End of My Quarter Break
End of the Quarter Break
My quarter break is drawing to a close now.
I will be back in the classroom on Monday I think. This is an optimistic view of mine. I still do not have a firm, fixed teaching schedule for the next term. It would be nice to know what classes I am going to teach, if only so I can prepare for them.
I spoke with the Associate Dean on Friday morning after my visit to the oncologists. My teaching schedule of four classes was still up in the air. The Associate Dean said he was still trying to figure out how to make the schedule work. I may have to write the Academic Dean a letter to request the four classes. The possible teaching schedule is a good one for me because I will not be teaching on Fridays and Saturdays.
The Prelude
On Tuesday, I got the Prelude’s front windshield replaced. It had a nasty hairline crack in the upper portion of the windshield in front of where the driver, that would be me, normally sits. One of the side benefits of having a new windshield is the new one has a five or six inch wide, heavily tinted band across the top so that it will reduce the amount of sun glare that I will face when I drive into a rising or setting sun.
Another benefit was that I got the old cell phone antenna removed. It had been on the car for almost twenty years. I was surprised that the antenna was only being held on with some tape. Now, the Prelude is a little sleeker looking without the pig tail antenna.
I need to get it washed this weekend or early next week. It is starting to look really sad and dirty.
The Princess
The Princess phoned me on Wednesday afternoon. It’s always nice to hear from the Princess. The Princess was calling because she missed her bus home from the office. Any reason is a good enough reason for me.
We talked about a variety of things, mostly odds and ends of family life including my as yet unsettled teaching schedule. Things for her are going well in her new job and that is good. Our call ended when the next bus came along. I had to go cook dinner for Doug and me. We had halibut and brown rice for dinner.
I phoned the Princess today to let her know about my cancer and what my status is. She was disappointed when I told her about the downgraded condition from remission to stable. We talked about this change for a while.
My Brother is in Seattle this weekend and he is taking the Family including the Princess and the Golfer out to dinner to a seafood restaurant. I told her to be sure to eat lots of food since my Brother is paying for everything. The Golfer likes to drink Guinness beer but has been having trouble finding it in Seattle. Morton’s didn’t carry Guinness when I was there in May and the Princess said that they went to another restaurant that didn’t carry Guinness either. I hope he has better luck tonight.
Lost Cell Phone
I went to the market on Tuesday as something close to usual. I needed to get food since Doug was spending the week or at least a good part of it with me. I noticed that one of my cell phones was missing when I sat down after the groceries away. I searched the house and had no success finding it.
Doug and I went to lunch at the Corner Bakery, a local Southern California chain of casual dining restaurants. I had a sandwich and so did Doug.
Doug suggested that go to the market and see if someone had turned in the cell phone. I drove to the market since I had nothing to lose.
Apparently, my cell phone had fallen out of its holder and into the shopping cart when I was placing the bags in the trunk of the Prelude. One of the baggers must have found it when they were out gathering carts up in the parking lot.
I have a sentimental attachment to the cell phone number. I was the first cell phone that I ever owned. I bought it back in 1990 after a break up with my then girl friend Shelby. The Princess liked Shelby because Shelby wore really cool shoes, red snakeskin slip-on’s with a matching purse.
Perfectomundo for the Princess.
Shelby and I were supposed to fly to Maui for a week of relaxing and sleeping in the sun. At the really last minute, Shelby cancelled on me. I was bummed out and so I decided to buy something nice for me.
I purchased a car mounted cell phone. In 1990, these were quite popular and expensive. I think the phone and installation were around USD$850.00; now, you can be a phone with more features for USD$200. The cell phone number came with a 213 Area Code which is now rare for cell phones.
I suppose that you are wondering why I still have the phone.
Perfectly good question.
I have kept the phone because the phone has Verizon as the carrier, the same as the Princess. With free in network phone calls, it makes it very easy to call each other without any long distance call charges.
Me and the Cancer
I guess I typed too soon about my condition a couple of weeks ago. I think I asked the wrong question of the wrong person.
With all of the talk about the late President Ronald Reagan at the Republican National Convention this past week, I should have remembered one of his more famous quotations, “Trust, but verify.” I should have asked the resident to verify her interpretation of my condition with her supervising physician.
