time is getting short

Enjoy the party. For the 50th and for you.

What Joani said!!

Managing this disease, especially in these end stages (which we all still hope doesn't really signal the end, at least not any time soon), has to be the most complex and results-charged management job you were ever tasked with.

Joanimaroni wrote: My life felt shorter yesterday. I had steroid blocks in my back and the procedure went well but steroids can elevate the blood sugar levels.

When I got home I took my diabetic medicine and ate three little pieces of watermelon. I took a short nap and woke up thirsty and drank  two bottles of water. Then I developed a headache and I took two Tylenol which always clears my head ache within 30 minutes. Couldn't get the headache to stop and my vision got blurry.  I felt very uncomfortable so I took my blood sugar and it was 504. I've never had a reading over 200. So I went to the ER and checked in at 7:30 PM. After complete work up including a CT scan for my head and multiple lab studies, 10 units of IV insulin, Toradol IV for the my headache, which did nothing and was followed by IV  morphine. The morphine relax me but did not relieve the headache hence the CT scan. Thank God that came back normal and my blood sugar slowly came down after the insulin to 354.  I was discharged at 2:30 AM after declining admission I felt comfortable enough to go home and followed up with my family practice doctor this morning. It was scary last night.  I am new to this type two diabetes.

I am very fond of my new family practice doctor. His schedule today was only a half a day starting at 1:30 and he was booked but the nurses called him and told him my situation and he came in 45 minutes early to see me. Feeling better now and hope to get some rest.

Dictated not read... eyes still blurry

When and how did you get diabetes? I knew you had Celiac disease but now you have diabetes?

Auto immune disorders... all hit at the same time.

Great party and Mrs. Seaoat got wasted.....I could drive and for the first time in months she got to relax. Five Tang and tonics......yikes.......the most she would do would be three in a typical night out, but I guess she figures there will be few opportunities to have me as her designated driver......

One of those parties where being sick I have not seen people in years and the overwhelming message to me was a bunch of Old people...........this aging process is speeding up. Nothing like being with a bunch of drinking Irishman and not being able to drink.....the food was great, and I crammed. Weigh on Monday and hopefully weight will be up.

Sounds fun. I'm glad she enjoyed herself. At a final table... top 3 stack. Lots of shoving if I can catch a hand.

That 14k win has got you playing more poker. I played for an hour after Northwestern, and won two hundred, but it is hard for me to win because most of the players know since I have been sick that my decisions are even worse than they were before. I did get an all in bet on my first hand just shoving until all my chips were gone, and he backed down on the river after I convinced him I had caught a pair before the flop..........I love the game but do not have the strength or endurance to ever enjoy it like I did........I never had a 14k win in poker. My usual poker tournament win is between four and five thousand, and I have not been to a final table in two years.

Got knocked out in 5th... a little under 3k. There was an old guy over 90 that was catching like crazy. He was a lot of fun tho and I hope he wins. He hit the river more times than I could count... lol. Fun time.

I wish I could play tennis competitively... but this is a fun outlet. I've played 7 tournaments this summer. Cashed in 5... two firsts. I'm starting to get my patience back. I know that's the hard part for you now. It's really the key to tournaments tho as you know. I wish I'd have met you that day in Chicago.

I felt pretty stupid with this red ribbon tied to my baseball hat, but at least I found you messing with the Russian. I won eight hundred that day and was happy. It was good to have people in the Poker room come up and say hello....they all thought I was dead, but with the winter in Florida and my descent into hell since March, I just could not play.

They are giving 25 dollar food vouchers for four hours of play. I figure I am going to drive over a few times in August and take the wife out for dinner. I just with not working anymore do not have the discretionary income to sit and play badly. I missed three or four hands where I did not know what I had when I got to the river. Not good.

I guess you saw the most raw side of me. I'm very easy going except when it comes to a game.

I just can't help myself.

Living in a party town the past couple of decades I've seen too many folks dying of diseases that are frequently linked to alcohol consumption. Y'all be careful, y'hear?

linked to alcohol consumption

My daughter told me....Dad, I never saw you intoxicated.......yet, I am going to die much earlier than ALL my friends who knew how to really drink. I have never felt comfortable with somebody who does not drink, and now I am one of those people who do not drink. I did taste the juniper in her Tang and Tonics, and drinking is never a problem with us, but her smoking does get me worried when she coughs and insists that it is sinus issues. However, drinking and smoking my mom made it to 90 and I will not........and I never smoked, yet got lung tumors.

2seaoat wrote:However, drinking and smoking my mom made it to 90 and I will not........and I never smoked, yet got lung tumors.

Sucks. Obviously everyone is affected differently, and some apparently suffer no ill effects at all.

Hope your daughter can quit smoking, and soon.* Why voluntarily continue to add such a major risk factor to the mix? And latest research seems to indicate that even moderate drinking is also a risk not worth taking.

*I was a very heavy smoker who had her first cigarette at age 11 and started pretty serious smoking at age 15. I quit cold turkey on National Smoke-Out Day at age 44 -- far too many years. No lung cancer to date, but I did have breast cancer and who knows? Main effect so far is I've been slower to recover from any lung infection (bronchitis, pneumonia, whatever) ever since, and probably always will be.

Tell your daughter if/when she decides to quit, the three things that helped me the most:

Sucking on high quality, large fireballs from a candy store - just for the first week or so.

Chewing sugar free bubble gum - this for quite a while.

VISUALIZING myself at a very young age, tooling down the sidewalk on my trike on a sunny summer's day -- birds chirping, leaves stirring in the trees -- and NOT ONE THOUGHT OF A CIGARETTE. I kept telling myself I could get back to that 'innocent', non-addicted state, and eventually I did.

I didn't use any patches or other nicotine substitutes, as I figured that would only prolong things.

