What I Did on My Summer Vacation. . .

Well, Campers, here is the list of books and read and movies I watched during the period of my convalescence, which is still on-going.  The lists are in no particular order and I’m sure there are some omissions.  But, they were a fun way to while away the time and I want to thank my friends Will and Karen who spent time watching most of the movies with me.  Their friendship knows no bound!!

First, the books. . .

‘Three Men in a Boat’ - Jerome K. Jerome

 ‘Blackout’ - Connie Willis

‘All Clear’ - Connie Willis

‘To Say Nothing of the Dog’ - Connie Willis

‘Miracle and Other Christmas Stories’ – Connie Willis

‘Best of Connie Willis’

‘The Cuckoo's Calling’ - JK Rowling as Robert Galbraith

‘The Silkworm’ - JK Rowling as Robert Galbraith

‘Trigger Warning’ anthology - Neil Gaiman

‘Funny Girl’ - Nick Hornby

Several Christmas collections

‘Rogues’ – Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin, eds.

‘Dangerous Women’ – Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin, eds.

‘Grail’ – Stephen Lawhead

‘Easiest If I Had a Gun’ – Michael Gerhard Martin

‘Jack of Kinrowan’ – Charles DeLiont

‘Avalon’ – Stephen Lawhead

‘Queen of Camelot’ – Nancy McKenzie

‘Prince of Dreams’ – Nancy McKenzie

‘Born to Exile’ – Phyllis Eisenstein

‘The Haunted Abbot’ – Peter Tremayne

‘A Man in Full’ – Tom Wolfe

‘I Am Charlotte Simmons’ – Tom Wolfe

'Byzantium’ – Stephen Lwahead

‘The Darkness’ – Jason Pinter

‘The Hunters’ – Jason Pinter

‘The Fury’ - – Jason Pinter

‘The Stolen’ – Jason Pinter

‘The Guilty’ – Jason Pinter

‘The Mark’ - – Jason Pinter

‘Everybody’s Got Something’ – Robin Roberts

 

Next the movies. . .

 

‘The Hurt Locker’

‘Lars and the Real Girl’

‘Amarcord’

‘La Dolce Vita’

‘Into the Woods’

‘The Graduate’

Lord of the Rings trilogy

‘Dune’ (1984)

‘Dune’ (2000)

‘Children of Dune’

Jodorowsky's ‘Dune’

‘Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows’ - Parts 1 and 2

‘Firefly’ (14 episodes)

‘Serenity’

‘Brother Cadfael’ (13 episodes)

‘Good Will Hunting’

‘Good Morning Vietnam’

‘Dead Poets Society’

‘The Birdcage’

‘The World According to Garp’

‘Moscow on the Hudson’

‘This is Spinal Tap’

‘Waiting for Guffman’

‘A Mighty Wind’

‘Best in Show’

‘For Your Consideration’

‘Gimme Shelter’

‘20 Feet from Stardom’

‘Cadillac Records’

‘About a Boy’

‘High Fidelity’

‘Fever Pitch’

‘Stardust’

‘Mirrormask’

‘Groundhog Day’

‘Stripes’

‘The Mists of Avalon’

‘King Arthur’

‘MASH’

‘Network’

‘Sirens’

‘The Big Easy’

‘The Usual Suspects’

‘Pulp Fiction’

‘The Princess Bride’

‘Local Hero’

‘2001’

‘Slaughterhouse Five’

‘Reservoir Dogs’

‘Love, Actually’

‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’

‘Breakfast of Champions’

‘Ulee’s Gold’

‘Ruby in Paradise’

‘Tommy’

‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’

‘The Magnificent Seven’

‘Silverado’

‘Wonder Boys’

‘Miracle on 34^th Street’ – 2 versions

‘A Christmas Story’

‘Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol’

‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’

‘The Ladykillers’

 

I thank you for indulging me by reading these lists and I hope that I was able to trigger some pleasant memories for each of you.

 

Peace and Love!!

Joe

 

 

 

Moving On. ..

Well, Campers, a brief update on my marathon visit to Moffitt on Tuesday. . .

All is pretty darn good!!  I was given clearance to no longer have to drink thickened liquids, my diet was expanded, and they took out the feeding tube.  Oh, and BTW, I don’t have cancer.  All in all, a pretty good report.  To help me ‘celebrate’, Elaine cooked up a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, heaven for a good old Italian boy like me.

I still get tired easily but even that is lessening.  I’m still working 4 hours a day and take a 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 hour nap when I get home, but I feel stronger.  

At my friend Will Eddins’ suggestion, I’m working on a list that I will post soon, of how I spent my convalescence.  It will include the books I read and movies I saw.  It will be quite long, I realized.  Perhaps something for future generations of cancer patients to work their way through.  I know that it certainly helped me from going down the rat hole.

More will follow soon. . .

Peace and love!!

Joe

A Flash of Green. . .

Well, campers, after watching sunsets on the Florida Gulf Coast for 32 years, I finally saw the green flash tonight.  It was worth waiting for.


Peace and Love!!
Joe

Somber News. . .

