Jeff had to delay his chemo a week because his platelets were too low, but he was able to get his chemo in the day after Labor Day so he got his pump off on Thursday, I gave him his shot on Friday morning just before taking him to the airport for his Pittsburgh trip.  My cousin sent me pictures of all of them today and Jeff looked relaxed and happy. 

He usually feels bad for the three days he is getting the chemo and his feet were cracked and sore again on Thursday, still a little sore on Friday, but we got him a wheelchair at the airport and arranged for one at each of the other airports.  My cousin got him one to use back there and got him handicap seating for the game on Sunday.  He will be back on Tuesday.

So, think of him on Sunday, enjoying himself at the game and root for the Steelers to win.  His best friend, Tim, went back with him so I could rest easily since Tim has been there every step of the way for Jeff and knows all the little problems that he could have.  He’s been a great friend to Jeff and all of us.  Thanks to all the cousins for showing Jeff a great time!

Howdy folks!  It’s the last official sunday of summer and that bums me out.  I really didn’t enjoy my summer like I usually do, due to the darn cancer.  It sucks because I’m not allowed in direct sunlight, so I kept most of my pasty white skin from winter.  Plus, I never went to the beach, which I try to do at least once a year, but the darn sunlight rule kept me away.  Oh well, maybe next year, I’ll start a new streak.  This one ended at 15 straight years.  I’ll beat that mark with my next streak or my name isn’t John Jacob Jinglehiemer-Schmidt.  Oh that’s right, it isn’t. Well, you get the picture.

This week went good. School was awesome.  I think I’m gonna do extremely well for the next eight months.  The only thing that remains to be seen is just how well I do.  I had to leave early Friday for an appointment with my Medi-cal case worker, who was sick.  Apparantly HIPPA laws extend to not being able to tell the holder of my power of attorney that my meeting had to be rescheduled because my case worker was out sick or something.

Anyways, this meant that I didn’t have to leave class early, but because some people are unable to think for themselves, this wasn’t actually passed on.  Government employess can be so stupid sometimes, I swear.  They do just what they’re told to do and put no thought into anything else.  I think that’s a damn shame.  In my experience, people who show initiative should be rewarded. Government does the exact opposite and punishes the innovative for not strictly adhering to the rules.  That might be the root of what’s wrong with government today.  I definitely know that telling a household member that a meeting has to be rescheduled is not privledged information. Enough on this rant for now.  More may follow, though

Sarah and I spent three exhilarating hours driving down to San Diego this past Friday.  Yep, it was Sarah and I and four million of our closest friends, doing five miles an hour down past Temecula.  The reason we were going was to attend my friend Angela’s wedding.  I don’t care what everyone else was doing.  I just wish they had gotten out of our way.  Well, gotten out of Sarah’s way.  She drove while I fell asleep, since I had gotten up 12 hours before and needed to nap in order to be of any use once we got to our destination.  I was tired.  I had to take a blood test that morning, which gave me a five am wake up time.  Then I went straight to class and then to Medi-cal.  Then I got my stuff for the night while Sarah napped, then I woke her and we went to her place so she could shower and get ready and I tried to nap, but wasn’t very successful, so it was left to me to nap in the car.  Not an auspicious start. 

Anyways, we got to the wedding just in time for them to be pronounced man and wife, but at least we made it.  It took walking across several hundred yards of sand, it seemed, but we got there.  They had a wheelchair that was specially designed for taking some of us back and forth across the sand, but whoever was in charge of it took one person and never returned, which left me a return walk that just completely wore me out.  We did sit with some great people at the reception, but I wasn’t feeling very good and we ended up leaving earlier than either of us really wanted to.  I know Sarah was disappointed, and so was I, but I really didn’t see any other choioce.  Sarah didn’t want to fight the traffic home again that night, and I was in no shape to drive, so we had to find a place to stay overnight.  Unfortunately, all we found was an overpriced and overhyped Best Western.  Needless to say, we weren’t happy campers the next morning.

Breakfast made up for it somewhat.  We hit the Denny’s just down the street and we both satisfied some food cravings we’d had for a bit.  I finally got my Moons over my Hammy (oh God do I love that!) and Sarah had some french toast that if I hadn’t craved my sandwich, I probably would have gotten the same thing.  Anyways, the morning got things looking up, and we had a much easier drive home that afternoon then the drive down the day before.  Much better for both of our nerves, for sure.

