Viewing pictures

Hi

I just wanted to let you all know that you can double click on any pictures and they will open up in full screen so you can see them better

Enjoy!

John and Carol and Pablo

A new addition to the family

Hi

Carol and I have a new addition to the family!! I added a couple of pictures so you could check out the new guy. Carol heard about him from some of the people she volunteers with at SADD (Saving Animals During Disasters). Apparently the dog belonged to a teen ager who wanted to look like Paris Hilton and carry a Chihuahua around with her everywhere. Well after 2 months she got tired of the dog and started locking it away in a crate all day and all night. The girl’s mother talked to someone in SADD and asked if anyone wanted the dog before she gave him to the pound. Carol heard about it and we decided it was time to have a new dog. The dog met all of our requirements. He was small so that he can travel with us when we fly, he was young enough to be trained by us (he is only 6 months old) and he was a dog that needed to be rescued.

We went over there today and fell in love with him in about 30 seconds! He is amazing! We had to take a 30 minute ferry ride to get to his house and on the way back he crawled into Carol’s lap and fell asleep. Even though Carol was driving, he is small enough that she could keep him while she drove.

He is a little hesitant around men since he hasn’t really had much contact with them so he has really bonded to Carol while I am still trying. We will get there though because I am home during the day while Carol works so I will be his only source of entertainment and he will either bond with me or die from boredom!!

Anyway we are really happy to be dog owners again even if we have to potty train him and get him used to sleeping with us. But its all good and we feel good about saving him from the pound.

His current name is Pablo but we are going to change that, we just haven’t come up with the right name just yet. If anyone has any suggestions, send them to us ok?

Thanks and

Peace and Love to everyone!

John and Carol and “Pablo”

Post Chemo update

Hi

Well its been 23 days since my last chemo session so I thought I would update you on what is going on. Every day I get a little better and a little stronger with the only lingering problems being stamina, mouth sores and “chemo brain”. My stamina is still not that strong in that I cannot do anything physical for very long without getting dizzy and weak. But that gets a little better all the time. I also sleep a lot more than I normally do. I need a lot of sleep still. I still have mouth sores and I cannot eat a lot of foods still. I have medicine for that and it seems to be helping but this is something I didn’t expect to linger this long. If its not gone soon I will need to go to the oncologist for help. And the “chemo brain” is still there which means that I have a hard time concentrating on something very long before I get tired or confused by what I am doing. I also have a difficult time with complicated concepts. What tends to happen is that I just get lost and I have no idea what is going on.

Compared to my last chemo experience this is very good  news because last time I ended up with the peripheral neuropathy which ended up being permanent. Given what happened in 2005 I consider myself lucky to only be dealing with these final side effects. I know the fatigue and the “chemo brain” will eventually go away, I saw the same thing in 2005. I am not too sure what to make of the mouth sores but I just can't believe that would be permanent and even if it was, I can live with it.

I think I am coming out of this round of chemo a lot better than I did in 2005 so I am grateful and happy with where I am. A couple more weeks and I think I will be pretty much back to normal…whatever normal is for me (grin)

 

I will update this blog from time to time over the next weeks until I run out of things to say. That would be a good thing folks!

I hope everyone is healthy, happy and safe!

 

Peace and Love

John

Cool Picture

Hi

Just wanted to throw this picture in the blog, I think its pretty cool

John

The road to recovery

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to keep everyone current on what is going on here at the “Chemo Sux House Of Recovery”. I clearly remember last time that I had such high hopes of approaching a “normal” state fairly soon after the chemo stopped, certainly I expected to be in better shape this week than I am. This week has been a huge battle with the “Southern Port” or diarrhea for the untrained J

Along with that there have been the mouth sores, nausea and generally feeling bad all week. I know it’s a matter of managing expectations but it is so difficult to be patient after all this time.  I want to feel normal because normal will be such a huge step forward. Normal just isn’t happening right now and I have to get my expectations under control because it starts to wear me out mentally when I have to fight all these stupid nitnoid  health problems. Believe it or not it takes a lot of mental energy just to keep from picking up things and throwing them around the room! My frustration level is through the roof and I don't have any patience left for nagging problems. It helps SO much to be able to vent here on this blog instead of choosing some other, more destructive, way of dealing with all of this. Clearly an example where technology has made our lives better (hehehe)

Anyway, I am sick of taking meds for one problem and having to account for the side effects of that med by taking yet ANOTHER med. I want to stop taking this crap and just let my body flush it all out as soon as possible. Let's see…what else am I sick of today? I am sick of the bathroom where I have spent a significant amount of time this week, usually with not much to show for it OR too much to show for it….if you know what I mean.

