Dr. Karen and the Nurses
Dr. Karen and the Nurses
Friday was my regular, once every three weeks visit with Dr. Karen or in her absence with Dr. Michelle. I also saw Nurses Wendy and Vhrunda. The nurses wanted to know why blood pressure was on the slightly elevated side. I said it was because I was with them.
Wendy and Vhrunda did not appear to have suffered greatly from the Hershey’s miniatures and the Fairy Tale brownies. In fact, I thought they looked better than they usually do. It was nice of Vhrunda to not say that her scrubs were fitting her too snugly because I had seen her in the hall when I was waiting for my blood testing on Thursday. She looked remarkably nice. Wendy reminded me that I could still bring them some more candy since I had an appointment with them on October 30th.
Dr. Karen went over my regular lab tests and said they were all normal and that there was nothing that gave her any great concern. We didn’t discuss my slow and gradual weight loss.
I asked Dr. Karen about the cell blocks she had me get from the other hospital. She said she wanted the pathologists to review the tumor cells to see if my tumor had a specific mutation; don’t ask what it is or was because I didn’t care to ask. The important fact was that I do not have the mutation. Dr. Karen said this is good for me because it gives her a wider range of treatment options and medications.
We talked about the rescheduled colonoscopy procedure and agreed that the colorectal surgeons were not our friends. I told her that I would not be able to be there for our regularly scheduled visit on the 30th because of the colonoscopy. Dr. Karen wanted to schedule my next appointment for the week after the colonoscopy. I suggested that we move the next appointment until November 20th which would be on the regular cycle and give me four weeks off of the Xeloda.
I started my 16th cycle in the Second Round of chemotherapy on Friday. I never realized how much of the Xeloda I have consumed over the two Rounds.
She said she would ask her supervising physician about going off cycle for the four weeks and then stepped out of the small examining room.
I waited as I have grown so accustomed to doing by now.
Dr. Karen returned with a smile, she was smiling an awful lot on Friday, and said that my next appointment would be November 20th.
Perfectomundo.
I could have hugged Dr. Karen except that would have been a rather nasty breech of doctor – patient protocol. It probably would have been the end of seeing Dr. Karen. That would be very bad for me so I just mentally hugged her.
University of Utah Football
Our Utes did well playing on the road in typical Mountain West Conference weather conditions, freezing at kick-off for example. Today’s report is from the Salt Lake Tribune. Even better our Utes moved up to Number 24 in the AP Football Poll but remain unranked in the Coaches and Harris polls.
Utah overcomes big deficit, and safety Johnson picks off CSU's hopes.
By Lya Wodraska
Fort Collins, Colo. Down two touchdowns with all the momentum in favor of the Colorado State Rams, the Utah Utes remembered their loss at Oregon three weeks ago and had one prevailing thought Saturday -- not again.
Not again would they allow a game to slip away and suffer a plane flight home made worse by the gnawing thought they could have won if they'd only tried a little harder or executed a little better.
Put in a similar situation Saturday, the Utes used their determination plus some nifty defensive plays from safety Robert Johnson to avoid such disappointment as they came from behind to beat Colorado State 24-17 in front of 30,499 at Hughes Stadium.
"Us experiencing that loss at Oregon, we knew we were a better team than a lot of other teams but we needed to show it," said Johnson, who ended CSU's last three drives with interceptions. "We beat ourselves in that game and we know we are better than that."
[It would seem that Robert Johnson should pay more attention in his English classes.]
The Utes nearly did it to themselves again Saturday, struggling with third down conversions, fumbling three times and giving up several big plays.
Yet somehow the Utes (4-1, 1-0) managed to put together drives when it mattered most to win their fourth straight over the Rams (3-3, 0-2) and start conference play with a victory.
"Going 0-1 would have been devastating," linebacker Stevenson Sylvester said.
Instead the win was made that much more satisfying by showing the determination and character of a team that really hadn't established much of an identity through its first four games.
Now they have an idea at least of the mentality of this year's team. The way the Utes battled back, scoring three unanswered touchdowns, reminded Coach Kyle Whittingham of the never-say-die attitude of the 2008 team. "Hopefully it gives us a lot of confidence to win a game in that fashion," he said. "We don't want to make a habit of it, but to win a game like that gives us a great learning experience and it's similar to how our team operated last year in those tense situations."
Quarterback Terrance Cain had a steady game, completing 24 of 32 passes for 248 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, and running back Eddie Wide had 17 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown.
However, it was Johnson who provided the most highlights, ending CSU's last three drives with interceptions. “We knew we had to get the ball back to the offense so they could put it in the end zone," he said.
