Got this tip from Ash

We have our first parent-teacher conference on Thursday and frankly, I am a little stressed about it.
Still, the girl amuses me so.

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Pumpkins

Lucy and I did some pumpkin carving.
Only one was completely our own. Lucy's first one was entirely here own design. I did one that was inspired by one I saw on Ashvegas's site, I think it was inspired by
Tim Burton. Our cat pumpkin was done with a stencil.

Game day video

It's a huge file. My best quality was over 23 megs... didn't feel like uploading it. This is more like 6 megs so.... quality suffers.

Busy weekend

I took Friday off from work. I have to figure out a way to use up three weeks of vacations. Right now I have a week and one half planned. I will try to take the rest a day at a time. Problem with that is that everybody else at work have vacations piled up because of my medical leave.

My brother and father blew into town Friday afternoon. We drove to Cincinnati to watch a football game on Saturday and they drove back to Syracuse on Sunday.

Lucy was a bit wound up because of the visitors. Also Halloween is coming and the weather has been lousy so she has been trapped inside.

Neighborhood News

A hot air balloon flew by!!!!

Lucy's view

One big deal first. I switched to a convex flange last night and I think it is going to make my life better. I know a lot of you don't know what I am talking about, but believe me, it is a big deal. Melissa can e-mail me if she wants the intensely biological details.

Meanwhile, here is what happens when Lucy grabs the video camera:

Last post a bummer

It is really not so bad. All of those side effects -except the sensitivity to cold - were part of my first experience with chemo and I didn't do too bad.

My first experience was coupled with radiation as well, which I will not have this time.

This will be a bit of an inconvenience, but not that big of a deal.

I did really want to get my mediport catheter removed, but I can live with it for a few more months.

A positive attitude makes all of this much easier.

And I heard a new colostomy joke yesterday (I think I've heard it before, but then it was tasteless, now it is hilarious)

What's the hardest thing about having a colostomy?

.... wait for it.....

Finding shoes to match your bag!!!!!!

FRIGGIN' HILARIOUS!!!!

I'll be in the Stoma Room all week.

Sorry about that.

And the good news is .... tempered with bad news

My oncologist says that the standards of treatment for colorectal cancer have changed since I started treatment.
So, even though my scans (pet, cat and mri)have shown no signs of cancer (that's the good news, if you were looking for it) it is strongly recommended that I undergo four more rounds of chemo therapy.

We will start in a couple of weeks.

The drug I will take is called Oxaliplatin (Eloxatin®). Here are some of its side effects:

• Numbness or tingling in hands or feet.

For some people, these symptoms can be triggered by anything cold, such as iced drinks and cold air.

• Lowered resistance to infection

Oxaliplatin can reduce the production of white blood cells by the bone marrow, making you more prone to infection.

• Bruising or bleeding

Oxaliplatin can reduce the production of platelets.which help the blood to clot.

• Anaemia (low number of red blood cells)

This may make you feel tired and breathless.

• Nausea (feeling sick)

We call itvomiting

• Diarrhoea

It is important to drink plenty of fluids if you have diarrhoea.

• Tiredness and a general feeling of weakness

It is important to allow yourself plenty of time to rest.

So, now I got that going for me...

Someday this will all be behind me (ha ha) and we can all have a big laugh about it...

I must say, however, that it is getting harder and harder to imagine that day.

Halloween Bedtime

Halloween Costume extravaganza

We had to respond to a halloween video from our friends Lucy and Leah!

Saturday Morning

Soccer game is at 10! Hurrah, those 9 a.m. games are a bear...
Lucy and grandma are watching Tom and Jerry in outerspace.
Apparently, Tom and Jerry travel in outer space and Tom chases Jerry and Jerry manages to bash Tom repeatedly with apparently deadly force, but in the weightlessness of space, Tom survives.

We are going to make a Halloween Costume video later.

Fiction or Fact?

Medical Report

Mary's surgery went well. She didn't sleep much last night but her swelling seems moderate and she is controlling the pain.

My scan was uneventful. We should get results on Monday..

No school for Lucy today ... poor grandma.

Big medical day today

Mary goes to Columbus for oral surgery and I get a pet scan. Thank goodness Mary's mom is here to fill in the gaps..

I should have scan results next week. My guess is that there will be nothing to report...

I hope

Another lunch note

Sort of a variation on a them inspired by Dr. Seuss

Lucy has gone international

Lucy has some new friends in Germany. They stumbled across a couple of her videos and decided she would be a good person to get to know. So we exchanged a few messages (the dads, I mean, Tom and Dirk) and soon we go this video:



Lucy responded with a video of her own:

More Lunch Notes

click on these and they get real, real, real big!!

