Washington and Butthead

Happy Birthday, George Washington!  A guy whose integrity and character went a long way into making America what it became.  Thank you, Mr. President.

Today was also sleet, snow and freezing rain day here in metro DC, which meant that the roads were, in the immortal words of my good friend, Bill Speer, "slicker than deer guts on a door knob..."  The lovely Miss Victoria Galore, soon to join Joe Gibbs Racing, made it through like the champ that she is.  My internal gyroscope told my sleeping body that at no time were we moving perpendicular to the long axis of the car!  Good job, Angel.

Oh, and I did I mention that we finished three weeks of therapy today?

Here's some medical things that we have learned.  The head bone is connected to the butt bone.  We know that because that's how Beavis's friend got his name.  What happens between those two bones is a little more complicated, but educational.

In cancer, one's metabolism speeds up dramatically, trying to replace the cells that are being attacked.  If you just eat normally, you will lose weight.  In throat cancer, the problem is multiplied because you cannot "just eat normally."  Hence the PEG tube into my stomach.

We had tried for  2 1/2 weeks to avoid the PEG tube, because swallowing and jaw movement are also important.  But we had our priorities backward.  First, stay hydrated and don't lose weight; second, keep swallowing as much as possible and exercise the jaw.

Well, working without the PEG tube, I had lost 9 pounds in just over a week.  The docs

 hit the brakes hard.  So now PEG is my primary means and throat is secondary.  I regained 5 pounds in two days, thus avoiding the IV hydration drip they were about to give me. Taking in smaller amounts through the throat is also much less painful. 

 

From the dental extractions until now - just a month - I have gone from Tylenol 3 to Percocet, from Percocet to morphine pipette, and from morphine to Oxycontin and Oxycodone, where I am now.  Wow, you're thinking - this guy is in trouble.

Docs jumped in early to assure both of us that no throat cancer patient has ever become addicted to these heavy duty opiates.  Why?  because they are not making me high in any way (just comfortable enough to swallow a little) , when the pain stops, the drugs will stop and I won't want any more.  The rethinking of the pain killers is what turned my weight around.  Now we must continue into the tougher weeks.

As the journey down the bones concludes, the butt bone doesn't like pain killers which take too much moisture out coming through the Erie canal, or whatever they call it. So the butt bone goes on strike, sorta like the Screen Writers Guild did, and the result is the same - no "high quality material" for the evening show...  not even re-runs.

Docs can fix that as well, but the growing list of drugs coming into TAJ M'home has now caught the attention of the DEA whose agents are dressed as Honduran builders throughout the neighborhood.

So, how to relax through all this?  Get up at 0605, step out onto the back porch and check out the scene to the East, below.

Thanks for your continuing prayers and good wishes. See you on the high ground!

Ken