News From Bo

Mother's Day Flowers, and Other News

2011-05-08T23:01:00.007-05:00

In a very nice gesture, Be's three children cooperated in sending her some beautiful flowers for Mother's day.

I walked in the Abilene Relay for Life April 29. I walked 10 miles to reach my goal, and Be walked with me. We started the walk at about 7 pm and were home by midnight.

We took a few breaks during the walk. The longest break was for the Luminaria Ceremony. In this ceremony, white paper bags containing battery powered "candles" are placed entirely around the track and the lights in the stadium are turned off. Each sack has the name of a cancer survivor or someone who has died from cancer. It is quite sobering to see how many people have been touched by cancer. The sacks were about 1 to 2 feet apart all the way around the track. We sat in chairs behind my sack during the ceremony. It was very windy.

I was walking in an effort to raise money for the American Cancer Society. With very little effort on my part, several generous and kind people gave a total of $1070 in my honor. Because of that I was given a nice green T-shirt which I wore proudly for the last 10 laps. On the back of the shirt was written "$1000+".

Resignation

2011-01-02T23:25:00.001-06:00

December 16, 2010

To the University Church of Christ Elders

It is taking more time to recover than I thought it would. Though my physical stamina is increasing rapidly, my emotional stamina is rebounding more slowly. There is no doubt in my mind that during the trials of my experiences in the last year and a half, God has given me eyes to better see when people are hurting and in spiritual pain. And I praise God and thank Him for such clearer vision. But with eyes to see comes a burden to act. It is this facet of my healing that is slower to recover. My mind is flooded with opportunities to serve, but my soul is not yet able to do the work required. Even small and simple tasks sometime seem an insurmountable challenge. The spirit is willing but the resolve is weak. Frequently my inner being experiences emotional overload followed by agonizing guilt. I am not “losing it.” Indeed, I am recovering, but it is taking longer than I would have liked. Additionally, certain family concerns have increased in the last few days that further complicate the issues that I am facing.

Therefore, to help facilitate my journey back to full spiritual vigor, I respectfully ask that I be relieved of my responsibilities as an elder of the University Church of Christ. I make this request with regret and humility. It is an honor for me to serve in this congregation of God’s people. But I need some relief from the burdens inherent in being an elder.

Please continue to pray for me, as I do for this eldership. I anticipate being increasingly able to serve vigorously in God’s work in the future. And I pray that you also will have increasing resolve and dedication in your service to the Master. May God bless us in His kingdom work.

Blood and Sin -- An Analogy

2010-10-21T16:19:00.002-05:00

Why is the shedding of blood necessary for forgiveness? Did God just make a decision that blood was required for atonement, or is there some inherent truth that demands blood as an antidote for sin? The fact that sin is not a trifling matter is indicated by some of the words and phrases that are associated with salvation: redemption, atonement, sanctification, ransom, justification, righteousness, born again. The variety of words indicates a deep and obscure nature of one’s escape from the results of sin.

But blood seems to be an integral part of the salvation of humans from sin. Under the Old Covenant, the sacrifice of animals was prescribed in great detail, and animals were to be sacrificed many times a year. And not just any animal would suffice. It had to be the best available and was sometimes described as one “without blemish.” Additionally, the high priest of the Hebrews was to offer a special sacrifice in the section of the temple known as the Most Holy Place. The high priest was the only person who could enter this room and he could only enter once a year “and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.” (Heb. 9:7)

If we continue to read in the ninth and tenth chapters of the book of Hebrews, we observe that the annual offering by the high priest is a shadow of the sacrificial offering of the New Covenant. “Day after day every priest performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Thus, in the New Covenant, the sacrifice of the blood of the Lamb of God is sufficient to atone for the sins of all, once for all time.

