As I start to write this blog on Friday afternoon, we are sitting in a guest apartment at Fox Hill Village. We are no longer allowed to stay in what was formerly our unit 271. It has been mostly gutted. Barbara and I are still speaking to each other.
Well - first the cancer update. We started a new cycle on Wednesday - which meant a whole slew of blood tests - not that I really care how many samples they take once the punch the hole in my arm. I keep hoping that maybe the Medieval doctors were on to something with their blood letting that modern medicine does not yet fully understand. Anyway, the numbers continue to come down - though slowly. The clinical trial nurse said that she thinks this is better than having them come down fast, because then they tend to go up fast. Let's hope she is right about that.
The one thing that I noticed since the last blog is how lively I have felt. I don't know if this is a chemo side-effect or if the cancer has been knocked down or what, but I have enjoyed being very active. Of course, I am often totally wiped out at the end of the day, but I really don't mind that.
As I mentioned above, we are kicked out of our FHV apartment during extensive renovations. It looks like we will be out until sometime in very late November. For this week (Wed - Sat), we are staying in the FHV guest suite. This allows us to have our meals here (since we are still on the meal plan), to use the FHV workshop and to see some of our FHV friends.
It also allows us to visit what's left of our apartment - which is not much. But it is good to go in there and see where the walls are going to be. And also to change our minds about where we want them. The construction guys have been pretty accommodating - so far at least and our adjustments so far have been minor. It is interesting that other FHV residents seem more interested in seeing the apartment torn up than ever were interested in seeing it prior to start of renovations.
The down-side of this is the frequent meetings with the designer and visits to showrooms. Barbara is really into this. Let's just say that I am less into it. I enjoy visiting the unit and talking with the construction guys. Barbara enjoys visiting showrooms.
Last week was a chemo "break week" and I used it constructively. In fact, I rented real construction equipment - a full sized CAT 311 Excavator. What a blast. As I kid, I always loved playing in the dirt, and this gave me a chance to do that "big time". There was a field on the land I bought a couple of years ago that was covered with stumps and large boulders. I used the excavator to clear and smooth it. There are also roads going through the property - some of which loggers had created last year and others that they had destroyed. Anyway, I did repairs on some of the roads, thinking that they would be easier to use without giant stumps in the middle. At first, the excavator was a bit of a challenge to operate, but I got used to it after an hour or so. I did partly tip it over a couple of times, but managed to recover just in time. That was exciting. I tried to get Barbara to help with the operation of the excavator, but she was not as interested in it as I was.
My other new activity is that I have always wanted to make wooden bowls on the lathe, so I have taken a couple of lessons from a guy who lives near Fox Hill Village. I am just now getting started with this and will report in the next blog update after I have made more progress - assuming that I actually manage to make more progress. We'll see.
Well - first the cancer update. We started a new cycle on Wednesday - which meant a whole slew of blood tests - not that I really care how many samples they take once the punch the hole in my arm. I keep hoping that maybe the Medieval doctors were on to something with their blood letting that modern medicine does not yet fully understand. Anyway, the numbers continue to come down - though slowly. The clinical trial nurse said that she thinks this is better than having them come down fast, because then they tend to go up fast. Let's hope she is right about that.
The one thing that I noticed since the last blog is how lively I have felt. I don't know if this is a chemo side-effect or if the cancer has been knocked down or what, but I have enjoyed being very active. Of course, I am often totally wiped out at the end of the day, but I really don't mind that.
As I mentioned above, we are kicked out of our FHV apartment during extensive renovations. It looks like we will be out until sometime in very late November. For this week (Wed - Sat), we are staying in the FHV guest suite. This allows us to have our meals here (since we are still on the meal plan), to use the FHV workshop and to see some of our FHV friends.
It also allows us to visit what's left of our apartment - which is not much. But it is good to go in there and see where the walls are going to be. And also to change our minds about where we want them. The construction guys have been pretty accommodating - so far at least and our adjustments so far have been minor. It is interesting that other FHV residents seem more interested in seeing the apartment torn up than ever were interested in seeing it prior to start of renovations.
The down-side of this is the frequent meetings with the designer and visits to showrooms. Barbara is really into this. Let's just say that I am less into it. I enjoy visiting the unit and talking with the construction guys. Barbara enjoys visiting showrooms.
Last week was a chemo "break week" and I used it constructively. In fact, I rented real construction equipment - a full sized CAT 311 Excavator. What a blast. As I kid, I always loved playing in the dirt, and this gave me a chance to do that "big time". There was a field on the land I bought a couple of years ago that was covered with stumps and large boulders. I used the excavator to clear and smooth it. There are also roads going through the property - some of which loggers had created last year and others that they had destroyed. Anyway, I did repairs on some of the roads, thinking that they would be easier to use without giant stumps in the middle. At first, the excavator was a bit of a challenge to operate, but I got used to it after an hour or so. I did partly tip it over a couple of times, but managed to recover just in time. That was exciting. I tried to get Barbara to help with the operation of the excavator, but she was not as interested in it as I was.
My other new activity is that I have always wanted to make wooden bowls on the lathe, so I have taken a couple of lessons from a guy who lives near Fox Hill Village. I am just now getting started with this and will report in the next blog update after I have made more progress - assuming that I actually manage to make more progress. We'll see.
Hang in there buddy, sounds to me that you have this thing knocked
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