Situation Normal

If anyone is worried that Bryan is not essentially the same man as Before the Rotten Kidney, please observe. He did stay home today as sleet pelted the roof. It's a snow day for school kids and teachers (hallelujah). He even slept until 10:00. That IS a change.

By 11:00 he was in full have-to-get-in-the-truck mode. It seems that the diet Coke supply had slipped under the restock-now number. As an earnest believer in meteorologists' forecasts, I knew that we were just in a short dry time before the sleet returned. I warned him. I told him he shouldn't go. Then I told him to take a walking stick to help him back up the hill. Ignored.

It took the diesel engine a good 15 minutes to warm up and the windshieldto clear; then he was off. In no time, the sleet was back. I texted him to hurry. He said he was checking out. About that time the neighbors drove up looking for their dog. The driveway was slushy but passable. Within 15 minutes, their tire ruts were covered.

Next call: The truck didn't make it up the big hill. He drove around to the road behind the house and walked the rest of the way with the whole 24-pack of diet Coke plus another bag of "essentials." He considered all of this as a perfectly reasonable action. I still think it was crazy. Now we're watching golf. He has a diet Coke, of course.

Same ol' dull medical news !!!!

I suppose the contents of the title is a good thing.

I haven't written in a while....and I keep meaning to....but hey, I'm busy.

This must the the dull part of medical treatment. I'm feeling good 95% of the time, and the feeling bad times aren't dreadfully bad. Mainly the feeling bad times are being tired one day, or maybe the obnoxious side effect of tender feet. A couple of days of tender feet isn't terrible, it's just aggravating.

I have a new side effect. My hair is now pretty gray/white and for some reason has turned soft. We had a warm day in mid January, and I put the top down on the t-bird, just because I can. It was actually blowing my hair around. I now have to deal with bed-head and other aggravating things that haven't been present here-to-fore.

The eyebrows are now all white....and I get comments on them!!!! So far it has only been from guys at the gym. What's up with that?

I've posted some pics of bed-head and my new fluffy hair and my new short haircut from today. The white grows from the inside...so I guess I have white ROOTS. When I get a haircut it progressively gets whiter and whiter. A small price to pay.

Medically, my blood work is still all good or explainable. I saw the nephrologist ( the protector of the remaining kidney ) this week. He changed my b/p meds a little. Increased b/p is a side effect of the Sutent and not particularly good for the remaining kidney. He concurred with the Cancer Warrior that all the rest of the blood work looks good. I see the oncologist (Cancer Warrior) next Monday. We're on a three week rotation with him now. I'm in my 23rd week of Sutent.....Thank goodness for Insurance. I'm real interested in the pre-existing conditions portion of health care. My USNews came this week and the cover story is "How to live to 100".

That should be interesting!

So, now we just keep taking the meds and keep living life. We're scheduled for another complete set of scans at the end of February. Then we'll know how we've been doing.

Today is Elliot's 1st birthday. We were there in spirit. We ate dinner with Eli and Emily and Sam and Alicia tonight. So we sang happy birthday to Elliot in absentia and helped him blow out the flashlight we were using for a candle.

Life is indeed good!

Bryan

The OKW turnes 59

Well, the One Kidney Wonder turned 59 last Wednesday. We had the big family celebration this weekend so everyone from the frozen tundra of North West Arkansas could attend. A good time was had by all (best I can tell anyway). I'd add more commentary but I'm out of witty commentary for the day. So, here's some pictures instead, in no particular order. So now we've only got 360 or so days until the big 60. Guess we should start planning soon.

Sam

Eli and Ethan were competing for Paw-Paw's attention while working on their Lego sets.

Elliot was mystified at how this whole unwrapping thing works.

Nana got Paw-Paw a 10-in-one game set. Here he is sniffing the wood.

Elliot kept trying to get Eli's attention.

Thankfully Ethan was willing to help unwrap Elliot's gifts.

The grandkids love all of the Paw-Paw time that they can get. Mine get a disproportionate amount of time since we're just "around the corner" compared to the other 2.