Now I propose an analogy based on a recent experience I have endured. Less than two years ago I was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Leukemia is a disease of the blood. We know that “life is in the blood.” (Lev. 17:11) With leukemia, cancerous cells in the bone marrow prevent a healthy production of blood. Because a sufficient amount of healthy blood cannot be produced, without medical intervention, the end result is death. For our analogy, think of cancer as “sin.” It is something not created to be in the body, is harmful to the body, and leads to death.

The main symptom I experienced as a result of the leukemia was severe anemia. My body did not have enough healthy blood. So I needed for people to donate blood for me. I was given blood transfusions to help keep my body working until the cancer could be brought under control. Think of the blood donations as sacrifices. Of course, donating blood does not cost one his life, but it does require giving some time, and having a rather large needle stuck in your arm for several minutes. In the course of my treatment, I needed blood transfusions time after time, never leading to a cure for the cancer. The blood also had to be from healthy people, not the weak and frail.

What was proposed as a way to bring the cancer in my body under control was multiple repeated rounds of chemotherapy. Think of chemotherapy in our analogy as human efforts to control the sin in our lives: perhaps like meditation, therapy, psychological analysis, self-mutilation, incarceration, or even religion. In my case, the chemotherapy brought me into remission, but it did not seem to be able to cure the cancer. In the case of the sin in my life, I may have the sin under control for a while, but the result of my sin is death. In both my physical life and my spiritual life, I need a cure; a once-for-all infusion of healing blood.

For the treatment of AML, there is now a wonderful treatment called a bone marrow stem cell transplant. My brother’s bone marrow was a match for mine and he was willing to “sacrifice” some of his blood for me. So along with enduring medical tests and having to take shots of powerful medicines for me, he went in to the hospital on two consecutive days, sat almost without moving for over four hours each day with large needles in both arms, and gave 5.3 million stem cells for me. But I also had a role to play in this treatment. In essence, I had to agree to die in order to receive his blood. The chemotherapy that would be given me would weaken or kill much of the bone marrow stem cells in my body. Enough would be killed that if I did not receive the new stem cells, I would die. The purpose of the new stem cells is to come into my body, see my stem cells as foreign and kill them. My cells would resist, but they would be so weakened by the chemotherapy that they could not stand up against the new healthy stem cells. So in theory, all the cancer in my body would be killed, and I would be cured.

Of course, the stem cell transplant procedure is risky. So I made a decision. I decided to believe that the process would cure me. From the time that I decided to allow my blood to die and until the transplant, I merely allowed the nurses to give me the chemotherapy, and at the appropriate time, to give me my brother’s stem cells. In the analogy, think of the receiving of the stem cells as being baptized. This is how I accepted the life-giving blood given by my brother. How ridiculous would it have been for me to say that I believe that I can be cured by a stem cell transplant, and then not let the nurses give me the blood. The analogy is so strong here that it is common for the nurses to sing “happy birthday” to the recipients when the stem cells are infused. They think of a person as being born again, with new DNA in their blood system. The day of infusion is called day 0 and the “age” of the recipient of the transplant, and therefore the appropriate treatment, is measured from that day.

When I transfer my thoughts to the sin in my life, and in your life, I know that ALL of us are dying because of sin. For Jesus to give enough blood for all of us to be cured, it took all of His blood. He had to give his life for us all to be cured, that is, be saved. In my mind, it is a human miracle that I now have my brother’s blood keeping me healthy, and that I am free from cancer. But that miracle is nothing when compared to the miracle of new birth in Christ, free from the power of sin.

May God be praised by our words and by our deeds every day that we live sin free because of the sacrificial blood of Jesus. And may we never take salvation lightly.

A Hard Rainy Day

2010-09-29T21:06:00.005-05:00

It was an emotionally difficult time Saturday morning. We put out the first of six signs advertising our garage sale just after 6:30 am. By the time we put out the second sign one-half block away it was raining. When we put out the last sign it was pouring. "Well," we said to each other, "maybe the rain will only last an hour." Nope! It lasted all morning.
But even if it had stopped raining, certain people might not have found the sale. Below is a photo of our sign at the corner of Judge Ely and EN 10th. You see, Be had figured out that she wanted to wait until she put out the signs to draw the arrow heads. That way we would not get confused, as we had in the past, and have the arrows pointing in the wrong direction. But she had already drawn one arrow head before she made that decision to wait. No problem. Just put that one sign in the correct position. In our haste to put out signs, draw the arrow heads, and not get wet, this happened.

