Only 138 days left until I retire. Not that I’m counting or anything.
I took my drone flying today. There’s an old railroad car yard that’s been left to rust near my home. I’d been meaning to fly out there for a while now. Today was the day. I was off today being that today was Good Friday. The wind was a little high but I managed to get the flight off without much of a problem. I’ve got another flight plan that takes the drone down a little closer, maybe I’ll get to do it tomorrow.
I finally heard from my pharmacy today and I should be able to get my new meds on Tuesday of next week. I sure hope I do well with this med. I talked to the pharmacist and they told me that there’s a lot of side effects. Some pretty bad. I can deal with some of the effects as long as the medicine works. We shall see.
Hello everyone!! I hope everyone had a great weekend and is looking forward to going back to work. Me? I had a great weekend but I am not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. I guess most of are not.
My wife is off all week next week for spring break. I’d like to take off with her but I’m trying to save my time just in case I have to go back to the hospital. If I have time I’ll take two weeks either in June or July to go on vacation with my family. I could save my time and just get paid for it when I retire but my kids would be able to get out of school in August when I do retire.
This weekend was spent in my backyard doing some pruning. I’ve let my backyard go for several years because simply I haven’t felt like doing any type of yard work. So now I’m paying for it. Shrubs have grown into trees so I’m back there with an electric chainsaw cutting everything down and dragging it to the street. The chainsaw is only good for about two hours and as luck would have it, that’s about how long I can last without taking some sort of a break. I got a lot done this weekend but I’ve still got a lot more to do. Here’s an aerial view of my backyard. Too bad I don’t have a before picture so you can see what I’ve done.
There’s an area just to the right and behind the white truck that I’ve cleaned out and to the right and behind the large bush directly behind the deck. I’ve cut down the large bush after this picture was taken. The brush people will not be happy with me when they come and pick up the pile. It’s enormous.
I hope everyone has a great week ahead. I’m only working four days. I’m off Good Friday. All my kids are coming home so I’m planning on doing something with them on Saturday. Sunday we’re spending it with my wife’s parents. Lovely. (Insert sarcasm here)
My meds never came this weekend. I guess a call to my oncologist will be in order for tomorrow.
Good news!! I’m down three pounds this week. I’m trying to keep my carb intake to about 35 but I’m not doing so well. Maybe I’ll do better next week.
My meds still have not arrived. I guess I’ll call my oncologist on Monday if I don’t get it this weekend.
Tomorrow I plan on doing some cleaning up in my backyard. After which I plan on flying my drone. My son is coming home tomorrow sometime so I want to make sure I’m here when he get’s here. Next weekend is Easter weekend and all my kids should be home. I’m really looking forward to that. I can’t believe they’ve grown up on me. Two in college and one living on his own. They sure do grow up fast.
My new CML meds have not arrived as promised. They were supposed to have arrived on Tuesday but alas, not here yet. My oncologist called this morning to see if I had started taken them yet. He was not happy that they had not arrived. He said that he was going to find out where my meds are at and let me know.
I’ve attempted to start dieting again. It’s been a tough couple of days. I’m doing the low carb diet. I lost 60 lbs on it last time I was on it and I’ve still got that and many more to go. I’m trying to limit my carbs to 35 a day. Today and yesterday I have gone way over. Today was better than yesterday and I’m hoping that tomorrow will be even better. I want to get down to 255 by August 15th and I’m 276 now. I don’t think I”ll have a problem reaching it if I can gain the willpower to stick with it. In 2009, I weighed the most I’ve ever weighed. At 346, I came to the realization that I had to do something. Especially since my doctor told me that I wouldn’t see my kids graduate college if I didn’t do something.
The other reason I’m on the low carb diet is that of my sugar. My body can’t handle carbs. I can drink a cup of milk and my sugar will jump from 159 to over 250. I did well all day today until I got home. I checked my sugar around 5:30pm and it was 185. I had a cup of milk, exactly 1 cup, not a glass full, and when I checked it just now, 10:35pm, it was 325. The last time I did the low carb diet I pretty much did away with carbs altogether. I went from a 9.6 A1c to 6.7 A1c in six months. Now that I’ve gotten off my diet, my sugar has gone out of control.
My oncologist called this evening wanting to know if my new meds had come in. They had not. He told me that my BCR-Abl numbers had greatly improved which is very surprising being that I’ve been off my Sprycel for nearly two months. Too bad my body can’t handle the medicine any longer. Once my new meds get here, which should be within a few days, I’ll start taking it. The side effects looks pretty bad, diarrhea, fluid retention in both the heart and lungs, low red blood counts, liver problems and multiple other issues. Bosulif will be the third medication that I will be on. There are only a couple more that is out there that is approved by the FDA. I’m hoping this works with minimal side effects
We had some pretty bad storms come through the northern part of our state yesterday afternoon and evening. There was an EF3 tornado hit one of our colleges and destroyed a lot of student dorms and apartments. Luckily, most of the students were away for spring break. I’m not sure where the students will live once school resumes. Thankfully there were no fatalities. Although, we keep hearing of one fatality through social media but not through official sources.
