Health progress

[LarryHoward]

Yeah. I told him I’d be damn regretful if a scan in 2021 showed it was back and I had to revisit rejecting his experienced judgement now.

As I said before. I am the storm.

[kimbottles]

Thinking about you Captain and sending good vibes your way........

[Tucky]

Best to you Larry, you'll get through this.

[LarryHoward]

Thanks guys. I will get through it. Just had convinced myself he was going to stop at 2 and I’d be done by the Ides of March and ready for spring commissioning. We were holding off on planning a pretty celebratory Memorial Day get together until we could confirm 2 sessions.

As much as he can get into me is the best answer, albeit somewhat disappointing. I’ll be 14 months from finding the tumor to end of treatment and another 6-8 weeks after that before I have much energy. A fair trade for what I believe will be 15 or more trips around the sun. Right now, the only thing that bothers me is the muscle healing from the surgery and I’m feeling better than I have in a year. Another 3 months of treatment is doable.

[Rob McAlpine]

Respect.

[Ish]

Agree. That is a tough row to hoe. Keep a stiff pecker, guv'ner.

[Ajax]

Sounds wise. Don't want to lick that cat twice, as we say in Texas.

"Eww." Comes to mind

It does suck but it won't crash the entire year. We'll still get some fun in. Does the chemo cause any sun sensitivity or adverse effects from sunlight?

[Soñadora]

Thanks for sharing this with us Larry.

[LarryHoward]

Well,

Sitting in the hospital about 1/2way through round 9 overall and round 3 post surgery.

Finally have a plan. For some stupid reason, I keep bouncing back as far are WBC, platelets and the like, just slowly get slightly more anemic. With tha, we are trying for 6 post chemo rounds or 12 rounds overall. Last round should be Memorial Day weekend if we stay on schedule. Always a chance that I’ll crash and have to stop earlier but doctor is gaining confidence he will get 6 rounds in, even if we have to taper off the last couple.

It’s the right answer but I’ll be glad to bring in a spread for the great team on 5E on Memorial Day to thank them for their great care and unfailing good humor.

Hopefully I’ll be on the water for the blue angels the next weekend (may have Randy “guest skipper that run”) as my counts will be low and then sailing by 4th of July. Grandson gets baptized the 20th of May so will run to Florida for that. Then we will meet some old friends at a resort at Dana Point the week after 4th of July to lie in the sun, soak in the pool and partake of good Southern California food and drink.

[Chris Chesley]

Thanks for the update Larry. You've been handed a tough row to hoe but done it well and with good humor from this observer's viewpoint. Hang in there and here's praying you'll have it all in the rear view mirror this summer.

[LarryHoward]

Thanks for the update Larry. You've been handed a tough row to hoe but done it well and with good humor from this observer's viewpoint. Hang in there and here's praying you'll have it all in the rear view mirror this summer.

Thanks Chris. It is what it is. My research says the post surgical chemo is important to prevent recurrence so my doc is right to push. Other than the expected drop the week after a session, the only real drawback is growing anemia that they treat with encouraging me to eat lots of red meat and won’t transfuse unless it gets to a critical level. That leads to low energy that is cumulative so frustrating when I need/want to be doing spring boat and yard stuff. First world issues.

Looking forward to being back to normal by mid summer.

[Tim Ford]

+1 what Chris said. There's nothing better than having that light at the end of the tunnel and I suspect this one is shining brightly for you.

Red meat...now that's a bonus!

[Orestes Munn]

+1 what Chris said. There's nothing better than having that light at the end of the tunnel and I suspect this one is shining brightly for you.

Red meat...now that's a bonus!

A unit of PRBCs is like a really rare steak.

[LarryHoward]

+1 what Chris said. There's nothing better than having that light at the end of the tunnel and I suspect this one is shining brightly for you.

Red meat...now that's a bonus!

A unit of PRBCs is like a really rare steak.

As a former regular double red donor, I figure the RC owes me a couple back, but no.

[BeauV]

Larry, great to hear you're doing it right. B

[BeauV]

Larry,

I stumbled over this while reading about how cancer metastasizes last night. I thought you might find it interesting. My uneducated guess is that this lends more weight to you making the correct decision to keep going and kill the little bastards wherever they are.

[urlhttps://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/scientists-say-they-ve-discovered-unknown-human-organ-could-help-n860601]Scientists have discovered a new organ or class of organs[/url]

[LarryHoward]

Larry,

I stumbled over this while reading about how cancer metastasizes last night. I thought you might find it interesting. My uneducated guess is that this lends more weight to you making the correct decision to keep going and kill the little bastards wherever they are.

[urlhttps://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/scientists-say-they-ve-discovered-unknown-human-organ-could-help-n860601]Scientists have discovered a new organ or class of organs[/url]

Thanks Beau. I’ll leave it to the biologists to define “organ” but no doubt there are pathways other than veins and arteries.

[Ajax]

Well,

Sitting in the hospital about 1/2way through round 9 overall and round 3 post surgery.

Finally have a plan. For some stupid reason, I keep bouncing back as far are WBC, platelets and the like, just slowly get slightly more anemic. With tha, we are trying for 6 post chemo rounds or 12 rounds overall. Last round should be Memorial Day weekend if we stay on schedule. Always a chance that I’ll crash and have to stop earlier but doctor is gaining confidence he will get 6 rounds in, even if we have to taper off the last couple.

It’s the right answer but I’ll be glad to bring in a spread for the great team on 5E on Memorial Day to thank them for their great care and unfailing good humor.