Here is a photo of what garage sale items we actually got moved outside. The ladder was supposed to be put on stands to hold clothes. It was not for sale. And I put out the other two items the night before. They are still out there. Our garage has eight tables filled with really good things for sale, plus some other stuff all around on the floor and the ping-pong table.

Happy Birthday, Be

2010-06-10T11:03:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know that Be's birthday is past, but I want the world to know that though I tease her, I really do love her. So I am publishing the text contents of the birthday card I made for her. And I was on time in giving it to her.

Front page:

To help me

wish you a
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
I will quote from a
song by Ray Charles:

I love you
so much
it hurls me!

Middle page:

OOPS!
That was supposed
to say:

Last page:

I love you so much
it HURTS me!

As we both know,
when I am not with
you I am disoriented,
unmotivated, and
largely lost. Thank
you for being my
wife.

Happy Birthday!

Love, Bo

A Remarkable Talent

2010-06-09T17:18:00.008-05:00

My wife has a wonderful ability to create interesting the useful shapes from plastic using items from the kitchen to heat them. In an earlier post, I showed a re-sized plastic bottle that she created using the dish washer. Below is another creation she made using the dish washer. It is an ergonomic pie server.

Next we have something that I think might make us not worry about retirement funds for the rest of our lives. We could sell tickets for people to view the "leaning tower of Chili Powder." What do you think?

Adapted Psalm 130 Song

2010-05-17T22:27:00.005-05:00

A small group meets at our house every Sunday afternoon except for Care Group Sundays. Lately we have been studying Psalms and different members of the group lead the discussion each week. I had volunteered for last Sunday. I decided on Psalm 130 which is a song of ascent. So it had probably been sung in various settings of worship, especially in and around the temple. But it also had possibly been sung by the Hebrew travelers as they made their treks to Jerusalem for worship.

I remembered the time in Yosemite National Park when our family walked the rim trail, right at the top of steep cliffs. Lenna was 5 years old, and I held her hand, or carried her the entire time we were on that trail because I was afraid she would fall over the cliff. I tried to entertain her by singing "The Happy Wanderer" over and over. I have very fond memories of that hike.

So I decided to write words that capture the essence of Psalm 130, and fit to the tune of "The Happy Wanderer." Here is the result. It is only effective if you sing it.

1. Out of the depths I call you Lord.
O Lord, please hear my plea.
Let your ears care to hear my word
As I cry for mercy.

Chorus:
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Praise the Lord,
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
He is good, he is kind.
Hallelujah, praise the Lord.

2. If you, oh Lord, kept score of sin
Could anyone survive?
But with you all my sin’s forgiv’n.
I revere you while alive.

3. Deep in my soul I wait for him
On his word I rely.
Throughout the night I hope in him
More than guards seek morning sky.

4. O Christians, hope in God maintain;
Trust his eternal love.
For full redemption you will gain;
Sin vanquished from above.

He's Coming Ba-ack!

2010-05-17T21:38:00.006-05:00

When I feel good I love to work in my shop. As a sign that I am getting better, I spent a part of two days making a new bird feeder. In the first photo below, you can see that we needed a new one. In the second photo, you see the finished new feeder. And in the third photo, I am hanging the new feeder.

Of course, I had to wear a mask and gloves while working, but it all went well and I really enjoyed it.

Safe Plastic

2010-04-26T13:46:00.004-05:00

In the photo above, there are two plastic bottles. The bottle on the right was washed in our dishwasher. When it went into the dishwasher, it was the same size as the bottle on the left. You can see that the paper label on the small bottle is the same size as it was before being washed.

