Washington visit

This morning Diana and I took Craig and Taryn to Washington to see the sights. They had never been to Washington before so we had to really manage our time. They chose to see the Holocaust museum and the Air and Space museum. Two fine choices. We spent a couple of hours at the Holocaust museum and if you've never been, I highly recommend it. It's very heavy, but well worth the experience and knowledge.

I ducked out a few minutes ahead of Diana, Taryn and Craig to get myself a hot dog from the street vendor. Wow, I'm really eating well. We then went and spent a little over an hour and a half at the Air and Space museum. What more can I say about this museum? Really interesting, as usual. While Craig and Taryn were doing their thing, Diana and I did what we (errrrrr...I) do best-EAT. Diana had an ice cream and I had a green salad. Not bad, eh?

We then went to pick up Robyn from College Park (ed. note-the TERPS beat No. 23 Cal today!!!) We were a few minutes late but she was nonetheless happy to see us and showed our guests around her room. We then drove back to Baltimore. Traffic was complete sh!t. Instead of the regular 45 minutes, it took us 2 hours. Max had his legs crossed he had to pee so badly.

We went to Sandra and Neil for Shabbat dinner and as usual, she made a really cool dinner, which, by the way, included Oreo cheesecake. Then, homeward bound to watch some Hurricane Ike action. I hope its not as bad as they expected it to be.

Carpe Diem.

***Just in case you are wondering***

There may be a couple of days where nothing much is going on with me and the family. I do not want to start writing trivial and mundane stuff about my travails in general so a few days may go by before I have anything of substance to write to the blog. I appreciate you all checking the blog periodically. You can rest assured that when it's a health issue, something interesting or something news worthy, I will communicate it through the blog. Once again, I appreciate and am grateful for all the blog comments and personal emails. Thanks for your love and support.

What a sad anniversary today is!

Carpe Diem.

It's pretty quiet

Not much going on the past couple of days. The weather has been pretty decent but even that being the case, we closed our pool for the winter season. No one was using it! The water was a bit chilly and there was no point in putting the heater on. Global warming, the $$$, yada, yada, yada.

Diana is working, Rob's at Uni and Mike is at school. So I'm eating out most days at lunch time. My appetite is still good and I seem to be slowly putting on weight. I'm not sure my current diet is the epitome of good eating but right now I need to concentrate on gaining my weight back. So what if my cholesterol kills me. Just kidding. I don't want to be premature but so far so good with the medication. Hopefully, it will stay that way.

What's coming up, you ask? Tomorrow Craig Solomon (Hylton's/Silvie's son from Cape Town) will be staying with us for a couple of days. He is coming with his fiance. It's their first visit to this area (or the USA) so we will do the touristy stuff for them. Then next week I am off to the Hamptons for a couple of days. Sounds pretentious. I will be meeting up with the London "gang". Russ, Gerry, Oren and Ilan. They are over here visiting and going to the wedding of a good friend of theirs'.

Carpe Diem.

Weekend Update

Saturday Hanna arrived. No, not our niece. The tropical storm Hanna. Lot's of rain and a bit of wind. Not much else. Good.

Phil came in from New York. She went to a surprise birthday party for her good friend Jeanne Segal (neice of George Segal - the actor). The party was in Bethesda, a really nice part of the suburbs of Washington, DC. I was drafted as her date for the evening. More like chauffeur & food taster but I was only too happy to do this. Met some interesting people. There was even another pilot there. A Southwest Airlines captain. The food and snacks were amazing. It was a Mexican theme and they had this really popular Mexican food truck come by the house and prepare all sorts of stuff for the guests. I know it doesn't sound that appealing but it was quite pleasant. Besides which, Prednisone makes it all good!!!

Phil went home Sunday morning after breakfast. Sunday evening Mike and I went for dinner with four of our very close Baltimore friends. These two couples were the ones who came over to be with us the night I was diagnosed with lung cancer. They have been wonderfully supportive and a really big help to all of us through this ordeal. It was our way (and our treat) of saying thank you for everything and thank you for being such good friends. It was a really nice Indian restaurant in a nice and interesting part of Baltimore. And yes, I ate really well!

Carpe Diem.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Friday and Rob's off to school

In the morning Diana and I drove Rob to school. Boy, what a change from her freshman year. She has 2 roommates (good friends) and a really nice room. They have there own bath/shower/toilet, fridge and sink. How cool is that? She was thrilled and I guess somewhat glad to be back at school with all her friends. We felt really good dropping her off this time after a good lunch together at Noodles and Company.

In the afternoon Lil and I watched Man U loose to Zenit St. Petersburg 2-1. It was for some cup! Who the hell knows. Just great to watch Football again.

In the evening we were invited to some friends of our good friends from Boca, Ilan and Robin. They came into Baltimore for the weekend to visit with Robin's schoolmate. Geez, we just saw these guys at my birthday bash in Boca! It was a really nice dinner with good company. I am starting to eat well now and my appetite is coming back. I'm thrilled. Fat? Not yet.

Carpe Diem.