Went to St Louis on Tuesday. Got Mugged.

[jdmidwest]

Oh, we will beat it.  May come out limping  a little  after the fight.

[Norm M]

limping is fine my me , you have to figure to take a few punches while delivering the KO to cancer .

[grizwilson]

Hardest part is keeping your chin up and focused and surviving the task at hand.

[jdmidwest]

A year has past since I heard the famous song by Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" starting the radiation treatments.  I was strapped into a stiff table by my head, gave the safe sign in case I felt something may be wrong, and the 3 strangers left the room and closed the big lead door to start it off.  The lights, sounds, and that song will ever be engraved into my head.  I ended the 37 sessions weeks later and in a lot worse shape.  But we ended as friends and Buck Cherry's "Crazy Beech" was my exit music.

I look back over the last year and remember all that has past.  I miss Norm M.  I do enjoy life so much more and my 2 new grandbabies.  My little grandson that was born on the day I found the second tumor has a special place in my heart.  Family is above all now and friends.

Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishes that helped me get thru the toughest time in my life.

[BilletHead]

On ‎5‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 9:45 PM, jdmidwest said:

A year has past since I heard the famous song by Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" starting the radiation treatments.  I was strapped into a stiff table by my head, gave the safe sign in case I felt something may be wrong, and the 3 strangers left the room and closed the big lead door to start it off.  The lights, sounds, and that song will ever be engraved into my head.  I ended the 37 sessions weeks later and in a lot worse shape.  But we ended as friends and Buck Cherry's "Crazy Beech" was my exit music.

I look back over the last year and remember all that has past.  I miss Norm M.  I do enjoy life so much more and my 2 new grandbabies.  My little grandson that was born on the day I found the second tumor has a special place in my heart.  Family is above all now and friends.

Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishes that helped me get thru the toughest time in my life.

              You will always be on my list JD!

BilletHead

[jdmidwest]

I know that and appreciate it very much.

I did a shrimp boil at my buddies house in St Louis a year ago tonite.  It was the last meal before the taste buds blew out.  It was also the last normal day before the radiation took its toll.  By the third week I slowed down to radiation and rest which went on until July.  Pounds started coming off, over 40 of them.

Since the radiation and damage to throat, tongue, and saliva glands, bread sandwiches are a thing of the past.  My last big ole hamburger was a year ago today at Red Robin for lunch, but the taste was beginning to fail.

Most of the taste is back now, but eating sandwiches and anything else in big bites becomes a choking hazard.  Talking while eating ends up in a choking spell too.  But I take my time and eat well enough to keep things going.  I do miss the burgers and sandwiches.

But I am a very lucky man, things could have went alot worse. 

[MOPanfisher]

JD, I am praying for your FULL recovery, I fully understand that some of the littlest thing we take completely for granted can haunt us.  The taste of a fresh crappie fillet, the smell of fresh coffee brewing, being able to eat a sammich, the weight of a grandchild in your lap without the fleeting thought is simply being around them a health risk.  Sir you are a tower of strength, physically and mentally and as you know the mental strength is very important to winning.  I had a quote I kept with me through my ordeal, it was attribute to John Wayne but who knows.  "Don't go out looking for a fight, but if a fight finds you make darn sure you win".  Not quite sure why such a cheesy quote stuck wih me, but it did.

[jdmidwest]

My thoughts on the matter at the retreat seemed to hit home on some.

It is what it is, nothing we could do to stop it or prevent it.  Fight it and win but face death because it will all get us sometime.  Its the one thing we all have in common, death gets us in the end.  Live every day while you can because some day it will end for all of us.

I watched a cheesy movie, A Million Ways to Die in the West, during this time.  It was full of people getting whacked by stupid stuff.  On the way to St Louis with my daughter to the meeting with the docs, we came across a wreck site on the interstate, a fire and rollover was evident by the mess on the road.  I later found out it was a friend of mine that probably wasted his life drunk and at hi speed texting at 3 am in the morning acting like some teenager in heat not like the adult he was at 47.  He left behind kids and died pretty stupidly, for no reason.  He never even saw it coming I am guessing and I pray he never felt it.  During those weeks of treatment and recovery, I lost a few more friends,  but none of them knew it was coming. 

I now know mine is coming but will never know when.  But I am ready as I can be.  My life has new viewing.

[jdmidwest]

2 Year Checkup Today.  All seems to be going well.  Doc kicked me out to six month cycles and things are looking good.  Celebrating the birthday of my grandson that was born the day I found the second lump this Sat.  Life is good.

 

[fishinwrench]

Hell yes !  🤟

A smidgen of faith in doctors has been restored.