No Spring Chicken #20

No Spring Chicken #20
29/September/2014 Well, it was a pretty good weekend. Now I've just got to put the pieces together to make the rest of the week as good. The chorus (Kitsap Chordsmen) finished sixth in the Evergreen District. If you think that is easy, consider, Evergreen comprises Washington, Oregon, most of Idaho, most of Montana, Alaska, British Columbia and Alberta. There are more than 80 choruses (men's barbershop) in Evergreen. The previous best finish by Kitsap is 5th when the convention was held in Alaska and not all the choruses came, and several only brought some of their members. The next best finish ever was 7th. So this is a real step up for us. The judges' comments were on areas we know, but above where they have commented before. So we advanced in their minds, too. On top of that, the crew team I coach three times a week went to the Otter Island Regatta and finished 1st! Woo hoo! They did me, and themselves, proud. OK, for those who don't have any idea about crew races, a sprint race for masters is 1000m. A head race is usually 5 km (3.2 miles). This was 8 miles. What, that isn't enough? I have one rower who is in England visiting friends and got to row with the 150 year old York City Rowing Club, and not only did she do well in the 13 mile row through the city, they asked her to come back next weekend to row with them in a race! Wow! Talk about a credit to her skill! If you haven't rowed, you don't understand what happens when you put a boat together. But you should pick up a book entitled The Boys In The Boat. It will help you understand just how great a compliment this is! So, here is how the rest of the week is going. The doctor called with the biopsy results today and the lymphoma is the same as last time (follicular lymphoma, the second best cancer to have), and no more aggressive or spread than last time (when it was in the bone marrow, too). But this means that the R-Bendamustine treatment will still work. So, while I could go with the more toxic R-CHOP treatment, there is no reason to consider that either of them is better in this case. So, things are no worse than I expected. Today I put the new sails on my sailboat (the T-37 RC sailboat) and it looks good. I've still got to tune the rigging for the new sails. There is one new adjustment that I need to add, and a few other things I need to do before the Nationals on Saturday. But I'm almost as ready as I can be. I was able to sleep on my left side all night this weekend, and to lay on my right side for a couple of hours while reading. Now, if that doesn't sound like much, I was unable to lay down on either side since the damage to my right shoulder (see No Spring Chicken #18 - http://www.condonia.org/nsc.html ) when it first happened. But physical therapy has improved things greatly. The hot tub got fixed last week, so I could soak for a while today and ease those tight muscles. Ahhhhh. How sweet it is. To top it all off, my older brother is coming up this Thursday to spend a few days. We'll play some games, goof off a lot, play test his new renaisance naval rules, he'll work race committee while I'm racing on Saturday, we'll fight one of his battles in our ancients campaign on Sunday, and he'll leave just before my first chemo treatment on Tuesday. Nice for him to have the fun times but miss the crap. Nice for me to have the company to distract me before the tough stuff. So, while there are storm clouds on the horizon, the sun is shining on the glen right now. Besides, the new season of Castle starts tonight - in about 26 minutes. Then off to bed with the best wife in the world. Life is really pretty good!

29/September/2014
Well, it was a pretty good weekend. Now I've just got to put the pieces together to make the rest of the week as good.

The chorus (Kitsap Chordsmen) finished sixth in the Evergreen District. If you think that is easy, consider, Evergreen comprises Washington, Oregon, most of Idaho, most of Montana, Alaska, British Columbia and Alberta. There are more than 80 choruses (men's barbershop) in Evergreen. The previous best finish by Kitsap is 5th when the convention was held in Alaska and not all the choruses came, and several only brought some of their members. The next best finish ever was 7th. So this is a real step up for us. The judges' comments were on areas we know, but above where they have commented before. So we advanced in their minds, too.

On top of that, the crew team I coach three times a week went to the Otter Island Regatta and finished 1st! Woo hoo! They did me, and themselves, proud. OK, for those who don't have any idea about crew races, a sprint race for masters is 1000m. A head race is usually 5 km (3.2 miles). This was 8 miles.

What, that isn't enough? I have one rower who is in England visiting friends and got to row with the 150 year old York City Rowing Club, and not only did she do well in the 13 mile row through the city, they asked her to come back next weekend to row with them in a race! Wow! Talk about a credit to her skill! If you haven't rowed, you don't understand what happens when you put a boat together. But you should pick up a book entitled The Boys In The Boat. It will help you understand just how great a compliment this is!

So, here is how the rest of the week is going. The doctor called with the biopsy results today and the lymphoma is the same as last time (follicular lymphoma, the second best cancer to have), and no more aggressive or spread than last time (when it was in the bone marrow, too). But this means that the R-Bendamustine treatment will still work. So, while I could go with the more toxic R-CHOP treatment, there is no reason to consider that either of them is better in this case. So, things are no worse than I expected.

Today I put the new sails on my sailboat (the T-37 RC sailboat) and it looks good. I've still got to tune the rigging for the new sails. There is one new adjustment that I need to add, and a few other things I need to do before the Nationals on Saturday. But I'm almost as ready as I can be.

I was able to sleep on my left side all night this weekend, and to lay on my right side for a couple of hours while reading. Now, if that doesn't sound like much, I was unable to lay down on either side since the damage to my right shoulder (see No Spring Chicken #18 - http://www.condonia.org/nsc.html ) when it first happened. But physical therapy has improved things greatly.

The hot tub got fixed last week, so I could soak for a while today and ease those tight muscles. Ahhhhh. How sweet it is.

To top it all off, my older brother is coming up this Thursday to spend a few days. We'll play some games, goof off a lot, play test his new renaisance naval rules, he'll work race committee while I'm racing on Saturday, we'll fight one of his battles in our ancients campaign on Sunday, and he'll leave just before my first chemo treatment on Tuesday. Nice for him to have the fun times but miss the crap. Nice for me to have the company to distract me before the tough stuff.

So, while there are storm clouds on the horizon, the sun is shining on the glen right now. Besides, the new season of Castle starts tonight - in about 26 minutes. Then off to bed with the best wife in the world. Life is really pretty good!

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