His offensive teammates did just that, scoring touchdowns after his first two interceptions.
"Nothing was said," offensive lineman Zane Beadles said. "We just had a
collective thought that 'We're not going to lose this ballgame. We have some adversity staring us in the face so let's go beat it.'"
The first of those final touchdowns capped a 17-play drive that went 73 yards and burned eight minutes and 45 seconds in the fourth quarter. The Utes converted three third downs on that drive and scored on another with Wide rushing in from a yard out to tie the game at 17-17. Previously the Utes were just 2-for-7 on third downs.
After Johnson's second interception, the Utes put together another 73-yard drive that ended with Cain throwing an 8-yard pass to Wide with 3:40 remaining.
Johnson's final interception came with 2:20 remaining, allowing the Utes to run out the clock and celebrate a game that might have changed from disastrous consequences to defining moment for these Utes.
"It took us a while to get going offensively," Whittingham said. "But to get down 17-3 and the way our guys responded, I couldn't be more proud of a group of guys. They rallied up, stayed focused and found a way to win at the end."
Cell Phone Troubles
I had the truly rare privilege of spending two and a half hours on the phone with AT&T Customer Care [?] and Technical Support representatives on Saturday. I’ll bet that none of you had as much fun as I did. I’m glad that the call didn’t last too much longer because the batteries in my cell and landline phones probably would have died off
This non-happy event started out as a call to AT&T about what would happen to my calling plan if I dropped one of the three lines. Nothing happens it turns out.
Then, I asked about not being able to receive inbound calls. I did complete a simple test on Saturday morning using a non-AT&T cell phone. The call went straight to voice mail with no message greeting from me.
One of my Friday night students called to leave me a message that she was not going to be in class. Perfectly normal; her brother said she had called me. I checked my phone and I had no messages. I thought that was odd but I was in the middle of class and had other more important things to do like teach.
I certainly wasn’t going to call AT&T at close to 11:00 PM after I got home and had a light dinner. Calling any time is a test of anyone’s courage and strength.
I dialed the carrier on Saturday afternoon when I was out on the balcony. I could sit in the sun while I was on hold; you almost always end up on hold it seems when you call the phone company.
It seems that AT&T had an outage ooopsie thingie [or insert the technical term(s) of your choice here] happen that changed the tower registration information on my cell phone so that I couldn’t receive any voice messages. The cell phone towers were not able to recognize my phone.
I will say the AT&T workers did their very best to solve my problem. I think the task took so long because all of the information that showed up on their terminals showed my phone as operating normally
The problem started a week ago Friday I think or it could have happened earlier but the first unheard message was from a week ago Friday. I guess that I am lucky because I do not get many phone calls.
Lunch with Vivian and Lisa
I had lunch with Vivian and Lisa on Sunday afternoon at the L. A. Food Show. It is our favorite meeting spot. We originally started meeting for lunch after I left the bank. We went here because it was conveniently located for Vivian and me. We both live on the Westside and it was about equidistant between our homes. Lisa lives out in the O. C. like Doug.
From left to right, Vivian, Lisa, and me.
During the extended conversation, lunch was only two and a half hours long, I learned that Vivian has moved again and this time she is Santa Monica with her boyfriend. It would seem logical that the next lunch will have to be at a different location. We agreed to meet again in January since the holidays are almost here.
Most of the conversation was catch up about what we had been doing since the last time we had lunch. I thought I hadn’t seen Vivian since before my operation. Vivian said that we had lunch when she was dating another boy friend. Not wanting to argue, I accepted that claim.
The only real complaint that I have about the Food Show is the portions are excessively large. The food has always been excellent and the service, for the most part, has been very good. I had a Show burger with avocado and French fries and two scoops of vanilla ice cream. We split an order of Avocado, Bacon, Chicken, and Cheese egg rolls as we usually do.
I was feeling bloated around dinner time last night; that would have been close to 7:00 PM. I ended up having a slice of toast for my dinner.
Lisa brought up the subject that I should be in a solid relationship by now. Being alone was not a good idea. Vivian agreed with her. I pointed out that I am not opposed to being in a relationship per se. It is just that I have not found someone yet.
Vivian and Lisa discussed their roster of single women that are in my age range or what they thought was my age range. I think one of my concerns about meeting someone is that I have become more restrained and socially conservative when it comes to being with people.
In the end, I think I agree to meet one of their friends who lives in the O. C.. The friend is divorced with a teenage daughter. I should probably follow up with Lisa and find out what I committed to if I committed to anything.
