Toast

As I never know when I might have to jump in the car and “GO”, I haven’t had a drink since July 25, 2009.  To those of you who know me, you know I’m not much of a drinker anyway, but I mention that for a couple of reasons.  First, because I was thinking now might be a time when a toast was due, because of the good news we received on Pat’s condition.  But since she can’t drink we’ll postpone it until she can.  Second, I was looking in the bottom of my refrigerator at a number of bottles of wine.  They have been there since June 26, 2009.  They were probably some the last bottles of wine purchased by my good friend Clyde who lost his life the day before in a drowning accident on Lake Mead.

LAKE MEAD NATIONAL RECREATION AREA Man Drowns In Crescent Cove [Printer-friendly text version]Claude Finney, 48, was with friends on a houseboat in Crescent Cove in the Virgin Basin yesterday when he jumped into the water for a swim. Finney had been treading water for about a minute when he called for help. By the time his friends began throwing life rings into the water, he’d slipped beneath the surface. Rangers were notified around 4:30 p.m. and responded with five rescue boats – two from Boulder Harbor, two from Echo Bay and one from Temple Bar. Las Vegas Metro PD provided a rescue helicopter. Surface and shoreline searches were fruitless, and operations were suspended at dusk. Weather conditions in the area had created a light chop, about one to one-and-a-half foot waves in open water. According to rangers, though, the water was relatively calm in the area where he was last seen. Contact Information Name: Andrew S. Muñoz, Public Affairs OfficerThis was the article written by the National Park Service.  It in no way does justice to the life of my good friend, but I imagine it is a fair account of what occurred that afternoon, I wasn’t there, but from what I’ve been told, it sounds accurate.I write this because I was standing there looking at those bottles on the second anniversary of his death thinking when, if ever, I would open one and drink it. That day two years ago began as any other, I got up and went to work.  I was transporting one of my clients to an appointment and as I was waiting for them I heard a news report that Michael Jackson had died of an apparent heart attack about an hour earlier.  For some reason the first thing I thought was I thought about was “I bet Clyde and them don’t know about this as they won’t have a radio as they are out on the lake”.  Although they probably don’t have cell service either, I’ll call Clyde and leave him a message and he’ll get it when they dock for supplies.  Little did I know in about an hour he would be gone.  I got a call that night saying he was lost and I was devastated.  Pat and I went out to the lake the next morning to meet up with the houseboat and the friends who were there to wait for them to recover him and just be there because we didn’t know what else we could do. This was also the beginning of the Journey for us.  Because I had not been on the job for 6 months I wasn’t able to go on this trip, or to the funeral in July.  Pat and I decided we would take the weekend after the funeral to go down and spend it with our friends.  That Pat had been having unexplained headaches for a couple of months, we decided a stop at the Doctor’s might be a good idea.  We never made it to our friends.  Pat was diagnosed with a metastatic brain tumor and a mass in her lung that night and we have been in battle every since. Though we never formally said our goodbye’s we think of Clyde often, it may be a certain song on the radio, (well iPod actually most times) or a thought about the trips we took to Mexico or other places or just sometimes out of the blue something will remind us of him.  We really miss him and I feel like our goodbye is incomplete. He will always be with us I know but, I often feel like I never got to say goodbye.  It may sound strange to say but I wonder how he would have reacted with me and what advice he would have given, as he had gone through this same battle with his wife as I am going though now with mine.  Clyde could come up with some interesting insights from time to time. So I say to you Clyde, eventually I will open one of those bottles, say a toast to you, and not, so to speak…”remember you”… for you are not and never will be, forgotten, but just, shall we say, have a drink for you, from you and to you.  BCBC my friend! Floyd

Good News

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord.  Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  (Jeremiah 28:11,12)

It’s been a while since I’ve written I know, but last week we got the results from Pat’s tests.  I sent most of you an email when she had her “episode” that the oncologist felt was a form of seizure.  He prescribed an anti-seizure medication which she took for about 10 days during which she had more side effects than the benefits of the medication was worth.  So she made the decision to stop taking it, after conferring with the pharmacist.  The problems cleared up in a few days.  She feels that the side effects are just not worth the benefit of the medication and it just made her “not herself”.

