Friday, September 5, 2008

Friday travel day

In case you missed it, I am now signing each of my posts with "Carpe Diem" (seize the day). Each day is a gift.

Well it's Friday and someone must be traveling. It's not me........... yet. Diana went to Toronto this weekend. She will be home Monday.

I did a bunch of chores during the day and then Mike and I had Shabbat dinner together. No we didn't cook. We ordered in from Chicken Out and combined that with a homemade can of soup and there you have it......dinner.

After dinner I watched a movie on TV (300 - not 300 movies but the movie 300) and Mike had about 8 friends over to hang out and swim. They didn't swim because of the rain so they just played pool, trivial pursuit, card games and ate.

Carpe Diem

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The MUGA Scan

I swear I'm not making this name up. Today I have to go for a baseline MUGA scan. It's a nuclear medicine scan of the heart to make sure all is ok, cardiacly, while I'm on Sutent. I also have to have blood work done every two weeks. I will let you know how the MUGA went.

The procedure went fine. It took about an hour. Dr. Erlich should have the baseline report tomorrow. MUltiple Gated Acquisition, or MUGA. That's the definition. Wow! Sounds impressive. Now off to eat.

Carpe Diem.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Sutent start up

Today was the first day on my new oral once-a-day pill called Sutent. Hopefully I will tolerate the side effects. Come to think of it, I feel a little weird. It feels like.............like...........like. Just messing around!!! But honestly, I really hope the side effects are minimal and the good effects are very positive. Time will tell.

I had my 6 month dental hygiene check up this morning. What an amazing cleaning and such a gentle and good looking, attractive hygienist. And then my wife showed up. Wait a minute. The hygienist was my wife. But everything I said was true. No cavities. Must have been the chemo! True to form. I was starving after my cleaning so I ordered an extra large pizza with onion and proceeded to devour it with the assistance of the office staff. Oink, Oink.

Carpe Diem.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Appointment with Dr. Erlich

Let me catch you up with yesterday (Monday). Di and Rob came back from New York after having an incredible Sunday watching Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Yelena Yankovic all win their respective matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium. What a thrill. They also had fun with Phil and the gang in New York. Thanks Phil for the tickets. In the mean time, Mike and I had a good weekend together (teenagers!!!).



Today I had an appointment with Dr. Erlich, our oncologist. I'm all set to start the (Sutent) pill tomorrow. But before I do, I had to sign a consent form acknowledging possible side effects. Dr. Erlich told me my hair may turn white and my skin may darken. How dark, I inquired? He answered, "the same shade as my countrymen". After reeling me in, he burst out laughing. It would only look like a slight tan. I was had! Nice one. There are other side effects he listed but hopefully I will react well to this one-a-day pill. Without getting too technical, the pill itself is a targeted cancer drug that goes after fast growing cells genetically. I'm not trying to blow any one off (so to speak) but you could probably get better info (if you are interested) by "googling" Sutent.

Oh, Porky The Pig(Skin) has gained a Kilo. Yeehaa.

Carpe Diem.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Weekend Update

Diana and Rob left today for New York. No, Rob is not missing school. She starts on Tuesday. Phil got them US Open tickets and they were thrilled. Both of them are big tennis fans. They will be back Monday.

In the mean time............Mike and I have plans to go for a really cool dinner. We are going to an Afgan restaurant here in Baltimore called Helmand. It's named after a province in Afghanistan and interestingly it is owned by the brother of Hamid Karzai (the president of Afghanistan).

Now here is something really weird. My friends Ilan and Robin are also going for dinner with their Baltimore friends and guess where they are going? Helmand. Of all the bloody restaurants in Baltimore they had to copy us. Wankers. I will, however be dinning with my son. Maybe they will send over a bottle of wine from their table to ours!!! Yea, right.

Yup, true to form. Great dinner, great dad/son bonding and yes, we did see Ilan etc.

Sunday Mike, Kevin (his best friend) and Kevin's dad went for Dim Sum (Chinese brunch) and then downtown Baltimore to the Science Center. We went to see the exhibit called "Body Works". How amazing. I thought I would be uncomfortable viewing preserved bodies without skin. Looking at all the muscles and organs etc. etc. But I wasn't. The only thing that made me uneasy was looking at the lungs. Some healthy and some not so healthy!!! Go figure. I'm not doing this exhibit justice with my description suffice to say you can probably look it up on the internet. All in all, a great afternoon.

After getting home Mike went out and I went to friends in the "hood" for a Labor Day BBQ. Once again, I ate like porky the pig. Boy it's nice to be able to do this again. A few games of Backgammon later I went home to hang out with Max, eat and watch a movie.

Carpe Diem.