News from home - post your own news here!

[Matthew]

Bit of news here...after an extended battle with cancer (multiple-myeloma) and a weight loss of 80 pounds, it looks like I have finally turned the corner toward recovery. Two back surgeries and neuropathy in both legs was the physical cost, but the pain has eased off a bit and with the aid of physical therapy, I am beginning to walk again. The cancer has been stopped and I am in what the oncologist calls clinical remission.

I also retired this last month (my medical concerns forced me out a bit early), so I look forward to that journey as well.

The result is I am a changed man. And I offer to all of you on this BBS, my sincerest apologies for anything I said or did which may have caused you anger or distress. This battle with cancer came at a bad time in my life and at a high cost. I am better now and ready to move on with a new perspective on life. It is my hope forgiveness will trump past indescretions. At this point in my life, any day above ground is a good day. I hope you will give me that chance.

Best,

Tim

That's all great news Tim (that you're in remission, and improving), and you even got to watch the Giants win again. I was thinking about you during the season and wondering how you were.

Edited December 23, 2014 by Matthew

[Jazzmoose]

Bit of news here...after an extended battle with cancer (multiple-myeloma) and a weight loss of 80 pounds, it looks like I have finally turned the corner toward recovery. Two back surgeries and neuropathy in both legs was the physical cost, but the pain has eased off a bit and with the aid of physical therapy, I am beginning to walk again. The cancer has been stopped and I am in what the oncologist calls clinical remission.

Wow. Great news! I also have multiple-myeloma, but am not as far down the road as you. Now I see why my oncologist gets upset if I try to drop a few pounds.

[Brad]

I like the idea of this thread. My son is home after being away for a year and a half or so. He was at a wilderness program for troubled young adults and then what they call a stepdown program. It's been a bit trying to say the least, especially because my wife and I had gotten used to being on our own for that time. Onwards and upwards.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Well, all the work's done, just in time for Christmas... Well, we haven't actually got a floor in the garden room - it rained like anything all the time they were building it and it'll take some time to dry out. So I'm having to hoover the condensation off the roof every morning - I can reach the lower two thirds on tiptoe, but worry about the rest when I'm standing on a stool, swaying.

My wife - astoundingly! - found some extra jobs we'd never thought of. So I spent four days on my knees stripping 9 years' worth of varnish off the old back doorstep. Fuck me! And two days resting up, but my bottom was just too painful to sit down on, so I lay on my stomach. Feels fine now. She oiled it after I'd done that and it looks nice - fashionably distressed.

The other job was cleaning all the green gunk off our garden furniture - then doing it again when it came back, and again... But the stuff's clean now and the table and two chairs are now in the garden room, for Christmas - it's as cold as a fridge out there so we're going to put all the drinks on the table for when daughter & grandchildren come.

Oh, the next job (NOT one I'll do) is to relay the patio slabs outside the new back door, because we've discovered that the door is exactly positioned so that, when it rains, you step out into a quarter of an inch of water, which has slid down the slight slope under the roof. Don't know if the slabs were replaced wrongly by the builders or if they were laid like that 8 years ago. Haven't sold my wife on doing this yet, so...

It's only today I've been able to spend much time listening to music. So I started listening to some Christmas music.

MG

PS - she didn't oil my bottom!

MG

[Dan Gould]

But MG who wouldn't want a fashionably distressed bottom?

[JSngry]

Especially an oiled one!

http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2014/11/11/kim-kardashian-bares-her-shiny-bounteous-butt-breaks-the-internet/jcr:content/image.img.2000.jpg/1415764520066.cached.jpg

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I fear mine's UNfashionably distressed by now.

Hers too, I'm afraid.

MG

[Brad]

That's a lot of honey-dos!

[Tim McG]

Bit of news here...after an extended battle with cancer (multiple-myeloma) and a weight loss of 80 pounds, it looks like I have finally turned the corner toward recovery. Two back surgeries and neuropathy in both legs was the physical cost, but the pain has eased off a bit and with the aid of physical therapy, I am beginning to walk again. The cancer has been stopped and I am in what the oncologist calls clinical remission.

