feedback

I much appreciate the feedback from you out there, who are--for the most part--quietly reading my posts and not saying much. You don't have to! But for those who have emailed to respond to the latest hirsute pic, I say thanks.  Yes, I am almost my old self--just aged some by the chemo man.

As I type this, it is snowing, sleeting, etc. This is the time of year here in N. Utah where we get one day of winter, followed by one day of spring--a local weather guy called this "sprinter"--and it drives us crazy. But the trees are happy because it has been, overall, a dry winter, and tomorrow, it will be fine again for most of the week.

I write today to self-congratulate and to publicly get myself to a place where I cannot easily back out. I have hit the exer-cycle now about 3 times in the past week, as well as doing a session of light weights and stretches in between. As  usual the results are surprising, but why should they be?. Granted, I still have no legs, but the muscles in the legs are incredibly responsive to stressing them in terms of growing new cells. I think I am experiencing less "tricking out" of my hips and knees as a result of just this week. In other words going up and down our few stairs at home is easier--right a way. I also think that I am experiencing a titch less neuropathy of de-feet. When I started last week, I did 10 min on the bike; today it was more like 15- 16 and a couple minutes of cool down. My goal is my usual time of  30-35 min several times a week. I find it better if I give the legs a day to repair after this which is why I am trying to insert some small weights and stretching among the exer-cycle workouts.  (Workouts? Really? More like warmups to workouts at this point.) Anyway: Progress is our most important product.

Hirsute is good

The hairy kid is back! And bigger than life. (Well, we have sizing issues on the import and upload photo that I am not going to worry about. I will just write around it.) C'est moi 8 weeks, virtually to the day, after my last infusion. Hair return has been rapid since the poisoning stopped. Indeed, today I had my haircut for the first time since October. (The pic is pre-haircut by an hour or so.) And it felt good. For those interested in the minutia, not all my hair has returned everywhere. It seems to be selective at this time. My barberess suggested that short as it was my hair was curlier than in prior times. She also noted that it has not filled in some places as thickly as it once was--e.g., the beard. But the hairy part of life is essentially good.

Still dealing with neuropathy in my extremities. It is enough to occasionally awaken me. It may be my optimism but it is still possibly receding, however, very slowly. I am going out tonight to see how far I can go with Strum, Plunk, & Toot and in preparation have left my sneakers on all day because I fear that when off, I will not be able to get them back on. You may guess from the foregoing that my musical chops are improving and you would be correct. Still a long way to go, but the last time out, I lasted better than an hour. We'll see if I can get through the entire session tonight.

To help with the reshaping of my bod and contra the neuropathy I got on the exercycle yesterday for the first time in ages. I have nothing in my legs--zero, zip, nada. I did 10 minutes, when my usual workout on that thing is 30-35 min. But one result seemed to be fewer joint collapses (knees, hips) during the day thereafter. I will be back on that again tomorrow and pushing the time some more. For me, it is still the best aerobic workout I do, and has the added benefit now of un-weighting those joints that the neuropathy, and arthritis, and old age have left in bad shape. Later.

life goes on

No new complaints this week. Why should there be? Spent the week on Coronado Island in CA. Typical marine layer each morning, burning off by mid-morn followed by wonderful ambient temps. Resort village atmosphere. Navy fly-boys working by 8 a.m. with the air thereafter variously punctuated with their roars, whirs, whines and screams. Stereotypical beach scene of barely clad volley-ballers and their watchers, joggers, and vacationing families, plus the whole gamut of period costumes from the non-coastal countryside, including fully covered old maids and cowboys. The eating and entertainment scenes were predictably fine. Having done most of the touron-activities in earlier generational jaunts, eating and entertainment could and did take their rightful place at center stage.


I am sleeping wonderfully well. What this appears to mean at this stage is a full 8 hrs per night, interrupted only once, plus a nap each afternoon of anywhere from 45-90 min. I don't believe it myself. Perhaps bodily repair is happening during this time? One certainly hopes so. Or could it just be the declining years? (Say it isn't so!) The wonderful home in Coronado was three blocks from the main drag and all the shops and restaurants one could want, and only a scant block from the beach. This meant that it was easier to walk everywhere than to drive because parking was troublesome. Psychologically, I do not want to walk. I don't know what this denotes, but the feeling has been coming over me for a couple years now and seems to predate the cancer thing. It probably has to do with the perceived effort and is probably a clear indicator of my poor cardiac shape. But there is exacerbation of this condition now because my feet and ankles variously hurt or tingle or are numb or are cold or are swollen or are all of the foregoing. I still have a good deal of edema there at the end of the day, and, last night back in PHX, did not sleep as well as the prior week perhaps because of de agony of de feet. Hands also are still involved, as is a sense of poor temperature regulation. I am bone cold when everyone around me is walking around in T-shirts. Finally, my right knee unpredictably gives out on random occasions and at least one hip seems to be joining the knee in some sort of perverse empathy. So the neuropathy thing persists and at this point I see no further improvement.

feelin' groovy

Well...not really. My legs, my feet, and my hands are killing me. But this too shall pass. The blog title refers to the results of my (now) semi-annual physical yesterday. All the biochemistry was good. E.g., total cholesterol = 145. Mike Stones (my internist) says I should change nothing in my life. I said I was tapering back on a glass of wine each evening. He said, "Wine is good for you." Ya gotta love him. The coronary artery thing that my most recent scan showed, he called minor, and being taken care of by my meds. Disposition of the inguinal hernia should await full recovery. It doesn't bother me too much. (Increased incidence of hernia is apparently due to my abominable surgery for prostate, now 9 yrs ago.) PSA on the charts yesterday was non measurable!!. Still don't have too much gas in the tank.

We commence our second road trip of the spring, tomorrow.

sleep, glorious sleep

Don't know what has happened but I am finally sleeping better. This last few nights = 4-6 hours sleep with an awakening (whiz need), and then additional sleep up to 8 hrs.  Notwithstanding the 7-8 hours that I am currently getting, I am still in need of an afternoon nap of an hour. So there must still be a tremendous amount of repair going on. Haven't stuck the exercise schedule precisely, but did put in 30 minutes and over 3,000 steps on the tread mill yesterday (hence the great sleep?). May try a few lifts and stretches this morning. But the legs still protest with neuropathy. Simply putting lotion on the feet and ankles with mild massage on one day produces fire in the skin the next. Regular doc appointment this p.m. so we'll see what, if anything, that produces.