Thursday, 30 September 04
Austin's birthday is today, and the Mustang picked this day to develop a problem with the battery cable. So I spent most of Thursday evening at Pep Boys trying to get the car back on the road again. We still found time for Austin to open his presents, all of which involved space and rockets, with some cash and video games thrown in as well.
Wednesday, 29 September 04
Aaron broke his left arm today roller blading at a school function. This will slow his martial arts training.
Saturday, 25 September 04
We drove to Amarillo yesterday for a Tae Kwon Do event for Aaron today. He earned first place in forms and second place in sparing. Amarillo is about 325 miles from our home in Argyle, but the drive didn't seem long at all with my sons along for the ride.
I am in the middle of the first half of the fourth round of chemotherapy. 140 mg of Temodar per day for 14 days, along with Celebrex (400 mg/day) and 40 mg/day of Accutane.
Sunday, 19 September 04
The eyes can play strange tricks on the mind - preparing for church this morning, I noticed an object of some type on the floor that appeared to be burning without being consumed or giving off any smoke or smell. I looked away and then at it again, thinking of Charlton Heston and the 10 Commandments movie. Finding it hard to believe that this was Moses revisited, I finally started walking toward the object, and then discovered it to be a foiled covered ribbon from the homecoming deal at our kids' high school. The ribbon was a reflective gold in color, and the ceiling fan blades and lights from the ceiling fan, plus the breeze produced by the fan, created a strobe effect at just the right angle to look like it was on fire.
Well, stuff like this is funny and provides comic relief. I could tell another story about brushing my teeth years ago with diaper rash ointment, thinking it was toothpaste in the dimly lit bathroom late one night. Or the time the wife and I managed to get our controls for the electric blanket swapped (she froze while I roasted). Then there's the recent blister I got from yard work that during the healing process looked like a face smiling at me - as if my body was thanking me for the exercise. When I look at my MRIs, some of the slices of my brain look like a teddy bear's face; some smiling, some pouting.
Thursday, 16 September 04
Dr. Stark-Vance tells me that the MRI of 9/10/04 was clean and I should be greatly encouraged by this. So what we have is all four MRIs performed since surgery on 2/2/04 have, totally by the grace of God, come back clean. My CBC results looked great as well, and the next chemo round begins on Monday.
Following the visit with the oncologist as described in the previous paragraph, I went to the dentist to get a cavity taken care of. Upon entering the office, I thanked the staff for the emails I received the day before in which I was informed that Dr. Lipscomb's entire office had been praying for me for months without even knowing the specifics of what was going on.
Friday, 10 September 04
The bi-monthly (every other month) MRI was performed today. Originally scheduled for 13 September, I moved the scan up a few days due to scheduling conflicts at work. The official report will not be available until next week with I visit oncologist Dr. Virginia Stark-Vance, but my own analysis, based upon the known clean scan of 7/12/04, is that I am still clean!
Thursday, 02 September 04
Finished the current round of chemo. Next major event is the MRI scheduled for 13 September 04. Your prayers for a clean scan are appreciated!
The prayer pager went crazy today, going off in almost exactly two minute intervals for more than three and a half hours. Not sure if these were all legitimate prayer pages. Maybe someone had their phone inadvertently set to autorepeat.
