Another Groundbreaking Day

This is a picture of me taken this weekend at my club,Verandah. I look fine, don't you agree?

We were all up early this morning to see Gwen off. Don Kennedy came by at 6:15 AM to pick Gwen up and take him to the Charlotte Harbor Rotary Breakfast Meeting. I was able to go back to bed until 7:45 and then I had to get up for radiation. I was a few minutes late getting to the 21st Century Oncology because of the continuing traffic trouble caused by the bridge going over I-75 being taken out by a tractor-trailer. My understanding is that it may take several more weeks of work before my normal route is restored. After radiation I saw Dave Rice, my radiation oncologist. I told him about the stiffness in my chest and he said that is exactly what he expected to happen at this stage. He showed me how he had designed the radiation treatment and the six angles he is using. The angle that is closest to my esophagus is the one I am feeling, but he thought I would finish treatment without this getting much worse. That's good.



After radiation I had an appointment with my primary care physician George Nackley. Nothing to report there. He basically wanted to see me so that he remained in the loop about what treatment I am getting and to answer other questions. I told him I thought Dr Lunin was was doing a very good job and that Dave Rice was also quite good. At this point I have no symptoms and I am tolerating the treatments extremely well. We talked about the progression of the disease. He agreed with my accessment that this is going to be a matter of taking one day at a time. I told Dr. Nackley that I am optomistic and also realistic. I have a tumor that is inoperable and the size of a baseball. They may take out 95% or even 99% of the cancerous tumor and that would still leave billions of cancer cells floating around in my system. In all likelihood, it is a matter of time before we see cancer somewhere else. I think we agreed this is the likely scenario. No one can say when that might be. Anyway, we discussed next steps and George explained how the chemo is not likely to stop with one treatment. Depending on what we find in restaging, we may go through a second or third round using different drugs. It just all depends and no one can say how things will likely progress. The cocktail of drugs will change depending on what they find. The tough thing about cancer is the variability of cancer cells. Not all cancer is alike and the method of treatment is going to be substantially different depending on what it is you have. The upshot is that I should expect some kind of continuing treatment. I'll have to ask about that at an upcoming appointment with Scott, to see what specific thoughts he has.



After my appointment with Nackley, I was off to the Family Services Center, where we had a ground breaking for the new free clinc St Vincent De Paul Community Health Care is opening. I am the treasurer of this organization, which has captured the imagination of our little community.



We started out as a free pharmacy, providing drugs to the poor and uninsured. In the last 12 month we started an HIV Clinic and a Clinic for Hepatitis C patients who do not have the wherewithall to pay for the care they need. The new free clinc, designed to relieve the local hospitals from having uninsure show up on their doorstep, is the next step. Our free clinic will provide healthcare services for free to the poor and uninsured. Services will be provided by a group of volunteer (for the most part retired) doctors. Funding is coming from the three area hospitals and donated land and facilities. We are building the 4500 square foot temporary clinic with rented modulars on county land; a permanent facility, which would be about 8000 square feet, is already being planned. We have $2 million in funding coming from a potential gift plus matching funds. A developer has offered us the land we need. I have been on the board ofSt Vincent De Paul Community Healthcare for the past year and one half and I must say it is one of the best non-profit things I have done. I am very proud of the work we have done and to have played a small role. Our operating budget this year was $300,000. Next year the operating budget will be $750,000. If we build a permanent clinic next year, we will need a capital budget of over $2 million. Thankfully, there is a lot of support for what we are doing, so I expect we will be able to raise the money needed.



After the groundbreaking I had lunch Thai Cafe with the Executive Director, Paul Ringenberger, and my friends Brian Brunderman and Dr Mark Asperilla. Mark is a nationally reknowned specialist in infectious diseases and the driving force behind the St Vincent de Paul's efforts in providing healthcare services and medication to the poor. Of course, none know about my cancer. But as we ate lunch Mark remarked how good rice was for preventing cancer. Hmmm...I lived and worked in Japan for 15 years and eat rice nearly every day. Guess I'm just lucky! I just want to note this as it seems cancer comes up in many conversations and am much more aware than I use to be. I want to tell my story to the smokers I see every day... But for now I resist the temptation.



Between doctor appointments and St Vincent De Paul, I did not get into the office today until 2PM. When I arrived there was news that we did not get either the $4 million account we were working on nor the smaller $1 millon prospect. That was disappointing. We spend a lot of time and money cultivating these new relationships. Oh well, in the one case, the gentleman did not agree with our recommendations. He wants to be all equity all the time -- and we insisted that retired at age 70, a certain amount in fixed income made sense. In the smaller case, she is not ready to depart with the portfolio her dead husband left behind, even though it is tech heavy and not providing the income she needs. You can bring a horse to water but you can't make him or hir drink...oh well, we have plenty of other fish to fry.



I stayed in the office late as tonight was a parent's meeting for Project Graduation, starting at 7 PM and I am co-chairing this for my Rotary Club. I'll have more to say on Project Graduation, another great community project, later.



The meeting ended at 8:30 PM and I returned to the office to make one more phone call to a client who lives in Indiana. That turned out to be a productive call and I made a sale tonight that should help me make my budget for the month. I left the office at 10 PM and got home to a dinner of roasted lamb, potatoes, beans, watermelon and French butter cookies. Yum. Told you...I am spoiled. Yoko ALWAYS has dinner waiting for me, no matter what time I get home.



It was a very long but very good day. I continue to feel just fine...not even tired. I need to go to bed now, however, if I am going to get up for my 7 AM Rotary meeting. (If you have not noticed by now, when I am not working, I am either doing volunteer work or golfing. You have to admit, its a pretty nice life.)