Wow. Great news! I also have multiple-myeloma, but am not as far down the road as you. Now I see why my oncologist gets upset if I try to drop a few pounds.

Wow. You are the sixth person I know who has the disease or knows a relative who does. Tom Brokaw has it, too. More widespread than I thought. How long have you been battling it? For me it has been four years, but in earnest the last year has been more aggressive treatments with radiation and chemo. Just hang in there and do what the doctors tell you. They sent me up to Stanford University which is a four hour drive, but it helped immensely. Our small city just doesn't have the talent needed or access to treatment.

Good luck!

Stay positive....you can beat this thing.

Edited December 24, 2014 by TimMcG

[Tim McG]

Bit of news here...after an extended battle with cancer (multiple-myeloma) and a weight loss of 80 pounds, it looks like I have finally turned the corner toward recovery. Two back surgeries and neuropathy in both legs was the physical cost, but the pain has eased off a bit and with the aid of physical therapy, I am beginning to walk again. The cancer has been stopped and I am in what the oncologist calls clinical remission.

I also retired this last month (my medical concerns forced me out a bit early), so I look forward to that journey as well.

The result is I am a changed man. And I offer to all of you on this BBS, my sincerest apologies for anything I said or did which may have caused you anger or distress. This battle with cancer came at a bad time in my life and at a high cost. I am better now and ready to move on with a new perspective on life. It is my hope forgiveness will trump past indescretions. At this point in my life, any day above ground is a good day. I hope you will give me that chance.

Best,

Tim

That's all great news Tim (that you're in remission, and improving), and you even got to watch the Giants win again. I was thinking about you during the season and wondering how you were.

Thanks, Matthew.

And Go Giants!

Tim, fantastic news. I've real life knowledge of some of what you've been through.and am so glad that you have beaten that bastard crab and are strengthening again. Best of luck moving forward!

Thanks, Jazzbo.

A long way back, but I'm not giving in to it.

Edited December 23, 2014 by TimMcG

[Jazzmoose]

Bit of news here...after an extended battle with cancer (multiple-myeloma) and a weight loss of 80 pounds, it looks like I have finally turned the corner toward recovery. Two back surgeries and neuropathy in both legs was the physical cost, but the pain has eased off a bit and with the aid of physical therapy, I am beginning to walk again. The cancer has been stopped and I am in what the oncologist calls clinical remission.

Wow. Great news! I also have multiple-myeloma, but am not as far down the road as you. Now I see why my oncologist gets upset if I try to drop a few pounds. Wow. You are the sixth person I know who has the disease or knows a relative who does. Tom Brokaw has it, too. More widespread than I thought. How long have you been battling it? For me it has been four years, but in earnest the last year has been more agressive treatments with radiation and chemo. Just hang in there and do what the doctors tell you. They sent mevup to Stanford University which is a four hour drive, but it helped immensely. Our small city just doesn't have the talent needed or access to treatment.

Good luck!

Stay positive....you can beat this thing.

It's been two years now for me. So far, it's been pretty easy. The first three months were kind of rough, when I was getting chemo twice a week. But now, it's only once a month, and it seems to be keeping the disease in check.

So the surgery you mentioned; was that the stem cell transfer thing? How was the operation and the recovery? I'll admit, I'm a bit nervous (okay; scared shitless!) about that.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Jazzmoose

[Tim McG]

Bit of news here...after an extended battle with cancer (multiple-myeloma) and a weight loss of 80 pounds, it looks like I have finally turned the corner toward recovery. Two back surgeries and neuropathy in both legs was the physical cost, but the pain has eased off a bit and with the aid of physical therapy, I am beginning to walk again. The cancer has been stopped and I am in what the oncologist calls clinical remission.

Wow. Great news! I also have multiple-myeloma, but am not as far down the road as you. Now I see why my oncologist gets upset if I try to drop a few pounds. Wow. You are the sixth person I know who has the disease or knows a relative who does. Tom Brokaw has it, too. More widespread than I thought. How long have you been battling it? For me it has been four years, but in earnest the last year has been more agressive treatments with radiation and chemo. Just hang in there and do what the doctors tell you. They sent mevup to Stanford University which is a four hour drive, but it helped immensely. Our small city just doesn't have the talent needed or access to treatment.

