Yes, Campers, it has been a while. No excuse other than sheer lack of ambition.
But, here goes. . .
Since I can’t remember what I told you last, I’ll give a
little background. I had been on weekly
chemo, but the cocktail of three drugs I was receiving whacked my blood
platelet count to an unacceptable level.
So, in the interim, I was cut back to only one of the drugs which was a
little kinder on my blood, but was not enough to effectively fight the disease.
So, a couple of months ago, I was put on a regimen of immunotherapy. So now, I go every three weeks for an
infusion of Keytruda, which is the drug that worked for Jimmy Carter. Oh, and I pretty much have to use a wheeled
walker to get around and am on oxygen 24/7.
I really suck at hide-and-seek now as all you have to do to find me is
follow my air hose.
And, so far, I think that the treatment is having some
effect. I generally feel better and do
not get as short of breath after any activity like I has been. But, even at that, there have been no
extensions to my projected shelf life. According
to the averages, if the treatment works, I should be gracing this world for at
least eight months, but most likely more than that. If the treatment does not work, I’m looking
at four to six months. Now, let me
hasten to add that these numbers are based on averages. I consider nothing about me to be as
pedestrian as ‘average’. I’m planning on
hanging around for a while.
My activities have been somewhat curtailed, though I have
been to a few shows at WSLR and have made it down to Venice to visit Elaine’s
Mom on a few occasions. I still go to
Team Trivia Challenge every Wednesday evening and my weekly support group
meetings every Thursday afternoon. I don’t
trust myself to drive so Elaine and my friends Karen and Will have served
admirably as my chauffeurs. I would be
lost without my support team.
Man, nothing like a keyboard in front of me to make my mind
go blank. I spend my days reading,
surfing FaceBook, and working puzzles. My
former workmates have done a great job in keeping me supplied with puzzle books
and other goodies. A group from Tropics
has been by a couple of times as well as my buddy Ken every couple of
weeks. I seem to draw energy from
visitors.
Speaking of visitors,
my sister Connie and brother-in-law Frenchy were here a few weeks ago with my
nephew Len from Houston. They will be
back sometime in April along with my niece Madeline and her husband Brad. And my daughters Liz and Adrienne, son-in-law
Eric, and granddaughter Amelia will be down for a few days over April 1st. And my son Joey is looking to come down
sometime in May. And I can’t forget my
daughter Kate with the grandkids Jennifer and David who are frequent visitors.
OK, enough of Old Home Week. . . I’ve been enjoying March Madness on TV as the
tournament is possibly my favorite sporting event of the year. Always good for a few surprises, like
Michigan State getting knocked off.
Sadly, my Pitt Panthers followed their normal pattern of one and done,
this year getting knocked off by Wisconsin.
Only solace is that WI is Liz’ alma mater. And baseball season will be firing up soon
and that will mean televised games. Life
is good!!
On that note, I’ll sign off for now. Hopefully, the next update won’t take as
long.
Peace and love to all,
Joe