Worked for me - but she has to be ready and committed. Will hope for the best for her!

I am sorry, but it was Mrs. Seaoat who smokes, my daughter never has. My wife when she taught would have about five smokes a day. It took her forever to smoke a pack. She still smokes about five times a day, and I insisted a few years ago that she go in and get an xray because of the sinus drainage it sounded like she had a constant cough. She was clear. My son smoked for awhile, but I have not seen him smoke in years now. After seeing people in the end stages of cancer for the last ten years, I wish those images could be seared into the mind of every kid who is thinking it is cool to smoke.

2seaoat wrote:I am sorry, but it was Mrs. Seaoat who smokes, my daughter never has.  My wife when she taught would have about five smokes a day.  It took her forever to smoke a pack.  She still smokes about five times a day, and I insisted a few years ago that she go in and get an xray because of the sinus drainage it sounded like she had a constant cough.  She was clear.  My son smoked for awhile, but I have not seen him smoke in years now.  After seeing people in the end stages of cancer for the last ten years, I wish those images could be seared into the mind of every kid who is thinking it is cool to smoke.

Agreed.

And sorry I apparently misread your post - thought you were still talking about your daughter.   Hope your wife can give up the five smokes.

In time, I am sure she will.

I think she is hooked. Her mother was a chain smoker who lived to 90. When we would spend the night at her mother's house, we had to sleep on the floor to breathe. My father in law had sealed the house with caulk and insulation, and they both chain smoked. Her wedding dress was in her old bedroom and the nicotine and tar had yellowed her wedding dress in 20 years sitting in the closet with a plastic cover. No she fully knows the dangers of smoking, but argues she smokes so few that she is not going to try to quit.

9 days to my second PRRT radiation treatment. I have put back on about eight pounds. I am still weak, but I was not going to live to July if this treatment was not available for me. I just do not get it. The FDA approves the PRRT in January and Medicare paid for my treatment.....which without the same I was dead. I have come right to the brink of death, and it was ugly. My wife would come in late at night to see if I was still breathing, and now I am getting stronger each day. These treatments will not cure me. They will simply buy me time. The average is about three years additional life compared to patients who do not get the treatment. Steve Jobs flew to Switzerland and got PRRT, but he had complications with his liver transplant which only had him live about a year longer after PRRT. I realize I am in the end stage of the disease and I have set the record for the highest hormone level in an endocrine patient at Northwestern Hospital......not a good thing.

The end is ugly and I will revisit it again. I would like to tell you I am prepared for the same, but it was horrible, and I honestly thought at any time I was going to slip into that end coma. So I am cutting the lawn again, and using the bobcat. I will try to continue to eat protein and hope some of my wasted muscles will regain some mass. My shoulders still look like I escaped from a concentration camp. Cancer is a battle you simply do not win, but if you can capture just a little bit of quality of life at the end, it is all worth it.

Father time is undefeated unfortunately.

2seaoat wrote:9 days to my second PRRT radiation treatment.

You will be at Northwestern the same week that my son and d.i.l. arrive in Chicago to live. I don't know when she actually starts work at NW, and she'll be in a completely different area anyway, but it's cool to think of the proximity. I did tell them you recommend the Signature Room for lunch and you never know...

They've rented an apartment on the 27th floor of their bldg. with a view of the lake. Still not anywhere near as high a view as from the Hancock Bldg., but not bad!

In any event, thanks again for sharing so much with us. You already know our best wishes are with you all the way.

Take it easy on the Bobcat, and maybe don't overdo this first time back on. After my hospitalization/surgery in mid-May and six week recovery period I was horrified at how fast muscle had disappeared -- am only just now feeling pretty close to back where I was with my hand held weight lifting routine.

They need to go to the Chicago Art Museum. There is only one better and that is in Paris. Also, the Aquarium, Field Museum, baseball games, and a Preseason Bears game at Soldiers Field. There is so much to do on the North Shore, and they will never run out of quality restaurants.

The girls are back in school so we will probably wait until veteran's day when they are off school to take them to the signature room. I am still hoping for improvement which will allow me to go to Florida this winter, so we need to make the trip with the girls before Christmas. My last treatment with PRRT will be December 22, a full two months beyond what my surgeon thought I would live with my high hormone count. He was right because I should have been dead in June, but the Europeans sure nailed this PRRT treatment and I feel blessed that right down to weeks of survival left I got the treatment. Life is ironic. You get a plate full of bad stuff and then somebody sprinkles a little fairy dust.....and you keep on truckin.

I have no doubt they'll get to all the top spots in Chicago, thanks. And they're big Yankees fans so will doubtless convert to Cubs people and attend many games as they do now. As for restaurants, as New Yorkers (and my son a foodie) they recognize top notch when they experience it, and will surely have a grand time learning what's best and where, as they did over time in NYC (but never did hit every single great place -- didn't even get to Delmonico's, for instance, until their wedding anniversary last September [our treat]). Hopefully lots of years left for them to explore Chi-town's offerings.

The PRRT treatment was obviously a skin-of-your-teeth lifesaver and thank goodness it came available. Let us know how you do next week. Hope it doesn't knock you quite as far down this time before you bounce back.

Just met with the Hospice nurse and we agree that with the improvements in my health, she will only visit once a month. This is a step in the right direction. She is amazed at the difference since PRRT treatment. I remember how Markle always put down European socialized medicine, but those folks saved my life.

This really sounds good! And f*** Markle, the raving idiot.

RealLindaL wrote:This really sounds good!  And f*** Markle, the raving idiot.

Congratulations seaoat. I thought of Markle the paid Russian spammer when I shopped a photo on the political page tonight. Maybe I was wrong about P-Dawg being that obnoxious new sock on the political page, hmmm.