Friday, March 29, 2013

freak out


Bill sat at the cubicle in the Christiana Care Imaging Wednesday afternoon filling out paperwork for a CT scan he hadn’t planned on almost two year to the day from when his Lymphoma had been discovered.

He filled out the forms; initialed this, signed that and a radiology tech came by and gave him a banana barium smoothie.

“Drink this and come back at 3:15,” she said.

“Wait this is banana,” he said. “Where’s the Berry flavored?”

“You must be from the cancer center. We’re the redheaded stepchildren. All you get is banana here.”

Bill chugged the banana radioactive concoction like a frat slamming a beer at closing time.

“I’ve never seen anyone drink it that fast,” radiological tech said.

“This ain’t my first rodeo.”

“Okay. See you a 3:15.”

He turned back to forms and a sort of terrifying déjà vu took hold.

“Fuck, this is exactly how it all started last time,” he thought.

For the past three days Bill had experienced blood in his stools and it freaked him out.

“It wasn’t the kind of bright red blood from an external hemorrhoid,” he told his doc at the 1245 appointment. “It was more of a purplish burgundy color.” That got her attention and she scheduled a CT scan “Stat.”

So there he was back at the scene of the crime.

“See you at 3:15,” the tech said.

Bill wandered off, drove home, and all the time thinking, “Not again, oh Jesus Please not again.”

He went home, walked his pack of petulant pups, and went back to the hospital.

Unlike so many scans he had throughout his cancer trek, this one was easy and fast – less than ten minutes.

“The doctor will call you in a little while,” the tech said.

Bill sat his kitchen table with his MacBook open trying to write something about it all, but he just couldn’t. It was also eerily similar t all the appointments he had blogged about over the past year.

Bring, bring, bring

“Normal,” the doc said.

“Thank God!”

“Keep an eye on this blood thing, if it comes back go see you colon doc, but there was nothing on your scan except you only have half a colon, but we knew that. 

Monday, March 25, 2013

Book done

Well’ its finally done. Our book is complete and on Smashwords. It is currently under review for inclusion in the premium catalogue. When that happens it’ll be available through the big retailers such as Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, etc. Here’s the link https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/298660. Now I have to start a new projet. Actually I have to finish the play I started.


Monday, March 18, 2013

stomach pain

hey guys:

Just hanging out. REcovery plodding along. I admit it doesn’t have the sexiness of being in the middle of the cancer fight, but what are you gonna do?

I keep waiting for the weather to break so I can start my spring time work out rituals but it just isn’t cooperating. 

My omnipresent runny nose is driving me to distraction. As is the post nasal drip that causes me to constantly clear my throat. It pisses me off. The constant clearing of my throat to deal with the drip has the affect of making my stomach muscles ache (I suspect a small hernia, but the doc won’t do anything ‘till it gets more pronounced.)  This is all still a left over from the bowel resection, but fudgesicles man. It can be quite uncomfortable from time-to-time.

Oh well.

BTW a huge shout out to my friend Lyn, who just edited my book -- rewrote is more like it. Yikes. Anyway thanks. 

See ya,

Bill






Friday, March 15, 2013

not much


Good morning:

Well recover stuff huh?

Ever since I’ve been off the Nexium I feel as though I have a heartburn episode brewing, but it never comes to fruition. It’s probably my advanced hypochondria.

I have this inkling in the back of my mind that … Never mind I don’t want to talk about it.

Had a weird experience yesterday.  I went to a meeting yesterday prepared to be the lead on something and the big boss suggested that someone else do it. At first I was miffed, then I thought about it and figured that’s okay because I’m dong too much as it is. No really it doesn’t hurt my feelings. It would have once, but maybe I’m getting mellower in my old age. Who knows?

Not much else to chat about.

Big golf day tomorrow – if we don’t get snowed out.

At the end of this month I begin my springtime weightlifting regimen in the garage. I am very excited. You know in you side where you get stitches if you run too fast without being in shape? I think I pulled something running stairs yesterday.

Oh well.
Bill

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Back form DC


Friends:

Well I’ve been missing in action for a few days. Here’s the thing – I was traveling and didn’t want to post it on the web because bad people troll for that kind of info and use it to do bad things.

This was my first real business trip since I returned to work a scant 11 months ago. It was exhausting. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m still recovering or that I am 55, but jeepers creepers I was bone weary when I came home.

Part of it may be that I insist on take public transportation everywhere (not cabs) and hauling my luggage all over town because I had to change hotels mid-way through my trip. At one point I had to go from the Hilton to the other side of DC to the Melrose Hotel. Anyway, I had to walk 15 minutes to the DuPont Circle Metro station lugging my suit bag and computer backpack. I navigate the Metro, the transfer and end up at the Foggy Bottom station. Along the way I’ve lost the address, but I remember the Melrose is New Hampshire St. So I walk another 15 minutes to New Hampshire St.  NO hotel!

