Wow! I'm a quarter of the way there! Even though each day seems somewhat long, overall the days have kinda flown by. Let's hope that I can continue to feel like this during the remaining days to come.
I'm still facing no issues at this time and I am looking forward to going out for a walk tomorrow as the weather is supposed to be fairly mild.
We had some friends over tonight for dinner. It was great to be able to see familiar faces and talk about all the things going on in our lives. Since I don't get out very much, I think that my end of the conversation lasted about 5 minutes.
No other major events happened though I did spent quite a bit of my time with my grandson assisting him with getting some more songs onto his iPod. The system is not designed to easily let you go from computer to computer, buying new songs, and then downloading them to the iPod. It wants to delete everything that is currently on the iPod and replace the contents with your new songs. This was not acceptable to my grandson or me! So after about an hour, I found a way to do an end run around the system and he successfully got the new songs added. How is someone with no computer skills expected to accomplish this? My grandson certainly could not have achieved this by himself. So much for being user friendly. I am sure that there is some money making reason for Apple to structure the updating process the way that they do.
That's my tale for the day...
Bob
March 13, 2009 10:20 PM 76 days to go
Another lucky Friday the 13th! Two months in a row, I wonder how often that occurs?
About the only thing that happened today is that another day went by and I am that much closer to the end of the 100 days.
As I said before, other than Wednesdays, not much is going to happen - at least from a medical update point of view. On the other days, at the most, I'll have some company to help while away the hours. As I said at the outset, I am not going to get into what I had for breakfast, what I watched on TV, etc., as a way of providing filler.
So there really is not much to tell you.
Today's entry is going to be exceedingly short...
Bob
About the only thing that happened today is that another day went by and I am that much closer to the end of the 100 days.
As I said before, other than Wednesdays, not much is going to happen - at least from a medical update point of view. On the other days, at the most, I'll have some company to help while away the hours. As I said at the outset, I am not going to get into what I had for breakfast, what I watched on TV, etc., as a way of providing filler.
So there really is not much to tell you.
Today's entry is going to be exceedingly short...
Bob
March 12, 2009 11:00 77 days to go
For the first time in a long time there really is not a lot to write about.
As usual, I feel fine. This, of course, continues to beg the question as to whether or not I am actually ill. The doctors seem to firmly believe it and I know that they are not treating me because they need the money. Dana-Farber is full of patients and, in fact, is probably handling more than it is staffed to support given how the place seems to function.
I must say, however, that being confined to quarters does get to you. You can only watch so much of Law and Order and I'm not into soaps or Oprah or Dr. Phil. Unlike the infamous Bernie Madoff who finally left his $7 million apartment, I do not have to look forward to jail once I leave here. I can hardly wait until the weather actually breaks so that I can get outside on a regular basis.
Our wide format printer finally broke yesterday so I spent most of today researching and, finally, purchasing another one. I have to admit that spending money can be some fun. Thank God for the internet - you can go broke without leaving the comfort of your own home! Speaking of going broke, maybe I should now get into internet gambling to add some spice to my life.
Well, as I said at the outset, not much happening...
Bob
As usual, I feel fine. This, of course, continues to beg the question as to whether or not I am actually ill. The doctors seem to firmly believe it and I know that they are not treating me because they need the money. Dana-Farber is full of patients and, in fact, is probably handling more than it is staffed to support given how the place seems to function.
I must say, however, that being confined to quarters does get to you. You can only watch so much of Law and Order and I'm not into soaps or Oprah or Dr. Phil. Unlike the infamous Bernie Madoff who finally left his $7 million apartment, I do not have to look forward to jail once I leave here. I can hardly wait until the weather actually breaks so that I can get outside on a regular basis.
Our wide format printer finally broke yesterday so I spent most of today researching and, finally, purchasing another one. I have to admit that spending money can be some fun. Thank God for the internet - you can go broke without leaving the comfort of your own home! Speaking of going broke, maybe I should now get into internet gambling to add some spice to my life.
Well, as I said at the outset, not much happening...
Bob
March 10, 2009 10:40 PM 78 days to go
As we all know, Wednesday is meat day and the news is this...
According to my doctor, my counts are "great". Boy, that's music to my ears and makes the rest of the frustrating trip worth it. Believe me when I say that the whole process of registering to get your blood drawn and to let the doctor know that you are there is fraught with total mismanagement. They supposedly rescheduled my blood draw to occur before I see the doctor because that is the most integral part of the visit. However, they neglected to to do so and I was scheduled to see the doctor doctor at 7:30 and get my blood drawn at 8:15! Well, the ineptness of the system worked in my favor this time because I got lost in the shuffle to see the doctor and we didn't connect until almost 9:00. With everything going so well, the visit concluded after the doctor's visit and we were able to go home.