You may remember she had a Power-port put in back in November to help with the problems of her veins.  Well the first trip to the infusion room after the “seizure incident” the infusion nurse had to give her a chemical to dissolve a suspected clot so that they could draw blood.  The port was fine to infuse but would not let them draw blood, so we had to wait for about 40 – 50 minutes for the medicine to work.  Oh, and did I forget to mention that the hospital’s computer system was down and everyone was trying to find the “back-up protocol”?  It seems that the ATT system was down at several facilities and only the laptop computers were able to access the web (they use Verizon) but the problem was finding who had the laptops for each department.  That went on for about 3 hours until about the time the written protocols were found (remember no computers to access it online) the system came back up.  That was insightful.  The lab was able to process the blood-work and “fax” the information to the infusion area, but the chemist/pharmacists aren’t able to mix the chemo without the computers, hmm!

As to the test results; at this time last year you may remember, our oncologist was saying “take her home and make her comfortable as I don’t think there is much I can do to help her”.  Pat had just come off the combo chemo that, although it had been shrinking the lung tumor, it had also almost taken her out.  She had lost over 50 lbs., had stopped eating and was suffering severe malnutrition, was barely able to walk and suffered from numerous other maladies.  Even with all that Pat said “That’s not going to happen” and made the decision that she wanted to try the next phase of chemo.  Well, she will have been on this second phase for a year as of July 12th and has regained a significant amount of weight, regained her appetite, is getting around without her cane most of the time and just is doing well, all things considered.  I’ve mentioned before that our nickname for our Dr. is Dr. Gloom  because he always seems to give worst case scenario news, but when he opened the door and walked in this time he was almost “giggling” so we knew there was going to be good news.  Here’s what the Dr. said.  Her tests show the MRI of her brain is clear, no problems what so ever.  The CT scan of her lungs show her condition as “stable” the tumor is not growing, but is not shrinking.  Her blood work shows improvement and though not “completely normal”, it is better than he expected. He suggested that if she was still willing, he would prescribe another three months of treatment,  repeat the MRI and CT scans and then reassess at that time.

They talked about whether she should take a break in treatment but he said he was afraid that if she did, the tumor would start growing again and then he wouldn’t be able to give her the same medication.  I asked if there were any new treatment options coming through the research pipeline and he said as far as research goes there wasn’t really anything for her condition because most of the funding was now being spent on prevention.

Then he said “In my 11 years of treating patients, there haven’t been any that have lasted this long on this treatment”.  He said you don’t fit in my bell curve, you are way on the outside edge.  Remember this is the same guy that a year ago was ready to concede defeat.  To God goes the victory!  Thank all of you for your continued prayers and we are continuing to pray for a complete healing.

Of course the first thing Pat asked me when we left the office was “Can you do this another 3 months?”  (Sometimes she makes me want to smack her!!!)  I just told her I can do this as long as it’s necessary, I’ve been doing it for 2 years now (yes, it has been two years) and I’m not going through all the things she’s been through, so if she can do it, why can’t I?

But those who wait on the Lord shall  renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.  (Isaiah 40:41)

So we soldier on as I marvel at the strength she demonstrates as she goes through this journey.  Again we ask and thank you for your prayers for us, our vehicle and the medical staff that treat her.  I’m sure there were other things I should mention here but the most important thing has been said.  God bless all of you.

Floyd

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Chair Dancing, A Stolen Title

This is my new blog address.  It seems Yahoo no longer needs or wants or blogging business now that they have changed to “Yahoo Pulse”.  Hope fully I will be posting soon the latest info.  I am writing and sending this as a test to get the kinks out before I start posting.  Thanks for reading!

Floyd