Low Grade Fever

For the past day or so, I’ve been running a low grade fever, bordering twixt 99.9 & 99.5. If it goes over 100.5, I get hospitalized, so it’s important to monitor it. This is in combination with the mouth sores, the last of the Chemo side effects on the list that I haven’t had.

You can say one thing for the chemo therapy, it gives you what it promises, not a good time. Again, if it works, then it’s worth it.

I can see, however, how some people, especially those with a low tolerance for pain, will put this off until the last possible moment or entirely.

It was the “if you don’t treat this, it will kill you…” part that inspired me to go ahead with the therapy and skip the maybe it will go away dream machine. It wasn’t going away, that was made obvious by the small potato that was growing under the skin in the back of my neck.

Alien….

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Finished My Birthday Book

It took me a while because of the room in the house where I planted this book, but I finally finished reading Citizens of London, by Lynn Olson.

Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour

Ms. Olson obviously has a crush on Gil Winant.  Based on her narrative, this was the man who should have been VP when FDR died.  If he had been instead of Harry Truman, the world would not be what it is today.  Whether that’s a good thing or not, who can tell.

After reading

Team of Rivals

a book so well constructed and researched, the random style Olson brings to history put me off at first. 

Then, after her pages on Winant’s place in dealing with  British reaction to the horrendous US racial policy imported to the UK with the American soldiers; I was able to see the point she was making about the heroics of “saving” democracy supported by the corrupted foundation of democracy itself.

I was saddened to read how Governor Winant died, but don’t go there until you finish the book.

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Technorati Tags: Book Review

Grazed Net

While we were waiting for Belltowernews.com to reappear, we discovered an old URL from a now discontinued website we ran BB. (Before Blogs)

As did happen to most of the blogs we used to provide up to date information. Grazed Net became dormant once blogging and it’s younger cousins Facebook and Twitter came into the mainstream.

Grazed Net was one of the first sites we put up using a proprietary desktop application.  We forget the application name, but we do remember it was on our 286 box.

That dates it before 2001. 

Ancient by web standards.

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We're back up!

That didn't take as long as we thought it would. We've simplified how the oldest of the Famous Grazing blogs presents itself. There should be no more problems with loading it in RSS.
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Belltowernews.com

Belltowernews.com will be down for a few days while we realign the server and database. None of the content that started in 2004 will be lost.

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Sharing Google Reader with Ping.fm - Duck!

This was probably a rash decision, but I have set the Share button on Google Reader to share using Ping.fm's new feature that does just that. Now, I will test it by sharing something and then seeing to where it is posted. This may happen just once, so don't look forward to my sharing all of the useful to arcane information I think worthy of sharing when I browse through the hundreds of blogs I have Google Reader browse. -30-

They Kept Saying it Would Get Worse

And they were right.

The last PET scan was very promising with "No Uptake" as the result.

The chemotherapy has been most forgiving for the first three sessions.

Not so the fourth.

The possible side effects have been openly listed from day one but they have, up until now, been few and mild.

Up until now

I should've kept a list, but I am fairly sure if there was a list for each of them, I would be ticking them off one by one over the past three days.

This is not a complaint. I am just reporting the facts.

If suffering through this is what it takes to stay alive, piece of cake... sort of... okay, slice of pie.

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LiveJournal Tags: chemotherapy

via Writerous

Posted via web from grazing's posterous

No Uptake

The news at Dana Farber was promising.

After undergoing three sessions of chemotherapy and waiting for my fourth, I was given a PET scan.

As I waited with an IV in place dripping saline solution, my nurse came to tell me that scan came back with "no uptake." She then gave me the bump.

(fist to fist).

Then they started hooking me up again.

I know this is good news, but my body feel worse than it has through the other sessions of chemotherapy. It's hard to rejoice at such good news trying to overcome the feeling you will vomit at any given provocation.

The bottom line seems to be, that I am in the beginning stage of remission. I will be tested for another five years before the cancer can be said to be clear.

Of course, what I heard is they expect me to be around for another five years.

Around that, I can get my head.

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