Getting along getting along

You've heard the old saying, I'm just getting along, well that is me. I have been working at our property chipping up piles of old wood and brush, cutting trees, cutting grass and raking leaves. I have begun a trail thru the back woods for the four wheelers or walking with the mulch chips from the chipper. All in all, it feels good to work. I think I mentioned earlier that I will start working at the office next week and go traveling with Steve T. during the day to job sites to inspect them with him. We have a lot of work at the office. 2 Tim Hortons, 1 Arby's, 1 Taco Bell, 3 Sonics, 1 Pull a Part junkyard with buildings, 1 auto shop and 46 McDonalds we are remodeling thru the year. We are looking at all of these customers for more work this year. It seems it will be the best year yet to date.
Well, have to get ready for Wednesday night church and AWANA for the boys. More later.

Getting on with Living

This weekend was a good one. I was up, alert as my mind will let me be, and not sick. What a difference over the past few months. Patti reminded me, when I kept questioning why I seemed so out of focus, that it has been 43 days of creating a habit of eating, sleeping and treatments.
Some people took my blog of ending the interferon as ending this blog. Not so, I still have a long way to go and need to get past the next couple of years. Although I may be done with the interferon, my body still needs repair, replenish and renewal to my immune system every day so the fight does go on.
It is great to be alive and I pray everyday for many of you and I hope you feel it.

First Week off Interferon

It's been a tough week even with stopping the interferon. I am not sure if it was because we stopped all the medicines or just the withdrawals. Anyways, I am glad to be getting it over with. Right now is the first time I have really been up in days. I must admit it is hard getting out of the bed and trying to get with the swing of things. My weight dropped to 176 but is now on the way back up.
Patti and I have decided to build our new home so we will start going over blueprint ideas today and tomorrow. We want to be in by Christmas. Hopefully with the economy down we will get some good prices. Hopefully I can do a lot of the work if I can. That gives me a couple months to build back up my strength. It is hard to believe how drained my physical strength is. I have a tough time making it thru two songs at church without my legs shaking. and standing for any length of time is a chore. I will love getting back to work and the daily things that go on.
Well, that is all from the home front right now. I am up and will try and make a normal day of it where I can.

Decision Made

Today I finally made up my mind to stop the interferon. It has been slowly pulling me down both mentally and physically to a point where all I do is sleep interrupted by eating and going to the bathroom. Not much fun and the next stop would have been anti-depressants. Many gave me advice on what to do or not do, and I have made up my mind to live a quality life and take my chances on the quantity. All the doctors and statistics don't change much. I still have a one in three chance of being here in 5 years so I will change my lifestyle and hope for 20 years like Sam Donaldson from ABC News. Patti and I both feel that we will have many more years together so now is the time to stop with the interferon.

We will continue to update the blog for a while as now it will be months probably between news. We plan on going on vacation and camping, and may take two trips to Canada this year to help out the Staretts. Patti doesn't know it yet as I just thought about the two trips. Continue to pray for me and my body in it's fight against the cancer that invaded it. Thanks.

2nd Day with Shots

Boy is this stuff expensive. It started out at over $800 per week, but now it has been worked out to just over $1700 per month for 12 shots. That is a $134 per shot cost. One cannot stay sick for long at those prices. If we went to the hospital and got them the cost was $78,000+ for our portion of the shots plus the doctor, hospital and technician charges.

Yesterday was a rough day as I spent it very close to the bathroom all day. Patti and I cut back on the medicines too fast for the side effects and we paid the price for it. Today was much better. Late this afternoon I went to the dermatologist and he took another biopsy on my back. We will wait and see what this one says. It is right at my beltline on my back.

Got out to church tonights with the boys. It was good talking to everyone. I feel much better about the shots. The first one had no pain at all. Let.s hope that they all are that way. Well, got to go.

IV Phase complete. 144 shots start Monday

Well, the IV phase is complete and they pulled the pick line in my arm. It will feel great to be able to take a long shower. Right now we just got back from watching Tyler, Joshua and Mckenna. It was fun and not that tiring.

We are going to be able to have a months supply of shots delivered to the house so that we will not have to go to the hospital 3 times a week. The only drawback is the co-pay. It is $807.00 per month for 11 months. Only good thing is the accountant made a mistake on our taxes and we will be getting a refund, rather than paying, so it has eased that cost quite a bit. Patti and I have talked it over and we are going to push me getting back to work and on with the rest of our lives. If the shots are not too bad, we will plan on going to Canada this summer and camping at least 10 times. It is half the dosage so hopefully it is half or less than half of what the side effects have been. Right now it is fatigue and not being able to focus for reading or writing.

We will be going to the doctor's on Monday for the first shots only because we have to satisfy the doctor and have a starting benchmark. Wednesday I make my quarterly trip to the dermatologist. After that is the other oncologist in May as well as the surgeon. But I am grateful that I am around and have the opportunity to go to them rather than the alternative.

One IV Treatment Left

Yep, that's right, one IV treatment left to go. It seems like it has taken an eternity to get to this point. It has really been hard on me and Patti. Me because I sleep all the time and Patti because she seems to be going it alone with everything else. I have dreaded going to the hospital everyday and it just seems to get worse everytime I go there. Depression seems to be a side effect of the interferon that I have had the hardest time dealing with. Hopefully, the shots will not be as bad and Patti and I can start living our lives again. Although all the nurses are nice and friendly, the whole place seems to have a downer effect on me especially.

So to make this short, I will end with saying that I will try and be more upbeat and hopefully not sleep 20 hours a day from now on. Who ever said sleep is a good thing didn't sleep 20 hours a day.

