Another hurray!!!

Yesterday's visit with my oncologist, Dr. Yee, included great, fabulous, welcome, joyous, fantastic, hurray news: the CT scan says the tumor on my pancreas has not changed since 3 months ago AND the blood tumor marker (CA19-9) continued its zig-zag graph (see first image below) and went down slightly over the past three weeks.

So today I started my SEVENTH 3-week round of oral chemo Xeloda. I love that I can keep on keeping on! I'm hanging in there and very happy for it.

My blood tumor marker progress chart.
The lower the number, the better. 229 is considered  a "high" number,
 but the good news is that it is not going up.

It seems crazy but I have to share my CT scan final report with you... HIPPA-be-damned. I'm sharing information with the world about my guts!!!

I want you blog readers to help me understand these two pages. I was pleased to learn that I have "shotty aortopulmonary window paratracheal and subcarinal lymph nodes". After some "wiki time", I learned this actually is good news. It was sobering to read this and understand so little. Just give it a once over and try to absorb what's going on in my chest/abdomen. The best (and understandable) part is that the tumor is "essentially stable".

It is titled "chest CT" but did include my abdomen. 

"No new metastatic focus identified" was also happy news!

Here are my more recent favorite "escapes" from cancer/death thoughts:

Grilling baby back ribs on the Big Green Egg for church small group
AND Barb's MCC Donor Relations department party held this evening.

Listening to British folk-rocker Richard Thompson's latest CD "Electric".  Thompson writes some more sad, hard luck, lost love ballads which are not always uplifting, but very well written and the guitar playing is unsurpassed.
Yes, I am an old man and still buy CDs instead of listening to shitty mp3s. Life is too short to be listening to low-fi!!

My latest jazz fav is Oscar Peterson and this 2-disc CD is fantastic. It is a Telarc live recording.
A marvelous recital by a true master. Gorgeous music and gorgeous recording. (1996)
Oscar was 71 years old at the time. He had suffered a stroke in 1991 which affected his left side. I can tell from the recording he had to adjust his technique and the right hand is more prominent. Also, a remarkable collaboration with the other players with whom he had years of experience. Peterson died of kidney failure in 2008.

Thanks everyone for following my journey. I feel strong, have virtually no pain and am loving life. Keep on keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you very much!

Getting over the cold

 "Getting over the cold" has a double meaning.

First, warmer temps are here. And also a little moisture. Almost an inch of rain fell last night and it's drizzling today. The weeds are rampant in the garden. And the grass is lush. The rain knocked the last of many blossoms and those seed thingys off the trees.

Second meaning: With the aid of some adult-onset hay fever I came down with a spring cold earlier this week.  This was the first cold I've had since I learned I had a mass on my pancreas Thanksgiving week 2011! That is amazing to me. My normal cold contract was about two colds/year. Even w/chemo and some low blood counts I was able to dodge the cold and flu viruses. I have thanked God frequently that I haven't had a cold or flu for such a long time. This one wasn't too serious and I am responsibly nursing it. Still dealing with some drainage and occasional cough, I should be symptom-free in a couple of days. 

I attribute my flu/cold resistance to less stress and more rest. My kind wife, Barb, doesn't give my one ounce of grief when I spontaneously and unabashedly recline like Dagwood in my recliner or the sofa for a snooze. She said if taking naps helps keep me feeling like I do (which is very good, thank you), I should nap as much as I want. And sometimes they're long naps. It's like heaven! I wish we all could take naps when needed and didn't have to have cancer for a nap ticket. Plus I still sleep well at night. 

This week I did wake up with the obligatory crushed snotty Kleenex around me in bed. Ugh! I didn't miss any work but my understanding employer let me come in about four hours late on Thursday and they gave me the flexibility to work later and still cut only an hour or so off my schedule. I work approximately 36-37 hours a week in billing at Smilebuilderz in Lancaster. 

It's a plague around here: Sacred Bunnies

I look forward to next week because it is my chemo "off" week. This morning Barb and I went to the Landis Valley Herb & Garden Faire. I was overwhelmed by the exotic flowers and varieties of bedding plants. As I recall a few years back when we bought basil, there maybe two kinds. Now? Crazy with types of basil. Barb picked up a few more plants. Luckily, there was no kale to be found. Her garden is flourishing. Rhubarb, radishes and lettuce are ready. Sadly, no asparagus here. I hope you South Dakotans enjoy an abundant crop.


