Transition day

[BilletHead]

 Glad you got to get out again Al, nice fish too! Going to throw something at you. I can see by the way you take your painting, fishing , outdoor activities and love of Mary you are going to be a great caregiver for her. Physically it will be a piece of cake but mentally it will take a toll. It did me. Put on your caregiver game face but remember to take care of yourself too. Even before Pat's surgery, chemo and radiation I started becoming the care giver. I started sleeping light waking up and just listening to her breathe. I knew it was in God, and his doctors hands but I wanted control too. I even wished it was me instead of her. I washed her hair and when it began to fall out we cried and I shaved that beautiful head as bald as mine was. It really jerked a knot in my tail and we became closer than ever. Don't want to ever do it again but if it happens we will deal with it. Bless you Al and Mary, prayers still heading your way, thanks for sharing as it is good for me to think of this from time to time. Complacently can be dangerous.

BilletHead 

[marcus]

well done al looks like a good time out on the canoe....i wish the best for you and your family good luck and good fishing

[Al Agnew]

Thanks, guys...

We haven't gotten the final plan for her care yet, but the colo-rectal surgeon was very optimistic, given that the cancer is so small and contained.  She said she expected it to be five or six weeks of radiation with chemo the first and last week, and it should be completely gone.  She also told Mary that the chances were very good that she wouldn't lose her hair; she said a very few people do but most don't with this regimen.  Mary is also going to a holistic doctor for advice on diet and supplements that will get her through it more easily.  She's tough, and is more worried about me getting good food during the treatment period than she is about going through it.  She goes in for one more test, a PET scan...they said that in this case the PET scan wasn't absolutely necessary, but it's a more sensitive scan and they just want to be as sure as possible that it hasn't spread into the nearby lymph nodes.  She will be getting treatment at the fairly new Siteman center in South County, which is a lot easier and more convenient for us to get to than any of the other centers.  We should have a treatment plan in place by the end of next Wednesday.

We're also lucky that Mary has a LOT of family close by, so I'll have some help in caring for her (and getting fed).

We plan for this episode in Mary's life to be pretty much over with by June.  But the lesson we learned, though we already knew it, is to never take your life and marriage for granted; the places our minds have gone to imagining worst case scenarios was horrifying, and the worst of it for me (and pretty bad for Mary) was imagining my life without her.  We've spent more than half our lives together, and want to spend the rest together as well.

 

[Foghorn]

The first time Susie was diagnosed with cancer our youngest 2 were in their early teens. It was tough on the whole family for a good while. With her love for fishing and being outdoors as it was and still is , on days that she felt like doing something outside we gave  it our our best effort to do so. The chemo and radiation took it's toll the longer she had to endure it. Took off work whenever I could and always when I was needed and had many a sleepless night . Our thoughts and prayers for Mary and you for a speedy and complete recovery and a clean bill of health.   

[Al Agnew]

Just a little update...Mary got the PET scan today and it was as expected--no sign of cancer anywhere else, which gave us another huge sigh of relief.  I didn't know anything about PET scans, but apparently they are rather amazing.  It showed the arthritis in her shoulder and a compression fracture in her lower spine that she got falling off a rope swing when she was a teenager!  It was supposed to have been done at the West County center at 9AM this morning, but somehow it didn't get put on their schedule, as we found out when we arrived.  So they got us in at Barnes in the middle of the city at noon, and then they didn't have an insurance okay and we had to wait for that red tape.  However, once she got in the people there were absolutely wonderful.  Mary is highly claustrophobic, and going through the big thick doughnut thing was pretty difficult for her, but they were extremely nice and patient, and after the initial scan through, let me stay and talk to her and hold her hands when she came far enough out that I didn't have to reach into the machine to do so.  And they read it almost immediately and we had the results in an hour.

On a side note, while killing time waiting for noon to roll around, we went to Cabelas.  We had heard that due to the sell-out to BPS, Cabelas wasn't buying any new merchandise.  It appeared to be true at least as far as fishing tackle...plenty of empty hooks on the lure walls.  I'm always trying new crankbaits (or new for me at least) to see which ones might work well with some dressing on the belly hook--on most it kills the action.  I decided to try one of the Rebel deep crawdads, and then came across the new Rapala "sweep" bait with the big roundish bill.  I also bought a Megabass jerkbait that caught my eye.  When we finally got home, I dressed the belly hooks on the two crankbaits and tried them in the pond next to the house.  They worked fairly well, and got put into my crankbait box.  Then I tried the Megabass jerkbait, and on the first cast, got a hard strike.  I glimpsed the fish and it looked very wide.  The pond is full of bass but the forage base in it is only bluegill, and the bass seem to be slow growing and I almost never catch one over a couple of pounds.  Had I hooked the rare big one?  I got it in fairly quickly, and it was a 14 inch black crappie.   I have absolutely no idea how it got there.  I knew that there were at least two crappie in the pond (even though I'd never put any in) because I'd caught them on consecutive casts about four years ago...and had never caught a crappie since.  I just figured they were both males and had died at some point.  They were both about 12 inches long back then.  Was this actually one of those crappie?  Or did another one somehow get into the pond?  Weird.

[Foghorn]

Two good reports but the first was the best. Positive thoughts and continually in our prayers. 

[MOsmallies]

Great news on Mary! And great fishing reports!