Life From Here---Back From The Dead

New readers, Nadir (nay deer) is the period of time when the chemo drug is really doing it’s thing with your blood counts and so on and you feel like you are pregnant, hung over and have the flu for 3 days.

I’ve always scheduled the treatment on Tuesday and the Nadir kicks in late Friday or early Saturday and hopefully by Monday you start to feel better.

The term Back From The Dead addresses the days after Nadir. This time took a little longer. At the end of the day I think my stint as a Lab Rat at Duke, damned near killed me….and I have to get back to “normal” mentally and physically to fight another day.

I feel optimistic that there may be a positive effect going on because I have certain lymph nodes that don’t seem to be raging like they were. Blood counts are improving and today June 11, 2012, I feel more normal than I have in 8 weeks. If you felt like this you would probably call in sick but from Nadir it’s so much better.

You probably have this too but in my world, my “Life From Here”, I call them my “Five Finger Friends”. These are the friends, or couples, that are on your first hand when you think of who are your real friends…not family……different list! Friends! The ones you can always count on… Oh sure it can be six or ten sometimes but most of us just have Five…it is and should be a very exclusive list! I’ve never mentioned this to the Five….but, my guess is they each know if they’re on the list.

Anyway, it’s funny how things work. I had gotten an email from an old time (40 years or so) acquaintance within the last 2 weeks. She was responding to my most recent Post. And she does so occasionally with kind words and encouragement. My true connection to her though is the fact that she was a college roommate to one of my Five Finger Friends. This past June the 4th out of the clear blue…..the acquaintance collapsed and died in her back yard….I know none of us get out alive but if you are young or old or real old or real young…….my message is to check on your own mortality and make life adjustments accordingly. I’ve said before it’s hard to get real serious about it when you aren’t facing a dragon but then neither was my friend….I’m sure she didn’t think I would out live her.

I lost my Dad a few of weeks ago and I had been told that the loss of a parent reminded you of your own mortality. It’s true but I’ve been thinking about my mortality for 3 years, I’m really starting to miss him.

If you look down below and link into my 2010 and a lot of 2011 archive posts are regarding food, lack of appetite how I dealt with it, some tricks of the trade as it were on how to keep yourself nourished during this treatment and so on. It’s mostly funny stuff. I have to deal with a lot of that stuff now but I’m not starting at 195 pounds like it was then. At the end of the day the effects of being a Lab Rat were…let’ s say less than stellar! I started in March at 179 pounds and I’m currently at 154.

Everybody, including my Doctor, keep asking me if I’m drinking Boost or Ensure and YES I but as far as I’m concerned that’s “Curds and Whey!” I’m a carnivore I want animal protein not Soy! Shrimp! Chicken Wings! Small rodents!

PLEASE…don’t make or send me food unless we talk.

In the movie Hombre with Paul Newman as a half bred they’re in a stagecoach talking about American Indians. The lady says “Oh I hear they eat dog!” Paul, says to her “Have you ever been hungry lady? I don’t mean “ready for Supper” but so hungry the front on you stomach is in your back? Heh!…You’d eat the dog and fight to suck the bones!” I would eat grubs out of a log if I had to….and may yet!

Texting and driving has to end! Big Brother or not…end it with reasonable laws and Applications….kinda like seat belts…lesser of the 2 evils…what’s happening to my Conservative self?

But here’s the deal! All of our local TV stations are promoting a down load of their Traffic App for your smart phone….so it’s OK to drive and check traffic.

The new rage in coffee are these single packet machines that brew one cup at a time of gourmet coffee. They are very expensive for what they are. At Duke they had one on each floor at the complimentary counter. There I was the only one that seemed know how to use it (a messy self taught) so I ended up some days helping others make coffee. …it ain’t that good!…….A Mr. Coffee would be fine for me!

After several setbacks these past 8 weeks I plan to be able to get back into reasonable shape to continue to fight the fight!

Keep the Light and Prayers coming cause I’m clawing my way back!

Bob