I love my daughters Paula, June and Jessica ...can you blame me? Are they not beautiful? I got this and a bunch of the other digital photos taken by Paula Kennedy for my blog...I'll be sharing these one at a time as I make new entries.
Jessie came home from Spring Break last Sunday. She drove the six hours from FSU and made it home in time for dinner. (Yoko made leg of lamb for the occasion.) The week Jessie has been home has just flown by and I did not get a chance to see enough of her. One reason was that she had all four of her wisdom teeth pulled on Tuesday morning -- she was miserable for about one day (and slept all day) but then recovered nicely. The teeth were beginning to crowd her jaw, so it was a good thing to have them taken out.
Jessie seems to be enjoying college life and school. Only five weeks to go before she finishes her freshman year. It seems like she just began. This semester she is taking college algebra, a course on the New Testament, oceanography, and a biology lab. She says she is doing well in all her courses and spends lots of time in the library studying. By Thursday she was up and about visiting with her hometown friends. Friday she came to Florida Cancer Specialists, while I was getting my infusion. She had a chance to meet Dr Lunin and say hello. (Turns out that Scott's dentist is the same person that Jessie went to -- Dr. Patricia Scott.)
Jessie also went with me to SVDP Clinic on Friday to see what we are doing first hand. She got to see me "in action" and apparently came away with the impression that I talk too much and don't listen enough. (No surprise there...if you have not figured it out by now, this blog is the ideal medium for me to express myself. I have a lot I want to say.... What Jessie perhaps did not get is that I don't have a lot of time for people to re-tell me things (for nth time) I already know...so I interrupt to expedite.) Jessie took that to be bad listening skills... I do have bad listening skills and I will have to try harder.... but it is funny...I am taking her to SVDP to learn about the problem we are dealing with and the crisis in health care, and she comes away with an impression of my listening poor skills...hmmm. Not exactly what I had in mind. Oh well.
Jessie's friend from college, Kate Bender, came to visit on Saturday. They were basically gone all day -- first to Smokehouse (a local breakfast eatery) and then to another friend's house to sit by the pool and worship the sun. Not a bad life.
Paula is coming home on Tuesday for a visit during her Spring Break as well. (She has a bachelorette party in Ft Lauderdale next weekend.) She says she wants to see all this too... my getting an infusion, SVDP clinic, etc. I am looking forward to giving her the tour.
I spent all day Saturday working on SVDP clinic funding and writing or speaking with various people about this issue. Saturday night Yoko and I attended the dinner for Dennis Munholand to raise funds for the Munholand Scholarship Fund. I have been in charge of the Munholand Fund effort for my Rotary Club to honor Dennis. We began with the hope of raising $10k in the first year and it appears that, with this dinner, we have far exceeded that goal. I have also been in charge of raising money for Project Graduation, which needs about $20k per year to operate. So between SVDP and Rotary it seems I am constantly looking for money these days.
As far as my health and treatment goes, Scott decided to reduce my dosage of cisplatin and navelbine a little so that I am not too effected by neuropathy, which is the biggest side effect. My fingers and toes are slowly being affected. I can feel it -- a slight tingling sensation and the feeling that you get when a body part falls asleep. I had my doublet infusion on Friday and then worked at SVDP Clinic all day until 9:30 PM, so, as you can see, I am not being too badly affected by the treatments overall.
Today I played golf in my usual Sunday morning league. I shot 85 beating my friend and competitor, Chris Maher, by three strokes and taking $6 from him. (Each week we tend to go back and forth, but there is nothing I like better than taking money from Chris -- even it it is only one dollar!) I had an 8 on one par -4 hole that I should easily have boggied. The way I was playing I might have shot in the high 70's today, were it not for just a few costly mistakes. Oh well. That is what keeps me coming back to play again and again.