Doug and I went to see the oncologists on Friday. Each time at Harbor UCLA, we see a different resident, as you know, so in the musical chairs game known as seeing the resident, one who had little to no prior knowledge of my case said I was in remission. On Friday, we saw a doctor who has a working knowledge of our situation talked and she said that I was in stable condition.
I do have more confidence in Friday’s doctor. She is classified as a Fellow. Setting aside the obvious opportunity for humor, a Fellow is a doctor who has completed her residency and is staying in a program for two to three more years to increase her knowledge and degree of specialization. My Fellow is going to be at Harbor UCLA for two more years.
Doug is also happy with the new Fellow. Doug feels like we're going to be in good hands with her. I’m going to try to see her for every time I visit the oncology clinic from now. She put me in her panel, which basically means, every time I’m in there, I should be seeing her. This doctor was the one who ordered the colonoscopy and the other tests.
The second and postponed Tumor Board meeting was sort of a bust with nothing really decided. The decision to perform any exploratory surgery regarding the liver lesions or the tumor remnant is in the hands of the colo-rectal surgeons we're going to see on the 17th. The problem was when the case was presented to Tumor Board; they didn't have any of the surgeons' report [that would be Dr. Aileen Takahashi] from the initial surgery back in October, 2007. The colo-rectal department had the paper work because I gave it to them back in late May or early June, but they lost it. So, now, the oncology people have a copy of the reports and we're bringing additional copies to the colorectal people. I hope the colorectal surgeons do a better job of tracking instruments used during a surgical procedure than filing operation reports.
The doctors are unsure if there's still a small piece of tumor left near my ureter, which is preventing me from having the liver spots removed. The Tumor Board doesn't want to perform exploratory surgery to see exactly what's happening. The doctor we saw on Friday doesn't understand why they wouldn't want to perform surgery. In regards to the bit of tumor that was left, the chemotherapy will have reduced its size if there is any tumor left.
When Dr. T did the original surgery last year, she couldn’t take out the entire tumor because part of it was right on top of or next to the ureter. She didn’t want to run the risk of damaging the ureter during the removal. That makes sense to me.
I don’t see why there is a delay on any exploratory surgery. I may not know much about anatomy but I have learned that my liver is on the right side of my abdomen and the ureter in question is on my left side. If surgeons can perform arthroscopic surgery on a professional athlete’s knee and rebuild the ligaments, I don’t see why the surgeons can’t perform a simple slice me open and cut out the lesions and send them off to the Pathology Department. Then, we know once and for all what the lesions were.
Yes, I do have one more scar but as Dr. T said, men look good with scars so another scar is nothing to worry about in my mind.
The current oncology doctor has scheduled and run all of the non-invasive tests that can be run. This was an attempt to find out whether the lesions are cancerous or not. There aren’t many options left to try outside of surgery.
Going forward, I will go back on the medicine [Xeloda] I took during the chemotherapy for basically the rest of my life. This is low level maintenance. It should start up in early October after the colorectal surgeons meeting on the 17th. The doctor doesn’t want to start me on the Xeloda if the surgeons change their minds about operating. That makes sense to me.
Doug sent his mother an email after the visit on Friday. I took this next paragraph from it.
“Obviously, Dad is disappointed with the news of having to go back on the medicine, but it's better than having the cancer return. It's disappointing to hear that he's not completely out of the woods yet, but stable is a lot better than critical or worse. I mean, the doctor says that all the signs and vitals have been stable over the course of treatment, so it's a good sign.”
Always being an optimist, I can find something positive about the on-going treatment plan.
I get to be greeted by nurses who say, “Give me a hug handsome,” every three weeks. I get to see the same young women who will weigh me and take my blood pressure every three weeks. It is almost like being married as one of the nurses once said, I think of it as being more like having several girl friends, except at the end of the day I can leave my clothes on the floor in my bedroom and I don’t have to share the television remote control unit.
I did pass out the Fairy Tale Brownies [http://www.brownies.com] to the nurses who took care of me in the Infusion and Oncology Clinics and the nurses who took care of my catheter. I am highly confident that they all liked and enjoyed the brownies. I am almost highly confident that they will not be using the refrigerator or freezer options to enjoy the brownies over several weeks. One of the nurses said, “Oh my God, I had a taste of one of the brownies and it was so rich and yummy.”