17 Down, 3 more to go / And my windows are clean

Steve & I went to his treatment today and they wanted to weigh him like they did yesterday. He weighed the same, but I thought the weight was a little high. Since they were getting his weight to set him up for his amount of the interferon he was going to be getting in a shot injection, I thought it needed to be correct. The nurse & I were laughing at how we get rid of everything we can before we weigh in at the doctors, but not men. She was concerned too especially since she realized what he was carrying with him to the scales. he pulled out his wallet, car keys, blackberry cell phone & a little pocket knife. This had all 3 of the nurses in ear shot concerned and decided to weigh him on the electronic scales. They even made him lose the tennis shoes. With the list of stuff gone he was down 3.4 lbs. That is a lot in my book. I didn't think he needed an overdose of the medicine. I would have made him lose the big belt buckle too, but he was only 3 1/2 pounds more then at home not 7 pounds.

Brenda, Dr. Peleg's assistant, is working to see if we can do the lower dose injections at home instead of coming to the hospital. The plan is to get through this intense month of 39.2 million units injected every weekday, then go into a maintenance phase for another 48 weeks. Our insurance company claims the injections are not covered when administered at home, but Brenda said she should be able to explain the situation. I hope they listen because that would allow us to be more mobile for the next 48 weeks.

While we were at the hospital with the treatment Heather, Caleb and Micah were at our house helping me with some dirty windows. She said the windows were pretty bad, especially the ones by the bird feeder. When the cooper hawk comes diving for the birds they fly off and sometimes collide with the window leaving a trail of feathers and other bird related "matter" everywhere. Thanks Heather, Caleb and Micah for your help. She even brought over supper of a turkey breast in the crock pot, mashed potatoes and gravy, applesauce & she said the green vegetable for the night was Zucchini Pineapple Bread. Yummy!!! Ron said yes to this yummy vegetable.

Tonight, the boys - Ron, Caleb, and Micah - helped me to dig up some plants that I meant to dig up upon returning from my anniversary trip last fall. I've been meaning to do this dirty job for about three or four years, but I just lose the desire before the Fall when I'm supposed to be working on my flower beds. This past Fall, we got the news of Steve's cancer as soon as we returned from our trip, so digging up day lilies slid right off my "To Do" list.

Thank you to all who are praying for us. We are almost done with this part and we are looking forward to the spring and enjoying the weather. Hey Barb, If he can do his own shots maybe there is hope for Canada :-) Rocks, Rocks and more Rocks.

Patti

3/4th of the way done with IV treatment

Today was my day off from the IV treatments. Patti talked me into going out for a drive. We drove to Findlay State Park to check out the new electric campsites. They have made some nice improvements there with the electric, dump station and reworking some of the sites. I would have loved to camp there this weekend, but we both felt that it would be too hard on me. I must agree that it would have been. The drive out there and back were exhausting. I run out of energy rather quickly. We did stop at Taco Bell in Wellington. The taco's were lousy to my taste buds. Patti said they were the same as usual, but they burnt my mouth, tongue and throat. I had to wash them down with a Choco-Taco. The ice cream soothed my mouth and throat. So many things have changed taste wise while taking the treatments. I guess I will just have to keep trying different things. Most food right now does little for me other than to turn my stomach, and that is just my favorite things. Besides my taste buds, my vision has also changed. I actually think it is getting better, not worse. Patti and I have a confidence that the cancer is all gone from the surgery and all this treatments are just a maintenance thing. The biggest thing we have to do is keep down the stress and keep eating healthy and exercising. Right now the exercising is difficult, but we will try taking some walks this week while the weather is good.

Patti and I cannot wait until this week coming up is over and we see where the treatments take us from there. We would love to travel to Canada to the Starett's, but that is a big unknown right now. This week I have to get the camper in for some warranty repairs. We did not winterize it this year and kept it inside the warehouse. Now that it is warmer, it is time to get it in to be repaired.

It has now been 6 months since this all started. Time has been crawling along it seems like, then we realize that it has taken 1/2 of a year out of our busy lives and changed our whole outlook on things. I don't wish this or anything like it on anyone. However, if you are going to get something like this it sure is great to have family, church family, friends and business associates who are willing to help out and pray for you. Next to trusting God, family and friends keep my spirits up. Continue to pray for Pastor Quick and his wife Debbie as they are both facing cancer at this time. Pastor has had his operation and skin grafts for melanoma and will be doing interferon and Debbie has her tests coming back showing more spots.

Puzzle is Done- I won- With alot of Help

Patti wanted me to update the blog, so I guess I have to do it. I had two good days and today isn't too bad either. I probably overdid it yesterday by going out to Panera Bread and then to church. I am tired today and had to take a nap when I got home from treatments. All in all though, I am getting thru the day without sleeping the day away.

Everyone including Patti, Heather, Ron, Caleb and Micah helped me with the puzzle. I did some and actually finished it last night then crashed into bed for the evening. It is very hard to concentrate on things like reading and puzzles. My eyes grow so tired.

We just got our fishing license on line so we can try and catch some trout in Rocky River this weekend. They have stocked it the past few weeks so I told Patti I feel lucky about getting a couple. I will be happy with just one. Good thing it is not going to be that cold so I will not have to keep the maggots in my mouth to keep them warm. It alway leaves a yucky taste in the fishes mouth.

Anyways, you can probably tell that I am in better spirits. Right now we are down to 6 more injections with the IV. We do not know what is going to happen after next Friday. The blood count says my mature white cells are doing what they are suppose to and becoming stronger and fighting anything foreign in my body. My young cells are dying off and that is what is causing the fatigue. All in all they say the interferon seems to be working. Pray for me that it does as I would not wish this on my worst enemy.