I tell you, this gettin' back to work full time is tough on an ol' guy like me.
I can remember the days when I could exist on 'bout 5-6 hrs sleep and have enough energy to get done what I needed to get done the next day...ceptin' maybe when I had one of my trophy hangovers. Sure glad I gave up the boozing.
As a matter of fact there are people who I haven't even met yet who are glad I quit drinking.
I'm still doing a lot of Dr. stuff, check-ups...lab work...etc., but not as much as I used to. And my energy level is coming bck but I fear maybe not to the level it once was drinking or not.
I'm re-conditioning myself to spending more time at the office.
There's still a lot of stuff that needs to be done at home and for the most part I'm getting it done.
It's a little strange not having anybody around to "help" me. After more'n 2 years of having either nurses or caregivers giving me a hand I really don't hav anybody close at hand. Still got some great friends who are there for me when I run up against something that an ol' guy needs help with.
Have an amazing friend who was born with the spiritual gift of fixing things as opposed to me who was born with the gift of messing things up. Be it my vehicle, and electric problem with something at the house, or repairing a shed door that blew off in a windstorm I can call him and somehow he does that which is impossible for me to do.
He was born with a hyper fix-it gland and I was simply born without a fix-it gland.
Went to lunch today with an old friend who wants me to find a buyer for his house...and I'm certainly gonna try.
I'm starting to feel comfortable with the whole Buyer Broker thing...just working with Buyers and passing on the listings to those who are more suited to that.
I've got an explanation of "Buyer Agent/Broker" on my website: www.livingindoors.com if'n your curious for any reason and want a "job description".
Anywho, going back to the first sentence of this paragraph I was gonna go into into a thing about my arms but then I sidetracked myself.
My arms.
In addition to, but somehow complimenting the chemo that I take, I take a couple of different steroids.
What they do, a.k.a. a side effect, is that I get these plum colored splotches on my arms which are rather curious. Some are less than the size of a dime but others are silver dollar sized or irregularly bigger.
Also my arms and the back of my hands have developed a condition known as parchment skin. The skin tears easily if I bump up against something or whatever and so I bleed alot if I don't wear these black protectors on my forearms and motorcycle gloves, a.k.a. Michael Jackson fingerless gloves for protection.
But on account of I had to go get blood work today I didn't wear the "protection" and while we were in Subway, I saw a little kid look at me and literally hide behind his mothers skirt. He didn't particularly like the way my arms looked...don't know what he thought but I'm sorry I scared him.
And my energy level...like I said it's gettin' better.
But I've started tis thing of being just exhausted and whenst I go to bed at 10:30 or whenever, as soon as I lie down I'm wide awake and have a horrible time getting into that REM sleep thing which makes it difficult for me to get up & get goin' in the morning.
And then about once a week I just crash and I will sleep soundly after I get to sleep and I'll wake up after about 10 hours of solid sleep and wonder what time it is anf get upset with myself because I wasted the better part of a morning sawing slumber logs.
Oh, well.
Could be way worse.
I'm a cancer survivor & I get to continue on even if I waste a morning or two.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Wellst, here it be towards the end of June, 2012...my how time flies when you're having fun! This whole cancer gig has really been an Adventure, although because I'm a kid of the '60s instead of calling it an Adventure, what floats around in my mind is, "What a trip"!
Adventure ~ Trip ~ Whatever, it really has been an experience.
I've had just a ton of thoughts run through my mind since March of 2010 when I was diagnosed and that "since" just goes on.
So to recap, sorta, I'm in remission...sorta.
It's what I learned is called "forced remission" by those in the know.
I still do chemo, which keeps me in remission, forceably so.
They can't really "cure" me because Multiple Myeloma is alternately referred to as Bone Marrow Cancer or a Blood Cancer and so to really "cure" me they would have to like kill off all my bone marrow and/or blood and/or something like that which wouldn't spell "gud" for me.
I take a chemo pill 14 days on and 14 days off, something called Aridia which is supposed to keep my bones sturdy*, something initialized as IVIG which I think is supposed to bolster my immune system and the Valcade which is an IV chemo that I get if'n my Myeloma markers spike. I get my blood checked weekly to check on that and some other stuff.
All this to "worry" 'bout my cancer when the general medical consensus is that it's gonna be pneumonia that takes me as my lungs are weakened because of the treatments I've had for the cancer.
So, I gotta watch out and not hang around people with runny noses and who cough a lot, dress warm whenst it be cold and currently wear a mask if the smoke from the High Park fire seems to be oppressing, especially white smoke which contains ash and other fire related particulants.