We have been hearing warnings about reusing plastic bottles. This experience makes us believe there is something to be concerned about. Looking online, we found a site where a medical doctor claimed that plastics labeled #2, #4, and #5 are safe to re-use. The other numbered plastics have some problems. This bottle is #1 plastic, and the doctor said it should not be refilled. Also, plastic #7 emits some bad chemicals. Our Nalgene bottles that we used for backpacking are #7. Yikes!

There are lots of differing opinions about the safety of plastic. If you find out something definitive, please let us know.

To the League City Church of Christ

2010-03-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

Unless some turn for the worse happens in my recovery process, this will be the last time that Becky and I will be in League City on a Sunday. We will be going back to Abilene to a congregation where a young man named Pullen often leads the song service. Go figure. Because we are leaving, I have asked to share a few thoughts with you.

First I want to thank you for the welcoming spirit you have shown us. You have given us warm smiles, you have spoken encouraging words to us, you have sent us cards, you have given us gifts, and you have visited us in the hospital. Your loving spirit does not surprise me because you are Christians, and that is the way Christians live. I think that another reason you have been so kind is because you know my brother R. C., and it is easy to assume that a little brother would be like his older brother, and therefore very loveable. But that conclusion does not automatically hold in this case because R. C. has set a very high standard to follow. I take this public opportunity to thank him and Betty for their generous hospitality, and to R. C. for his stem cells.

As a part of your welcoming spirit, you allowed me to wear a hat sometime during services and I thank you. Some of you men may have been jealous of my getting to wear a hat. I expect you could have the same courtesy if you are willing to pay the price. I do not recommend it.

Finally, I thank you for your prayers. They have been a constant source of encouragement to us during this ordeal, and I ask you to continue to pray for me. In particular, pray that I will not get Graft Versus Host Disease and that my blood counts will come back to normal at the proper time. Also please pray that I will not get serious infections while my immune system is redeveloping the resources to help me live a healthy life.

In conclusion, please let me encourage you in your walk with God. Never did I expect a doctor to say to me, “You have Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.” But he did. I felt as if I were looking into a valley of the shadow of death. The natural question could not be avoided. Am I ready to die? For me the answer was immediate. Yes, I am ready to die, but I do not want to die yet. This faith that I have is not from myself, but is a gift from God. Praise His name!

I pray for each of you that you are walking close enough with God to be able to have the same answer as me. Yes, I am ready to die. If you cannot say that yet, then keep reading your Bible and listening to God tell you how much He loves you, how much He has done for you, and how you should live in response to His love. And also keep praying, asking God to help you better understand and accept His love and mercy.

Many of my friends are wearing a green armband to encourage them to pray for me. On this band is a scriptural reference, Philippians 4:12-13, which says in part, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Indeed, I can live through Christ, or I can die through Christ. No matter what happens, I invoke the other statement on the armband: God is good.

Musings: Standing In The Gap, by Becky Green

2010-02-20T15:02:00.001-06:00

While at M. D. Anderson, we do lots of walking around from place to place for appointments, mailing letters, exercising by walking 30 minutes a day across the Skybridge, going to the indoor park for lunch, attending classes provided by the Wellness Center, plus lots of ups and downs on stairs and escalators, but mostly on elevators. I have noticed that as one steps into the elevator, a “ring” occurs that continues until entering the elevator. I have also noticed that if one wants to hold the elevator for a husband or another patient or family member, one can stand in that gap between outside the elevator and inside, the “ring” will continue and the elevator will wait. So, I began thinking about “standing in the gap.”

I see a lot of “standing in the gap” around M. D. Anderson - nurses, bus drivers, caregivers and other patients. And it occurred to me that standing in the gap is something that we can do for others, sometimes with only a little effort. All it requires is a need and someone who is able and willing to fill the need. For example, if I see someone approaching an elevator, sometimes I will “stand in the gap” so the person can catch the elevator and not have to wait. Easy! But there are myriads of other ways one can stand in the gap. All we need is eyes to see and a willingness to serve.

