Latest News for the Month of
February 2007
Happy Birthday Lindy and Natalia !
Every year at this time I take a visit down memory lane. Both of my kids were born on February 3rd - ( 4 years apart from each other ) and this day is always a special one to me. It was the day that I found happiness in being a father. It has provided me with entertainment, laughs, smiles and allot of love watching them both mature and grow into great adults. It is also the day that I swell with pride over having such wonderful kids who treasure their Dad and provide me with love and support. And its also the day that makes me glad I took on the role of one of the greatest jobs on earth, being a father. Happy Birthday Lindy & Natalia, I love you both dearly.
I wanted to provide an update to everyone on the latest happenings in my life. First of all to all those who are worried about us due to the severe weather and tornadoes that recently hit Florida. To those who were worried, we are fine and suffered no damage. We did get hit with some nasty weather that included high winds, rain and thunder boomers but the tornado passed us over and hit on the other side of the State. The weather here has been goofy lately with cold temperatures followed by warm and muggy days. It wont be long before all the days are muggy and hot so I am enjoying the cooler temps. :)
I still have not ridden the motorcycle yet but visited the Doctor as a follow up to my surgery and he has cleared me to start riding again on Tuesday - Feb 6th. I cannot wait as I have really missed the cruises on the bike. Bruce and I are planning a celebratory ride to Hooters to see the girls. :) Gosh I love those wings they serve........ Anyways, I have pretty much healed up and the new artery appears to be working well. Most of the pain is now gone from the surgery sight and the scar looks great. The strangest thing though is that I can hear the swooshing sound of blood rushing through it at night when my hand is tucked under my pillow while I am trying to fall asleep. It's enough to drive you nuts. :)
My blood levels all seem to be quite high at the moment so I am going to have Ally perform another phlebotomy on me this weekend. I really need to get these levels down before I run into clotting problems again. Its been so nice not having any strokes and January celebrated a year since my last blood clot to the brain. The chemo treatments are going OK now since I got a new stock of Interferon. The last batch I got from last year had gone off and was useless. I was wondering why my side effects were getting less and less each day. Turns out to be the drug had lost its potency. I got a new batch in and started using it and OH BOY this stuff packs a punch. The nausea and flu symptoms are back in full force again making my days miserable during the week. Thank God for pain killers to ease the bone pain and Tylenol to reduce the fevers.
I forgot to add last month that we finally had a perimeter site open up here at the resort and they moved us. We love the new site and all the added room we now have. I will try and get some pictures and post them here next week. Its so much better being able to park our trailer behind the coach and not have to worry about offending our neighbors. We also have no one behind us which makes things great for us and Tessa has allot of room to roam now.
Hi everyone. I thought I would jump online and give you all an update here, especially since I have gotten a few e-mails telling me I have been slacking off on my updates. :)
Its been a rough couple weeks here. The chemo injections are taking its toll on me and I have spent to many days sick and in pain. I m currently at 6 Million Units a day of Interferon and at these levels the drug becomes so toxic, it pickles your brain and creates allot of bone pain as well. I hate to whine and cry, but this is the miserable stage I am in with this drug and it gets a bit hard to handle feeling like crap everyday. I try and ignore the symptoms and most days I do well, other days I reach for pain killers and try and forget it all.
