Latest News for the Month of
August 2007
We have arrived and are setup on our site in Florida. Kinda.... Sorta.... I am still looking for someone with a big pickup to move my trailer to our site so we can finish getting setup.
The trip down started out terribly. Not 10 miles out of Bristol on I-81 I experienced an alarm on my tire pressure monitoring system. The alarm system went off as soon as my tire pressure on my left side outside rear dual tire lost 12 % of its pressure. I did slow down and was wondering if maybe it might be a false alarm but then a second alert flashed indicating I lost more then 25 % of tire pressure. I started looking for a place to pull over when I seen an exit and started heading for it. Just before getting off the exit the alarm flashed a " 00 " reading indicating I had lost all pressure in that tire. I pulled over onto the shoulder of the exit ramp and got out and checked. Sure enough the left rear outside dual tire had lost all of its pressure and was flat as a pancake. The problem was a busted off valve stem. Thankfully I had Progressive roadside assistance who I called. They dispatched a semi truck tire service center to us and they quickly replaced the valve stem. The valve stem was $ 7.50, the total cost with labor was $ 200 dollars. Yikes.... :)
The rest of the trip was uneventful and we made our way to the resort via Orlando. I had one night where I must have lost my mind as I set the alarm for 5 am to get an early start but found I set the time one hour behind. So our 5 am wake up ended up being 4 am. Such is life I guess. The resort hasn't changed much. It's still the same old place. We do have new neighbors who are also from Tennessee. They seem to be a great couple, in their 60's, retired and living full time in their new RV ( 5th wheel ). Myself I am just waiting for it to stop raining so I can get the trailer towed to our site and finish unpacking and getting things settled for us here. Ally starts school on Monday ( the 6th ) so she will be out of my hair and back to work again during the daytime. :)
On the health front I do want to report that Ally had her annual physical and everything looked great. On a sadder note though we took the time to discuss my current condition and it was sad to hear that my brain capacity has diminished further. I never noticed it but most people in my position rarely does. It is those around you who live with you or converse with you daily that sees the changes. Ally related to Dr. Brockmyre that my mental capacity ( mainly my cognitive abilities ) have receded even more this year. My ability to comprehend, memorize, organize thoughts and think problems through is lower then last year. My short term memory has been horrible but somehow or another I get by with my daily activities. The brain is an amazing thing and can compensate sometimes for shortfalls, unfortunately memory is one area that has a hard time recovering.
I guess I never seen this until we discussed these issues. It made me stop and think and reflect back on this year and I can now understand what they were talking about. I know Ally has spoken to the kids about this and they now know. Heck, they may have already known but were trying to be polite and not say anything to their Dad. :) Either way, it is Dr. Brockmyres feelings that I am experiencing microstrokes that are occurring with more frequency. These microstrokes damage very small portions of the brain and are basically silent and produce no symptoms. It is their cumulative effects that cause problems as you lose more brain capacity over time. There is little that can be done as I am taking mega doses of blood thinners. Actually, my clotting factor or INR target has been raised to 4.0 - 4.5 which is very high. This level in some people can cause bleeding problems but it seems to not effect me. I have yet started bleeding internally due to the high INR numbers. There is little I can do but stay on top of my blood results and watch my cell lines. Keeping my hemoglobin levels low, my platelets low and my INR high will help.
I am looking forward to the fall here as Florida is one hot and humid State to live in during August / September. I will be glad when we get rid of all this rain too and return to sunny skies. They are predicting more rain and thunder boomers for the next week so there will be little riding for us.
Good Lord is it hot. It seems all of America has been cooking in record heat. Here in Florida its the typical summer heat and humidity that has made it miserable. It's just so stinking hot that you cannot stand to be outside so I have spent a great deal of time indoors. We have managed to get in a couple short rides in the morning or evening hours when its the coolest. Even with liquid cooled motorcycles these big engines still throw off a great deal of heat so we are riding very little these days.
Ally and I received some very sad news from Australia. Her older brother John has been hospitalized with an unknown condition and is very ill. They are running a lot of tests and have performed a bone marrow biopsy and we are awaiting the results from that. His blood levels were very low and they have transfused him 3 times so far. This is a very sad event as John is a special person in the family. He is mentally handicapped and unable to communicate with anyone. This means he is unable to tell Doctors, nurses or family if he is sick, doesn't feel well or is in pain. Treating the symptoms of any disease is part of a doctors overall plan of attack, but with John being unable to communicate what is going on with him makes it difficult for the Medical staff. We all love John because of how special he is. He is such a happy man, smiles a lot and loves car magazines and his radio. It is just so sad to see this man go through this. Ally is having a tough time of it because she is 10,000 miles away and wants to be there for him. But we both feel better knowing that Con, ( Ally's other brother ) is looking after the situation. Con is a great man who holds his family close to him. We both know he will do all he can for John and also for Mum as she goes through this turmoil. If you need someone looking after a situation like this, Con is the person for the job. A very strong man, compassionate and loyal to all he loves. We will continue to keep John in our thoughts and prayers and hope he pulls through this setback in his life.
