Every time I step out of the shower, I sneeze four times, and I am never well equipped at the moment - the towel I am drying with, and the kleenex box too far away. Love getting clean and then sneezing all over myself.
Another uneventful week. No more dizziness, just a lot of headaches, which I am beginning to think must be allergies. I am going to take allegra tonight, see if that stops the sneezing and headaches, and start up the chemo routine again, just pills. The doc thinks I should get one more spinal/chemo shot this week, and that seems like a good idea, so we’ll probably do that Friday. He reminded me that all my tests are good although the headaches trouble him, and that this is a long haul, and I should forget about feeling really good for another year or so. The headaches and dizziness could be the result of the chemo, and for crying out loud, both allegra and methotrexate, which I will take in an hour, both caution that dizziness is a side effect. He says he has patients that are ten+ years done with this treatment and fine.
I tried golfing Wed., really weak, even when I hit it well it didn’t go far. I am down to 161 pounds and really concentrating on eating, and I don’t do much, so where the hell is it going? Gotta hit the gym and the driving range. I’ve been really boring and bored, watching TV and sleeping. If you watch Cops enough you really get a sad idea of the state of the drug war in this country. Giant court, police and prison bureaucracies will keep that war going for a long time, and we will all suffer from the madness. Put everyone on prozak and Zoloft!
Thanks for all the positive inputs and thoughts, the long battle continues, it could be worse, I could be hooked on meth. Yikes. Check these photos.
http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/Link.asp?L=160850
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Saturday, July 23, 2005
zzzzzzzzzz
It seems the worst of the mystery illness is over. I don’t have any more fevers, my weight has stabilized at 165 (was down to 161 from 175), and I am only sleeping 12 hours/day, and I’m pretty weak. Still a little unbalanced, and I may need to do some therapy to fix that.
The doc is still mystified. So I went to see the ear/nose/throat doc Wed., and she said I definitely did not have a sinus infection, she doesn’t see anything on the MRI like that. So that wasn’t it, someone was fishing. My regular doc says to me that he is concerned that the leukemia is hiding up in my head and that is what is causing this. My blood work is good, my spinal fluid is clear, but he says in some rare cases some leukemia cells hide out, and that could cause these symptoms. Let’s hope he is wrong. We agreed to see if I continue to improve for one more week, and if I don’t it’s spinal tap/chemo time again.
Young John got a job finally, at Cugini’s, and Mike is taking tennis and playing some hoops. Mike is going to Camp Tulequoia 1st week of Aug, then my Mom and sister Leslie are coming to visit, and then Mike is going camping with friends. I may try to take an overnighter this weekend, up to Big Sur, we’ll see. Dana is sick of looking at me lying around, so I better go lay around somewhere else. I’ll have to try swinging a golf club soon, though the balance thing is messing me up.
The doc is still mystified. So I went to see the ear/nose/throat doc Wed., and she said I definitely did not have a sinus infection, she doesn’t see anything on the MRI like that. So that wasn’t it, someone was fishing. My regular doc says to me that he is concerned that the leukemia is hiding up in my head and that is what is causing this. My blood work is good, my spinal fluid is clear, but he says in some rare cases some leukemia cells hide out, and that could cause these symptoms. Let’s hope he is wrong. We agreed to see if I continue to improve for one more week, and if I don’t it’s spinal tap/chemo time again.
Young John got a job finally, at Cugini’s, and Mike is taking tennis and playing some hoops. Mike is going to Camp Tulequoia 1st week of Aug, then my Mom and sister Leslie are coming to visit, and then Mike is going camping with friends. I may try to take an overnighter this weekend, up to Big Sur, we’ll see. Dana is sick of looking at me lying around, so I better go lay around somewhere else. I’ll have to try swinging a golf club soon, though the balance thing is messing me up.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
A little tipsy
What a crappy week. I woke up last Wednesday, stood up, and nearly fell over. I walked downstairs and was very dizzy, and I started vomiting. Here it is now almost a week later and I am still running a fever, with a big headache and an aching back, and I’ve lost ten pounds this week. It is getting better though; the double vision is gone, I can use a computer, and I was vertical most of yesterday.