Sometimes it only takes one person to stand in the gap and fill a need. Ezekiel 22:30 tells of one of those times: “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.” So the Lord said that he would consume them with his fiery anger. So sad. It would have taken only one.

Sometimes standing in the gap requires a lot. I recall a mountain climbing trip when a particular juncture required a “committing step.” The gap was too wide for me to cross, so my son wedged his body in the gap and I was able to step across safely on his back. But of course, the supreme example of standing in the gap requiring a lot, was our Lord Jesus. He gave his life, stood in the gap between man and God and paved the way from our earthly home to our heavenly home. May we follow his example, obey God’s will and stand in the gap for others.

Encounters Along the Cancer Trail

2010-02-13T11:58:00.004-06:00

My dear Christian brother, Willard Tate, died last night -- from cancer. He has been in home hospice for a while so his death was not unexpected. But it has put me in a reflective mood. What I am thinking is that I have lost friends, found new friends, become closer to some of my (already) friends, and come to know some friends of friends. All of this while walking the cancer trail. Let me give you some examples from the last few days.

Of course, one of the friends that I have lost is Willard Tate. He went into hospice long after I came to Houston to stay for about 100 days. But I had hoped to see him again. That was a selfish hope - it was for me, not him. He is better off now. I pray that his family will have peace and comfort in this sad time.

This morning as I was leaving the bed area towing my tower to take a 30 minute walk, I saw Nancy. Nancy is the caregiver for her daughter Katie who recently had a stem cell transplant, and Nancy was staying at the same apartment complex as us. We would see her and visit with her at we rode back and forth to the hospital. Then I was surprised to see Katie walk up. She is already out of the hospital and doing well. Katie has a little one-year old daughter, so that is especially difficult, but the baby gives the mother motivation for working hard on her healing. I had given them one of Randy Becton's books when I first met them. They are from Louisiana.

Some friends we have become closer to are the Hughes: Franklin, Jackie, and Samantha. Samantha is the freshman at ACU who has a cancerous tumor spread throughout the middle area of her body. This family is in our care group at UCC, but we are walking the cancer trail together here at M. D. Anderson. They visit me when they can, and we visit them when we can. We pray together, and share our good news and bad news. So we are becoming closer day by day. Please pray that Samantha will know when to stop the chemo and have surgery to remove the tumor. Incidentally, I gave the Hughes a copy of Randy Becton's book.

Finally, just a few days ago when we got on the shuttle, a young girl with an Abilene Christian University shirt got on behind us. I struck up a conversation with her, and before we had exchanged two or three sentences of greeting, an elderly man across the aisle said, "Do you know Jim Bradford?" This man is Ken Stone, and he and Jim became friends when they were both in school at the University of Oklahoma. This was a long time ago because Jim was a graduate student at that time. They have been friends ever since. We had a good visit, and I gave him a copy of Randy Becton's book. Then yesterday we saw him and his wife again on the shuttle and I found out that he has a Gruver connection. He is distantly related to the Holt family who have lived at Gruver for as long as I can remember. He even came to Gruver as a part of a wheat harvest crew one time. Finally I made a connection to the Stone name. I mentioned that I used to go with mother to visit a Mrs. Stone in the Spearman nursing home. He immediately said, "Aunt Ida." His aunt Ida raised his dad for a while after the dad's mother died and before his granddad remarried. I e-mailed Jim, and we now have a three-way conversation by email. Jim was unaware that Ken had cancer and he has now put Ken at the top of his daily prayer list, right below me.

Life along the cancer trail is interesting.

Milestones

2010-01-24T17:52:00.007-06:00

I have a lot to tell you. There was much time in the hospital when I did not feel like even opening my computer. There is a significant amount of time that I do not remember. So here is a quick summary of what has happened in the last month.