I was tired after golf. I came home and took a nap until late afternoon. I am feeling a little tired and I have a horse voice. I am not sure why my voice is horse. It is something else to ask Scott about. After awaking from a pleasant afternoon nap I watched Tiger Woods win at Bay Hill by making a 24 ft downhill slider. What a tough competitor he is. You can see the determination and focus in his eyes as he lines up an important put. My putting was pretty good today, and that makes a big difference in your score. Lately I have noticed that when I THINK I can make a put, I normally do. I made a lot of 10 foot puts today to save par by believing I could make them and visualizing it.
I believe I am going to survive this cancer and be the better for it. I can see it happening.
Jessie came home from Spring Break last Sunday. She drove the six hours from FSU and made it home in time for dinner. (Yoko made leg of lamb for the occasion.) The week Jessie has been home has just flown by and I did not get a chance to see enough of her. One reason was that she had all four of her wisdom teeth pulled on Tuesday morning -- she was miserable for about one day (and slept all day) but then recovered nicely. The teeth were beginning to crowd her jaw, so it was a good thing to have them taken out.
Jessie seems to be enjoying college life and school. Only five weeks to go before she finishes her freshman year. It seems like she just began. This semester she is taking college algebra, a course on the New Testament, oceanography, and a biology lab. She says she is doing well in all her courses and spends lots of time in the library studying. By Thursday she was up and about visiting with her hometown friends. Friday she came to Florida Cancer Specialists, while I was getting my infusion. She had a chance to meet Dr Lunin and say hello. (Turns out that Scott's dentist is the same person that Jessie went to -- Dr. Patricia Scott.)
Jessie also went with me to SVDP Clinic on Friday to see what we are doing first hand. She got to see me "in action" and apparently came away with the impression that I talk too much and don't listen enough. (No surprise there...if you have not figured it out by now, this blog is the ideal medium for me to express myself. I have a lot I want to say.... What Jessie perhaps did not get is that I don't have a lot of time for people to re-tell me things (for nth time) I already know...so I interrupt to expedite.) Jessie took that to be bad listening skills... I do have bad listening skills and I will have to try harder.... but it is funny...I am taking her to SVDP to learn about the problem we are dealing with and the crisis in health care, and she comes away with an impression of my listening poor skills...hmmm. Not exactly what I had in mind. Oh well.
Jessie's friend from college, Kate Bender, came to visit on Saturday. They were basically gone all day -- first to Smokehouse (a local breakfast eatery) and then to another friend's house to sit by the pool and worship the sun. Not a bad life.
Paula is coming home on Tuesday for a visit during her Spring Break as well. (She has a bachelorette party in Ft Lauderdale next weekend.) She says she wants to see all this too... my getting an infusion, SVDP clinic, etc. I am looking forward to giving her the tour.
I spent all day Saturday working on SVDP clinic funding and writing or speaking with various people about this issue. Saturday night Yoko and I attended the dinner for Dennis Munholand to raise funds for the Munholand Scholarship Fund. I have been in charge of the Munholand Fund effort for my Rotary Club to honor Dennis. We began with the hope of raising $10k in the first year and it appears that, with this dinner, we have far exceeded that goal. I have also been in charge of raising money for Project Graduation, which needs about $20k per year to operate. So between SVDP and Rotary it seems I am constantly looking for money these days.
As far as my health and treatment goes, Scott decided to reduce my dosage of cisplatin and navelbine a little so that I am not too effected by neuropathy, which is the biggest side effect. My fingers and toes are slowly being affected. I can feel it -- a slight tingling sensation and the feeling that you get when a body part falls asleep. I had my doublet infusion on Friday and then worked at SVDP Clinic all day until 9:30 PM, so, as you can see, I am not being too badly affected by the treatments overall.
Today I played golf in my usual Sunday morning league. I shot 85 beating my friend and competitor, Chris Maher, by three strokes and taking $6 from him. (Each week we tend to go back and forth, but there is nothing I like better than taking money from Chris -- even it it is only one dollar!) I had an 8 on one par -4 hole that I should easily have boggied. The way I was playing I might have shot in the high 70's today, were it not for just a few costly mistakes. Oh well. That is what keeps me coming back to play again and again.