Good luck!

Stay positive....you can beat this thing.

It's been two years now for me. So far, it's been pretty easy. The first three months were kind of rough, when I was getting chemo twice a week. But now, it's only once a month, and it seems to be keeping the disease in check.

So the surgery you mentioned; was that the stem cell transfer thing? How was the operation and the recovery? I'll admit, I'm a bit nervous (okay; scared shitless!) about that.

Sorry it took so long to get back...physical therapy and a few errands.

The surgery was to shore up my spine. The cancer settled in my vertebrae and wiped out a lot of bone marrow. Hence, the bone became very weak and began to fracture. At one point, a piece of bone broke and was protruding into my spinal cord. Emergency surgery was required. The second surgery was just before Thanksgiving and took care of another stress point with a lot of fracturing. That is where the pain was coming from.

The doctor performed a procedure wherein she filled the places in my spine with this substance where the cancer had destroyed the bone marrow. Then wrapped the two fracturing vertebrae with a kind of bonding substance to strengthen the bone. It's a bit like what an auto body repair guy does to get rid of dents. He fills them and paints over the damage. Basically, you can call me Bond-O Man.

Edited December 24, 2014 by TimMcG

[Tim McG]

BTW...you're not alone in the fear department. I, too, was scared spitless. Especially during the first surgery; I could have been paralyzed if the bone severed the spinal cord.

The good news is they caught it early enough since they had a preliminary diagnosis three years prior. I was on a drug called Revlimid. They did blood tests every few weeks to see where the protein levels were. Mine were way high in one crucial protein and kept climbing until it was off the charts. The pain increased to unbearable levels and in March of this year I began my journey of the first of many hospital stays to kill this thing.

The good news is multiple-myeloma is a very slow moving cancer so we had the luxury of time on our side. The better news is it appears I am on the longevity side of survival. My research says it can be anywhere from 5-20 years. Selfishly, I hope I last at least into my 80s. We shall see.

Again, stay positive. I know in my case it was so easy to get depressed especially since I was pretty much a shut-in and spent a lot of my time alone in a bed. TBH, it is what probably caused me to be so angry in my postings here...and I feel very bad about that. The cancer even cost me my teaching job. That one really hurt because it is a job I love to do....the only job I ever wanted. But I digress. Bottom line is they have made great strides in cancer treatment...more so than when my Mom had lymphoma and cancer was pretty much a death sentence. Not so these days. Next challenge is to get off these pain killers. Not an easy thing to do, but it sure beats the hell out of active cancer!

Obviously, I will be pulling for you and praying for you. You can do this, my friend!

Edited December 24, 2014 by TimMcG

[Jazzmoose]

Well, I'm doing pretty well right now. My protein levels are all okay, my (if I remember the term right) monoclonal spike is pretty much nonexistent. So I'm fine for now. My oncologist says we'll just stick with the chemo I'm on now, and if it starts to lose it's efficiency, we'll switch to, of all things, thalidomide. Then when all else fails, it's the stem cell transplant in the spine. The problem is, that operation is limited to those 65 or younger. So, I can see myself in a bit of a dilemma in seven years or so, if the chemo is still keeping things in check. Of course, with cancer research, I probably shouldn't worry about seven years from now; who knows what could happen between now and then.

[Tim McG]

Exactly. Just know, too, that every cancer treament is different for your specific needs. In my case, I was on chemo and radiation therapy at the same time and for about two months. It was very intense. Bad news is it gave me neuropathy. The good news is it succesully killed off the existing cancer tumors on my vertebrae. Now, I deal with the damage it did.

I think it's awesome you are doing OK now. Best news I have heard in a month. Cancer sucks, but they have convinced me all is not lost when you get the diagnosis. Here's hoping for no come backs.

Best of luck!

[erwbol]

Best wishes for a complete recovery to both of you.

[Tim McG]

Thanks, Man.

I do appreciate it.