Be well and stay happy.
Friday was my regular, once every three weeks visit with Dr. Karen or in her absence with Dr. Michelle. I also saw Nurses Wendy and Vhrunda. The nurses wanted to know why blood pressure was on the slightly elevated side. I said it was because I was with them.
Wendy and Vhrunda did not appear to have suffered greatly from the Hershey’s miniatures and the Fairy Tale brownies. In fact, I thought they looked better than they usually do. It was nice of Vhrunda to not say that her scrubs were fitting her too snugly because I had seen her in the hall when I was waiting for my blood testing on Thursday. She looked remarkably nice. Wendy reminded me that I could still bring them some more candy since I had an appointment with them on October 30th. Dr. Karen went over my regular lab tests and said they were all normal and that there was nothing that gave her any great concern. We didn’t discuss my slow and gradual weight loss.
I asked Dr. Karen about the cell blocks she had me get from the other hospital. She said she wanted the pathologists to review the tumor cells to see if my tumor had a specific mutation; don’t ask what it is or was because I didn’t care to ask. The important fact was that I do not have the mutation. Dr. Karen said this is good for me because it gives her a wider range of treatment options and medications.We talked about the rescheduled colonoscopy procedure and agreed that the colorectal surgeons were not our friends. I told her that I would not be able to be there for our regularly scheduled visit on the 30th because of the colonoscopy. Dr. Karen wanted to schedule my next appointment for the week after the colonoscopy. I suggested that we move the next appointment until November 20th which would be on the regular cycle and give me four weeks off of the Xeloda.
I started my 16th cycle in the Second Round of chemotherapy on Friday. I never realized how much of the Xeloda I have consumed over the two Rounds.
She said she would ask her supervising physician about going off cycle for the four weeks and then stepped out of the small examining room.
I waited as I have grown so accustomed to doing by now.
Dr. Karen returned with a smile, she was smiling an awful lot on Friday, and said that my next appointment would be November 20th.
Perfectomundo.
I could have hugged Dr. Karen except that would have been a rather nasty breech of doctor – patient protocol. It probably would have been the end of seeing Dr. Karen. That would be very bad for me so I just mentally hugged her.
University of Utah Football
Our Utes did well playing on the road in typical Mountain West Conference weather conditions, freezing at kick-off for example. Today’s report is from the Salt Lake Tribune. Even better our Utes moved up to Number 24 in the AP Football Poll but remain unranked in the Coaches and Harris polls.Utah overcomes big deficit, and safety Johnson picks off CSU's hopes.
By Lya Wodraska
Fort Collins, Colo. Down two touchdowns with all the momentum in favor of the Colorado State Rams, the Utah Utes remembered their loss at Oregon three weeks ago and had one prevailing thought Saturday -- not again.
Not again would they allow a game to slip away and suffer a plane flight home made worse by the gnawing thought they could have won if they'd only tried a little harder or executed a little better.
Put in a similar situation Saturday, the Utes used their determination plus some nifty defensive plays from safety Robert Johnson to avoid such disappointment as they came from behind to beat Colorado State 24-17 in front of 30,499 at Hughes Stadium.
"Us experiencing that loss at Oregon, we knew we were a better team than a lot of other teams but we needed to show it," said Johnson, who ended CSU's last three drives with interceptions. "We beat ourselves in that game and we know we are better than that."
[It would seem that Robert Johnson should pay more attention in his English classes.]
The Utes nearly did it to themselves again Saturday, struggling with third down conversions, fumbling three times and giving up several big plays.
Yet somehow the Utes (4-1, 1-0) managed to put together drives when it mattered most to win their fourth straight over the Rams (3-3, 0-2) and start conference play with a victory.
"Going 0-1 would have been devastating," linebacker Stevenson Sylvester said.
Instead the win was made that much more satisfying by showing the determination and character of a team that really hadn't established much of an identity through its first four games.
Now they have an idea at least of the mentality of this year's team. The way the Utes battled back, scoring three unanswered touchdowns, reminded Coach Kyle Whittingham of the never-say-die attitude of the 2008 team. "Hopefully it gives us a lot of confidence to win a game in that fashion," he said. "We don't want to make a habit of it, but to win a game like that gives us a great learning experience and it's similar to how our team operated last year in those tense situations."
Quarterback Terrance Cain had a steady game, completing 24 of 32 passes for 248 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, and running back Eddie Wide had 17 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown.
However, it was Johnson who provided the most highlights, ending CSU's last three drives with interceptions. “We knew we had to get the ball back to the offense so they could put it in the end zone," he said.