Not this past Sunday but the Sunday before when I went to church the air seemed fine and so it seemed when I got home. Yet a couple of hours later I stepped out the front door to go to the car to get something and just got "slammed" with the smoke!
I grabbed what I needed and went back into the house where I had the AC on, upon recommendations of my Docs who suggested that I have it on in the house and when I drive, plus in my house and at my office I have air filtration jobbies.
The next morning I cautiously opened the door and the air quality seemed ok so I went to the Jeep and openned the door and said to myself, "What the heck?"
Seems I'd left the sunroof open and there was so much ash in the Jeep that I thought I needed to go to the car wash and vaccuum it all out!
Tis really good to be back at work and in my office. After several aborted attempts which came to abrupt ends in which I wound up in the hospital I decided to pay attention to my Docs, some really good friends, by brother and sister and take it easy and not try to do "things" too fast.
I haven't and all feels right.
One thing about it feeling right, this back at work thing, is that my energy level seems to stay up and I don't have an afternoon physical/mental crash where I had to just go take a nap because i was exhausted.
You know, for years I've been tellin' my Boss Lady Fran that there's something special about the air and the atmosphere here to RE/MAX Advanced and I've once again proved it by exerience!
I'm back on the bloggin' trail!
*You know, that's soooooooo funny because legend has it that when I was like in Kindergarten or there abouts I quit drinking milk and no one could get it outa me why I had...'cept my Gramma who probably plied me with Oreos and got me to tell her the reason why. Seems my mom had told me that milk would give me "sturdy" bones but I had mis-heard her and thought she said "dirty" bones and I didn't wanna have "dirty bones"!
Adventure ~ Trip ~ Whatever, it really has been an experience.
I've had just a ton of thoughts run through my mind since March of 2010 when I was diagnosed and that "since" just goes on.
So to recap, sorta, I'm in remission...sorta.
It's what I learned is called "forced remission" by those in the know.
I still do chemo, which keeps me in remission, forceably so.
They can't really "cure" me because Multiple Myeloma is alternately referred to as Bone Marrow Cancer or a Blood Cancer and so to really "cure" me they would have to like kill off all my bone marrow and/or blood and/or something like that which wouldn't spell "gud" for me.
I take a chemo pill 14 days on and 14 days off, something called Aridia which is supposed to keep my bones sturdy*, something initialized as IVIG which I think is supposed to bolster my immune system and the Valcade which is an IV chemo that I get if'n my Myeloma markers spike. I get my blood checked weekly to check on that and some other stuff.
All this to "worry" 'bout my cancer when the general medical consensus is that it's gonna be pneumonia that takes me as my lungs are weakened because of the treatments I've had for the cancer.
So, I gotta watch out and not hang around people with runny noses and who cough a lot, dress warm whenst it be cold and currently wear a mask if the smoke from the High Park fire seems to be oppressing, especially white smoke which contains ash and other fire related particulants.
Not this past Sunday but the Sunday before when I went to church the air seemed fine and so it seemed when I got home. Yet a couple of hours later I stepped out the front door to go to the car to get something and just got "slammed" with the smoke!
I grabbed what I needed and went back into the house where I had the AC on, upon recommendations of my Docs who suggested that I have it on in the house and when I drive, plus in my house and at my office I have air filtration jobbies.
The next morning I cautiously opened the door and the air quality seemed ok so I went to the Jeep and openned the door and said to myself, "What the heck?"
Seems I'd left the sunroof open and there was so much ash in the Jeep that I thought I needed to go to the car wash and vaccuum it all out!
Tis really good to be back at work and in my office. After several aborted attempts which came to abrupt ends in which I wound up in the hospital I decided to pay attention to my Docs, some really good friends, by brother and sister and take it easy and not try to do "things" too fast.
I haven't and all feels right.
One thing about it feeling right, this back at work thing, is that my energy level seems to stay up and I don't have an afternoon physical/mental crash where I had to just go take a nap because i was exhausted.
You know, for years I've been tellin' my Boss Lady Fran that there's something special about the air and the atmosphere here to RE/MAX Advanced and I've once again proved it by exerience!
I'm back on the bloggin' trail!
*You know, that's soooooooo funny because legend has it that when I was like in Kindergarten or there abouts I quit drinking milk and no one could get it outa me why I had...'cept my Gramma who probably plied me with Oreos and got me to tell her the reason why. Seems my mom had told me that milk would give me "sturdy" bones but I had mis-heard her and thought she said "dirty" bones and I didn't wanna have "dirty bones"!
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