Wellbeing

He laughed

Do want to hear something funny? Who doesn’t, that’s what I wanna know? It’s not human. It’s un-frigging-American! But enough already. It seems I may have heart disease. Did you bust your gut? Maybe blow a few rivets? You gotta hand it to my body. It’s a regular… well… some comedian who’s really funny. There are five-year-olds who deal with worse…
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Wellbeing

One year

On this day, one year ago, I learned my leukemia was not in remission anymore. The disease I think about every day anyway, was back on active duty. But you know what? The numbers from blood tests the docs look at to determine when it’s time to start chemotherapy haven’t changed since then. The disease remains better than the cure, so I continue to wait. My red blood cell count, along…
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Wellbeing

Piles of life

Like many of my posts, I wrote the lion’s share of this one some time ago. I was inspired to polish and post it by a friend’s recent, much better post. Let me tell you a little something you may not know about sinusitis. I do not like sinusitis. I do not like it with a nose. I do not like it when it blows. I do not like it in my head. I do not like it lying in a bed. It’s been…
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Wellbeing

My mastery of the obvious wanes

Common sense struck fourteen hours too late today. You should know this already, but if not, take this opportunity to learn from others’ mistakes. How did I become an other? Oh woe is me! Am I the mother of all others? If there’s any chance a doctor’s appointment may cause worry, for God’s sake people, take the morning appointment! How it fits into your work schedule should…
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Wellbeing

Ready or not

I was mentally prepared for my doctor’s appointment on Friday. By prepared I mean it was sufficiently far off in the future I hadn’t thought about it. His office called me this afternoon, asking if they could bump it up to tomorrow. No, I’m not ready. “Yeah, that’ll be fine. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.” Ugh. So tomorrow it is. Another date with my…
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Family and Friends

Guilt, meet thy maker

A while back I wrote about a call I received in court on a really bad day. It invovled mistaken identities, my mother, and the possibility of cancer. If you recall, there was an instant when I was relieved it was my mother – because it meant it wasn’t my wife. I’d made a choice, consciously or not, and it made me feel terrible. We all make them. I don’t think we can help…
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CancerFamily and Friends

The MRI

The background: Cheryl (known to many of you as my wife) had an MRI done recently due to chronic back pain. – – – It was one of those court days where several people needed to be escorted out of the building. A little conflict goes with the territory. Your agency sues someone, you expect a little hostility. In fact, it isn’t uncommon for both sides to leave with no love to…
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Wellbeing

I did not know that

In April it will be three years since I was diagnosed with leukemia, and I still don’t know my Doctor’s diagnosis. Oh wait, it is April isn’t it? You’ve heard me say “Hairy Cell Leukemia,” but that’s the common name, a nickname. At least I hoped it was. What self respecting disease refers to itself as hairy? Surely there was an important, scary sounding…
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Wellbeing

Losing my words

Have you ever lost a word? Most of us have. Do you know what Dysnomia is? I did, but I had to look it up to make sure. Don’t be too impressed though. It was kind of my area of study in school, and we’re talking recognition memory all the way here. I couldn’t recall it to save my temporal lobes. Well, A few weeks ago I started misplacing words everywhere I went, and it was pretty…
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