I was tired after golf. I came home and took a nap until late afternoon. I am feeling a little tired and I have a horse voice. I am not sure why my voice is horse. It is something else to ask Scott about. After awaking from a pleasant afternoon nap I watched Tiger Woods win at Bay Hill by making a 24 ft downhill slider. What a tough competitor he is. You can see the determination and focus in his eyes as he lines up an important put. My putting was pretty good today, and that makes a big difference in your score. Lately I have noticed that when I THINK I can make a put, I normally do. I made a lot of 10 foot puts today to save par by believing I could make them and visualizing it.
I believe I am going to survive this cancer and be the better for it. I can see it happening.
5 comments:
Visualization is a technique I use occasionally with counseling clients. If you can't see what you want, it is often difficult to get there! Have you ever read the book The Secret? Linda recently mentioned to me that she bought it for her kids- Kimberly, in particular I think. Anyway it is based on the concept that what you put out to the universe comes back to you. It is also on DVD. I think you would be interested in it. Spring Break is a wash for me this year due to work and kitchen renovations. The kids are seeing friends & watching movies. We will however, go to the rodeo with Linda, Kelly, Martin and Hannah over Easter weekend. It will be great seeing Linda and catching up.
It was great to be home this week. The year has gone by so fast. I feel like I moved into the dorms just yesterday!
You are so busy with all these organizations. I don't know how you do it all and work at the same time. Just remember, like the SVDP volunteers said, "breathe!" You're doing great things, Dad. Love you!
Sorry its been so long since I commented on your blogs...life has been hectic here, not as hectic as your life, but hectic for me.
My kids (Tim and Kim) were also home all week for spring break. Its really great to have them around for a whole week. I love the opportunity to actually cook for someone, and they really appreciate the good food after eating at school all the time.
Tim is graduating in May, and he now has 2 job offers, one from a company in Pittsburgh, and ACE (the company David works for) have both offered him a position. I'm not sure yet which one he'll take. They are two completely different companies, Bechtel Plant Machinery works with nuclear propulsion engineering where he'll be responsible for one aspect of the project. Its a large company with 800 employees doing government contract work and loads of young people his age. ACE on the other hand, while smaller will give Tim more exposure to different types of engineering and will see more aspects of an overall project than he'll probably get with Bechtel. But the age of the staff and size of the company are somewhat of a deterent. ACE is located in Newark, Delaware. They money is about the same at both companies. He has a tough decision to make.
Kimmy is doing really well at school. She is majoring in Psychology with a minor in criminal justice. She hasn't refined what she wants to do with either yet, but they are HUGE interests for her, so this should be interesting.
I recently read a book that Peggy also has read call "The Secret". This book was written by one author who worked with and interviewed many doctors and motivational speakers all over the world. The book has a lot to do with "Positive" energy. If you truly "Believe" anything is possible. There is a chapter on health in the book that addresses just what you said you're last sentenence...If you truly Believe then your wish will come true.
I will try to send it to you, you might enjoy it...very short book an easy read....you might enjoy it. It was the topic of conversation all week in my house. I thought Tim and Kim were going to throw the book at me, but it makes you think and realize that if you believe anything is possible. Cool read
Anyway it sounds like things are going well. I'm proud of you and keep the positive energy flowing.
I'm off to visit Kelly this week. I haven't been to Houston in 1 1/2 years I'm ashamed to say....so I'm really looking forward to seeing her and her place. We're off the rodeo on Saturday so I'm so excited.
Give Yoko a huge kiss for me.
Love,
Linda
Thanks Peggy, Linda and Jessie ... you guys are faithful readers and commentors/writers. I appreciate it and I appreciate your sharing your news as well!
Your daughters are absolutely beautiful! You can easily see so much of you and Yoko in all of them! Great pic and looking forward to seeing more. We've been traveling for Michelle's volleyball functions. National Qualifier in Indy last weekend and should have been in Atlanta this weekend but the tornado damage created some issues. Looks like Minneapolis in April instead. You'll have to let me know what you think about The Secret. I felt some parts were eye-opening, and some seemed too self-serving. Overall a great, thought-provoking, fast read. Hope to see you soon!
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