I tried to keep a journal of what was happening each day. From Monday, Dec. 14, through Thursday, Dec. 24, I did pretty well, except I made no entries on the 22nd and 23rd. A few days after they passed, I wrote for days Dec. 26 through Dec. 29, "Blur." On Wed., Dec. 30 I wrote, "1 unit red blood?"

Thursday, Dec. 31 I wrote, "Started losing hair, platelets, 1 unit red blood." Then on Friday, Jan. 1, I wrote, "Coughing up red gunk. Breathing labored." That day I was moved to the ICU unit, a milestone. I stayed there a week and do not remember much of that week.

Another milestone is that Be came back to Houston on Wednesday, Jan. 6. You cannot imagine how glad I was to see her. The next milestone was the following Friday. I was supposed to move into a part of the hospital for which the care was between the ICU and the 11th floor stem-cell transplant area. But I ended up back on the 11th floor, and in the same room I was in before. Amazing.

Then I needed to start gaining strength by walking and doing other exercises. I could barely walk, and the first time I tried, my male nurse held onto a belt around my waist and Be followed with a chair on wheels in case I needed to sit down quickly. My legs felt like trees. It was difficult to get them to move. I worked hard, and on the following Tuesday, my doctor said, " I think it is time to get you out of the hospital." I could not believe it, and I was actually afraid (lack of faith) that it was too soon. But I left the hospital on Thursday, January 14, and the doctor was correct. I have been making steady progress since then.

In the hospital, I was constantly getting infusions of all kinds of medication. Since I left, much of this medication has to be taken orally. Here are the original 9 different medications and the schedule for my taking them.

On Saturday, January 17, we moved into an apartment that is close to M D Anderson. This apartment is a part of the ministry of the Kingwood Church of Christ, and is a great blessing. Below are pictures of me on the couch and half of the kitchen.

We continue to go to the hospital daily to get infusions of certain medications and to have my blood tested. A big part of what I must do now is gain strength and keep from getting infections. I have developed a runny nose, and that is possibly not good. But a nasal washing (yep, it is as bad as it sounds) came back with negative results, and Be's nose often runs when mine does, so we are just tolerating it.

Since leaving the hospital, I have not had to have any infusion of blood products, nor a shot of the white blood cell stimulator Neupogen. That means that the transplant is making progress in taking over the production of my blood. That is tremendous.

The final milestone I will mention is that I have been given permission to eat fresh fruit if it has thick skin. I am enjoying bananas and watermelon for the first time since the end of April. Yum, yum.

Please keep praying for me. Your prayers are having a great affect. Thank you!

Happy Birthday (day 0)

2009-12-22T22:02:00.002-06:00

At M. D. Anderson, the stem cell transplant people call the day that a person receives a stem cell transplant that person's second birthday. One of the nurses congratulated me on my second birthday, and I thanked her but told her it was my third birthday. When she gave me a puzzled look, I told her that my second birthday was when I became a Christian.

At any rate, the day that the stem cells are infused is a big day. So I used my computer to take a couple of pictures to mark the occasion. There were five bags of cells to be infused. The doctor was here for most of the first bag, but he left the rest of the infusion to my nurse. She stayed in the room with me the whole time, monitoring my vital signs frequently.

After the infusions, which took about 1.5 hours, I was pretty much out of it because of the steroids and the benedryl that they gave me. Even today I have been quite drowsy and listless. I hope that tonight I can sleep off the generally bad way I have been feeling. As with the earlier chemo, I have no appetite and have an "on the edge of nausea" feeling. At any rate, here are the promised photos.

An Agonizing Episode

2009-12-17T17:29:00.002-06:00

I cannot explain many of my character flaws, and I especially cannot explain this one. But it is formost in my mind now -- I really dislike having to get ready for a shower. I have even been known to work in my shop all day, getting covered with sweat and sawdust, and then at bedtime finding some excuse to delay my shower until in the morning, at which time I find that I do not need a shower. So you can imagine my consternation when I was informed that I have to take a shower every day while in the hospital.

