US knocked out of the World Cup!! I was hoping the US would give a better showing, but maybe next time. The only conciliation I have is England joins us on the sidelines watching Germany make a run for it. For all my Euro-friends out there, I’ll be half-heartedly cheering on your teams, but I’m not getting up early to watch any of the games.
Nothing really to report. I can’t convey any improvement over last week. I exchanged emails with another Mike Miller this week that had the same cancer as I have 13 years ago and while I expressed my frustration over my slow recovery he said it’s going to be even worse than I expect. He said it took him years before he felt he was back at 100% and that the first couple of years are agonizingly slow. While I’m not happy about it, it beats the alternative. I guess I’ll have to be encouraged by every improvement, no matter how small.
Terry and I went out to dinner Friday night at one of our local fish restaurants, I ordered my usual fried fish and shrimp (small platter Vs my usual large) and as I told her as we got in the car to drive home, “well it filled the hole in my stomach, but it didn’t taste very good.” I could taste the actual fish and the coleslaw, but that great greasy fried flavor eluded me. Same thing happened at Saturday dinner, Terry bought some expensive steaks and I grilled them to perfection (I was told), but it was wasted on me; I couldn’t taste the meat at all. I might as well have been eating cardboard.
We have a new foster rescue in the house. Quincy was found wandering the streets of Dallas, TX. He made his way here to San Antonio through a group of dedicated rescuers. He’s a Bouvier De Flanders want-to-be. He is under weight, scraggly and in serious need of grooming, but he has a great personality and is getting alone with our two beasties famously. I’m sure his stay with us will be short.
So, I’ve managed to stretch this post about nothing into 5 paragraphs, not bad. I hope it wasn’t a waste of your time. I’ll try harder at improving over the next week.
Cheers,
Miller, out
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
It was a good week, it was a bad week.
Not much to say this week, very little progress. While I don’t seem to have a sore throat, it seems to dry out very quickly and I have to drink a lot to keep it lubed. The two spots on my tongue that made it hard to eat seem to have improved this week, I hope that continues. I ate almost anything I wanted this week and some things I shouldn’t have (dough nuts). I can still only eat so much before my throat gets sore, thus limiting how much I eat. That’s probably a good thing. I do have some issues at night. The lack of working salivary glands makes my mouth and throat dry out quickly and I wake up with my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth and my lips to my teeth. In the lower part of my throat it seems like it’s coated with thick saliva, so when I wake up and take a drink to lubricate everything it still seems like there is stuff still stuck in my lower throat. So, I swallow a lot for 10-15 minutes trying to clear the crap out of my throat. It makes getting back to sleep a bit of a chore. It’s the same when I wake up in the morning, that feeling of gunk in my throat until after I eat something. I guess that clears all the gunk out.
It was a good week for renewing old friendships. I hosted a meeting on Monday and Tuesday through Friday another organization hosted a meeting I attended here in San Antonio. It was an international meeting so I met up with a few folks that I haven’t seem since last year prior to my diagnosis and a few folks here in town that hadn’t gotten the word of my illness. It was encouraging to meet up with them. They got to see how well I’m improving and wished me well. It gave me a lift.
I was brought back to reality when I inquired about another colleague that had been diagnosed with throat cancer about a year prior to me; he unfortunately is doing very poorly and isn’t expected to last much longer. His cancer, a much different cancer than mine, has spread and there isn’t much more the doctors can do for him. I understand he put up a valiant fight and was positive all the way through all of his treatments and surgeries. He was obviously a very strong willed person. It’s amazing what strength people have inside them. I know there were days when I was really beaten down, but I knew in a short time things would get better, so I made it through that day and on to the next. Sam kept finding out things weren’t going well, his cancer had spread and he was going to have to have another treatment, he’d been radiated to the max, so they would have to use more chemo. Everyone knows cancer treatments are hard on a body and when you have to endure more and more different treatments it will just beat you down so the only thing keeping you going is your will. That’s when your metal will show through. I never came anywhere close to that, Sam’s my hero.
But, like Frank Sinatra sang, “that’s life . . . flying high in April, shot down in May.” My week started out great, and then I heard about Sam. Life has a way of slapping you up side the head and injecting reality at the least expected moments. Again I look at the calendar to see what has transpired since January and there are still 6 months left in this year . . . it has got to get better! Don’t read anything into that. I am convinced things will return to normal, and things will get better. A number a years from now 2010 will be a distant memory.
So, here’s to next week. I sense improvement is at hand.
Cheers,
Miller, out
It was a good week for renewing old friendships. I hosted a meeting on Monday and Tuesday through Friday another organization hosted a meeting I attended here in San Antonio. It was an international meeting so I met up with a few folks that I haven’t seem since last year prior to my diagnosis and a few folks here in town that hadn’t gotten the word of my illness. It was encouraging to meet up with them. They got to see how well I’m improving and wished me well. It gave me a lift.
I was brought back to reality when I inquired about another colleague that had been diagnosed with throat cancer about a year prior to me; he unfortunately is doing very poorly and isn’t expected to last much longer. His cancer, a much different cancer than mine, has spread and there isn’t much more the doctors can do for him. I understand he put up a valiant fight and was positive all the way through all of his treatments and surgeries. He was obviously a very strong willed person. It’s amazing what strength people have inside them. I know there were days when I was really beaten down, but I knew in a short time things would get better, so I made it through that day and on to the next. Sam kept finding out things weren’t going well, his cancer had spread and he was going to have to have another treatment, he’d been radiated to the max, so they would have to use more chemo. Everyone knows cancer treatments are hard on a body and when you have to endure more and more different treatments it will just beat you down so the only thing keeping you going is your will. That’s when your metal will show through. I never came anywhere close to that, Sam’s my hero.