I smiled.
Cinema
I went to see STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS cartoon on Thursday at an afternoon showing. I was the only one in the small theater in the multi-plex complex. Doug suggested I was the only one in the theater because it was in the middle of the week for a cartoon and school had started up. Doug is probably right here.
THE CLONE WARS seemed to work for me. The cartoon closed up some loose ends from the live action films for me and introduced some new characters. It also served as a good introduction and overly long trailer for the new THE CLONE WARS weekly cartoon show that starts in October.
Frozen Yogurt & Ice Cream
After lunch on Friday, I drove out to see my friend’s new frozen yogurt and ice cream store. She planned to have it open last week. Unfortunately, she is being held up by a couple of permits and some training for her employees on how to use the frozen yogurt equipment.
I have to go visit Doug next week. I can stop by her store on my way home since it is located right at the freeway off and on ramps.
College Football
I was watching college football on Thursday night. South Carolina was playing away from home against Vanderbilt University. It was a close game until the very end with Vanderbilt pulling out s small margin of victory, 24 to 17. The Gamecocks played well but seemed to have trouble with the offensive scheme and a relatively inexperienced quarterback.
I suppose the Princess will be disappointed since the loss will drop the Gamecocks out of the national rankings. They had been ranked at Number 24.
On Friday night, out of loyalty and prior service in the United States Navy, I watched the Naval Academy play Ball State University. The Midshipmen were outsized and outplayed but not out smarted. Midshipmen must take a heavy course load of mathematics and hard science courses plus they have specific size requirements based on the needs of the Fleet and the Marine Corps. I don’t think too many Ball State players could pass Physics or Calculus.
A supporter of one of the service academies, you are generally faced with poor chance to win in football. I continue to support the Naval Academy because this is what an officer does. Besides, the season is usually considered a success if Navy beats service rival Army.
That was the end of my second week off from teaching.
Be well and stay happy.
My quarter break is drawing to a close now.
I will be back in the classroom on Monday I think. This is an optimistic view of mine. I still do not have a firm, fixed teaching schedule for the next term. It would be nice to know what classes I am going to teach, if only so I can prepare for them.
I spoke with the Associate Dean on Friday morning after my visit to the oncologists. My teaching schedule of four classes was still up in the air. The Associate Dean said he was still trying to figure out how to make the schedule work. I may have to write the Academic Dean a letter to request the four classes. The possible teaching schedule is a good one for me because I will not be teaching on Fridays and Saturdays.
The Prelude
On Tuesday, I got the Prelude’s front windshield replaced. It had a nasty hairline crack in the upper portion of the windshield in front of where the driver, that would be me, normally sits. One of the side benefits of having a new windshield is the new one has a five or six inch wide, heavily tinted band across the top so that it will reduce the amount of sun glare that I will face when I drive into a rising or setting sun.
Another benefit was that I got the old cell phone antenna removed. It had been on the car for almost twenty years. I was surprised that the antenna was only being held on with some tape. Now, the Prelude is a little sleeker looking without the pig tail antenna.
I need to get it washed this weekend or early next week. It is starting to look really sad and dirty.
The Princess
The Princess phoned me on Wednesday afternoon. It’s always nice to hear from the Princess. The Princess was calling because she missed her bus home from the office. Any reason is a good enough reason for me.
We talked about a variety of things, mostly odds and ends of family life including my as yet unsettled teaching schedule. Things for her are going well in her new job and that is good. Our call ended when the next bus came along. I had to go cook dinner for Doug and me. We had halibut and brown rice for dinner.
I phoned the Princess today to let her know about my cancer and what my status is. She was disappointed when I told her about the downgraded condition from remission to stable. We talked about this change for a while.
My Brother is in Seattle this weekend and he is taking the Family including the Princess and the Golfer out to dinner to a seafood restaurant. I told her to be sure to eat lots of food since my Brother is paying for everything. The Golfer likes to drink Guinness beer but has been having trouble finding it in Seattle. Morton’s didn’t carry Guinness when I was there in May and the Princess said that they went to another restaurant that didn’t carry Guinness either. I hope he has better luck tonight.
