It's a Party

   It’s been a while since I have written and I apologize. It stays fairly busy here, one week we’re in Houston, one week back in Granbury and then get ready to do it all over again. In between we’re trying to get packed to move. More on that in a bit.

Whiner Alert

   The one thing that is the hardest for me to get used to is the overwhelming sense of fatigue. I know that the heat plays a significant part of how I feel, but just walking into the back yard can almost wear me out. I am still able to ride around on machinery, but that is fairly limited here at the Granbury place. I’m not normally one to sit still for too long, and I find that when I try to push too much physically, it also wears on my mental ability to handle simple daily activities. The very fact that I am now limited to what I can do at one time without rest seems to suck the energy right out of me. I also now have to think about getting up before I do it. Before this, the only time I would have to think about the actions needed to get up was when I was exhausted. Now, it’s nearly every time I get up. The need to rest after the simplest of activities is just extremely hard for me to comprehend. Two years ago I was still trucking, twenty months ago my wife and I were on a trip to Alaska and back. Now, my daily routine consists of TV, solitaire, and a trip outside every hour or so. 

   Ok, enough of my whining. I know that probably within a couple of months I should be back in better shape. I have one more appointment with the VA for my teeth. With the last try in they fit great and I’m hoping that they will work better than the one day wonders that I now have. Don’t get me wrong, these have done really well. But with false teeth it’s all about fit. If I wasn’t going to get more teeth I would have to have these relined or something.

   We’re planning on moving almost everything to the north forty in Oklahoma in August. The date for the actual move is the 22^nd. That will be almost three weeks after my last infusion of chemo, which will be my last. I will still take Tarceva for the foreseeable future. If anyone would like to volunteer, by all means email or call me. I think we have the loading team all lined up, but if you would like to volunteer for unloading we have room to park 10 to 15 trucks, campers, or whatever. I’m still lining up a grilling crew to feed whoever shows and the idea has been floated to get a keg to help keep the unloading team cool and hydrated. We have electricity to supply a hotel load for rigs. We plan to have landline service in before we move. Be forewarned, the only cell service that has any reliability there is Sprint. If you have anyone else you will be incommunicado. AT&T has very limited luck, with mainly text only unless you want to drive 3 miles to get a signal and regardless of what Verizon says, pretty much anywhere off of the interstate you’re SOL. Directions are easy, but if you want to use your GPS, I’ll have to send you the coordinates. We are 30 miles south of the Loves truckstop at MM 200 on I-40 in Oklahoma. There are plenty of walking trails and a couple of ponds. We miss all of y’all terribly and would really appreciate your company. We really only have one full room of furniture to move (all upstairs) so I doubt if it will take all that long. Then we can get down to some serious partying.

8-5

   Left for Houston Sunday, saw the Dr. yesterday, and back home last night. After reviewing my blood work, the Dr. said that the numbers in the report on my blood weren’t good enough for me to get chemo. However, after talking to me about it, we decided that another round wasn’t really needed at this time. I’ll stay on the trial drug for maintenance. Their position on it is if the cancer is stable, meaning not growing, then I don’t really need anything else. My next visit is at the end of the month for more tests and we’ll see then what’s in store. The Dr. said that even if my blood work had been normal, it would have been hard to recommend another round due to the fatigue that comes with each round and tends to be cumulative. As I am now, walking or standing for anything over 15 minutes is a push for me.

   Well, I’ve been told I need to get this posted before everyone forgets how to read it.