Tuesday, December 9, 2014

There's news in there somwhere

   Just an opening note to my readers. As I'm sure you have noticed the blogs have gotten farther apart. When I started this I was pretty much a captive to my treatments and as such had much more time to sit, think, and write. Now that I'm at home, the amount of time that I actually dedicate to writing is a very small part of the day. Add to that, that most of the news of my illness has been told and that my appointments are farther apart, and it leaves little to write about so please bear with me while I try to find a style and something to write about. I've said it before, they tell you to write what you know. The problem there is I have a few stories that I could write, but when you clean them up for publication they tend to lose a lot. I have a short story I have almost finished and when I can figure out how to get it out to people I'll let you know that it's ready.
   Oh, and one other thing, I've never been trained as a typist so all of this is done in the old hunt and peck style.

   The house at the north forty has come along slowly, but it is coming together. The place is almost 100% livable, lacking only some caulking, a little insulation, and a little more drywall. We placed the wood burning heater and all it needs now is the piping for the exhaust. The pipe is expensive so we wanted to be sure of all the measurements before we bought a bunch of stuff we couldn't use. We've checked into phone service and they believe that we could have phone and internet within a week of requesting it. Since cell phones don't work within a mile or two of the place, a land line is a must. About the only thing really holding us to the Granbury house is that it hasn't sold. If we had a serious bite on the house I believe we could be out in a week, although I would have to call in a lot of favors.

11-21

   The weather has been decent and I've felt good enough lately the last several days. I have been able to get Christmas lights hung, the window AC out of our room, and a few more odd chores that I had been putting off for warmer weather. With my right arm not wanting to work right some of that was a little tough.
   For the past several years I have been a bit of a weather nut, paying attention to the cold fronts and the weather patterns, and I have to tell you, I'm not missing the snow and traffic at all.  And that reminds me that whoever wrote the song Home For The Holidays has never actually driven from the Atlantic to Pacific because I've never seen the traffic being terrific ( horrific maybe ). ( Just a note, after researching the song, it was published in 1954. That might explain it. )
However, I have already made my first resolution for the new year, to get back on the road. My appointments have gotten farther apart so that I might be able to plan when to get back for them.
Lately I have been taking four cans of formula and an evening meal. I'm trying to get back into the habit of eating, although it's a bit different without teeth. If I can gain back some of the weight that I've lost, I should be getting back some of the strength also.

12-8

   Well, I guess now it can be told. I had a PET scan done last Friday and the results are in. My neck seems to be free of cancer, BUT there are several spots on my lungs. The Dr. said this could be from several things, including an infection or aspirated food. He also said that you can aspirate a small amount of food and never choke or be aware that it has happened. He has scheduled a CT scan to see what it turns up. If they don't like what they see, then it's on to do an aspiration of one of the suspect nodes. That's one I'm definitely not looking forward too. The needle is about a foot long and they take pictures of the needle while they are inserting it to make sure it's in the right place. Push it in a little, take a pic and repeat until they are happy.
   Right now the largest one is about the size of a pencil eraser and to get an accurate reading on the suspect node it needs to be about the size of a marble. So I'm sure there will be a waiting game for all of that.
   We also saw ENT where they ran a scope up my nose and into my throat. After running through my sinus cavity for a minute, that Dr. said I looked good from what he could see. My appointments for ENT are now set for 8 weeks instead of 4 to 6.
    Next Monday they are going to do a nerve test on my shoulder where they send electric shocks through my muscles to see how they react. ( Dr. Frankenstein, calling Dr. Frankenstein ) They are trying to figure out if my nerve got damaged somehow in all of this. Gee, I just can't wait until they see how high they can get me to jump off of the table.

   Ok, I've made you wait long enough so I'll post this now. I'll try to get another one out before Christmas.
  

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