Year End 2005

(Thats Emily Elizabeth Kennedy!)

One of my favorite poems is Carl Sandburg's FOG - and it seems that fog comes in and out of my life "on little cat feet". Christmas started well but soon the Baptist Flu* took over and variously affected all my children, 66 % of my grandchildren, Carole and me and my son-in-law. And now, the fog has traveled on. In the meantime, I had to cancel my trip with Fresno State football to Memphis - I was looking forward to some football bowl style, but I couldn't get out of bed for three days.

Having chemo once every three weeks is so different - so I hope this stabilizes things for a while, so I can enjoy more "drug free" days.

Going back to medical practice is probably not feasible in the near future, so I am at least looking at some other options and will have to make a decision in the next week or two.

So, for today, things are good. Tommorrow is another year. Happy New Year.



*The 'flu' seemed to have come home with my grand-daughter Marlee from the Baptist private school she attends, hence "Baptist" flu.

Getting Ready For Christmas

Its like night and day - getting chemo with five drugs every 3 weeks out of four, to now only one drug every three weeks. Sooo, at least for the time bieng my life is not being dictated by my chemo schedule, although it still is being limited by some side effects of the chemo (Will I have to undergo hair loss agin?)

The holidays are approaching and with all the enlarging family (three grandchildren) it is becoming more family oreinted rather than Mum's Champagne and hanging out.

Anyway, the vibe is good.

Bill

Been A Long Time

No posts since October - no news is good new they say.

A week ago we returned from 9 days in Hawai'i. We spend Thanksgiving and the week thereafter at Wailea. Wailea is sort of a Disneyland for people who make too much money or have a large credit card line. Anyway, during our vacation each day there are only four decisions: when do we go to the beach; when do we play golf, when do we shop; and where do we eat tonight. Its a pretty simple and low stress life. I was in Hawai'i during the recent losses of the Fresno State football team and although the games were braodcast nationally, I was playing golf - so I had to read about it in the Maui newspaper.

The FMLA (medical leave of absence from Clinical Practice) has been restoring and has given me enough time to get things done at the pace my illness allows.

As to my illness and treatment: good news and bad news. First the bad news - my PSA has been creeping up and not plateauing as we would have liked, so we are going to undergo a new treatment plan - single drug once every three weeks. The good news: I feel quite healthy; the new therapy does not have the toxicity of the olde therapy, the new therapy is more effective than the old therapy according to recent studies and has to be administered only one day per every three weeks. Oh yes - more hair loss but I have an abundance of hats to wear.

Whats up next - Christmas in Woodland Hills and New Years in Memphis at the wonderous Peabody Hotel (Fresno State is in the Liberty Bowl NYE).

I Made a 25 slide PowerPoint file - but I can figure out how to display it.

See you soon.

Peace and Health