go Thursday to get some tests done etc. I did have my blood test done and my hemoglobin came from 7 up to 11.2. I found out that normal is from 12 to 18. However they said it was good enough to have the surgery.

I have been trying to do as much activity as I can stand. Today I had to cut 16 bolts out of the cement where we had the slide, that the Insurance Co. said I must eliminate, used to be. It seemed like a simple job since we have a drummel tool that has every attachment known to man. However this man was not able to put the right combination together to get the job done. I tried like four different combinations and all of them were too small to actually cut the bolts. Since they have been in the ground since 1988, I guess they were harder than the new junk they sell today. I finally had to get a drill driver and an old cut off saw blade that I had and got down as close to the cement as I could and cut them off. Of course I had to change all my clothes because I was scared to death that something would go flying and cut me somewhere. So I'm out there in a winter jacket and long jeans and goggles and winter gloves. It had to be at least 85 and I was sweating like a stuffed pig. It would have been OK if I could have done it quickly, but it was not happening quickly. Besides that, after I cut them off as close as I could, I had to then grind them down so they did not stick out of the cement. All in all it was a two hour job, and then I had to put all the damn tools I had gotten out, away. Hell, it took another 30 minutes to do that. I still haven't wound up all the power cords I had to use to get the power to the drill. That's another thing, I could not find my battery powered drill, so I had to have three power cords that I had to hunt for, to get the job completed. Now I'm tired after writing all this out.

As to my health, I'm still have to treat the radiation recall with the three different topical treatments that I have. It has gone down quit a bit, but it still is swollen. I had to use it quite a bit today with the drill and all, but it seemed to be OK after I was finished. My BS was 125 this morning which is OK but not great. My HR was 79 and my BP was 128/72. I have much more energy, but I still have to rest after about 30 minutes of activity. I have been sleeping well and getting about 7 to 8 hours a night.

I will try to keep you all up to date as to what is happening. I can still use the prayers, I did get the Prayer for the Sick yesterday, but I will take all I can get. Thanks for listening. Love ya, Tom

Monday, June 14, 2010

6-14-10

The weekend was busy and now I'm waiting for the gang to get here. Tom and I are going to the Del Mar Fair tomorrow and I'm excited to see how far I can go. I've been feeling good, but my radiation recall arm is still big and red. I've been using my medication, but it is being mean. My BS is OK and was actually at 86 one morning. We went to Pollo Loco and the meal was great. Tom did not want to go, because he said it wll just be another fast food junk place. He loved it. So did I. They grill the chicken and it has the best taste and it is moist as it can be. It actually falls off the bone, but it is still moist.

I'll let you know how I do tomorrow. I'm going to see how many of Sharon's old Lottery people are around at their booth. Untill later. Love Tom