But, like Frank Sinatra sang, “that’s life . . . flying high in April, shot down in May.” My week started out great, and then I heard about Sam. Life has a way of slapping you up side the head and injecting reality at the least expected moments. Again I look at the calendar to see what has transpired since January and there are still 6 months left in this year . . . it has got to get better! Don’t read anything into that. I am convinced things will return to normal, and things will get better. A number a years from now 2010 will be a distant memory.
So, here’s to next week. I sense improvement is at hand.
Cheers,
Miller, out
Sunday, June 13, 2010
2010 half over, I hope the second half is better than the first
Terry and I returned from Green Bay on 8 June. On 26 May Terry was called back to Green Bay because her mother was back in the hospital with pneumonia symptoms and she wasn’t doing well. Terry and her niece Lissa got on the first plane and arrived around 10:00pm. They spent the night at the hospital monitoring her mother’s condition. On the 28th Lu decided she had had enough and was ready to pass. Arrangements were made for her to go home, but she didn’t make it through the night, she passed quietly on her own terms.
Because Lu had been improving and we weren’t sure how she was going to react to being readmitted to the hospital I didn’t travel to Green Bay on the 26th. I was watching the 4 dogs, our 2 and our niece’s 2. Luckily, when I got the call our good friend Dagi offered to watch the dogs and get me to the airport. So I arrived in Green Bay on the 29th.
It was a loooong holiday weekend and the funeral was scheduled for Tuesday. The funeral was exactly what Lu wanted, limited, respectful and attended by all her friends and family. The rest of the week was taken up with paper work, appointments and inventorying the house. Terry was appointed Lu’s executor and will have to deal with all of that stress and administrivia.
Terry’s niece Lissa and her cousin Karen and her husband Dave were amazing through all of Lu’s illness. They unselfishly spent uncounted hours both at the hospital and nursing home making sure she was comfortable and her needs were being met. The 6 of us made up our close knit support group.
Amazingly, as I passed through the 8th week post radiation, chemotherapy my condition seemed to improve daily. I’m now eating almost everything and my ability to taste is back about 75%. I still have trouble with bread and other dry foods and need a lot of water to get through a meal. It’s still not entirely comfortable to eat, my throat still gets sore about ¾ of the way through the meal and I normally stop eating prior to becoming full. And I still have some issues with my tongue as well, but it won’t be long before I’ll be eating normally. Most of the thick stringy saliva is gone, except first thing in the morning. I sleep a little better, at least in longer stints. I still wake up with a very dry mouth and throat 3 or 4 times a night and have to drink some water.
Obviously, I didn’t make my business trip to the UK. I felt it was better to stay in Green Bay with Terry and help her get through the week. As it is it probably wouldn’t have been a good idea to make the trip anyway. The long travel time probably would have been too much for me. I believe now that in a couple of weeks I’ll be well enough to resume my travel schedule.
On the bright side the FIFA World Cup started and the US managed a draw with the UK. In my mind that was as good as a win. And of course Germany decimated Australia. Sitting at home watching on the big screen with a glass of filtered water was ok, but it brought back memories of many a night at O’Reillly’s in Brussels with my euro-mates swilling Guinness and watching the premier leagues. Maybe later in the year.
The last 6 months have been fraught with stress and frustration; I’m hoping the remaining 6 months will be an improvement.
That’s it for this update; hopefully, I’ll have better news next time.
Miller, out
Because Lu had been improving and we weren’t sure how she was going to react to being readmitted to the hospital I didn’t travel to Green Bay on the 26th. I was watching the 4 dogs, our 2 and our niece’s 2. Luckily, when I got the call our good friend Dagi offered to watch the dogs and get me to the airport. So I arrived in Green Bay on the 29th.
It was a loooong holiday weekend and the funeral was scheduled for Tuesday. The funeral was exactly what Lu wanted, limited, respectful and attended by all her friends and family. The rest of the week was taken up with paper work, appointments and inventorying the house. Terry was appointed Lu’s executor and will have to deal with all of that stress and administrivia.
Terry’s niece Lissa and her cousin Karen and her husband Dave were amazing through all of Lu’s illness. They unselfishly spent uncounted hours both at the hospital and nursing home making sure she was comfortable and her needs were being met. The 6 of us made up our close knit support group.
Amazingly, as I passed through the 8th week post radiation, chemotherapy my condition seemed to improve daily. I’m now eating almost everything and my ability to taste is back about 75%. I still have trouble with bread and other dry foods and need a lot of water to get through a meal. It’s still not entirely comfortable to eat, my throat still gets sore about ¾ of the way through the meal and I normally stop eating prior to becoming full. And I still have some issues with my tongue as well, but it won’t be long before I’ll be eating normally. Most of the thick stringy saliva is gone, except first thing in the morning. I sleep a little better, at least in longer stints. I still wake up with a very dry mouth and throat 3 or 4 times a night and have to drink some water.
Obviously, I didn’t make my business trip to the UK. I felt it was better to stay in Green Bay with Terry and help her get through the week. As it is it probably wouldn’t have been a good idea to make the trip anyway. The long travel time probably would have been too much for me. I believe now that in a couple of weeks I’ll be well enough to resume my travel schedule.
On the bright side the FIFA World Cup started and the US managed a draw with the UK. In my mind that was as good as a win. And of course Germany decimated Australia. Sitting at home watching on the big screen with a glass of filtered water was ok, but it brought back memories of many a night at O’Reillly’s in Brussels with my euro-mates swilling Guinness and watching the premier leagues. Maybe later in the year.
The last 6 months have been fraught with stress and frustration; I’m hoping the remaining 6 months will be an improvement.
That’s it for this update; hopefully, I’ll have better news next time.
Miller, out
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