Today ( Monday 13th ) is Ally's first day of school. The new freshmen come in for orientation and to meet their teachers. Ally will be teaching higher level math this year ( Calculus ) but also has some of the lower grade math classes as well ( Algebra 1 ) so she will get her allotment of freshmen this year. :) This is a very tough age for teenagers as they come into a new High School at the bottom of the rung on the ladder. It takes a great deal of patience and understanding on the teachers part as they watch these kids " find their place in the social scene at school ". I am proud of her growth as a teacher and her skills speak for themselves as she always seems to be one of the kids favorite teachers. Soft hearted yet tough on discipline. I am sure she will have another great year.
On the medical front, what can I say, I started chemo again. Every time I start a new course of this stuff I never know how the side effects will hit me. Sometimes it isn't to bad and other times it hits me like a ton of breaks with horrible side effects. This time it seems to be hitting me hard as I have had much more nausea and pain with this new course. There is little that can be done but take pain killers when I need relief and take Tylenol when the fevers are persistent. I am now injecting 4 mu per day, 5 days a week with a target of 8 mu a day, so I am half way home. 8 mu is going to be miserable but hopefully it will get my bone marrow back into shape quickly and I can start backing off on these high doses. Either way I keep smiling and keep moving onward. There is little else to do but fight onward.
I hope this finds all of you doing well and in good health. I ask that you please keep John in your thoughts and prayers. I will post on here once we have learned what's going on with him.
I am a little late in providing an update but have been busy trying to adjust to this chemo routine and just wasn't able to get it done. First let me say we got wonderful news from Australia. They found John's problem was a very bad B-12 vitamin deficiency. I personally have never heard of losing blood production due to a B-12 problem, but he is back to his home and doing very well. His blood counts are going up again and the family will be keeping an eye on his diet at the home he lives at. I just wanted to thank everyone for all the thoughts and prayers you sent his way.
Ally is busy with school and has a lot on her plate this year. Besides teaching the high level classes ( Calculus, etc. ) she also is the senior advisor which takes up some of her time as well. Overall, she has another great bunch of students and is off to a great start this year. She loves this school, its administration and of course the kids. She is still putting in long hours, but she is a perfectionist when it comes to teaching. She strives to be the best so she puts in a lot of effort in her class preparation. I remain very proud of her and I always smile when I hear others say what a great teacher she is.
Unless you missed it on the main page, I recently had a dream come true. I have always wanted to own a classic car and more importantly I wanted one I could restore. I happened to find a 1963 Pontiac Catalina 4 door hardtop that an old guy had for sale and bought it ( very cheap ) this week. Its now home parked in our drive and I have already started to restore it. You can check out the pictures and story by clicking here. It may take me a long time to get this car restored because of the chemo bouts I am going through, but hopefully I can get some of the work done this winter. I sure will be glad when my buddy ( and mechanic ) Bruce gets his old butt back down here. I just may need some of his help. :)
Health wise I am not going to blow sunshine up anyone's rear end and say I am doing great. To be honest, I have been miserable with this chemo run. This new batch of Interferon is very strong and is kicking my butt. I am currently up to 7 million units and it is leaving me horribly sick, nauseated and run down. I am due for a blood test to see where everything is at with my cell lines. Once I know I will report the findings here. Hopefully it will be a good report.
On the family front, Lindy, Kim, Ella, Natalia and Matt are all doing very good. Everyone is busy with their careers or school ( Kim just decided to go back to college to take a few classes ) and everyone seems happy. As always I talk to them every day or every other day so they are never far from my life or my heart. What can I say, my kids are my world as is my granddaughter and I hate going a few days without talking to them. Speaking of which I was able to talk Miss Ella the other day on the phone. Good Lord can that girl talk. It's non stop sometimes with her and I just can do nothing but laugh over it knowing she probably drives Lindy and Kim nuts sometimes. I guess paybacks do come around and it's such a pleasure to see Lindy go through these stages. :)
I also spoke with my Godfather, Tom Jakovac on the phone. Tom went through a real bad bout with Cancer last year but is on the mend and all indications are that he is cancer free now. Tom is a very important part of my life and has been like a father to me. He supports me with this disease and makes sure I keep up the battle. I am a very blessed person to have such great Godparents.
Hopefully I can get another update done here next week and report back on my blood tests as well as any work I may have done on the car. Until then, keep enjoying life, be safe out there and keep the thoughts and prayers coming. Thanks everyone,
Chris
Keep up to date on the latest photos ( by clicking here )