So I ask a cop on bicycle where the Melrose is and he shouts 24th  street, motions over his shoulder and pedals away. I walk seemingly forever. With every step my frustration grows, hands scream, and attitude plummets. I eventually end up in front of the West End Library and stop for a rest on the its wall with a bunch of rough and tumble customers who look at me not as a target, but more as an oddity.  Like a French Legionnaire trying to find an outpost in Algiers, I wander into the Hyatt, quite ready to say “fuck it” and spend the night there and regroup, but being the good steward of public funds I am, I ask the concierge where the Melrose is. She gives me a map and sends me on my way.

Another 15 minutes later I finally make it to the Hotel make it to my room and flop on the bed. It is all quite humiliating.

That was – by the way – my second long walk that day. I had walked 4 miles through one of DC’s wooded trails earlier as a workout. Yikes!

That’s it more to follow,

See you,

Bill 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Wassup #1

I woke up late and didn't get a chance to post this morning. Yikes.

I shaved off my beard because I was too handsome. It's my curse. When I had it, people would whisper and point at me. I was apparently very distracting. Oh well. So to save the world from meaningless and inadvertent gawkign I shaved it off.

Funny thing people are still pointing. Maybe there is nothing I can do. Oh well.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

feeling pretty good


Guys:

Here is a little secret – I’m a book nerd. It’s true. One would think as manly a man as I am that I would read books about hunting, fishing, brewing and pretzel eating and although those are fine reads, especially the angling tomes. My tastes tend to more literary. And not only that I am such a nerd I keep a book journal of every book I read and review them.

It’s been a long time since I’ve given anything an A– or higher (that would be five out of five chemo bags).  The only things that come t mind as being five-chemo bags worthy have been The Wars of the Roses by Allison Weir and the greatest book ever written (no not the Bible that’s The greatest Story Ever told according to Cecil B Demille). I got all distracted. Where was I? Oh yeah the great book ever. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

Geez that took a long time.

Anyway I just read an A- book or as close to five chemo-bags a writer can get without actually getting all five. Let’s call it 4. 78065 chemo-bags. It’s called the “Watchers” by Jon Steele. I put a brief review from Goodreads.com below. Actually this website gets a few chemo-bags too. It’s pretty great.

What else. Feeling pretty good about work today, I locked myself away yesterday and did some stuff. My boss and I had a heart-to-heart that I won’t share with you. Anyway, I still have a bit of stuff to do.

I get to go to DC on the government’s dime soon. I don’t actually want to go and be away form home, but they do pay me and sometimes work can be inconvenient. I am going to two conferences.

That’s it for today. See ya!

Meet Marc Rochat, a man-child who has devoted his life to being the bell ringer at the Gothic Lausanne Cathedral, one of the greatest architectural structures in the world. Eerie things have been going on in and around his church, including tremblings in the underground crypt and a variety of gruesomely murdered bodies showing up in nearby streets. Across the square from the cathedral lives Katherine Taylor, a beautiful young American woman who is making phenomenal money as one of the highest-priced call girls in Switzerland; she's a bit too introspective for her own good and, unfortunately, much too observant of her clients' peccadilloes. Rochat's and Taylor's lives collide with Jay Harper, a British private eye who has been sent to investigate the killings and other strange doings; alas, he has no memory of who hired him or precisely why he was chosen for the job. And now all the clues are pointing skyward, where fallen angels are said to haunt Lausanne.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Nexium update

Hey guys:
Apparently quitting Nexium cold Turkey is okay. I told the pharmacist about it and she said it was no big deal. Kind of run down the past few days. I don’t recover  as fast as I used to. Age? Whatever?

Works been unusually tough lately. I know I worked my tail off, but i have nothing to show for it. We had this meeting for our tiny staff and my boss went over all the things I owed her and I don’t have any good answers why I’ve not delivered the stuff. God it’s driving me crazy.

I just don’t know what to say.

I’m going to do an audit of my activities and see what’s what. I wonder if I just don’t giver a shit. Hmmmm? That’s not like me. Maybe I need a vacation. I need some kind of change that’s for sure.

I have to go get my taxes done today. God it’s gonna be terrible.

Pretty negative post I grant you, but shit, it be that way sometimes.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Nexium cold turkey

Good Morning All:

Not much to report today. I am a bit snowed under at work. In fact I had to postpone a meeting because I didn’t accomplish everything I need to pull it all together. I guess that’s progress of sorts. There was a time when I would have  pulled an all-nighter to get ready. It was just too much. In recent months I don’t do that.

I have to run by the pharmacy today. My doc told me to quit taking Nexium, but I read some stuff on the Internet that said you can reflux rebound if you go cold turkey. So I need to check with the pharmacist and see what she says.

Tric-Care, my insurer, wants us all to switch to mail-order pharmacy stuff. I need to call them and see if there is a pharmacist on hand to answer questions. Hmmmm. I don’t want to do it anyway.

That’s it