There was, however, one other element to the visit. We asked the doctor about the test to determine whether or not the donor transplant was actually doing its job. He did say that the test would be done next week but, unfortunately, the results will not be known for another 2 weeks after that! However, he did intimate that it was unlikely that it did not take hold as they had done everything that they could to make my own bone marrow inoperative.
And then he left me with this zinger(both literally and figuratively). He wants to do another bone marrow biopsy next Wednesday! This will be biopsy V, to use Superbowl terminology, and will certainly not be anything that I am looking forward to. They are literally an unpleasant pain in the butt. Hopefully, this will be the end of those!
So, as you can see, things are going well at this point and next week will serve to give us a deeper look into my status. I guess that I really can't argue with that - especially if the results come out in my favor as I expect them to. It will certainly be an apropos time for prayers to kind of buttress up my optimism.
I think that I've relayed everything that went on today, so I'm going to call it quits for today...
Bob
According to my doctor, my counts are "great". Boy, that's music to my ears and makes the rest of the frustrating trip worth it. Believe me when I say that the whole process of registering to get your blood drawn and to let the doctor know that you are there is fraught with total mismanagement. They supposedly rescheduled my blood draw to occur before I see the doctor because that is the most integral part of the visit. However, they neglected to to do so and I was scheduled to see the doctor doctor at 7:30 and get my blood drawn at 8:15! Well, the ineptness of the system worked in my favor this time because I got lost in the shuffle to see the doctor and we didn't connect until almost 9:00. With everything going so well, the visit concluded after the doctor's visit and we were able to go home.
There was, however, one other element to the visit. We asked the doctor about the test to determine whether or not the donor transplant was actually doing its job. He did say that the test would be done next week but, unfortunately, the results will not be known for another 2 weeks after that! However, he did intimate that it was unlikely that it did not take hold as they had done everything that they could to make my own bone marrow inoperative.
And then he left me with this zinger(both literally and figuratively). He wants to do another bone marrow biopsy next Wednesday! This will be biopsy V, to use Superbowl terminology, and will certainly not be anything that I am looking forward to. They are literally an unpleasant pain in the butt. Hopefully, this will be the end of those!
So, as you can see, things are going well at this point and next week will serve to give us a deeper look into my status. I guess that I really can't argue with that - especially if the results come out in my favor as I expect them to. It will certainly be an apropos time for prayers to kind of buttress up my optimism.
I think that I've relayed everything that went on today, so I'm going to call it quits for today...
Bob
March 10, 2009 11:55 PM 79 days to go
Not much to talk about today. I'll be rising at 5 AM to get to the clinic tomorrow for my 7 AM appointment. I know it's early(and believe me when I say that I am NO early bird), but it beats the traffic on both legs of the journey and the clinic is empty at that time. Most people arrive around 10 and then the place becomes a madhouse. So I am looking at early in and early out - not expecting to need infusions of any kind.
A number of you have commented along the way about my writing. How inspirational it is, how compelling it is, how inclusive it is, etc. I thank you all for the compliments and I am glad that you feel that you get something out of reading it because I know that I get a lot from writing it. However, sometimes I feel like the performer or athlete who has imagined the bar to be set somewhat high and feels that each and every time (s)he performs, it is expected that the bar must ascend even higher.
I am going to try to ignore that self imposed pressure and try to continue to write the way that I had outlined to you at the very beginning - keeping the tone very conversational and the subject matter simply based upon whatever happens to strike my fancy at the time. I know that sometimes when I sit down here, I have no idea what I am going to say but somehow the words come together and another entry is in the books.
So thank you again for those compliments and I will do my best to live up to them. And, of course, I thank you all for your continued interest and support as we go alog this journey together.
5 AM comes rather early, so I'm signing off...
Bob
A number of you have commented along the way about my writing. How inspirational it is, how compelling it is, how inclusive it is, etc. I thank you all for the compliments and I am glad that you feel that you get something out of reading it because I know that I get a lot from writing it. However, sometimes I feel like the performer or athlete who has imagined the bar to be set somewhat high and feels that each and every time (s)he performs, it is expected that the bar must ascend even higher.
I am going to try to ignore that self imposed pressure and try to continue to write the way that I had outlined to you at the very beginning - keeping the tone very conversational and the subject matter simply based upon whatever happens to strike my fancy at the time. I know that sometimes when I sit down here, I have no idea what I am going to say but somehow the words come together and another entry is in the books.
So thank you again for those compliments and I will do my best to live up to them. And, of course, I thank you all for your continued interest and support as we go alog this journey together.
5 AM comes rather early, so I'm signing off...
Bob
March 9, 2009 10:00 PM 80 days to go
The original weather forecast was for 1-3 inches of snow of which we got 6! What a wake up call after the past two Springlike days. I guess that Winter won't go away without a fight.
Thank God that we didn't have to go to Boston today - there were accidents galore from what I understand. However, we do have to go on Wednesday and they are predicting snow, sleet, and freezing rain in the early morning. With our having to leave at 5:30, the going could get a little dicey. We'll just have to take it easy.