 

Besides the physical, there is also the mental fatigue. My most difficult thing right now is talking to someone on the phone for more than 5 minutes. I find myself struggling to pay attention and getting extremely tired during the call. I have a really hard time connecting the dots between what we talked about at the start of the call and what we are talking about now. I get exhausted trying to keep up and by the end of the call I am wiped out. Weird huh? I think its partly because you only have so many brain cells to handle what the day throws at you and the majority of mine are busy fending off pain signals from the neuropathy, sick signals from the chemo and probably a little depression thrown in as well.  I will probably have to talk to someone about depression when this is settled down a little, I did last time and it really helped. You have to be very careful not to ignore that part of your make-up (the emotional make-up) because if you do ignore it you will not only get sick again but you will also be short handed in the brain department while it deals with the depression. I don't want anybody to think that I am falling apart here, this is one of the normal things you deal with during chemo and I dealt with it last time and will do so again. Just being aware that you are insane is a good first step I think (lol)

 

So I am off to bed because I definitely need my beauty sleep, even more so than normal!! I will keep you all up to speed on the “End Game” of this mess and I am sure the message will be much more positive next week.

For now I am dealing with it and I will overcome it!!

Peace and Love

John

Week 12 update

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to give you all a quick update on my last week of chemo. Basically this past week has been just about what I expected. I have/had the typical chemo nausea, fatigue and general yuckiness. The extra week without chemo probably helped a little but really it was just about as bad as normal so I am not sure it really helped all that much.

Be that as it may, I was able to get out to dinner with some friends for a couple of hours last night (Friday) but it totally wore me out. Right now the goal is to build up my strength and get back to normal as soon as possible. I am counting on that being a slow but steady thing based on how it went last time. You would think it would go quicker but it just takes time. It is incredible what they do to the human body with these chemo drugs and its no wonder, I guess, that the body takes so long to recover. I expect it to take about 5-6 weeks and I will be using that time to rest, help out more at work where possible and get ready to return to work full time the week of April 19^th  Carol and I have a week on Sanibel Island in Florida booked for the week of April 10^th so that will be a great way to end this ordeal and get back to normal!!!

Right now I am being a bachelor because Carol is in New Orleans with her brother and niece. They are checking out Tulane as a possible college for the niece so Carol flew down to spend the weekend with them.

I hope she doesn’t come home with too many beads

Peace and  Love to all!

John

The final push

Hi folks,

Well the final treatment is just about here. On Friday I will get my last treatment of chemotherapy!!!  This week I am trying to get over the cold/flu that prevented me from getting treatment last Friday. Its just about gone, I don't have a fever and the congestion in the lungs is almost gone too. I have been taking a regimen of antibiotics for this and it seems to be working. Other than that, the biggest issue is just fatigue. I am very tired all the time and even the simplest stuff completely wipes me out. I don't have the stamina to work at all and I still have problems concentrating for more than a few minutes on anything. This is normal “chemo brain” or “chemo fog” and it will gradually go away after the treatments finish.

So, Friday is the big day. I will get a normal treatment and then the normal week of nausea, mouth sores, diarrhea, etc.  After that we start to build back up by eating right: lots of protein for the red blood cells, sleeping right to build up the rest of my white blood cells and platelets, and just getting better every day.

Based on my last experience with this it will take 4-6 weeks before I am back to normal and ready to work full time and live full time. This has been a long 6 months and I can't believe it is finally going to be over. Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts, there is no doubt it helped us get through this again.

I will update this blog sometime next week after the treatment to let you all know how it went. Because I have been given this extra week between sessions (3 weeks instead of 2 weeks) I am hoping to sail right through the side effects and be feeling good sooner than normal. No matter what though its still THE LAST ONE and I can handle it!!

Talk to you all next week..

Peace and Love

John