05-31-2011

  Finally back up after a total loss Saturday, slept on and off all day, Sunday wasn't much better. Still coughing and weak and it feels like I've strained my stomach muscles coughing, certainly swelled the throat up. Denise wasn't much better and today she is off to work still congested. Megan turned the corner, though still not completely well yet. Rest and sleep seemed to help all three of us.

  I played with Matt's website and started a new book Sunday, got on the web and watched some new films at Chris White's website. So I stayed up after a Rip Van Winkle Saturday. Ms Hen was pissed and waiting on me when I went outside since she wasn't fed Saturday. :) She followed me all the way back to the chicken coop telling me about it. lol.  I ordered me a fancy case for the computer that Matt just built for me, this is the 3rd and final one. He didn't seem to mind that he just put it one together and now I've changed my mind on cases. The thing is a hoss, just under the one I have here. 

   I'll take the trash off today, ours, mom's, and the office and then piddle, but I'll be inside doing it. If it stays cool long enough maybe clean up some of the damage from the last storm. I'm still debating on replanting the garden but I'll definitely replant Josh's tomato plant (without him knowing it). I had a few seedlings that were beaten down and one seems to have stood back up, I'll take that as a sign. Megan's plants seem to have made it through, thank God for that. Mark said his were beaten into the ground as well. Some of those that I planted are completely gone while others that were cut off or holes beaten in them are trying to recover. Seems it ain't completely over yet.  

  So I'm off to get started, not sure how much I'll get done, but I'm gonna try again.

05-28-2011

  Still here and still have this cough. I think if I done a thousand push-ups each day my stomach muscles wouldn't hurt any worse than they do now, Megan is the same. Megan has had this junk for almost two weeks. Denise is still down with it too, not sure how long she has had it. Denise and I both have a balance problem as well, probably the sinuses. There must be some kind of mutation because she and I had diarrhea for a day or two as well, who knows, maybe we just coughed the crap out of ourselves (grin).

  Later  on yesterday I went on the roof of the house, despite the balance, I wanted to see what if any more damage was done from this last storm. The last one broke the seals and looked like it sandblaster the gravel off the singles, this one took singles with it. It cracked some of the rafters in the sunroom. Busted the seals in two window and a skylight. Broke some of the lights outside. I didn't go on the garages but looked inside, they are leaking again. The established garden is shredded. Some can be replanted, some it's too late to plant again. It's a little disgusting but then again it's all replaceable and it could have been worse. We were/are fortunate when looking at what both storms have done else where, some people lost life and some lost everything. It serves as a reminder that all we have here is moth and rust. I will not let my disgust show since Megan and Josh had worked to plant some stuff, rather instead replant what we can, which should show them that when you get knocked down you get back up again.

  This weekend will be a wash. No wall being worked on or anything else, just rest. Denise is usually up at the crack of dawn and it's almost 11 and she is still sleeping, so I'm being quiet, she needs to rest. Yesterday Megan slept late and it seemed to help her. Megan has her appetite back now.

  Matt is frustrated, he wants to stay busy and he does but has hit a slow period. With the storms I imagine that people are busy cleaning up, but they trickle in. He is getting drive bye and world of mouth business and so he is building. I made him a quick little website and Misty is looking at how to work it, she has forgotten how over the years and I'm behind on what is used today, I really need to brush up myself a bit. I'm a bit outdated on web building, but at least he has something up. LINK.  That'll do for now.

05-27-2011

  Well Denise, Megan, and I all are sick. Megan and me both sound like we have pneumonia. Denise and me both have diarrhea. I'm down. Megan is down. Denise is running on fumes. I think yesterday's storm didn't help me and Megan any, we both walked around when it was over looking at the damage. What last month's storm didn't destroy this one got.  So today I'll have to call the insurance company again and tell them we need to add to the damage, not that there is a lot the first one didn't do.

  The garden me and Megan worked so hard on two days ago is in pretty bad shape, but most of it was seeds so there is some hope. The established garden is another story, probably 70-80% destroyed. When we all get better we will replant what things will have time to make, but most of what was destroyed that time wasn't replaceable due to time. I'm sure that there will be things the insurance company won't replace or repair, so maybe the gardens just weren't meant to be, or at least not as much as we had anyway.

05-25-2011 Rathfoot Follow-up

Me and Denise headed down for a follow up visit with Rathfoot. He was please with the surgery outcome. He said that there is a machine where instead of putting me to sleep he could do the injections while I am awake. I'm excited, but the awake thing is a bit weird. Still, it would beat surgery each time. I can do that, so far I've done and had done worse things and things I would have swore I couldn't. He says that I will need more and in a month go back again. We left out the part about weeding the garden the day after surgery. 

