Latest News for the Month of
June 2007
We are home and at the house in Bristol. Yeeee Haaa
Boy I missed this place. It was so nice to be able to move around in a nice roomy home again. It also was great to be back in the Mountain Empire as well. The honeysuckle is now filling the area and the trees and bushes are all flush with green. It is also great to look off into the distance and see the towering mountains.
We forgot what its like to ride motorcycles in this area and had to make a few small changes to our habits gained from riding in flat land Florida. Some traffic lights and stop signs are at the top of hills so it requires a little more balance and foot/brake work. :) We also have to be extra careful when pulling into drives or parking lots as a sloped parking spot or driveway can spell problems. It is not much fun to ask a few people to help you push your bike backwards out of a sloped parking spot. ( Try moving a 800 lb cruiser backwards on your own. :) Still, the driving pace, speed limits and such are so much slower here, the drivers more patient and they are much more polite, backing off and letting you pull in front of them, etc. Florida has some amazingly high speed limits in some areas that make driving down right scary sometimes when considering all the driveways and entrances on these 55 mph roads.
The people here in TN ? What can I say. Polite, generous, compassionate, polite and patient, that's what makes the South such a great place to live. The Florida Gulf Coast is a hot bed for New York City transplants and it is obvious they bring their NYC manners with them. Few know what please and thank you are and some of them are just plain rude and obnoxious. Their level of patience is about two seconds long as well making you want to slap half the NYC people you meet. I guess its their way of life in the Big Apple but it doesn't fly to well here in the South. I am not knocking all NYC people as we have a few friends from there and a few more who still live there and they are anything but rude and obnoxious. I know from my trip to NYC ( Manhattan ), I couldn't wait to get out of there. :) I think the problem with most of the NYC transplants comes from the newbies who haven't been down there long enough to mellow and slow down a bit. But we couldn't help but notice the difference between the Florida NYC people and the true Southern people and the difference was apparent as soon as we got into Georgia. It was very apparent we were out of Florida when we hit the TN line. I have always said, people here say " Have a good day " and they mean it. The WalMart workers, waiters and waitresses in restaurants, gas station attendants, they all seem to be happy to see you and are friendly and polite. You do not find that attitude to often on the Gulf Coast where people could careless if you shop in their stores or eat at their diners.
Speaking of Florida, it looks like we no longer pulled out of the Tampa area and they got hit with a good old fashioned tropical storm. That is a good thing as they need the rain badly. They have been in such a drought the last few months, and things so very dry that fire was a danger everywhere. Now if they can get another foot of rain over the next month or so they should be good to go for the summer.
I am off to see all of my old girl friends ( as Ally calls them ) at Dr. Brockmyres office this morning. I have really missed the entire gang and all the great treatment they give me. The laughs, smiles, hugs and humor is always something to look forward to when I go there and makes my trips to the vampires den much more pleasant. I will be sure to post my latest lab results here and let everyone know how my blood cell lines are shaping up. Hopefully we can get a good look at the red cells under the microscope to see how they are doing. I am very curious to know how well the chemo worked on them as they were pretty well morphed and odd sizes and shapes the last I checked them. I will post all the results later in the week.
Just wanted to let ya'll know we are back home in Bristol and it is great to be here. Did I tell you how happy I am to be back here ?..haha....:) I nearly kissed the ground when we arrived. Before I forget I did want to provide a link here to a new picture of Ally and I. It has to be the best picture ever taken of the two of us together. We had this picture professionally done at a recent dinner party/fund raiser for the school which is why the picture quality and setting was so much better then the home shot photos. Here is the link to the picture - ( click here ) I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying the start of summer. Be careful out there and stay healthy and happy. Till later,
We have pretty much settled in and I have actually got a few projects done on the house and the trailer/bike hauler. I started work last fall on the back sunroom but needed to finish it off. So I spent three days and got stuck into it and went to town. I finally finished it off with a fresh coat of paint, a new suspended ceiling and I laid carpet as well. I have watched carpet layers for years install carpeting so decided to try my hand at it. I was surprised as it came out excellent. So now the room is finished and Ally has taken it over with her air brush stuff and sewing machines. It's typical, whenever she finds new open space she lays claim to it and moves her junk into that area. :)
The trailer was a mess. I had crap stuffed, piled up and stacked all over inside and it was driving me nuts. So I broke down and bought a nice set of work room cabinets from Lowes and put them, together and installed them in the trailer. Now I have room for all the gear we carry plus my tools. It worked out great and will make a nice mini work room for doing maintenance work and such on the bikes.
