Happy Monday, everyone! Didn’t do much this weekend, did my usual Friday nap. Didn’t do anything else this weekend – mostly just sat around the house and didn’t do much, was a bit tired this weekend. Today was my dad’s birthday, he’s 61. He had a good birthday and my mom’s back was out all weekend, so we didn’t go to the family get-together yesterday.
Hello everyone, it is Wednesday. Hope all of you are doing well. Yesterday I tended to a matter that I needed to deal with for a bit – I needed to inform my references for jobs that they would not be receiving any calls for a while because of my diagnosis. One of them responded so far and wished that my email entitled ‘Update’ had been a much cheerier update than “So, i’ve got cancer.” Every person I have told reacts differently, but I suppose that is natural. So, other than that, haven’t done much – sitting around and tomorrow I take the Methotrexate, which I hope is working to the satisfaction of my oncologists.
That’s all for now, talk to you guys on Monday. Should have a fun update then if I decide to go to a little family get-together on Sunday.
Hello everyone. It is Monday. Thursday, went to local oncologist – some numbers have changed, some in good ways, others in less than positive ways, but it could just be a little blip in my months of blood work, hopefully. Otherwise, my course of treatment is going to get changed. Thursday, when I got home, the area where the blood was drawn was bandaged, and Sheba kept licking that area until I removed it. Friday, she kept licking where the blood was drawn, then kept licking my face. I presume it was to try to make me feel better than my normal Friday ‘blahs’ and then I took a nice nap. Had to take it upstairs to avoid the dog.
So, on Saturday, my dad got rid of Sheba. Her foster dad showed up on Saturday morning randomly and just took her. Nobody from the rescue contacted him and they have no idea how he found out she wasn’t fitting in here. My mom, my brother, and I are annoyed at him and he does not understand why. Right after the guy came, the dog behaviorist called and my dad talked to her and she had no idea why he came or anything like that. My dad was lying to the behaviorist and said that he had been trying it the entire week he was home and that the first day he went back to work, she started barking and growling again. He also lied to my brother and I and told us that she said she thought that would happen. My mom got home a few minutes later from the grocery store and called the behaviorist, she said that all of those things he told us were lies, she would never say that as she is a very direct person, if she thought it wasn’t going to work, she would’ve had to rescue pick her up the day after she came. She asked my mom if he hated dogs, because she could tell he was lying, my mom told her the truth: he was the one who wanted a dog, he was the one who picked her out, and he refused to adapt his schedule even slightly to try to get it to work to make us happy. He kept trying to lie to us the rest of the day about how he was scared every morning that she was going to bite him, bullshit like that.
So, we’re going to look for another pet sometime in the future, but we’re not letting my dad have a say.
Sunday was okay and today was a decent day.
See all of you on Wednesday.
Happy Wednesday! So, last few days have been relatively uneventful. With Sheba, my dad has agreed to continue doing the techniques from the behaviorist, but after a day, he already seems sick of it, so we’ll see how that goes. Tomorrow, I take my weekly methotrexate, which always leads to such a pleasant weekend of napping and not eating much. I also see my local oncologist tomorrow, hopefully my numbers continue to look good! So, today is a short update, but I promise Monday will be a decent sized update, hopefully with all good news! Talk to you on Monday!
Happy Monday! So, the past few days have been a bit odd and annoying. On Friday, I took my usual nap. On Saturday, my mom and my brother rolled out the smoker to smoke various things – pork butt, turkey breast, nuts (peanuts and cashews), and tomatoes. My uncle came over for dinner and it was an interesting experience – Sheba forced us to be outside as this visit showed that her problem is not with my father, but with men in general. Sure, my uncle is tall, but when he was sitting down, she wasn’t growling or barking as much. We had her come outside with us, because what animal, even a well trained one, could avoid jumping up on a counter filled with smoked meat? So whenever my dad or uncle talked when we were outside, she would occasionally growl or bark. So that went a bit… awkwardly. My uncle stayed for an hour and a half. Also on Saturday, my dad started to refuse to do things the behaviorist suggested. I literally saw him stare down the dog while she was growling at him, walk closer to her, then start growling at her in response to her growling at him. So now we have to give her back to the rescue because, to quote him, “I don’t want to have a fucking dog in my fucking house that growls at me for no reason!” So, because my dad is an ass, we have to give the dog back. Yay. He said that he “might be willing” to adopt another dog after we give Sheba back. Isn’t that just so gracious of him? In other news, I was thinking of taking a laxative today, but then it turned out I didn’t need to take it. Yay! I am guessing that the prednisone was causing the constipation, hopefully. So, see all of you on Wednesday!