New coffee maker

My preferred mode of communication is home-made video

New phone

I finally got a new phone.

I broke mine about two days out of the hospital and had to wait two months to be eligible for the free Verizon upgrade.. well. free if you manage to complete the mail-in rebate.

I took the photo above in bed last night and e-maile it to Mary who was upstairs on the computer at the time.

Already the phone has made our lives better.

See my Homer pillow case?

Soccer story

some more lunch notes

I cut these photos out of an Ohio vacation guide magazine. Looks like a fun state to visit, doesn't it?

Tomorrow I will tell you about my trip to the neurologist and what he found out was wrong with my brain.

Longest day of work yet

I think I was pretty productive yesterday. I still have a long way to go. I came home exhausted. Was barely able to stay up for my lastes tv obsession "Heroes"

Lunch Notes - The Movie

Lucy likes notes in her lunch. I like to doodle....

Lunch Notes the series

On one of the first days of school, Lucy came home wondering why one of her classmates got a note in her lunch and Lucy did not. So, being indulgent we started to include notes. I think it may have gotten out of hand. Here are some samples. If you click on them you can see them big, real big.

Lunch Notes - there are a lot of them.

Click on them to see them in their most enlargest state.

On one of the first days of school, Lucy came home wondering why one of her classmates got a note in her lunch and Lucy did not. So, being indulgent we started to include notes. I think it may have gotten out of hand. Here are some samples:

Lunch Notes Click on them to see them BIG!!

On one of the first days of school, Lucy came home wondering why one of her classmates got a note in her lunch and Lucy did not. So, being indulgent we started to include notes. I think it may have gotten out of hand. Here are some samples:

More Lunch Notes

On one of the first days of school, Lucy came home wondering why one of her classmates got a note in her lunch and Lucy did not. So, being indulgent we started to include notes. I think it may have gotten out of hand. Here are some samples:

Lunch Notes

On one of the first days of school, Lucy came home wondering why one of her classmates got a note in her lunch and Lucy did not. So, being indulgent we started to include notes. I think it may have gotten out of hand. Here are some samples:

Photo Pals

My buddy Chris Lenney is the chief photographer for Clarkson University. The Golden Knights are off to their best hockey start since 2000.

Barenaked Ladies and the Tragically Hip

The Barenaked Ladies do a much better job of describing the importance of the Tragically Hip than I could ever do.

Soccer Begins

I got the date wrong on the opening credit and I am not changing it.....

Lucy drew this picture of me as part of a school assignment. Notice the bag of poo hanging from my belly. When it comes to portraiture, the girl is comprehensive in her details.

Usually, however, I try to keep the bag of poo underneath my clothing.

First Movie of the Weekend: Harvest Time

Lucy drawing

I will have to scan it in later, but I gotta tell you now about something Lucy brought home from school. She was doing a letter exercisel. They had a piece of paper with letters on it and had to draw a picture of something that began with each letter.
For D she chose Dad and drew a picture of a bald guy with a round brownish-orangy thing hanging off his front.
"What's that?" we asked.
"Dad's bag of poo," she said.

Can't sleep

Big soccer match today.
Lucy had to miss Thursday's game because of a fever. She seemed fine last night, but I went to bed early.
I am debating shooting video at game, which means I probably will. I always lose debates with me.

What the doctors say:

Catscan looked fine, but there was a lot of scar tissue around the areas they are most interested in, so I need to have a pet scan. That happens next week.

While I was chatting with the oncologist I mentioned an unexplained dizzy spell last week.

He immediatly sent me over to the imaging center for a brain mri and got me an appointment with a neurologist.

The brain mri came back negative (insert you own joke here).

A Colostomy Catastrophe!!!

WARNING!!!! THIS MAY BE A LITTLE TOO MUCH INFORMATION!!!!



So, I was in a colleague's truck, heading to the Port Columbus Airport at 6:30 a.m. Our final destination that day was McClean, Va. and the Gannett Editors Meeting.

We bought a cup of coffee at a convenience store on the outskirts of town and almost immediately I felt some stool moving from my stoma into my pouch.

Now, in my limited experience with this method of evacuation, I have noticed that I usually move stool in the afternoon. But, I was not alarmed. I had installed a new skin wafer (the part of the appliance that adheres directly to the body and surrounds the stoma) that morning and had a fresh, drainable, pouch attached. (yes, poppa had a brand new bag!! Hahahaha).

