• How About Yes, Yes, Yes……

    Last week of radiation…’hot damn does that feel good to say, again, Last Week of Radiation!!  So now that I’ve said that, felt good saying it, now I can say that in some strange way, I’ll miss going up to UCLA everyday.  Great situation that I’ve been in, getting treated by them.  It’s always a yes, yes, yes place; meaning nothing gets shut down, it’s always go forward,  take one more step kind of place.  Really, though, who wouldn’t think like that.  Life is full of surprises; we might think that we have our plan, the kind of life that makes sense on paper.  Hey, guess what?  It don’t work out…

  • Radiation Has Ups and Downs

    Sometimes it seems that all that goes through my half-mind is radiation.  Did I say it, RADIATION……. the process is not something that a pain, because all I do is lay there for a bout 10 minutes, get zapped, and go home.  Everything starts to add up, though; leave an hour early, you never know how traffic will be.  UCLA is so darn great at what they do, in all areas, that they make the process seem so easy.  I say this because it will happen every once in a while, that an emergency will come and take precedence over my time for my treatment.  The technicians get so apologetic…

  • So You Want To Take A Nap…

    Who doesn’t want to take a nap, well, at least sometime?  I live for them, sometime only 20 -30 minutes.  Research tells us 15-20 minutes are the best, where we really don’t let ourselves drift into deep sleep, but that “down” time can sure bring us along in  a rested state. This is what I thought when I was told that I had to have radiation.  I was thinking NAP time!  Not so much.  Before you even start to come into your “nap room”, you have to have a mask made up for your face.  You come to the table, and lie down so that your head is in a…

  • Dogs ARE A Man’s Best Friend

    Dogs are a man’s best friend.  How many times do we hear this, or say this?  Thousands of times, or ten times that for some people, people that I’ve known around here. I’ve had a dog for so long, that it wouldn’t be the same without one.  A lot of responsibility, but really, it’s doesn’t seem like it when you really dig them like they dig you.  They bring a lot of smiles, a LOT of laughter, and once in a while, a frown, (very few, though).  A lot of dog people, as we call each other, have one story after another, and sometimes can stand and speak about nothing but…

  • Any Mind Wonders

    It’s pretty amazing when you’re really trying to focus on something being said, or a conversation, or something like that, and the next thing that you know,  is your mind is a million miles away.  How’d that happen?  I think it happens much more than we all think.  There was a conversation, or  something that just stuck in our minds, that means a whole lot to us, and we might not really understand why. The second day after my surgery, September 25, I had to go in for not one, but two MRI’s.  They were both different;  one might explain where the mind goes when it is supposed to be…

  • Take A Walk

    When was the last time that you, or a person in general, just went out for a walk. I suppose that “A Walk” can be defined by a lot of different interpretations, but really going out and ENJOYING the walk is powerful. To go out, listen to the birds, no matter how many there will be, throughout the walk, is very inspirational. Birds are talking! All day, throughout the day, they’re talking. So many times when you think that you’ve got it figured out, now you see several small birds, flying around hawks and nose diving on them. Sometimes it doesn’t make any sense at all, except that our reason…

  • Stitches Are Out and Tests Are OK

    Well,  two stories were typed, but I think the bottom line is I didn’t actually post them correctly, so let’s  see if I can’t duplicate the info that I tried to put out there before. Last Wednesday, the stitches were taken out.  It’s amazing, a person can’t really tell that the same old scar was again opened up, the same tumor, (a little less in size), was again taken out, and the scar was closed up again.  The medical team was so unbelievable, in regards to so many things that they did, from the operation, to the after care, to following up on my rehab/walking, again, I just have words…

  • Was Supposed to Have the Stitches Taken Out

    Monday is when I was supposed to go in, have the stitches taken out, maybe go up to the check-out Rehab. services, and also find out a little bit about the radiation services. Let’s see, here’s how it ended up: Leave the stitches in at least a few more days, the Check-Up Rehab was good for at least a few more days, and we’re not anywhere in site of radiation technology. In a strange world, it does make some sort of sense; it just doesn’t put all of the pieces together. It seems that the incision is still a bit more swollen then it should be. I thought that might…

  • Last Saturday We Actually Played Poker

    Last Saturday we actually played poker; it was fun, I think that I actually pulled in about even at the end of the night. It was fun, seeing as though after 3-4 hours, I was starting to get a little tired. The poker players, Paul, Michael, Ron, myself. By the end of the night, all right, let’s go home and call it a night. So many times I go to a poker game, play poker, and head on end to another day. Every day, now, it seems to take on a new perspective. Probably every little thing will. By the way, that’s not a bad thing; I do believe that little thing…

  • A Lot of Stuff That Eventually Wants to Come Out

    There’s a lot of stuff that eventually wants to come out. So O.K., in time it will. But there’s still a whole lot that still is forming it’s way to the top. So here I was, ready to start the blog on the last surgery, (April 29, 2008), and then we find out that, “Hey, we have to go back in there, grab ANOTHER tumor, and we’ll pull that one out,too!” Then there was more news, stuff that we should all know about, but it just came out like blah, blah, blah…. So the Dr., Dr. Isaac Yang of the UCLA Medical Bldg, very astutly asked, “So when do you…