  Tonight I found out that I could actually taste Sherbert, so I had a cone. I still can't taste a lot... but I remember what some things tasted like, so I pretend. From my belly and weight gain it must be working, maybe too well, lol. I got our pig today. Now I can taste sausage. Terry Sellars had it ready today. Me and Megan brought home about 183 lbs, it dressed pretty good. Man I missed that sausage, we've been eating store bought, yuk.  I put some over the hamburger in the big freezer, have to move it, lol.

  I have an infection from the tube that they had in my throat... and I can't recall if it is called a respirator or what right now, senior moment I guess. :) Anyway, I got an infection last time too, so I kind of expected that. So I'm now taking an antibiotic. The best news was that the Prednisone dose was lowered to 10mg morning and 5 mg at night.


  Denise is sick too, so is Megan, Misty, and Matt, so I may have caught something there as well. Funny, when Rathfoot was through checking me he noticed that Denise was sick and checked her too. He gave her some medicine as well. That is something that you just don't see these days. This man is impressive. Come to find out he also goes on Mission trips to visit another country to an orphanage and doctors there for free. I've heard of doctors doing this but never really met one. He actually cares about people. I've been so blessed that all the doctors I go to does, as well as Kim, who has been a lifesaver throughout this.

  Charlie is up and running, but tomorrow he does it again, and in a couple of days Hell will follow. He lost his hair, but he is still smiling and even more, fighting back. He says he feels like it is decreasing in size and that it's working. I pray it is. If it is this will be his last dose and then surgery, and I pray that radiation doesn't follow. That is when it gets tough.   

05-22-2011

  Still have a big gash on my gum which makes it extremely painful to wear the partial. Slept late this morning and wasn't going to wear it but Missy & Richard asked if we wanted to ride. I wasn't sure just how well I could do but I think we both needed the stress relief, especially Denise. We met over at their house and Dale & Anna were riding too, so off we went. We rode until the storm got close and headed back. Went to English Mountain and rode through Jefferson, Cocke, and Sevier counties. Man it was fun. Just out of the way curvy highways and scenery. Ever so often Richard would stop at an intersection and ask which way. I would say whichever way you all are going, lol. We stayed lost, but happily so.

  Still hacking up that pretty colored stuff and tired, but this gave me energy more than it took away. It was a good day. Tomorrow I think we have another contractor come and give an estimate on the storm damage repair. Hopefully this will be fixed soon, but as long as the ones who got hit the hardest get first, we're alright.

05-21-2011

Congratulations MEGAN!!  Megan graduated today, and that is the last of the kids. We went to watch her graduate. It was a beautiful ceremony. I really didn't expect to see her walk that stage. We got pictures of the 3 girls afterward. Mrs Stokes, Megan's Interpreter from years past came from NC to see her walk the stage. She probably had the single most/best impact on Megan than anybody she ever was with. Megan made leaps and jumps in school and toward both sign language, learning her hearing aids and most importantly, confidence.  Megan at first wanted to eat at Outback, but she changed her mind when Misty said they were going to meet her mom and her boyfriend to hike. So Megan changed her mind and said she wanted to go with them. They had a ball.

  Me and Denise played outside and got some things done, plus framed Megan's awards. Worked outside, though Denise probably got done more than I did. I had to take several breaks from the swelling and infection in my throat. Still, we got a lot of things done. Tonight I'm paying for it, but it's a good debt though. We watched the newest episode of Camelot, actually two of them, we got behind.

  I think that Megan was more tired than we are, lol. She didn't get home until late and when she did she looked tired, but man was she ever happy. It was her day today, and all was great. She said that Cathy & Mark had invited her back to hike with them when they all go. Something about a cave with different colored sand. She was also talking about Mark's camera, and how nice he is. You made your sister's day today Misty, thank you, and thank your mom and Mark too.

  Charlie is out and about again, minus his hair now. He overshot it and had to take a long break I hear. Just 1 more and he may be done though and ready for surgery.

Surgery Day

  It went well today. Rathfoot done some stuff, I know he injected Kenalog (spelling ?), not sure what else. I'm home though, actually got home early, around 3pm. We discussed the tube things, which I definitely do not want this time of year. It's garden season, bike season, and I really need to do some bush-hogging at the farm. He thinks he can control the damage other than using a trach and feeding tube... thank God. I will need more of these surgeries and he said they were looking into a machine where they could do it at the office. Other than that I didn't hear much, but he talked to Denise.

