After a delay so I could enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend, I was supposed to start chemo on Monday, December 1st. The chemo educational class was scheduled for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, where I learned, among other things, I would take one chemo agent by mouth and the rest infused, including an immunotherapy agent, Keytruda.
My voice has been impacted in a significant way, beginning when I had trouble swallowing in July. The sound was a bit hoarse at first, but over time my voice became monotone and lacking the usual inflection and emphasis I typically give to words or phrases. The breath behind my speech was somehow reduced, so […]
Allow me to digress for a moment. It’s good therapy. I was reminded this week of my passion for music. At around 10-12 years of age, my parents agreed to buy me some drumsticks, which I used to hit on the lids attached to large-sized, empty Shedd’s peanut butter jars my mother bought at Ft. […]
The PET scan was done this week. It was about 20 minutes longer than CT scans I’ve had, with a bigger tube, and I planned with my primary care physician to have a mild sedative to address any claustrophobia I might have – it worked! On Friday, I met with a surgeon/oncologist at the Georgia […]
This week, I had a PET Scan appointment on Tuesday, which the oncologist ordered to make sure we understand the extent to which the cancer has spread or not. So far, the cancer appears limited to two lymph nodes. If confirmed, then surgery would be the solution, preceded by some chemotherapy, to removing the lymph […]
The plot thickens and thickens, as does my saliva. Almost a week after the Saturday night trip to the ER, I was again at Doctors Hospital, this time to have a stent place on my esophagus, so I could eat solid food, and to have an ultrasound to stage the cancer I was informed about […]
Saturday night, I was at the ER at Doctors Hospital in Augusta. I had an upper endoscopy procedure on Friday to improve my swallow by stretching my esophagus, and afterwards, it was most difficult to consume anything other than a protein shake. Saturday evening, I was hungry and ate some scrambled eggs and grits. Unfortunately, […]
It was great to retire in January 2025, looking forward to spending time with my wife, Stephanie, and doing some travelling we had been putting off for years. At 73, I was ready to refocus my attention after decades of devotion to various employers, many of those years commuting back and forth to Atlanta on […]
Unfolding before our eyes this week is the news coverage of the protests in Los Angeles, with some protestors peaceful, and others prone to causing damage and becoming more like rioters or anarchists, which is my interpretation of the facts. Political agendas are playing out, pitting the California governor and the US President, in conflict […]
Some of you perhaps followed CNN’s live showing of the Broadway play, “Good Night, and Good Luck”, telling the story of famous CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow, and his battle with McCarthyism and threats to journalism in the early 1950’s. The point in this play was to draw parallels to challenges to the news media […]