As you might expect(at least I hope that you expect it), I am feeling fine. So fine, that my wife left me tonight to go out to dinner with some friends. What happened to my conscientious caregiver! What if something calamatous happened while she was gone? So much for our marriage vows! Fortunately, she is now back home and I managed to survive.
But she did comment earlier today that from everything that she has read, it should be her responsibility to keep track of my medications as usually those in recovery are just not up to it. However, I have done it from day 1. It's the least that I can do when she has most certainly extended herself to make sure that my every need is satisfied.
Obviously, as I said the other day, this is just another potato day - no real information to pass along. But that is exactly the way we want it. Tomorrow my wife ventures out once again, leaving me to my own devices. This is starting to become a trend!
It is nice, however, to see the day count go down and the days do seem to pass by somewhat quickly even though sometimes it feels like I am chained to this place. Let's put it all in perspective. I have no right to complain when things are going so well for me and when I look at my coworker friend who didn't make it.
Gotta go, it's time for me to take my 10:00 meds...
Bob
Thank God that we didn't have to go to Boston today - there were accidents galore from what I understand. However, we do have to go on Wednesday and they are predicting snow, sleet, and freezing rain in the early morning. With our having to leave at 5:30, the going could get a little dicey. We'll just have to take it easy.
As you might expect(at least I hope that you expect it), I am feeling fine. So fine, that my wife left me tonight to go out to dinner with some friends. What happened to my conscientious caregiver! What if something calamatous happened while she was gone? So much for our marriage vows! Fortunately, she is now back home and I managed to survive.
But she did comment earlier today that from everything that she has read, it should be her responsibility to keep track of my medications as usually those in recovery are just not up to it. However, I have done it from day 1. It's the least that I can do when she has most certainly extended herself to make sure that my every need is satisfied.
Obviously, as I said the other day, this is just another potato day - no real information to pass along. But that is exactly the way we want it. Tomorrow my wife ventures out once again, leaving me to my own devices. This is starting to become a trend!
It is nice, however, to see the day count go down and the days do seem to pass by somewhat quickly even though sometimes it feels like I am chained to this place. Let's put it all in perspective. I have no right to complain when things are going so well for me and when I look at my coworker friend who didn't make it.
Gotta go, it's time for me to take my 10:00 meds...
Bob
March 8, 2009 10:45 PM 81 days to go
It was a beautiful Spring day once again - so we went for a walk again. As with Spring in New Hampshire, tomorrow it's going to snow and turn colder for the next several days - so no more walking for a while.
Enough with the weather report. I found that my thighs were sore from walking yesterday but certainly not enough to slow down today's walk. So I can see that I have a ways to go before I get back into "shape"(round is a shape!).
I guess that you can surmise from the above, I am still in good health.
Once again, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law came for a visit and we had a good time talking and playing cards. Even though I won, my brother-in-law says that my victory was tainted as I backed into it. A win is a win I say!
As with last Sunday, my sister-in-law brought the food for the meal which was very good. It's somewhat of a bummer that all my food has to be thoroughly cooked. I do miss a nice rare steak and a rare hamburger. Even though the others had wine, it does not bother me at all to not be able to join them. The only other thing that I miss is being able to order food from the outside - a nice sub sandwich... a pizza... all of that is forbidden. Someday...
So another quiet day as we wait for the next medical update on Wednesday.
Sunday also brings to mind that I still miss church, singing in choir, etc. But, you know, when I do get back, I will really appreciate that all the more having been deprived of it for so long.
This whole experience is going to make me value so many of the things that we all tend to take for granted in our lives.
Those of you in good health should thank God for that blessing...
Bob
Enough with the weather report. I found that my thighs were sore from walking yesterday but certainly not enough to slow down today's walk. So I can see that I have a ways to go before I get back into "shape"(round is a shape!).
I guess that you can surmise from the above, I am still in good health.
Once again, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law came for a visit and we had a good time talking and playing cards. Even though I won, my brother-in-law says that my victory was tainted as I backed into it. A win is a win I say!
As with last Sunday, my sister-in-law brought the food for the meal which was very good. It's somewhat of a bummer that all my food has to be thoroughly cooked. I do miss a nice rare steak and a rare hamburger. Even though the others had wine, it does not bother me at all to not be able to join them. The only other thing that I miss is being able to order food from the outside - a nice sub sandwich... a pizza... all of that is forbidden. Someday...
So another quiet day as we wait for the next medical update on Wednesday.
Sunday also brings to mind that I still miss church, singing in choir, etc. But, you know, when I do get back, I will really appreciate that all the more having been deprived of it for so long.
This whole experience is going to make me value so many of the things that we all tend to take for granted in our lives.
Those of you in good health should thank God for that blessing...
Bob
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