   That was some kind of staff they have at St Mary's, I think it's called Mercy Center. If it is, that is a fitting name. Then again, that is why I chose them as to where to have it done. I didn't see a bad one in the bunch, rather, excellent all the way, everybody. I may not have caught the Flu there from the blood work report back. My White Cells they said were down a little but they were back up I think today to either 11.5 or 12. Pretty darn good I think considering that just a little over a year I lost them, or something called Nutrofills.  (Probably spelling on that too).

  I'm down for a little while though, restrictions, but they're just for a few days. No lifting or driving (do the driving tomorrow :), no yard work or garden. But I took it just for the rest of the week. Denise said I'd have to wear a mask when I mow. I can do that, but no mowing until next week. I bought a hog and will have to get Megan to load and unload it. She was tickled until I told her we'd be putting it in boxes. I got Terry Sellers to kill and dress it out. We ran out of sausage a while back and had to buy some at the store. YUK! Terry knows how to make the stuff and cut the roasts to perfection. Plus he is honest and nice, a good man.

  So.... what to do  with my down time? Well, this for one, but I think I've found something else to play with. I got permission tonight. I've got a new program that I have needed for a while to learn, a few days to learn it with. Baring Megan's Graduation rehearsal and Honor's night, seems I have some time and it beats just goofing off doing nothing. So I asked Matt and he said it was ok, that I buy him a Domain Name (his choice) and I'll cut him some space on my server and build him a website for his repair business. I'm out of practice and behind times on these new things, so it'll help me learn and hopefully it will help him too.

  On the good side too was that the Flu I had, I lost 11 pounds. Downside is I need a little more than that gone. I still have to do the Predisone for a while longer, but not as high of a dose. I'm hopeful that I can get away from that stuff eventually.  Tonight I'm choking a little, but not too bad, I think that is to be expected. No temperature or bleeding so far as I've noticed. Sore as a boil. I think I know which parts and where they worked. :) Expected that too though. I was pretty sick when they done this before and I don't remember all of it afterward, but this much I do.

  So now we fight the side effects of the cure as this cancer seems to be gone, as best we can tell. That only leaves the other cancer and the heart. I'm use to those though. Not to mention insomnia tonight, lol. I think I may have slept too much while I was in recovery, lol. Something about either the anesthesia or whatever else is given that afterward for a few days I shake and stay nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs. When I was in the middle of the battle Panella gave me some kind of nerve pill, I also used it in the cocktail that enabled me to be bolted in a mask each day to a table during radiation treatments. As we reach the end I asked Panella for more, he refused and when I asked how to control it he said. "Dig a hole". I found out from either him or Denise these things were habit forming, so I started digging holes, lol. I gotta say, beats a pill any day. Throughout this whole ordeal they have all kept their promise to not have me hooked and it I got hooked on anything they would get me unhooked...and they have kept their word.

  I think though I may talk to one of them or maybe Schindler about the pills they gave me to help with the arthritis, it was an anti-inflammatory one. If it's not addictive it sure made things a lot better.  The shoulder seemed a little better and the 2 discs in my neck that I still don't want to be worked on worked better. The knees from jumping in and out of the truck for all those years felt better, as did the elbow I never got fixed properly. Not any less was it soothed the small amount of Arther left behind from the Lymes Disease years ago. But it it is like Celebrex or addictive, I can live with it and Tylenol. Funny, I got a check from a settlement because I was taking Celebrex when I had my heart attack for 53 bucks and some change I think. I didn't cash it though. I'm not sure if it was made aware that it carried some risk back then, but I think I was. So since I'm not sure, I didn't want their money. Plus I think the event cost a bit more than that, lol. So since I don't know if I knew the risk or not, I'm not due it, I took my chances. I can't say that it was worth it but it did keep me moving when I couldn't move. The stop moving part kinda sucked, but that's life and I'm still moving, just not like I once did.

  Charlie is weak but he is moving again. He came for Denise's birthday. He looks good too and seems in better spirits. He has lost some weight but like me needed too. Unfortunately this coming Wednesday Hell comes again for him, but at least he knows what is coming and that readies a man for battle. He sounds pretty good too. I told him we're in a competition for sounding like either the Godfather or Sling Blade. We practice our, I like them Mustard Biscuits, unhu, lol. I worried about him for a while. He lost his will to fight, but I think now he is going to be ok. He has his sense of humor back and emotionally and spiritually back on track. I think he knows that while it is all up to God in the end, it is dependent upon  good medical people, mental, spiritual, humor, family, and emotional... all parts being equal in importance. The physical part gets it's butt kicked. Keep these in line though, and then let God make His decision, which He will anyway. But we have to do our part. And that is coming from a noncomplying patient, well... sorta, lol.