Lost Cell Phone
I went to the market on Tuesday as something close to usual. I needed to get food since Doug was spending the week or at least a good part of it with me. I noticed that one of my cell phones was missing when I sat down after the groceries away. I searched the house and had no success finding it.
Doug and I went to lunch at the Corner Bakery, a local Southern California chain of casual dining restaurants. I had a sandwich and so did Doug.
Doug suggested that go to the market and see if someone had turned in the cell phone. I drove to the market since I had nothing to lose.
Apparently, my cell phone had fallen out of its holder and into the shopping cart when I was placing the bags in the trunk of the Prelude. One of the baggers must have found it when they were out gathering carts up in the parking lot.
I have a sentimental attachment to the cell phone number. I was the first cell phone that I ever owned. I bought it back in 1990 after a break up with my then girl friend Shelby. The Princess liked Shelby because Shelby wore really cool shoes, red snakeskin slip-on’s with a matching purse.
Perfectomundo for the Princess.
Shelby and I were supposed to fly to Maui for a week of relaxing and sleeping in the sun. At the really last minute, Shelby cancelled on me. I was bummed out and so I decided to buy something nice for me.
I purchased a car mounted cell phone. In 1990, these were quite popular and expensive. I think the phone and installation were around USD$850.00; now, you can be a phone with more features for USD$200. The cell phone number came with a 213 Area Code which is now rare for cell phones.
I suppose that you are wondering why I still have the phone.
Perfectly good question.
I have kept the phone because the phone has Verizon as the carrier, the same as the Princess. With free in network phone calls, it makes it very easy to call each other without any long distance call charges.
Me and the Cancer
I guess I typed too soon about my condition a couple of weeks ago. I think I asked the wrong question of the wrong person.
With all of the talk about the late President Ronald Reagan at the Republican National Convention this past week, I should have remembered one of his more famous quotations, “Trust, but verify.” I should have asked the resident to verify her interpretation of my condition with her supervising physician.
Doug and I went to see the oncologists on Friday. Each time at Harbor UCLA, we see a different resident, as you know, so in the musical chairs game known as seeing the resident, one who had little to no prior knowledge of my case said I was in remission. On Friday, we saw a doctor who has a working knowledge of our situation talked and she said that I was in stable condition.
I do have more confidence in Friday’s doctor. She is classified as a Fellow. Setting aside the obvious opportunity for humor, a Fellow is a doctor who has completed her residency and is staying in a program for two to three more years to increase her knowledge and degree of specialization. My Fellow is going to be at Harbor UCLA for two more years.
Doug is also happy with the new Fellow. Doug feels like we're going to be in good hands with her. I’m going to try to see her for every time I visit the oncology clinic from now. She put me in her panel, which basically means, every time I’m in there, I should be seeing her. This doctor was the one who ordered the colonoscopy and the other tests.
The second and postponed Tumor Board meeting was sort of a bust with nothing really decided. The decision to perform any exploratory surgery regarding the liver lesions or the tumor remnant is in the hands of the colo-rectal surgeons we're going to see on the 17th. The problem was when the case was presented to Tumor Board; they didn't have any of the surgeons' report [that would be Dr. Aileen Takahashi] from the initial surgery back in October, 2007. The colo-rectal department had the paper work because I gave it to them back in late May or early June, but they lost it. So, now, the oncology people have a copy of the reports and we're bringing additional copies to the colorectal people. I hope the colorectal surgeons do a better job of tracking instruments used during a surgical procedure than filing operation reports.
The doctors are unsure if there's still a small piece of tumor left near my ureter, which is preventing me from having the liver spots removed. The Tumor Board doesn't want to perform exploratory surgery to see exactly what's happening. The doctor we saw on Friday doesn't understand why they wouldn't want to perform surgery. In regards to the bit of tumor that was left, the chemotherapy will have reduced its size if there is any tumor left.
When Dr. T did the original surgery last year, she couldn’t take out the entire tumor because part of it was right on top of or next to the ureter. She didn’t want to run the risk of damaging the ureter during the removal. That makes sense to me.