His offensive teammates did just that, scoring touchdowns after his first two interceptions.
"Nothing was said," offensive lineman Zane Beadles said. "We just had a
collective thought that 'We're not going to lose this ballgame. We have some adversity staring us in the face so let's go beat it.'"
The first of those final touchdowns capped a 17-play drive that went 73 yards and burned eight minutes and 45 seconds in the fourth quarter. The Utes converted three third downs on that drive and scored on another with Wide rushing in from a yard out to tie the game at 17-17. Previously the Utes were just 2-for-7 on third downs.
After Johnson's second interception, the Utes put together another 73-yard drive that ended with Cain throwing an 8-yard pass to Wide with 3:40 remaining.
Johnson's final interception came with 2:20 remaining, allowing the Utes to run out the clock and celebrate a game that might have changed from disastrous consequences to defining moment for these Utes.
"It took us a while to get going offensively," Whittingham said. "But to get down 17-3 and the way our guys responded, I couldn't be more proud of a group of guys. They rallied up, stayed focused and found a way to win at the end."
Cell Phone Troubles
I had the truly rare privilege of spending two and a half hours on the phone with AT&T Customer Care [?] and Technical Support representatives on Saturday. I’ll bet that none of you had as much fun as I did. I’m glad that the call didn’t last too much longer because the batteries in my cell and landline phones probably would have died off
This non-happy event started out as a call to AT&T about what would happen to my calling plan if I dropped one of the three lines. Nothing happens it turns out.
Then, I asked about not being able to receive inbound calls. I did complete a simple test on Saturday morning using a non-AT&T cell phone. The call went straight to voice mail with no message greeting from me.
One of my Friday night students called to leave me a message that she was not going to be in class. Perfectly normal; her brother said she had called me. I checked my phone and I had no messages. I thought that was odd but I was in the middle of class and had other more important things to do like teach.
I certainly wasn’t going to call AT&T at close to 11:00 PM after I got home and had a light dinner. Calling any time is a test of anyone’s courage and strength.
I dialed the carrier on Saturday afternoon when I was out on the balcony. I could sit in the sun while I was on hold; you almost always end up on hold it seems when you call the phone company.
It seems that AT&T had an outage ooopsie thingie [or insert the technical term(s) of your choice here] happen that changed the tower registration information on my cell phone so that I couldn’t receive any voice messages. The cell phone towers were not able to recognize my phone.
I will say the AT&T workers did their very best to solve my problem. I think the task took so long because all of the information that showed up on their terminals showed my phone as operating normally
The problem started a week ago Friday I think or it could have happened earlier but the first unheard message was from a week ago Friday. I guess that I am lucky because I do not get many phone calls.
Lunch with Vivian and Lisa
I had lunch with Vivian and Lisa on Sunday afternoon at the L. A. Food Show. It is our favorite meeting spot. We originally started meeting for lunch after I left the bank. We went here because it was conveniently located for Vivian and me. We both live on the Westside and it was about equidistant between our homes. Lisa lives out in the O. C. like Doug.
From left to right, Vivian, Lisa, and me.
During the extended conversation, lunch was only two and a half hours long, I learned that Vivian has moved again and this time she is Santa Monica with her boyfriend. It would seem logical that the next lunch will have to be at a different location. We agreed to meet again in January since the holidays are almost here.
Most of the conversation was catch up about what we had been doing since the last time we had lunch. I thought I hadn’t seen Vivian since before my operation. Vivian said that we had lunch when she was dating another boy friend. Not wanting to argue, I accepted that claim.
The only real complaint that I have about the Food Show is the portions are excessively large. The food has always been excellent and the service, for the most part, has been very good. I had a Show burger with avocado and French fries and two scoops of vanilla ice cream. We split an order of Avocado, Bacon, Chicken, and Cheese egg rolls as we usually do.
I was feeling bloated around dinner time last night; that would have been close to 7:00 PM. I ended up having a slice of toast for my dinner.
Lisa brought up the subject that I should be in a solid relationship by now. Being alone was not a good idea. Vivian agreed with her. I pointed out that I am not opposed to being in a relationship per se. It is just that I have not found someone yet.
Vivian and Lisa discussed their roster of single women that are in my age range or what they thought was my age range. I think one of my concerns about meeting someone is that I have become more restrained and socially conservative when it comes to being with people.
In the end, I think I agree to meet one of their friends who lives in the O. C.. The friend is divorced with a teenage daughter. I should probably follow up with Lisa and find out what I committed to if I committed to anything.
Be well and stay happy.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 7:34 PM
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