Hello everyone, it’s Wednesday! So on Tuesday, I went to Atlantic City. So, when I go to casinos, I tend to be lucky (Unlike when playing the lottery!). This time was no different, so yay! We left the house at 11 AM, got there at around 12:40 PM, ate lunch in the car, then went in to gamble. For the first $60 I gambled, I was in the red, then with $20, turned that into $46, then I was on my way up. Eventually, was around $40 down and had gambled around $120 on slots. Then when the buffet opened for dinner, we went there (to reduce risk of infection – loaded up plates with the food I wanted and brought them back to the table. Food was better than your typical “Chinese” buffet but doesn’t compare to a buffet in Vegas. After dinner, we gambled for about 20 minutes, my mom and I sat down at two slots, with my dad in the middle. My mom bet a few times on a slot machine, then won $150. I bet a few times on my slot machine (x5 bet, it was like $0.80 or so for a x5 bet on that machine), then I won $177. Woohoo. So I left Atlantic City around $130-$140 up. Go me. I didn’t do any table games because the only $5 blackjack table was occupied by the same group of people all day – so that was a bit of a disappointment. Wednesday was pretty good – it was my mom’s birthday, and the dog behaviorist came over today – she thinks Sheba had a bad experience with a gray haired man at some point, whether it was at a breeder, a high kill shelter, or at her foster home where she was for 8 months. She gave us some tips and she’ll be back in a week. She saw from good behaviors and some that concerned her, but she thinks she’ll do good with some help.
So for my mom’s birthday, we went to a local restaurant that we love. My mom and brother shared a crispy pork rillette (with a sour cherry BBQ sauce and pickled cherries) for an appetizer, and my dad an I shared a rather delicious crab cake – best part was that it barely had any filler. My mom and brother both had the pork de jour – which was pork medallions served with a peach bourbon barbecue sauce with mashed potatoes (sweet or smashed) and seasonal vegetables. My dad had the cornmeal crusted Mahi Mahi served with a tomato-pepper jam along with seasonal vegetables and I had the pan fried softshell crab served with a caper-brown butter sauce alongside smashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. For dessert, my dad had (and he barely ever has dessert) a Blueberry-Peach crisp, my mom and I both had the Chocolate Dessert of the Day – a chocolate brownie with chocolate gelato, whipped cream, and a caramel sauce, and my brother had a white-chocolate cherry bread pudding. All of the desserts were delicious. So, all-in-all, last few days were good, and hopefully I gain some weight from all this food. See all of you on Monday!
Hello everyone, it is Monday! So, napped a while on Friday – it is a bit hard to nap when you have a dog in the house, so I had to go up to bed to take a nap. I was still a bit tired on Saturday. Sunday, we ate out at a great Italian place near us, I had Sesame Crusted Salmon w/ seasonal vegetables for dinner and a pound cake with whipped cream & berries for dessert. Today, we ate dinner at a local place with really good burgers. The best thing about it? Low prices!
So, with my new dog (Sheba), we’re having a bit of trouble with her, she keeps growling and barking at my dad and two times so far she has lunged to bite my dad. We called the rescue and they are having a behaviorist they work with come out to the house on Wednesday and see what is up. Our theory is that some time in her past, she encountered a man with gray hair who was not very nice to her, which is hard to believe, because she is such a nice dog. So tomorrow, i’ll be going to Atlantic City (Yay! Gambling!) and hopefully I can get a decent amount of gambling in before I get too tired. See you on Wednesday!
Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday! So the end of Monday and a bit of Tuesday were fun, as Monday was the always fun Laxative Day. So Tuesday was a bit eventful – we adopted a dog. Her name is Sheba and she is a 1 year old Lab/Husky mix. My dad is now less-than-enthused with having a dog, as he was not home for the dropping off and now she growls and barks at him. He has no patience for this, and prefers to yell at her and mutter curses under his breath.
So, we went to the NYC oncologist today. He is a bit concerned about the fatigue, but is glad it is limited to only a few days a week. He said my ANC is around 400, which is double what it was two months ago! He agrees with my assessment that the prednisone was reducing the feeling of fatigue. He wants more numbers to go up before he’ll do the bone marrow biopsy – he said that he’ll do it at 6 months, so on or around November 28th. Yay. I see him again in 5 weeks, on September 9th.
So, the dog is staring at me as I type this, I think she wants me to pet her. So, until Monday, readers!
Happy Monday everyone! So, on Thursday I went to the neurologist – I brought up my loss of weight with him and he suggested that I try the Megace first. I haven’t tried it yet. After that, I went to the oncologist – I gained a pound! Now I weigh 104 pounds. My blood looked good, and I see the NYC oncologist on Wednesday. Took a nice nap on Friday. So yesterday we went to two pet adoption events and at the second one, we saw a dog we liked a lot, we filled out an application, and they called us yesterday. The animal rescue will be coming for a home visit tomorrow to make sure we don’t run a dogfighting ring, or whatever they check for, haha. So if all goes well, we should be getting a dog soon. She is a one year old Lab/Husky mix. So, had to take a laxative today. Laxative Day is my favorite day of the week (Isn’t sarcasm fun?)! So, typing this when the laxative isn’t making me be elsewhere. Wednesday’s update should be more interesting – updates from the NYC oncologist and perhaps a picture of a dog. See you on Wednesday!