Hopefully I’ll be on the water for the blue angels the next weekend (may have Randy “guest skipper that run”) as my counts will be low and then sailing by 4th of July. Grandson gets baptized the 20th of May so will run to Florida for that. Then we will meet some old friends at a resort at Dana Point the week after 4th of July to lie in the sun, soak in the pool and partake of good Southern California food and drink.

How many rounds left, Larry? 2 or 3? You're sooooo close to being done!

[LarryHoward]

Well,

Sitting in the hospital about 1/2way through round 9 overall and round 3 post surgery.

Finally have a plan. For some stupid reason, I keep bouncing back as far are WBC, platelets and the like, just slowly get slightly more anemic. With tha, we are trying for 6 post chemo rounds or 12 rounds overall. Last round should be Memorial Day weekend if we stay on schedule. Always a chance that I’ll crash and have to stop earlier but doctor is gaining confidence he will get 6 rounds in, even if we have to taper off the last couple.

It’s the right answer but I’ll be glad to bring in a spread for the great team on 5E on Memorial Day to thank them for their great care and unfailing good humor.

Hopefully I’ll be on the water for the blue angels the next weekend (may have Randy “guest skipper that run”) as my counts will be low and then sailing by 4th of July. Grandson gets baptized the 20th of May so will run to Florida for that. Then we will meet some old friends at a resort at Dana Point the week after 4th of July to lie in the sun, soak in the pool and partake of good Southern California food and drink.

How many rounds left, Larry? 2 or 3? You're sooooo close to being done!

Had a long one (5 days) this past weekend and am starting to suffer some side effects as the blood counts drop. That’s probably the worst part. I feel pretty good most of the time I’m in the hospital and they treat effectively for the immediate effects. It’s a couple of days after I come home that the unavoidable side effects kick in for about a week. Of course, it’s a crazy work week so doing office, telecommute and conference calls to keep things moving on that front.

Two sessions to go. Last one should be Memorial Day weekend. As my oncologist keeps reminding me, it’s a cumulative process so the side effects get a bit worse with each treatment. It looks like I have the reserves to get through the desired course of 12 total sessions. At a year now, it’s a lot more of a journey that I thought it would be when we started (I’m a lot smarter now) but all of the signs are good. I can do the next two standing on my head if that’s what’s required.

Thanks for asking.

[Slick470]

Glad to hear that you can see the daylight at the end of the treatment. As has been mentioned before, if you need any help getting things sorted out with your boat this spring/summer, we can form up a work party to help get you sailing. Just say the word.

[LarryHoward]

Glad to hear that you can see the daylight at the end of the treatment. As has been mentioned before, if you need any help getting things sorted out with your boat this spring/summer, we can form up a work party to help get you sailing. Just say the word.

Thanks Andy. We will be another 6-8 weeks before we do anything and one big benefit of having the boat here is that it’s easy to do a bit each day on the commissioning and clean up. A diver will handle the bottom and prop and I’m going to bring in someone to sand and Cetol the topside teak. Canvas and sails are a one day effort after that and we will be happy to daysail as we start slowly.

Waiting for the power company to connect the new garage so we can find the bow rider in its shed, pull it out and get the bottom painted and launch it. That’s only a couple of days and between the “kids” and a couple of friends should go pretty quickly once we are ready.

[BeauV]

Larry, having had a Mom, Dad, and a number of friends who have gone through something like what you're dealing with.... I'd strongly suggest that this is the time to indulge yourself. Spend some money. Save your strength for the fun times and hire folks to dig things out, set things up, and clean things off. There have to be folks who can do this for you. You can just "smile-n-dial" for help. Just my 2 cents worth.

[kimbottles]

You are one tough dude Captain.
RESPECT!

[Tim Ford]

As my oncologist keeps reminding me, it’s a cumulative process so the side effects get a bit worse with each treatment.

Interesting and good to know, 'cause I did not know that.

I have a dear friend getting treatments for AML. It was smooth going at first and looked to be no big deal. Lately, he has been suffering and frankly I was getting very concerned. The good news is that the Docs love his numbers in terms of the way he has been responding.

And yes, RESPECT!

[LarryHoward]

OK two appointments today. One to remove the Groshan Catheter (Chemo port) and my “end of chemo” oncologist visit. Officially in the “no evidence of disease”/follow up with scans for the future. It’s been a long and rugged 16 months but feeling a bit stronger every day. Rumor that my hair will start growing back in the next few weeks.

I guess we will call this thread “done.” Thanks for all of your support. You can’t imagine how much it has helped.

Larry

[Orestes Munn]

"Groshong" and may none of us ever have to suffer one. I sort of got used to you glabrous. I'd be happy to introduce you to my barber, Mr. Giuseppe (Beppo the buzzer) Norelco.

This is one thread I am very happy to see ended.

[kdh]

Congratulations Larry.

I don't know if anyone's told you this but when your hair comes back it might come back curly. Mine did. And apparently really soft, according to one of the girls on my dorm hall (I was in college).

It eventually went back to the way it was before.

[kimbottles]

Congratulations Larry, really glad to see this thread disappear!

[Slick470]

As others have said, Congratulations Larry. Looking forward to many more cheerful threads from you and to raising a glass with you sometime soon.

[LarryHoward]

Congratulations Larry.

I don't know if anyone's told you this but when your hair comes back it might come back curly. Mine did. And apparently really soft, according to one of the girls on my dorm hall (I was in college).

It eventually went back to the way it was before.

Saw signs of that when I was off chemo for the surgery and recovery. Hair started to come back. Beard was very soft but I kept it and my head shaved with the reasoning that it would all fall out again as soon as I restarted chemo so it wasn’t worth confusing people.

I’m thinking curly red hair might be good this time but suspect it will be grey whatever the texture.