They said What?

 Well, I found out about it making a phone call to the VA. I had recently signed up (or more correctly a good friend had signed me up) for VA medical benefits since I'm getting to an age when one starts to pay for the decisions he made in his youth. We had gone back out on the road for our first trip of the year. The co. we lease to had arranged a round trip back to home so that we could be close to home in case the VA wanted to run more tests. I'm still not sure exactly what was said, but the jist of it was " Well you have cancer." (There were other examples of the VA informing me of things a little less than tactfully)
 Ummmm. Uhh  whuuu? Well thanks. Not a death sentence, but not real far from it. At least that's the thought running through my head ever so often. The one thing for sure is I can't go back to work till this thing is whipped or under control. The Dr.s appointments are too close together to be able to do anything of any consequence. And that's enough to drive me looney not being able to go much of anywhere except the back yard on good weather days. Cold or rainy it's TV or computer. ALL DAY, ALL NIGHT.
 But this blog is hopefully going to be an outlet for some of my feelings as well as let others know how I'm doing.
Currently my feeling is good about the outcome. They've moved fairly quickly with treatment although I still don't know the start date. But several things have to occur first.Next Tuesday I see a dental surgeon. Another one of those less than tactful notifications. "Your going to have to have all of your teeth removed because if you don't, they will all turn black and rot and fall out and hurt. And if you think you're going to wait till then, think again. You could quite possibly get a broken jaw since the radiation will weaken the bone. You're going to get a feeding tube put into your stomach since you won't be able to swallow much less eat."
  Hmmmm. Is there ANY good news? Well till I start the actual chemo part my diet has turned into Nutrisystems worst nightmare. Heavy cream and real butter, steak and potatoes, avocados, and pretty much anything that might fatten me up before I start. Now anyone that knows me or even knows of me knows I'm not a little guy. I'm 6'9" and 235. They took out my tonsils 3 weeks ago and I lost 10 lbs. from the limited liquid diet I had for about 16 days. I've since gained it back, but the nutritionist was worried so she sent the supplements early. This is the stuff  I'll have to put into the feeding tube for nutrition. I'll leave out some of the information they gave me mostly because it's either gross or borders on it. Let's just say I will have great difficulty swallowing for quite a while.
The dentist said I won't get plates for several months due to needing to heal from the chemo etc.

Tuesday           See dental surgery
Thursday          Have PEG feeding tube installed