Ally and I have taken several rides lately including one to Kingsport, TN. We rode down there to have dinner at the Golden Corral. The point of the trip though was to see one of our friends Scott who is the General Manager of the restaurant. It was good seeing him again and he looked great as he has cut back on his hours. We also took a ride into the mountains to visit one of our favorite places around here - Holston Dam. It is owned by TVA ( Tennessee Valley Authority ) and is what they call an earthen dam. They have fishing spots and picnic areas located all around the area so it makes it a nice place to stop and just enjoy some peace and quiet. We then rode back down off the Mountain and over to South Holston Lake, which is the water source for the dam. We took several pictures so you can see the area. (Click here for the slide show).
I made it into Dr. Brockmyres office and it was great to see everyone there. I got my fill of hugs from the girls and even one from Dr. Brockmyre. It was so good to be back there and see everyone. They are some of my favorite med people.
Jennifer, my lovely vampire did the tests for me and the results once again looked good. While my hemoglobin is starting to come up a bit, all overall blood counts looked great. She also did a slide and I looked it over under the microscope and it looked great as well. My red cell's were uniform in size ( finally ) and there were only a few tear dropped shaped cells. So I was encouraged by the blood work and cell appearance.
We are planning a trip to ride the " Snake " in a day or two and will be posting our experiences as well as some new pictures once we are done. The snake is a very well known road located about 20 minutes from our house. Bikers and sports car enthusiasts come from all over the world to drive this 2 lane mountain highway which has 489 curves, over 200 of them are switchbacks. We plan on taking a number of photos and will be sure to post them here along with a report on how the ride was. The riding in TN is so different then the ones in Florida. There is so much more to see, the scenery so much better and the riding challenging as there are many more curves, hills, dips and mountains to ride. Its a great place for a biker to go out and take a relaxing ride on his motorcycle.
We have finally got a break in the weather and have been going on daily rides quite often. Our ride on Fathers Day was awesome as it was what we label an " easy ride " meaning, hardly any traffic, good blacktop, nice scenery, and an easy slow pace. You can read more about this ride we took through the foothills of the Clinch Mountains ( and see the photos ) by ( clicking here ) .
Things have been slow here but we are getting ready to make our trip down to Gatlinburg soon. I had to stick around for an appointment with Dr. Brockmyre before we could leave town but that is soon to change ( Wednesday ).
Ally has been busy catching up on her crafts and hobbies. She picked up a new air brush which is of much better quality then her last one and has started the process of learning about air brushing. I also bought her a new 35 mm digital camera for our anniversary and she is enjoying that as well and trying to get used to all the different settings, etc. So her summer has been fun for her so far. Especially since she hasn't had to teach. :)
My Fathers Day was awesome. I awoke to a big surprise from Lindy who sent me an E-Greeting card that said " Here is a gift certificate. Now quit being a cheap old retiree for one day and go to Amazon.com and buy whatever you want ". That set the day off just right for me. Of course Natalia also called ( like she does 5 times a week ) and wished me Happy Fathers Day. She was in Wisconsin on business and was at the airport when she called. I think she is now in Michigan ( God only knows where she is at as she travels all the time it seems ). It really makes me feel like a special Father when I am remembered like this. It doesn't take a card or a gift to make me happy, it only takes the idea of knowing I am loved deeply by my kids and thought of all the time. That in itself is a special blessing. I have always said my greatest job ( and most rewarding ) on earth has been being a Father. It just makes it better having two great kids that love me as much as they do.
On the Medical front, well it isn't good news so bare with me. I was waiting for a second lab test to confirm my fears and got those yesterday. I am now out of remission and am just depressed it didn't last longer. My Hemoglobin level took off and I am to the point now that I am miserable with cluster headaches and heart arrhythmias. I really had my heart set on this remission lasting 6 months or more instead of the short time it actually did, but there is little to be done now except more chemo. Typically, when my marrow comes out of a remission stage like this it normally comes out like gang busters. I start producing huge amounts of blood and that was evident by my recent lab tests. My hemoglobin gained 2 points in a matter of two weeks. And boy am I feeling it. Now it will be a balancing act again - keeping my clotting factor high since my red cells are high to prevent any clots or strokes and start watching my platelets carefully for an increase ( which will surely happen once I have a phlebotomy. ) Ally and I are now starting to wonder if maybe the change in elevation triggered the bone marrow to rev up and start spitting out more red cells. Elevation will in normal healthy people cause them to produce more red cells so its a very good possibility that this is exactly what happened with me. The other contributing factor could be the pollution in this area which has steadily increased in the last couple years. My red cell levels are to the point that it is getting very hard to handle so Ally will be doing a phlebotomy on me this weekend and getting rid of some of the blood. I am really sad over the change, but there is little I can do. What I wanted and what I received are two different things so now its just a matter of getting with the program and living with the changes. There is no sense in whining and crying over it.