Another thing that I really dislike is turning off the water when I am taking a shower. I love soaking in the nice warm water and just relaxing. Okay, today I finally forced myself to get in the shower for my daily cleansing. (Incidentally, I am glad that during this hospital confinement I actually get to shower and not just take a sponge bath like the last time I was in here for a month!) But today before I finished showering, my tower starts beeping!!! I must call a nurse to take care of this. You see, I have to be connected to the tower even when showering. So I must quickly rinse off and forgo the pleasure of soaking, or else have her come hang a new bag on my tower while I am pleasantly soaking in the shower.

Life gets tedious, don't it! By the way, I did not call the nurse until I quickly rinsed, dried, and clothed myself. No soaking today.

PS If anyone can explain my "shower disorder" I would love to hear the explanation.

Caprock Canyon State Park

2009-10-06T16:39:00.004-05:00

On Friday afternoon, October 2, Jason Holland picked me up in his pickup truck and we drove to Caprock Canyon State Park, arriving at about 5:15 pm. This state park is just outside of Quitique (pronounced "Kitty Kway"), Texas. We were too late to check in at the park headquarters, so we drove to our campsite and set up our tents.

The campsite had a pit grill for burning wood, and a grill-on-a-pole for burning charcoal, a picnic table under a roof, and some toilets. There was no running water. The campsite was by a fairly deep and steep-sided creek bed. There was no water running in the creek. Jason cooked turkey brauts on his gas grill, and we had those and beans for supper. As it got dark, the moon came up and it was so bright we could not see very many stars, though it was a cloudless night. But we had a great view of Jupiter, and we saw three satellites cross the sky. We went to bed at 9 pm, and we heard a pack of coyotes howling throughout the night.

The next morning after breakfast, we hiked a very nice trail from 9 am to 1 pm. That was a round trip distance of 7 miles. There was not much elevation change on the trails he chose. When we came to a place where we would have to go up a steep incline, we turned around and returned to the trailhead. Jason was very nice to choose trails that I could handle.

Saturday was a beautiful day for hiking. There was a cloud cover all day, and the temperature ranged from 45 degrees in the morning to 72 degrees at the end of our hike. I was especially impressed with the variety of Fall wildflowers in the park. Also, there were only 4 tents in the camping area, and we met only one other group on the trails. Just wonderful.

After we had been on the road home about 15 minutes, it started raining and rained for 2 hours. But there was no rain on us in the park. I was amazed that I was able to walk 7 miles. Of course, I walked slowly, but I walked. It was great!

GENIUS OR INSANITY?

2009-08-06T23:22:00.003-05:00

I am a little slow on the uptake, but eventually I usually catch the clues. While down in Houston, it finally dawned on me that Be and I own a CLUNKER. When we bought a second car, we kept the CLUNKER because we could get almost nothing for a 1990 GMC van with 240,000 miles and no air conditioning. Besides, we needed a utility vehicle. But I decided to check out the Cash-for-Clunkers offer when we got back to Abilene.

There started to be more and more alerts that the Obama money was running out. I figured that we had missed our opportunity, but decided to call Toyota anyway because there is a salesman there that we trust. Then I ended up in the hospital! Did that deter us? Us, two of the most financially conservative people in the world? Of course not.

Today we put a down payment on a new Toyota truck without even going to the Toyota dealership. We called Rick and asked him to see what he could work out trading in our van on a small (cheap) pickup. He came back with $4500 for our van, $500 from Toyota, and $100 they get paid to dispose of the old car which they pass on to us. That is, a $5100 discount. Over the phone we put down a deposit, and they started looking for such a truck since they did not have one in stock. We are getting a new Toyota truck for a little more than $14,000. Genius or insanity? We will see, but the deed is done. Can you believe it? We do not even know the brand of the pickup or the color (but the color will probably be white or silver), but it is a four cylinder engine and has air conditioning.

Let the kudos or catcalls begin!

Am I Really Home?