Healthwise, I’ve really had no complaints over the last week.  My only problem is that we had to delay my chemo because of a low platelet count, but that should be rectified this coming Tuesday.  I only hope that it gets done before my trip to Pittsburgh on Friday.  Other than my constant dry mouth, I really have no other complaints.  I’m continuing to adjust my stool softeners so that I don’t keep running back and forth to the bathroom, but I think this is only a matter of time before that finally works itself out.  Until then, I guess shit happens.

Yes Steeler fans, this boy is going to see the game on opening day!  Eat your hearts out!  All I know is I plan on gorging myself in football violence for an entire weekend and then a little more on Monday hehehehe.  Tuesday I might still be riding high on our intended victory, but I know I shouldn’t start counting wins before they occur.  Even if the opponent can only be marginally effective against a powderpuff team on their best day.  Steeler’s rule!!!  Kids, for your information, that’s what we call trash talk.  All good sports fan should know the proper way to trash talk another team.  An unprepared fan is the worst kind, although if you at least root for the right team, every fan is a good one.  Some fans are just better than others.  lol

Well, that’s it for now.  I can’t think of anything that I need to add, but then again, I can have a foggy memory at times.  I promise to try to write more often, but sometimes I forget.  I didn’t realize how long it had been since I’d written the last time.  Stay tuned, though! I promise there’s more to come.  Until then though, have good days and be good humans!

Ok folks, I know I haven’t written at all this week, but that’s only a technical thing.  I wrote this Monday the 25th while I was over at Sarah’s for dinner and she doesn’t have wireless access, so I typed this into a word document and only today got on the internet.  I’ll also post an update today.

Well, hello all my faithful readers and how are you this fine day?  I can tell you all that I feel great today.  Yesterday was a different story, though.  I kept getting dizzy and lightheaded whenever I stood up.  Plus, I never quite seemed able to catch my breath and I resumed my twitching again.  The end result was that yesterday afternoon I wound up at San Antonio Community hospital with an IV in my arm. Again. I’m kinda getting tired of showing up unannounced, so I think next time, I’ll send in a reservation.  That’ll keep me from having to fight for space with the uninsured and all the ambulance runs that are coming in all the time.

They actually said that all that was wrong with me was a little dehydration and that all my labs came back normal, so they sent me home after hydrating me.  When I got home, Sarah and I talked for a bit, then we realized how freaking late it was.  We got home from the hospital around ten pm, and it was already midnight.  It absolutely amazed me how time just seems to fly whenever she’s around.  Anyways, I had to get some sleep so that I was halfway conscious this morning for class.

Class was great.  I think I’ve devised a way to ease my way into waking up even earlier than I had planned but still optimize my morning.  The end result today was arriving ten minutes early relaxed and refreshed for class.  I was even able to stay riveted on the subject today without thinking how tired I was or nodding off.  The only bad part was that I felt like I had to cut my time with Sarah short the night before, even though it was after twelve before we reluctantly parted.  I think that we can suffer for the duration of the class though, because it means that I’ll be done even quicker than I thought I would before.  Here’s hoping, at least.

This evening really kinda capped things off for us this weekend.  Sarah made me dinner, which I seemed to scarf down before it was on my plate.  Then I ate nearly an entire pint of a new ice cream that Baskin Robbins came out with.  It has chocolate crunchies with a ribbon of caramel mixed into the vanilla ice cream.  It’s delicious and it forced me to make an absolute pig of myself this evening after dinner.  I was able to stop myself before I ate the entire pint, but it took nearly all my willpower to do so.  God, that’s some good stuff.  I really recommend you trying it for yourselves.  Don’t just take my word for it.  It’s really something that you ought to try for yourselves.

As for me, I’m going to sign off, because I’m sitting next to the most beautiful woman in the world and I’m sitting here looking at a computer screen.  I think my priorities are a little screwed up, don’t you think?  Since I recognize that fact, I’m going to rectify that right now and sign off.  See you later, folks!

Hello again everyone.  Just thought I’d give you all a little update on yesterday.  As you all should know if you’ve been reading my blogs is that class started at 8am yesterday morning for me.  Well, due to circumstances beyond my control, I wasn’t able to get there until 15 minutes after.  Pissed me off, because I was planning on getting there at 7:45 and being well fed.  Instead, I spent fifty minutes sitting on the toilet and worrying about making it on time.  As it was, I barely had time to take my pills before I left and then ran out the door.