I don’t see why there is a delay on any exploratory surgery. I may not know much about anatomy but I have learned that my liver is on the right side of my abdomen and the ureter in question is on my left side. If surgeons can perform arthroscopic surgery on a professional athlete’s knee and rebuild the ligaments, I don’t see why the surgeons can’t perform a simple slice me open and cut out the lesions and send them off to the Pathology Department. Then, we know once and for all what the lesions were.
Yes, I do have one more scar but as Dr. T said, men look good with scars so another scar is nothing to worry about in my mind.
The current oncology doctor has scheduled and run all of the non-invasive tests that can be run. This was an attempt to find out whether the lesions are cancerous or not. There aren’t many options left to try outside of surgery.
Going forward, I will go back on the medicine [Xeloda] I took during the chemotherapy for basically the rest of my life. This is low level maintenance. It should start up in early October after the colorectal surgeons meeting on the 17th. The doctor doesn’t want to start me on the Xeloda if the surgeons change their minds about operating. That makes sense to me.
Doug sent his mother an email after the visit on Friday. I took this next paragraph from it.
“Obviously, Dad is disappointed with the news of having to go back on the medicine, but it's better than having the cancer return. It's disappointing to hear that he's not completely out of the woods yet, but stable is a lot better than critical or worse. I mean, the doctor says that all the signs and vitals have been stable over the course of treatment, so it's a good sign.”
Always being an optimist, I can find something positive about the on-going treatment plan.
I get to be greeted by nurses who say, “Give me a hug handsome,” every three weeks. I get to see the same young women who will weigh me and take my blood pressure every three weeks. It is almost like being married as one of the nurses once said, I think of it as being more like having several girl friends, except at the end of the day I can leave my clothes on the floor in my bedroom and I don’t have to share the television remote control unit.
I did pass out the Fairy Tale Brownies [http://www.brownies.com] to the nurses who took care of me in the Infusion and Oncology Clinics and the nurses who took care of my catheter. I am highly confident that they all liked and enjoyed the brownies. I am almost highly confident that they will not be using the refrigerator or freezer options to enjoy the brownies over several weeks. One of the nurses said, “Oh my God, I had a taste of one of the brownies and it was so rich and yummy.”
I smiled.
Cinema
I went to see STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS cartoon on Thursday at an afternoon showing. I was the only one in the small theater in the multi-plex complex. Doug suggested I was the only one in the theater because it was in the middle of the week for a cartoon and school had started up. Doug is probably right here.
THE CLONE WARS seemed to work for me. The cartoon closed up some loose ends from the live action films for me and introduced some new characters. It also served as a good introduction and overly long trailer for the new THE CLONE WARS weekly cartoon show that starts in October.
Frozen Yogurt & Ice Cream
After lunch on Friday, I drove out to see my friend’s new frozen yogurt and ice cream store. She planned to have it open last week. Unfortunately, she is being held up by a couple of permits and some training for her employees on how to use the frozen yogurt equipment.
I have to go visit Doug next week. I can stop by her store on my way home since it is located right at the freeway off and on ramps.
College Football
I was watching college football on Thursday night. South Carolina was playing away from home against Vanderbilt University. It was a close game until the very end with Vanderbilt pulling out s small margin of victory, 24 to 17. The Gamecocks played well but seemed to have trouble with the offensive scheme and a relatively inexperienced quarterback.
I suppose the Princess will be disappointed since the loss will drop the Gamecocks out of the national rankings. They had been ranked at Number 24.
On Friday night, out of loyalty and prior service in the United States Navy, I watched the Naval Academy play Ball State University. The Midshipmen were outsized and outplayed but not out smarted. Midshipmen must take a heavy course load of mathematics and hard science courses plus they have specific size requirements based on the needs of the Fleet and the Marine Corps. I don’t think too many Ball State players could pass Physics or Calculus.
A supporter of one of the service academies, you are generally faced with poor chance to win in football. I continue to support the Naval Academy because this is what an officer does. Besides, the season is usually considered a success if Navy beats service rival Army.
That was the end of my second week off from teaching.
Be well and stay happy.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 7:32 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home