When it started I thought, this is great, this is some inner ear thing. I’d been surfing Sunday and Monday, so maybe I picked up something in the water. I called my doc, said Hey, either I have an ear infection or a brain tumor, and went in to see him, but he saw no evidence of an ear infection. He wanted me to get an MRI, because he was worried the swelling in my brain had messed up the spinal fluid flow. He also wanted me to get an extra spinal tap and chemo injection, just in case that swelling had blocked the last spinal chemo injection.
Sheesh, I started typing this at 9 this morning, but couldn’t get it done. I’ll try again.
So I went in and had an MRI, and what a bizarre bunch of noises that thing makes, like a collection of factory noises with Tourette Syndrome. Not painful, unless you are claustrophobic, which I am not. The MRI showed I have a sinus infection. That’s it. So I go on antibiotics, and Friday I go back to Spinal Tap city. That went fine too, but I was not feeling any better, dizzy, nauseous, couldn’t eat, sweats, chills. I don’t know if the antibiotics are helping or the infection is just wearing out, because yesterday the doc says he thinks it’s viral.
I’m thinking Lyme disease, West Nile virus, or ???? Just going to have to wait it out. If I’d gotten whatever the hell I got pre-leukemia, I’d think I had the flu. Now, though, I get an MRI and a spinal tap.
And to top it all off, Dana says to me the other day, ‘When did you lose your eyebrows?” It was always a joke before, with the Eyebrow Lowbrow, but now it’s finally happening. I just hope I don’t lose my eyelashes too.
When it started I thought, this is great, this is some inner ear thing. I’d been surfing Sunday and Monday, so maybe I picked up something in the water. I called my doc, said Hey, either I have an ear infection or a brain tumor, and went in to see him, but he saw no evidence of an ear infection. He wanted me to get an MRI, because he was worried the swelling in my brain had messed up the spinal fluid flow. He also wanted me to get an extra spinal tap and chemo injection, just in case that swelling had blocked the last spinal chemo injection.
Sheesh, I started typing this at 9 this morning, but couldn’t get it done. I’ll try again.
So I went in and had an MRI, and what a bizarre bunch of noises that thing makes, like a collection of factory noises with Tourette Syndrome. Not painful, unless you are claustrophobic, which I am not. The MRI showed I have a sinus infection. That’s it. So I go on antibiotics, and Friday I go back to Spinal Tap city. That went fine too, but I was not feeling any better, dizzy, nauseous, couldn’t eat, sweats, chills. I don’t know if the antibiotics are helping or the infection is just wearing out, because yesterday the doc says he thinks it’s viral.
I’m thinking Lyme disease, West Nile virus, or ???? Just going to have to wait it out. If I’d gotten whatever the hell I got pre-leukemia, I’d think I had the flu. Now, though, I get an MRI and a spinal tap.
And to top it all off, Dana says to me the other day, ‘When did you lose your eyebrows?” It was always a joke before, with the Eyebrow Lowbrow, but now it’s finally happening. I just hope I don’t lose my eyelashes too.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
BBQ
Saturday amWork, work, work, that’s what Dana would say about now. I have a crazy idea, and Dana gets to work, work, work. Well, the shopping’s done, the salad’s made, the brownies are made, we’re all ready to go get the tri-tips and set up the BBQ. I need to go load the car with firewood. We were very fortunate to receive a load of Mac’s Ho-Spice via special shipment, complete with a Rick and Bubba Hat (unstained and thus virginal until later today), so we are now guaranteed success with the meats, and maybe the ladies too, if what Mac says is true – ‘Ho-spice on your meat, the ladies can’t retreat.’ ‘Ho-spice on your steak, you won’t get to take a break.’ ‘Ho-spice on your dinner, they all say you’re a real winner.’ ‘Ho-spice on your possum, you’ll get to see her bottom.’ ‘Ho-spice on her tummy, this is going to be so yummy. ’ ‘Ho-spice on your armadillo, what you doing with that pillow?’