Well, Campers, a bit of somber news at my last Support Group meeting on Thursday.  Ernie, one of our group and a snowbird, returned to Madison, WI, and elected to discontinue treatment and checked into Hospice.  He has Stage 4 prostate cancer which has metastasized to his thigh, spine, lungs, and other places. He has been in obvious discomfort and pain for a while.  I don’t know that it’s the choice I would have made, but I have to respect his decision and hope that he finds the peace he’s seeking.

Peace and Love!

Joe

A Holding Pattern. . .

Well, Campers, activity has been slow. . .  I'm getting a little better day by day, but still not ready to dance in the streets.  My next 'big' day will be May 12, when I have a marathon session at Moffitt including blood work, a swallow study, a chest x-ray, and an appointment with my medical oncologist.  With any luck, they will also remove the feeding tube then as I have not used it for over two months now.


I've been back to work for five weeks, working half days.  My routine is pretty much work from 8:30 to 12:30, get home about 1:00 PM, check email, and then take a 2-hour nap.  Work is going well,  After meeting some of the dozen or so new people who started there while I was out and figuring out the new server configurations, it was almost like I had never left.  Same desk and everything. . .


And I've been attending two support groups, a monthly group for head and neck cancers and a weekly group for general cancer patients.  As I've written in these pages before, I sort of feel funny going to support groups, as in the weekly group, I'm the one who's the best off.  I have no active disease nor am I actively being treated for anything.  Survivor guilt often kicks in, but I have been assured by the group facilitator that people like me are a valuable part of support groups as far as sharing my experiences and sort of being the 'after' photo.  This is by no means to say that I'm totally cured - far from it - but I am a goodly way down the path to as recovered as I'll ever be.


I still get beastly tired and have a mucous block in my throat that still makes swallowing anything of any substance difficult.  So, I am still on the diet of thickened liquids and pureed foods.  And frankly, it's getting old.  I am finding myself actually hungry these days and look covetously on the 'real' foods that others are eating.  Soon, I tell myself, soon.  The bright side that I've lost about 35 pounds, all of which I could afford to lose.  Now, I would not recommend my weight-loss program to anyone else, but it was wickedly effective. . .


I will continue to post updates as I can, but for now, the adage 'No news is good news; rings true.


Peace and Love!!
Joe

Catharsis. . .

Well, Campers, today was a day of catharsis. .  .

I cleaned up the Wall of Tributes which held all the cards I received during my treatment and the white board which contained the calendar with my treatment schedule on it.

I reread each card as I took them down (and got a little misty-eyed) and then wiped the white board clean.  It’s time to go on with a clean slate.

And I want to thank you all one more time for the cards, visits, and other well-wishes during my times of treatment and recovery.  They made the pain and fear easier to take.  (OK, the OxyContin, morphine, Xanax, and Remeron also had their place. . .  ;-)

And a special thanks to my friends Karen and Will who drove me to Moffitt  on many occasions and sat with me many an afternoon through many a movie on DVD.  I have been blessed with the best friends a poor boy from the sticks could ever hope to have.

The healing is still in progress, but I feel more like my old self every day.  Whether that is a blessing or a curse remains to be seen. . .  ;-)

It’s Saturday and I’m going to run some errands as Elaine is at work.  March Madness is on the TV and all is right with the world. 

Peace and Love!!!!

Joe

Back in the Saddle Again. . .

Well, Campers, I have returned to work on a part-time basis as of today!!!

There are still  numerous side and after effects from the disease and the radiation and chemotherapy that I received last spring.  Oh, I have been free of disease since August, so that’s a good thing!!  But, let me list the goodies. . .

• I’ve lost some weight.  I could still afford to lose some more, but it’s a start.
• I am very sensitive to cold.  I’m not sure how much longer that will last, but I’m fortunate to live where I do.
• I get tired easily.  I’ve been told both by my doctors and in my support groups that this will last a year or two after treatment ends.  Since my treatment ended in May 2014, I still have a few more months to make the one year mark.
• I suffered some nerve damage and now have neuropathy, or occasional tingling in my hands and feet.  This will probably be with me the rest of my life.
• My throat is still swollen and filled with mucous.  As a result, my voice is somewhat ‘muddled’.
• Also, I still have the feeding tube in place though I haven't used it for a month and a half.  I'm still limited as to what I can eat, and am restricted to pureed foods and thickened liquids.
• I have lymphedema in my neck.  The cancer also affected some of my lymph nodes and others were fried by radiation.  As I result, the lymphatic fluid in my neck pools instead of draining as it’s supposed to.  So, I have to have my neck massaged daily and taped with kinesiology tape to keep the passages somewhat open and the fluids flowing.  My wife Elaine has learned to do the massage and taping, so my frequent visits to an occupational therapist are a thing of the past.  The lymphedema will be with me to some extent for the rest of my life.  I may not have to tape up that long, but we shall see what we shall see.
• Finally, the chemo drug I received, cisplatin, has a known side effect of hearing loss in 10 – 30% of cases.  I was one of the ones that scored on this one.   The hearing in my left ear is significantly degraded and the hearing loss in my right ear is total.  I now wear a system of bi-cross hearing aids that wirelessly routes sound from my right side to the hearing aid on my left ear.

So, that’s the way it is.  Every day we wake up on the green side of the grass is a great day!!!