When we were checking our bags into the system I noticed a slight odor. I have been paranoid about odors since I got out of the hospital and I have managed to convince myself that I almost always overreact. I figured it was just a slight leak in the seal between the bag and the wafer and decided to check it in the bathroom the first chance I had. I was more concerned that I had to pee very urgently.

We proceeded to the security check in. While walking there I didn't notice any bathrooms, so I decided that I could hold the pee and take care of my leak on the other side of security.



We breezed through security. I was wearing my garden clogs. They are very comfortable and easy to get off and on when you go through the security check point at airports ... Ding Ding Ding
$$$$!!!!MILLION DOLLAR IDEA!!!!$$$$



Design clogs specifically for travelers and more particularly for business travelers.

Anyway, back to the story.

When I got through security I found a bathroom and headed on in. I met my publisher as he was walking out of the same bathroom. There would be four of us travelling together that day and I knew they would all wait outside the bathroom for me.

I went into the handicapped stall and pulled up my shirt.

(Pause for dramatic effect)

The entire colostomy collection system was hanging off my belly by a shred of glue on the bottom third of the wafer and a big ball of poo was pushing it off.

I started to panic. My hands were shaking and my breathing was out of control. I grabbed some toilet paper and started to try to clean up.

It was a big mess. A really big mess. Those of you with children might know what I am talking about. This was a 12 baby wipe mess.

Now, I had some spare pouches, but the skin wafers were in my bag that I had checked through. They need to be customized with scissors each time you use them and I didn't anticipate any problem with them.

It took a long time to get things cleaned up. But eventually, I got it done and replaced the collection bag. I got rid of the mess and then washed my hands for about 15 minutes while I tried to figure out my next move.

I decided that I would go back through security to an airport store and see if I could find some sort of tape. I also needed a new shirt. The shirt I was wearing had been soiled.

I pulled my publisher aside and gave the poor guy a brief synopsis. Then I rushed back to the other side of security and found the store.

Oh, I should mention, that in all this commotion, I still had not relieved my bladder.

In the airport store, I bought a Columbus, Ohio T-shirt, a package of two wet-wipes and three packages that contained two band aids each with little foil packs of neosporin.



The band aids came in impenetrable blister packs.

When I got back to security the line was huge. I settled in for the long wait with my hand pressed against my appliance and still nervous as all hell. I am sure I was not in the best shape to get through security.

For one thing, my ticket had been all marked up the first time as I passed through each station, that had to be suspicious. For another thing, I was obviously hiding something beneath my shirt. And, finally, I was shaking like a leaf. Also, at this time, my bladder began to remind me about its condition.

I breezed through, headed for the bathroom and finally emptied my bladder in the same handicapped stall where all the drama began.

I stripped off my shirt and noticed that the heat from my hand had caused the wafer to re-adhere to my skin. I was taking no chances and I began to try to open the band aid packages.

What a racket I was making. I was breathing fast and in gasps, the plastic rattled as I tore into it, then paper ripped as a tried to open the band aids themselves and of course I was muttering and cursing as I tried to get the band aids aligned along the rim of the wafer without folding them over on themsleves.

It seemed like I was in there for an eternity. All along, people were in and out of the bathroom.

Someone, I thought, has got to wonder what the guy in the handicapped stall was doing. It was obviously out of the ordinary.

I finally got myself back together, stuffed my soiled shirt in my briefcase (I really like that shirt) and washed my hands for 15 minutes.

Then I headed out into the airport concourse, slighly relieved but still shaky.

As soon as I started walking towards my gate, a security guard spotted me, looked me right in the eye and started walking towards me.

"uh oh," I thought, "they were just waiting for me to leave the bathroom."

The guy walked right up to me and leaned forward.

"Dude," he said, "zip up your pants."

The rest of the trip was uneventful.

Back in town

Off to the oncologist this morning.
I have an incredible colostomy catastrophe story to tell about my trip to Washington, D.C. but not enough time this morning.
If will horrify and amuse you....honest....

Madeline movie

This only took three takes.... We are genius

Going away

I leave early Monday for a meeting in Virginia.
I will be back late Wednesday night - which is garbage day for our street.
I probably won't post until Thursday morning.
I haven't been that regular since I went back to work I know.
It just occured to me that if you know me, when I say regular, there is now one thing I don't mean.
If you know what I mean, and I think you do.

Irish Dancing has gone viral

Honest!
It's had 377 page views and 2 comments! That's a world record for me... If I kept world records for me, which I really haven't since that time I was 9 and stayed up until 11:30 which was a world record for me at the time.