I leave you with some photos and Happy Day to all Mothers!

This is our back yard. A maple and dogwood are sharing space — and admirably so I'd say.
Barb is collecting grass clippings to throw over wet newspapers between garden rows.
She is a very ambitious, creative, and experimental gardener. It entertains me and I enjoy the end results.

These orange beauties are part of hanging plant we purchased today and set outside our front door.

Gerbera daisies outside our "back" door.

Our neighbor's pink azaleas. There are some awesome red bushes around town (Akron, PA).

The bees are having a heyday.

A short snort ...

Oink, oink, oink!

That's just a sampling of the profound team cheers and encouragement shouts flashing on the jumbo screen on the big scoreboard at last night's IronPigs vs. Indians game. "Let's go pigs!" was another. (I was slightly disappointed at the absence of "suey, suey" though.)

I am certain many of your are eager to hear more about the lowbrow news I shared on my last post. Here goes:

After being sucked in by the "news" of gaming urinals in the mens restrooms at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, PA, yesterday H.A. Penner and I took a trip to see an IronPigs baseball game and see if we were maybe duped by the circa April 1 (April fools day) story of video games played using a stream of pee to "test ones knowledge and skill".

I will not dwell on the urinal game, except to say we confirmed they do exist and function. As I am uncomfortable using a camera in a restroom, the only picture I offer is this from the website:

Of the seven or eight urinals along the wall only one had the video game. Not sure why. Maybe in a "testing" introductory time. Briefly, the urinal has three targets: 'start', 'yes' and 'no'. After "hitting" the 'start' target true and false questions appear on the screen.

It was interesting to observe first time users, like me, so conditioned to use fingers on a touch screen trying to start the game with touching the screen for a while until figuring out touching the screen does not work. Hence, they advertise "hands free". Hands should be elsewhere.

I missed this question "Is it true the Titanic was built in Dublin?" I guessed 'yes' and scored a 0. It was built in Belfast.

This response from a blog reader and friend to my last post sums it up best: "What! 
are 11-year old boys running the marketing departments these days???" Methinks they are. I ask your understanding and forgiveness in allowing me to be an 11-year-old and succumbing to this marketing ploy. I admit I would not have gone to the game, if not for my curiosity.

In fact, it was a beautiful sunny day and an excellent well-played game with the IronPigs victorious over the Indianapolis Indians 3-2 in 13 innings. Both are Triple-A minor league farm teams which means they are the team a major league team uses to "bring up" and "send down" players depending on their performance. The IronPigs are the Philadelphia Phillies farm team and the Indians are the Pittsburgh Pirates farm team. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs have greater credibility as a "farm" team, don't you think? (pigs, farm. Get it?)

Notice the ticket price was $10. Very reasonable for these seats:

Also, I bought a Corona for $3. I was blown away by beer that cheap at a baseball game. The food I had was typical and nothing outstanding but also quite reasonable.

Allentown is one of a three-city metropolitan area which includes Bethlehem and Easton, Penn — 90 miles from New York City. Allentown is PA's third largest city behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The team name stems from the industrial era when the steel industry was huge there. Pig iron is a term for iron which is in an intermediate state in the smelting process. But what is interesting/ironic is that all the whoopla at the game was about pigs, hogs, swine and not iron which is what the region was noted for. One of the players is dubbed "the Sultan of Swine". I suspect most of those attending don't know much about pigs and have probably never held one.

The caliber of the players is very high. Almost half the IronPigs have played for the Phillies. Pitching was outstanding. It is a great venue and we had alot of fun.

On the drive home H.A. and I enjoyed reminiscing about what it was like on the farm during haying time: hay mows, slings, dump rakes, hay racks, elevating bales into a barn, balers, knotters and what it was like to work alongside our fathers and siblings inside haylofts, on the tractors, etc.

H.A. Penner and I enjoying the game

This gave impetus to add a new local museum to my bucket list: The New Holland Area Historical Society Museum. The New Holland Machine Company was started by a Mennonite man in 1895 and became known around the world for its hay equipment.

Nothing new to report on the cancer. I am in the middle of an oral chemo round and my side effects issues are the same — no worse, and no better. I have been enjoying the lovely spring days and flora and fauna that Barb and my home states' have yet to experience, at least with any frequency. Barb's brother was ice-fishing on Cass Lake yesterday and says the ice is still 20 inches thick!!! Summer solstice is only a little over a month away. That's all for now. I hope each of you feels as blessed as I feel blessed.