Back at
the keyboard after a vacation. A vacation from what one might ask.
Pretty much everything. Doctors, needles, telephones and anything to
do with the Big C. Well almost anything. I'm still feeding through
the feeding tube but I'm up to six cans a day. I had lost down to 189
lbs. But now I'm back up to 200. We went up to the north forty for
almost 2 weeks and got a lot done. I did find after 5 days that I'm
not the he-man I thought I was. We had been getting up early and
going to bed early due to not being in contact with the outside world
and no TV. So of course one day while I was at Home Depot when I saw
an antenna I bought it and after hooking it up and moving it around
15 or 20 times we were able to get 3 channels. I suppose if I were to
put it up on a tower a hundred or so feet in the air I might be able
to get OKC or Tulsa, but for all of that trouble I'm sure we will
still be getting Dish when we actually move there ( along with a land
line and a very slow DSL ). We have learned that when we're on the
road we need a DVR to record our shows and to be that far out in the
country the only option is satellite and my personal preference is
Dish, mostly because my Tivo works with it and I have a lifetime
subscription with it.
My
health seems to be coming back up slowly. My energy levels are still
greatly reduced from what it was this time last year although after
radiation and chemo the doctors are happy with how I'm doing overall.
Monday was my first visit since the end of treatment and their only
complaint was that I wasn't eating enough. I don't know how to
explain this, but if you can't taste food and it has to be the
consistency of baby food it's really hard to get interested in
eating. One Dr. seemed to be worried that I would forget how to
swallow. Really ? I drink coffee in the morning and 2-3 liters of
water during the day. How is that getting past my mouth if not from
swallowing ? That really is the farthest thing from my mind. The
other thing is without teeth it becomes a problem trying to figure
out just what I can eat. Or I should say swallow. Try getting through
one meal without chewing and while you're at it make it the blandest
most tasteless thing you can find, and then imagine having to do that
for the better part of a year with the hope that at the end of it you
might get to taste some of it. Now before you go
thinking that I'm having my own little pity party I'm not. Every time
I go to the VA I see people in way worse shape than I am and I truly
know how lucky I am to have caught this when we did and especially
lucky to have so many friends and family that are praying and pulling
for me. I'm just playing that old recording of “ I'm sick and tired
of being sick and tired “. And I know Teresa is getting tired of my
crankiness and other traits I seemed to have picked up with this.
Another
thing that nobody bothered to warn me about is memory loss. I'm not
talking about where I left my keys. The other day I went to take a
shower, turned the water on waiting for the hot water to come up.
After a minute or so when no hot water came out I turned it off and
went to check the water heater. The pilot light was on and it seemed
to be working. I turned the heat up and the fire came on. I went back
to check and still no hot water. After one more check of the water
heater I went back to the shower and Voila! hot water. The difference
? I actually turned on the hot water. I had been turning on the cold
water. For as long as I can remember the cold has been on the right
and the hot on the left, yet I was turning on the handle on the right
and expecting hot water. This is not the first time this has happened
but it's the one that went on the longest. It's also quite
disconcerting to put something away and two days later have no idea
where to begin looking for it. I put a saw up several weeks ago in my
storage shed. Now the shed is only so big, but I'll be darned if I
can find the thing.
6-20
Today
was one of my off days. I had a couple when we were up in Oklahoma
but they weren't as bad as today. I mostly sat in my chair all day
and watched TV and slept. Around 6:00 PM I finally got enough energy
to move around. I hate days like this. I feel so useless. It's like
someone decided that all you could do today was watch the world go
by. As I've mentioned before I'm ADD and about the hardest thing in
the world for me to do is sit and do nothing. Writing this seems to
be a decent outlet, yet I would much rather be out working on some
project or another.
Well I
know this is short for having been off so long but I'm going to see
if I can remember the password to put this up.
6-26
As you
can see it took me a bit longer than I anticipated to get this up. I
did however recover all of my data from the other computer which is
what took me so long. All of my passwords and email accounts were in
a file on it. Note to self : keep all of that info somewhere besides
on the machine you're using it. We're going to the north forty for
the day to drop off some guineas we bought here. They need to get
used to the place before they get big enough o turn loose. They're
supposed to eat fleas, ticks, grasshoppers, and small snakes so it
seemed like a really good idea to have some. If they work out I'm
sure we'll be getting more. OK so now I'll be posting.
