A sore throat is about it

Family and Friends



I just finished my second full week of treatments. I'm almost 1/2 through, 12 out of 28 done (OK 42.8%). And, so far so good. I am still feeling human, still have an appetite, haven't gotten tired, my strength and endurance are about where they were, and, of course, I look marvelous. The only problem I am experiencing right now is like a bad sore throat you get during the winter along with some occasional restriction problems passing food. It isn't serious yet but a bit difficult.



One of the doctors this week put me on a liquid Lidocane which helps to numb the throat right before I eat. It helps for sure. It is short lived but gets me through meals. As long as the situation doesn't get any worse I should be able to deal with it using the Lidocane. They also issued me some pain pills, vicodin, which is the same stuff Dr. House is hooked on in the TV series House. I hope to not get to the point of needing those.



We had a pretty good week. On Monday evening we had dinner with Annette's youngest son, Kelly, and then got a chance to watch him rehearse with the Big Band he is the lead singer with. On Tuesday evening we had a chance to meet and catch up with an old shipmate of mine from boot camp. We just found each other via Facebook and here he lives very near Durham where I go for my treatments at Duke. We hadn't seen each other in 39 years. We had a great time catching up and plan to meet again. He hasn't seen me in 39 years and even he said I look marvelous, just like I did way back in Cape May, NJ 39 years ago. OK so I lie a little bit now and then. I've put on a few pounds since then. However, I do have more hair now that he would recall back then!!!



Also on Tuesday we killed some time going over to Highpoint, NC to visit the world's largest furniture store. Highpoint is the center for furniture in the US in case you didn't know. We had bought some furniture there back in 1992 when I was finishing up my career in the Coast Guard. At that time it was huge, 250,000 sq ft of space. Chump size compaired to today as it is now 1.6 million sq ft of space. It is something to visit, and a great place to shop, if you ever need furniture. Check their web site out at FurniturelandSouth.com - it is an experience for sure.



Annette came home on Wednesday night after my treatment to attend her final board meeting as the Chairwoman for the local American Red Cross after her two year tenure. I drove her down, stayed over night, drove back on Thursday and home again this am. All went well for both of us.



Guess that is it for another week. Keep those prayers coming my way, they certainly are working!!!!



Drew