Saturday pm
I knew I should've gotten the dang firewood days ago, but no, Saturday was better. Except the guy din't show up at the wood pile until 10:30, 30 min. late, and then the oak was on another ranch, and then we couldn't find any split cured oak in the 30 or so cords that were lying around. So he said, well, take some rounds, and we started to do that when he suggested we just split some stuff up. Since I was faced with going to Home Depot and paying a fortune, and taking more time than splitting wood, we started splitting wood. Made it to the park by 12:15.
The BBQ was a lot of fun. After we got set up and struggled with igniting oak that was not cured enough, people started showing up, and they were wearing eyebrow lowbrows, like these clowns!
Bushy eyebrows, get it?
I made the potentially disastrous suggestion that Beauch make sure everyone got a nametag, thus mine read 'Cranky Ass John', Dana was 'Spudhead Dana, Lia was 'Biff' and young John was 'Fat Sonny', as 'Slim Shady' was taken. Beauch was 'Mr. Normal'.
I wrote my own song:
'They took me off the steroids,
and now I've got the hemorrhoids,
that is why they call me Cranky Ass John.
(chorus)
Cranky Ass John, Cranky Ass John,
His groaning and complaining
go on and on.'
We played a game Dana came up with that I named Encantado, where everyone got a sheet of paper with questions about different people at the BBQ. They had to talk to most of the people at the BBQ to answer the questions. Or do like Beauch and just make up answers, just like he did all through school. Did you know I went to school with the Pope? These were our questions.
Encantado
1. Who went to SLO High with Dana?
2. Who was married to a stuntman, and has a son who is a stuntman?
3. Who is Manitoubou, the BLOG commenter?
4. Who taught Mikey the proper use of obscenities, the f*^&R#R%ing imbecile, when Mikey was 5? A note here, we said the answer was Nick, but really it was Wayne. Nick would always yell 'Pull your head out'; he preferred implied obscenities.
5. Who are the Fiores’ neighbors?
6. Who was born in Chile?
7. Who is building a house?
8. Who was a bone marrow donor?
9. Who does yoga?
10. Who is going to Spain this summer?
11. Who plays rock guitar?
12. Who shot a 78 from the blue tees at Dairy Creek last week?
13. Who speaks the most languages?
14. Who did the electricity for Fiore’s hot tub?
15. Who has Fiore known since junior high?
16. Who hiked Machu Picchu?
Of course some of the people on the questions couldn't make the BBQ, and that was too bad but we certainly understand that things happen.
I want to give special thanks to Roger, Jen, Barry, Lia, and Gloria, for all their help getting prepped and getting us all fed. Roger and Barry helped us get all set up, then cooked up a storm, and Jen, Lia and Gloria were on the spot whenever something needed to get done, and spent a lot of time helping us get ready and helping us clean up. Without these people, we wouldn't have got this done.
Nick and Dyan and their two prodigies drove all the way down from San Jose, and then drove back! I forgot to get them their prize for longest one-day drive! Jake and Zack, watch the mail!
Sunday am
I was supposed to surf with Beauch this am, but woke up with major hamstring and calf cramps. This is still a recurring theme whenever I do something physical the day before, an annoyance of anemia. I have been working on getting this post done, and worked on it last night for a while, but it is going to take some time to get right. And, I just talked to Beauch, the crowds have left the water and the surf is still alright, so I am going to publish this the way it is for now, but it will be revised and more pics added later today. Stay tuned.
Sunday pm
We surfed, had a good time, beach was packed with escapees from Fresno, beating the heat in Morro Bay. We got there at noon so the waves weren't crowded, but the wind hadn't come up so the waves were OK. Lots of paddling, not many waves - my motor is undersized for the body it's trying to push. Got a couple of good ones, started cramping in the calves, got one more and called it a day. Tiring weekend.
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