It didn’t get much better once I got to class.  I felt sick to my stomach for most of the class and almost threw up twice.  Once class was over, I was exhausted, since I spent most of the night running back and forth to the bathroom and therefore got about an hour’s total sleep for the night.  When I got home, I pulled out a pillow and a blanket and promptly fell asleep on the living room couch.  Mom even woke me up at 3pm, concerned that I wouldn’t sleep worth a darn that night, but she shouldn’t have worried.  I know I didn’t, I went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until dinner at 7pm.  I tried to stay awake from then on, because I knew I should, but it was hard. 

When Sarah called after she got off work, I must have sounded like crap, since that’s exactly what she said and came over to visit.  I wasn’t exactly sterling company, but she insisted on staying for a while.  I guess I scared her a bit, mainly because I didn’t eat or drink anything all day.  The main reason for that was the fact that I slept nearly all day, but I also didn’t feel all that well, either.

The good news is that I felt much better this afternoon when I woke up and ate both a good lunch and dinner, and I’ve been taking in liquids as much as possible.  So today was much better than yesterday.

The good news at school is that it’s completely different than ITT.  This place is no nonsense, teach the students the skills and get them moving along.  I might actually be able to get a job in a matter of a few months, rather than wait until the externship.  We’ll see, but the future is looking up and it looks good from here.

Ok, first things first.  I appreciate all the comments I get from everyone, but if they’re not in english, like the 1100 I just sifted through and very few were (they used some form of language that had very few vowels), I tend to think they’re spam and in the trash they go.  Also, if there’s a link anywhere in the message, your comment will end up in the same place, only because this is not a commercial website and it’s unfair for me to ask those that help maintain the site to double check all the links we receive to ensure that they’re clean, which some make it obvious in the link (thank you for that fornicators of donkeys and horses.  You too, cialis and viagra  It’s so easy to delete you when you announce who you are).

Anyways, I had a fairly moving time this last week.  I mean that in a literal sense.  I actually had a few bowel movements.  They hurt like hell but they made me feel better afterward.  I’m still having a little problem with constipation.  It feels like if I could just have the one big one I know is in there, all will ok with the world, but it’s acting stubborn, like my butt is jealous of the rest of my body or something and is demanding attention.  Well, it’s getting a lot of attention now.  I hope it’s happy.  I know I’m not.

Good news happened this week, too.  I got approved for school and I start tomorrow, so don’t be surprised if I keep up my once or twice a week updates.  It’s gonna be a long eight months for me, but I’ll be done with school, have my comp/tia and A+ certs, not to mention my degree that I promised.  It may have only taken thirteen years, but I finally got it.  THAT should shut some people up.  All I have to say is, "Shut up, I’m an expert and have the degree to prove it.  NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH!"  Not the most mature thing to say, I know, but it sure feels good to think that way.

Sarah’s still trying to get her financing through, although I don’t think her school is as helpful as mine was, which I think is part of her problem.  We’re still trying though.  I think it’ll be awesome if we both finish school soon and get on with our careers in rapid time.  She found a good school and a good program, but so far, Sallie Mae is being a difficult operation for some reason.  They aren’t giving us a reason why, at least.  For the time being, we’re exploring other avenues of financing rather than relying soley on the school.

Other than than, I really have no reason to not have updated sooner other than I really didn’t feel too good.  It wasn’t anything I can put my finger on, other than an overall feeling of blah, but I just really haven’t felt good all week, plus I’ve  been busy getting my info together for my Medi-cal application, which takes forever, because they ask for everything under the sun and some of it, I simply don’t have due to the fact that it happened recently enough I haven’t been seen an itemized bill for it, which due to the nature of the medical field, is always forthcoming.  It just takes a while for it to meander it’s way through the buracracy.  The sad thing there is, that if they eliminated some of the layers of red tape, they’d get paid faster (or ignored faster, depending on the nature of the various patients) and the bills would be somewhat less expensive as well.

Anyways, I have chemotherapy on Tuesday, so I can at least let you guys know how that goes.  I can cheat a little bit and tell you how the afternoon will go by saying I slept for most of the time I was there, and probably kept the rest of the other patients awake with my snoring, and that I once again wore a smartass t-shirt to the amuse the doc, but I prefer to keep that sort of thing a surprise, so I won’t tell you that just yet.  I prefer to wait until Tuesday to reveal the wonderful world of chemo.  Until then,  adios, muchachos!