I also had a battery of other tests done as well. I have been experiencing problems with my kidneys for a while ( severe pain in the lower back area on both sides ) that comes and goes so Dr. Brockmyre has ordered a bunch of tests to check them out. He also is running the PSA test that men have to check their prostrates as he feels some of the urinary problems are prostrate related. Everything else checked out great ( heart, lungs , etc. ). This disease when in its severe mode can really wreck havoc on your internal organs. It seems the brain function, liver, spleen and kidneys get effected the most. Then add to that the chemo treatments which really beats your organs up and it makes it easy to understand why things don't work like they used to. Still, you take each piece of news, digest it, figure out what you have to do to combat the problem and then get on in life. That's exactly what I will do and what I have done in the past. If my life is going to be shortened, I sure as hell do not want to spend my remaining days complaining and whining over my health problems. Besides, there are people out there in real bad shape, much worse off then me. :)
We are leaving for Gatlinburg and will be there for two days to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway and also the Smokey Mountains. We are taking the coach of course and staying at one of our favorite campgrounds. I will be sure to bring back pictures for ya'll.
We made it South to the Smokey's and boy did we have a ball. Gorgeous weather, less traffic then we have seen in Pigeon Forge in a while, a nice campground to stay in and we had some awesome rides in the mountains. You can check out the stories and photos by clicking on these two links - Cades Cove - Smokey Mountains .
We have one more big trip planned in July and that will end it for us here in TN. We plan on coming back home to start packing for our trip back to Florida. ( We plan on leaving here August 1st for Florida ).
Things have been quiet here with the exception of Ally's new purchase. She went out last Saturday and with my help selected a new bike. She traded in her medium sized cruiser and got a new one that is twice its size. :) You can read more about that bike and see the pictures here - Maggie Allys new Vulcan
On the health front, its been a miserable week with massive cluster headaches and a complete lack of energy. We made it into Dr. Brockmyres office so I could get some more blood work done and the problem wasn't hard to find. My hemoglobin levels were sky high and my INR low. That is never a good thing as the combination has led me into strokes in the past. So when we got home Ally tried to perform a phlebotomy on me to get 500 cc of blood off me. It worked OK but I suddenly moved and yank the damn needle out of my arm. When Ally accessed the vein again the blood simply refused to flow. We waited a few hours longer and she tried again in a different spot that was located on my fistula ( the one the vascular surgeon created for me last winter ) and that also didn't work so we called it a day as I was tired from it all and sore from all the needle sticks. The next day Ally found the fistula and hit a bullseye right away. The blood flowed off me and we were able to drain 500 cc off me. The problem is that my bone marrow is so reved up now that I will need another phlebotomy next week. But at least this one lessoned the headaches considerably. Such is life I guess and I can say I felt very sorry for Ally this week. It hasn't been a pleasant one for her as I have been extremely bitter over this disease, the problems I keep running into and the pure hell I have lived with for the last 8 years. I guess I am entitled to a week like this now and then but it makes it hard on Ally to have endure this mood of mine. I will give myself an attitude adjustment soon and jump back out of this downturn. But until then I remain PO'ed, bitter and hostile towards this disease. Give me a week and I will be over it and back to the fight again. :)
We are planning our trip North to VA and will be heading to fancy Gap and the Blue Ridge Parkway. We plan on spending a few days there and then its on to Dansville for two days to see two of our friends. From there its up to Richmond for a couple days to see Natalia and spend time with her then over to Lynchburg to see Lindy, Kim and Ella. We also plan on taking a few rides there and go out and check on our property at Otter Creek. We want to see it again and make sure everything is OK.
I will be updating this site right in two weeks time and be starting my July updates. Until then, be safe, be happy and keep enjoying all that life has to offer. If you have the chance, do say a prayer for this disease to calm back down again and provide me some relief.
Thanks everyone.
Chris
NOTE: I just added more family photos to the website. Click here to view them.