Followup

1. Cardiologist appointment at 8a - I gotta figure out why I'm so short of breath.

This visit included an EKG (normal), Heart Ultrasound (will be read next week) and a further diagnosis of anxiety. I like this guy (Dr. Kourany), I feel like he listens and is compassionate. I still think there is something going on that both the Cardiologist and Oncologist are missing, but would agree that the anxiety is probably affecting my overall health.

2. Pull Maris' room apart and paint the remaining walls blue.

Complete. Well, I actually still have one wall to complete but I ran out of paint. It looks sooooo much better and brighter. Hard to believe my little girl is growing up so fast.

3. Laundry - Holy crap do I produce a lot of funky clothes.

Sorta, I got a lot of loads done, but none of them folded. Right now I have three baskets of clean clothes getting more wrinkled by the minute. Kris and the kids just headed to the pool so I should probably revisit the laundry.

4. Lunch

Sorta, Kris brought a Jimmy John's sandwich home with her, but it wasn't until 2 so I had already eaten. I think I may revisit said sandwich in a minute.

5. Run to Fuseks for some hardware...man do I like hardware (slide locks, trimmer line, etc)

After my cardiologist appointment, Kris and I went to visit a new daycare for Eli that better suits his needs. It was a great trip and worth of a blog entry on its own. After this visit, I ran to Fusek's True Value and purchased hardware.

6. Dog food. Apparently pets like to eat. Check for Koi or large comets.

Thank you Kristin for picking this up. Apparently holistic dog food is affected by the flooding and corn futures pricing. Our dog food is now $50 per bag! I'll be picking up 10 comets for my mom tomorrow morning before we head up there for lunch.

7. Clean out frog aquarium (he was sent to my Ma's pond for a more spacious abode)

Yeah, this didn't happen.

8. Eye doc appointment. (Ocular health is an important indicator in your overall health).

This did happen. Turns out my meds may be causing me to retain some water in my ocular cavity and thus are causing my left eye to show signs of Glaucoma. Too early to tell, but I'll be back in a month for further testing to see how good or bad the news is. They even talked about doing an eye ultrasound - I'm sure that'll feel good and be cheap ;-). If there is any good news, a diagnosis of Leukemia prepares you for pretty much any news so I'm not terribly upset about it.

9. Home, prepare dinner for the thundering herd.

We got word Thursday night that we had a showing request for 5:30 on Friday. So we cleaned up, packed up the kids, dogs and toys for the trip to my mom and dad's. Dinner was burgers and the running joke is to put mini-carrots in the cheetos bag as to fool unsuspecting snackers.

10. Pass out.

Mission accomplished.

Gotta go - Macaroni and cheese special on Food Network. The winning dish looks to be a poach lobster/Mac n Cheese cake (a la crab cake).

Friday.

Got a lot of stuff in the hopper for tomorrow. I'm taking a vacation day to wrap up/start a few new projects around the house. The list is as follows:

1. Cardiologist appointment at 8a - I gotta figure out why I'm so short of breath.
2. Pull Maris' room apart and paint the remaining walls blue.
3. Laundry - Holy crap do I produce a lot of funky clothes.
4. Lunch
5. Run to Fuseks for some hardware...man do I like hardware (slide locks, trimmer line, etc)
6. Dog food. Apparently pets like to eat. Check for Koi or large comets.
7. Clean out frog aquarium (he was sent to my Ma's pond for a more spacious abode)
8. Eye doc appointment. (Ocular health is an important indicator in your overall health).
9. Home, prepare dinner for the thundering herd.
10. Pass out.

It's Official.

I have a new favorite website.

Dickipedia.org

Its just plain funny. So far, one of my favorite excerpts is from Obama's entry:

Personal Life

Barack Obama is married to Michelle Obama (nee Robinson), with whom he has five children: Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy.

hemo update.

Whities - 3,400 (down a bit)
ANC - 1,700 (down a chunk but still decent, normal is above 1,500)
Platelets - 150,000 (down a chunk, but still right on the edge of normal)
Hematocrit - 37.3 (up a tick)
Hemoglobin - 13.2 (down a tick)

In short, pretty decent news. You can look at it a couple of ways, but my feeling is that my counts are pretty good in spite of the medicine and at the very least - my numbers are still under Gleevec's control. The worry would be if my counts really started climbing because then we'd have to revisit the Gleevec dosage or look to other meds.

I've been under the weather a bit so I'm thinking that probably affects my ANC/White numbers. For those of you new to this - the ANC is actually a derivative of the percentage of fighters in your white blood cells. In my case - exactly 50% of my white blood cells are fighters. No too shabby.

oh yeah.

what about maris' bed...yeah, it's done.

keep in mind, her room is currently a wreck because the crib is still in there and we haven't yet found a comforter, but you get the idea.

walk in these shoes.

It's no secret that my health is not the best...and frankly, it's never been all that great. I was blessed with Leukemia, an broken gall bladder (I kicked that fool to the curb a few years ago) and a host of other gastro issues.

Sometimes I'll be driving and see a 60 year-old guy in a convertible and wonder - how is that guy feeling? Is he really as happy and healthy as he seems with his gray mane flowing in the wind. If I could, would I want to switch my body with him. I, of course, try to straddle the line of being positive but still wondering in the back of my mind...Did I get the short end of the stick in the health gene pool?

Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't trade my life for anybody else's. I've got two great kids, a fantastic wife and wonderful family near and far. My dog is loyal and my life is just about perfect in everyway (with one notable omission).

Still, I admit that I'd be lying if I wasn't a little jealous of people who can go an entire year without getting sick, tired, weak and otherwise health compromised. Jerks.

I just got back from the lab where they took another five vials of blood. Today they're checking my Bilirubin, my complete Metabolic profile, a CBC and a couple others. I should hear back on most of them this week but will probably wait until my July 9 appointment with the good doc for the full breakdown.

smart actor?

It's no secret that John Cusak has done some movies that would be best described as turds (Con Air excluded of course). I caught an interview with him the other day and thought I'd share it with you.

He is eloquent, smart and still pretty damn good looking.