I had a small altercation with another vehicle this afternoon as I’m trying to enter the interstate. As you can see by the sign I was clearly in the right. If I hadn’t slowed down we would have sideswiped each other. I’m not sure who’s fault it would have been but at times I wished I had a machine gun attached to my bumper.
As I sit here tonight, they are predicting severe weather for tomorrow evening. The biggest threat is north Alabama but they include large hail, strong winds, and a few strong tornados. I can handle the severe thunderstorms but tornados is another thing. I’m still not over the tornado outbreak of 2011 that wiped out nearly half of our town and killed eleven people in our community.
What I’m also doing is putting together a few videos that I’ve created. Most of which have been taken to try and boost the city’s morale. We have several city FaceBook pages and each one of them consist of negativity about our community. We lost a lot of homes and families right after the tornado. With these homes destroyed, many of which were never rebuilt and the families moved out. With that said, we lost a lot of tax money. Our city doesn’t have the money for a lot of the upkeep and people are complaining about the trash, businesses closing, and crime. What I’m trying to do is post these videos on these pages showing what we have to be proud of; A nice athletic complex, a nice school, a storm shelter, etc.
During the tornado of 2011, we thought we had lost the brand new school. Some kids and I were on a bus with the band heading to Orlando for a school trip when the tornado hit. There were all sorts of rumors that told of the school burning, people lying on the ground dead and many other stories. Most of which were true but the school did not catch on fire.
The tornado hit about a half a mile from the school and the athletic complex. Like I said, a lot of rumors floated around and we were happy that we didn’t lose either of these landmarks. My house was also spared thankfully. The athletic complex is one of the jewels of our community. Between the complex and our park (I don’t have a video of it as of yet), the kids of our community wouldn’t have a place to go and play. My kids were fortunate to be able to spend a great deal of time at the park and they couldn’t wait to go and play in the creek.
I think we take for granted these places that our city has supplied for us. We always focus on the negativity instead of the positive. I’m really hoping these storms that are predicted for tomorrow will pass us by. I’m really hoping!! I’ll let you guys know how we faired tomorrow night.
Oncologist Update: Because of some miscommunications with the insurance company, go figure, I have not been approved to be on my new medicine yet. I may end up walking the paperwork to the department myself if they keep losing it. Anyway, it’s been six weeks or more since I’ve had any CML meds and we, more so me than the doctor it seems, are starting to get a little concerned that my numbers might get a little high. If the insurance company approves the meds, it could take up to three weeks before my meds arrive. Nothing to do but wait. But, as luck would have it, the representative for the new drug was there in his office. He gave my doctor a card for a free 30 day supply which should arrive by Tuesday of next week. This should give my insurance company time to process my approval for this drug.
Bloodwork. It’s been six weeks since my last lab. My last one wasn’t good at all. Every one of my numbers was either very high or very low. Yesterday’s numbers were normal for the most part. This was in large part the effect of the drug I was on. The side effects just made my daily life impossible to deal with.
New Drug: Bosulif is the name of the new drug. Right now I’ve been on two of the most common and there are only a few left that is approved by the FDA. Thanks to Karen Davis-Hudson she eased my mind about some of the side effects that were mentioned in the insert. However, Karen, I think you mentioned that 1/10 developed fluid retention, my doctor said 4/10. Not that much of a difference. The other side effects I think I can handle.
The Good News: The doctor and I both agree that the fluid in my lungs is gone and we’re going to have a positive attitude that it will not return and that this medicine will be the last one I have to be on because this one will work. I can breathe, my color is back and most importantly, I feel good. So much so, that if the weather holds, I’m going to try to get my bicycle out one day this weekend.
This is all due to all the prayers that have been lifted up for me and my family. Thank you so much.
I remember going to these things when my boy was in cub scouts. I would always end up working on the car because he would never do it the way I wanted him to do it. We had fun working together anyway. It was a good time for us. He was at the, what I would like to call, the fun age. We would always find something to do together. He loved the scouts as did I. This gave us a wonderful opportunity to be together plus it gave him an opportunity for him to be around kids his own age. I really miss those days. He’s grown now, moved out of the house not long ago and into an apartment not far from here.
Boy Scouts has changed somewhat since I was a boy scout those many years ago. One thing that hasn’t changed is the program and what they have to offer. You may not like what’s happened within the past few years, neither do I in some aspects but there’s one thing they still offer, and that’s a program that keeps the boys out of trouble and in doing so they have the opportunity to learn something.
I digress. This article was supposed to be about the Pinewood Derby which was held yesterday. Eighteen cars were entered from all over our district. Nearly all the boys won some sort of trophy. They had to win their division just be able to race their car in this race so they had to win something before they got there. Everyone had a great time. Hope you enjoy the video.
Today I got the news that a co-worker passed away. We were kind of expecting it but still, nonetheless. He’s had kidney problems most of his adult life and has had two transplants. This wasn’t what he died of though. He had a stroke during Christmas and never really got over it. He’s had several mini strokes since then. He left his daughter of 21 years.
This was the third one in about a month. My 80-year-old aunt died from complications from diabetes, my bothers mother in law died from bone cancer and now my co-worker. I hope this will be the last one for a while.
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