What is Success?

I'm going through my piles of paperwork and finally getting around to filing or discarding the pages I have hung onto for whatever reason for so long.

I found the following quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that I'd like to share with you. To know me is to know why the quote means so much to me.

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a little bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden path, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one person has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

Update on my mutt

Hi all,

Well I know this topic isn't necessarily relevant to Dad's cancer, but many of the folks who read this may be interested in it, so i'm gonna post about it. My girl dog, Mia, has had a bad leg for awhile, due to mal-treatment as a pup. On 11/4/07, her knee finally blew. So, to repair it, she had surgery yesterday, and came home today. This is relevant to Dad and others who will be in Green Bay for Christmas, 'cause now I'm driving up there for the holidays for sure (instead of flying) and my monsters are coming with me, since she has 16 weeks of gradual recovery. I'll be regularly doing her physical therapy through Christmas. Dad, is there any way to rig up a small swimming pool in your basement ;-)? And yeah! This will give Dad TONS of more critter-cuddling therapy ;-).

The surgery went well. The doc repaired two torn ligaments and cut a HUGE chunk of arthritis out of her knee. It had begun to rub on and into her thigh bone. Mind you, she's only 2.5 years old, so arthritis isn't good. She's in pain, but is handling it like a trooper. I think its harder on me than on her ;-)!

Now begins my hell because i have to keep her relatively immobile and gradually get her walking on it. As Dad and Ben can tell you, this dog does NOT slow down, so this will be interesting....

If you're visiting GB for the holidays, not only will you get to see Dad, Ben and I, but my beloved monsters, as well ;-)!.

Please wish Mia well, and wish me peace and sanity in trying to keep her calm and sedate ;-).

xoxoxo,

Amy

"Out of the Mouths of Babes"

I followed a link on a site that I visit every day that lead me to a website that featured a cartoon-a-day. It is a site that describes itself as a “webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” I like it even if I don’t always get the joke. You have to be young and more Internet-savvy than I to get the full effect. When I told Ben I'd send him a link to the site, me told me there was no need, that the name of the site was easy for him to remember. I had to look the name up in an on-line slang dictionary. (Save the link. You can use it for other Internet slang, like ROTFLMAO. )

However, perusing the XKCD site, I found a ‘toon that I thought a fellow Internet Firefly friend would probably like, so I sent it off to him. He liked it so much, it ended up in his blog. Made me feel good!

I continued to review the cartoons when I found the one pictured here, Binary Sudoku. I loved it. I can finish each puzzle in one second; two seconds tops!

It reminds me of another “Binary” joke, “There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don’t.”

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I thought that I had posted this next info already, but I didn’t see it anywhere. Just goes to show you what chemo brain can do. I tried to place my order for my meds over the Internet three times before I finally remembered enough to get it done.

When I talked with my doc on Friday, I mentioned my being female according to the report results of my x-rays. He surprised me by saying that he was the head of the Quality Control committee, but getting the correct info on reports isn’t their major concern. Made me feel real comfortable; “I’ll tell you that for nothing.”

But his belief that I was called a female was due to my using an initial for my first name and their computer system not being able to use a full middle name. I end up H. B. And, there are females who use their initials to try and hide the fact that they are female. And since I do get mail from the hospital for “Ms H.” I can believe the explanation. But why do I need to get all the mail for the OB/GYN department?

OK, I dug out the mail and will try to get it changed tomorrow.

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I stopped by Teo’s this afternoon to see him. He had an appointment with some folks and I was interested to hear how the appointment turned out. Besides, I hadn’t seen him for a while, what with me not feeling well and all.

While talking with him, his lovely daughters wanted some attention from us as well, which didn’t bother me at all. One of you guys should reassure him that I love kids, especially little girls, and set his mind at ease. I believe that it stems from losing a sister when I was 3 and she was 18 months. And, I agree with a favorite author of mine when he stated, “Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.”

But like any good father, he gets concerned when his daughters climb all over one of his guests. But I don’t mind. I’m still a kid at heart.

Anyway, his youngest, Natalie mentioned that I didn’t have any hair. She was used to seeing me with some white hair and my white beard. They haven’t seen me that often this year to get used to me since most of my hair fell out. So I told her to feel my head because I did have some stubble trying to grow back in. So there she was standing on the couch behind me rubbing her hands all over my head. The words, out of the mouth of this 3-year-old bi-lingual babe sounded something like this, “like a baby.” She thought my head felt like a baby’s head!!! And she should know, she has a six-month-old nephew that lives with them.

Now, Amy, I know that you are flashing back to 4-year-old Zach calling me “Bobble-head Ben” and just chuckling away. Teo and I thought it was pretty funny too.

I guess that’s another reason I like kids, their honesty. Before they get “socialized” they have a tendency to tell things as they see it. And I do appreciate honesty, even if it might hurt a bit. Not that being told I have a head that felt like a babies head hurt my feelings. I thought it was funny and I will remember it for quite some time. And having said something here about it, I’m sure my kids won’t let me forget either. I hope!

Nothin' to Say!

I had a talk with Ben today about how it's getting difficult for me to put together posts for this blog.

I'm in between Round 3 and Round 4 of chemotherapy. But I'm feeling pretty good, although a little under the weather due to a probable cold. However, if I had the opportunity, I'd be working the next two weeks!

I'm up to 190 pounds or so. So much so that I went out today and bought fruits and veggies. Tomorrow I'm starting a high protein, low fat diet. I want to lose some more fat.

Since my news that my tumor has been reduced by over 60% or so, according to my personal physician, the responses to my posts have dropped off the map.

So, I have decided to only post once a week or so. So, if you don't see anything for a while, that's why. I will still maintain my schedule post. But, with nothing going on, I have nothing to post. That's why I have censored myself on several occasions when I started to post comments that belong in another venue. I do have other places that I'd like to post, but it takes a while right now to pull my thoughts together.

For example, I've had an email response to a "libertarian" who decided to spam me in draft form for almost two weeks until I could pull my thoughts together well enough to respond to his invasion of my property. Just be glad I didn't post it here; you probably wouldn't understand either.

I don't know when I'll decide to blog, what day of the week. I don't know that I can promise anything. So check back whenever you can.

Oh, I received an interesting phone call the other day. It seems that the Green Bay office of Ingenix called me for my insurance company to clarify some charges. I had to ask which office was calling; I thought initially that it was the other Ingenix office. LOL But I was surprised.