The bright spot is that my weekends are still decent as I do not inject on weekends. By Sunday I am feeling real good so I try and pack some fun into my weekends. Last weekend we took our bikes and rode up to Homassasa Springs for a little sight seeing tour and really enjoyed ourselves. This area is noted for having allot of Manatee's in its rivers and inlets ( though we never seen any ). We had a nice lunch next to the water at a neat little restaurant and then took a ride across the inlet to see the other side. This is where Monkey Island is located. We had heard allot about this place but never seen it. Its a tiny little island ( about the size of a large house ) that has nothing but Monkeys as residents. They run loose there and are hilarious to watch. Actually, I believe I seen a few that maybe lost relatives of mine. :) The ride back home was great too and this was my longest trip on a bike yet. I really enjoyed getting out and the weather was great. Speaking of weather, some of you will surely smile to know that we have gotten hit with a cold spell here in Florida. The temp has dropped down into the low 60's and high 50's during the daytime. I made sure I called Dr. Brockmyre's office last week and let the girls know I was sitting outside in a T-Shirt sipping Diet Coke and basking in the sun. Unfortunately, I spoke to soon as the cold weather came in a week later. But as they say, this to shall pass and warm weather will be back again in a weeks time. I hope anyways. :)
I had my lab tests done this week but haven't gotten the results yet. I will pass them on to you once I get them. I am hoping my hemoglobin levels have dropped because Ally did a phlebotomy on me last week. I was miserable at that time because I had so much blood on me. I do feel better now though with a unit of blood coming off and going down the drain. :) In regards to my hand, it has healed up nicely and I haven't had any problems with it. The swooshing noise is still driving me crazy at night, but I am getting used to it slowly but surely.
Hey Everyone
I guess I am a bit late on this update but better late then never.
Things here have been quiet so there wasn't allot to report. I have been having some pretty rotten days from the chemo injections and just trying to get by everyday with a smile and a few laughs. So I have been tardy on my updates.
On the health front I had a round of blood tests done and everything looked really good. My white cells are not being hammered by the Interferon so that is always a good thing. My hemoglobin levels looked great as did my platelets. My liver enzymes were a bit high but I can live with them at their current levels. So overall the chemo is working good and my body and bone marrow is reacting well to the drug. Actually it is responding faster and much better then at any other time in the past. I am currently up to 6 Million Units so the days have been long and filled with allot of nausea, fevers and general sickness. But I am elated that the drug is working so well on the marrow. It typically takes several months before I start getting results like this so maybe I can take a rest from these injections in a few more months. My only complaint is that my energy levels everyday is low and my brain is suffering from the toxicity of the drug. I do not know how else to explain it but the drug is so toxic to my brain that it pickles it to the point of making my memory much worse then it already is and it makes simple thought processes difficult at times. The good news is that when I do go off the drug in the future, the brain will return to normal, well, OK as normal as my brain will ever get. :)
The support I have gotten here at the resort has been great. Jim, my next door neighbor who is a retired Anesthesiologist has kept me laughing and in good spirits. He is a great guy and between the two of us our political discussions may just solve the worlds problems. :) He is a hoot and great to live next door to. Other residents are always checking up on me and seeing if there is anything they can do for me. This resort is filled with some great people and they have made my winter much more easier and enjoyable.
Ally and I have ridden our bikes allot on weekends and its the one thing I really look forward to. Bruce ( my riding buddy ) has been tied up quite a bit lately so I haven't been taking to many rides during the week. We did ride in a biker benefit ride this last weekend for the Jessica's La Foundation and all I can say is WOW. It was our first organized ride of large proportions and large it was. They had over 3,000 bikes show up and some news agencies were reporting 5,000 bikes. However many it was, it was huge. The police had all the intersections blocked off for the 50 mile route so we were able to blow through intersections which made the long line of bikes get to its destination faster. We only rode for approximately 5 miles with the group before getting off and having lunch. We never planned on riding with them, but did it on a last minute whim. It was fun, fast paced and you had to watch yourself all the time for any slowing in the line. A few times it went from 25 to 60 mph and then back again to 25 mph. The only dangerous part was when a car cut in front of us because he got impatient waiting and drove through the line of bikes. Not smart. Here is a few pictures of the ride we took. If you look into the distance you will see miles of headlights from the bikes. Click here for picture 1 - Click here for Picture 2 - Click here for Picture 3
The weather here has been awesome the last week or so. 70's everyday and allot of sunshine. It makes wintering in Florida so nice and despite a few cold days ( 50's ) we have enjoyed our winter months.
I will be updating this site to start of the month of March in a week or so. I put together a bikers ride for resort residents to go see the release of the new movie " Wild Hog's " and I will give a report at that time on that. We have over 37 people attending so its going to be a blast. I will write more later in a weeks time. Until then I wish all of you the very best and hope your week goes great for you. Until later, stay healthy and happy.
Chris