2009-07-31T16:19:00.007-05:00

When I headed for M D Anderson near the end of May, I took a "Nazarite" vow. I did not take any instrument to shave with. So my beard grew and grew and grew. Following is the evidence. The final photo shows that it is great to be home. By the way, I did not drink any alcohol either.

A quick update on my situation: We came home immediately after my second round of chemo was finished; we have an appointment back at MDA on August 21, conditional on my blood counts being satisfactory; I have to go to the hospital every day for an infusion of anti-fungal medicine.

Twitter is a wonderful thing for our family. I love the way it is working for us.

Flexibility

2009-07-04T14:34:00.002-05:00

It appears that one must remain flexible in getting treatment for cancer. Our instructions were to come to M. D. Anderson every evening at 7:00 pm for an infusion of Ambisome, an anti-fungal medicine. The process would take about 3 hours each time.

But everything has to be pre-approved by our insurance or there is a chance I would have to pay the full amount for the treatment. So we started following up on the pre-approval process Thursday afternoon. The person helping us was on top of it, and submitted request right away. On Friday afternoon, the person helping us called and said that the request was sent for investigation by the insurance company, but Friday was a holiday so everyone was out of the office. Therefore no approval would come before Monday. We started calling everyone we could think of to get help. Finally we called the nurses station in the ward where I had been for the last three weeks. They knew how to get in touch with a doctor. They called back in a few minutes and said the doctor had ordered a pill to be taken orally, that insurance would definitely pay for it, and we could pick it up at the M. D. Anderson pharmacy. We drove up to the hospital and picked up the pills, and went by the place I was to take the infusions and told them I would not be coming in for any of the appointments they had me scheduled for.

This method of treatment may not be as effective as the infusions, but it surely is more convenient. Now I take a pill in about 5 seconds instead of driving, infusing, and driving for about 4 and 1/2 hours. We should find out Wednesday when I finally see the clinic doctor how much damage has been done by this change, but I an expecting there to be NO damage. I think the doctors were just being very cautious. We shall see.

At any rate, one must remain flexibile. Monday I will have some blood tests to see how my counts are doing. In the meantime, I am doing some walking, and trying to get back to a more normal life. It sure is nice to walk from one room to another. We are really enjoying visiting with Tinker and Betty.

God is good.

Out But Not Free

2009-07-03T10:52:00.005-05:00

I spent last night in a real bed next to my sweet wife. What a joy! Of course, the bed is here at Tinker and Betty's house. They are such good hosts. It is a joy to be with them.

For the first time in 30 days I am not connected to the infusion tower that I would have to roll to the bathroom with me and then plug back in to the electricity when I was done. I am OUT of the protective environment. My WBC has, in the last few days, gone from 0.0 to 1.4. Yeah!. My platelets are in the normal range. My hemoglobin is still a bit schizophrenic, but I do not need any transfusions.

However, I am not free. We have to go in to M. D. Anderson every night at 7:00 pm to get an infusion of antifungal medicine. This will continue until Wednesday when I finally get to see the clinic doctor. After that I do not know what will happen. There are several options. But at this time, my chemo treatments are following a "best-case" scenario. So I am asking you to continue to pray for my treatments to work, and work in such a way that we can get back to Abilene as soon as possible. Thank you for your love and support.

Remission

2009-07-01T06:26:00.002-05:00

I waited a day to write this note so that I could be slightly removed from the euphoria of the moment. The best of what we have been praying for is happening. On day 29 of my treatment plan, the preliminary report from the bone marrow biopsy showed that the blasts were down to 4%. That is low enough to be officially called "remission." Of course, I still have cancerous stem cells in my marrow, but now my body can again produce the blood that I need to exist. My blood counts are coming up, and when they reach a point that satisfies the doctors I will be released from the hospital. I will remain in the Houston area long enough to begin the long-term treatment of the leukemia. Be and I will be staying with my brother who lives in League City, south of Houston. What could be better? From now on, I should have treatment on an out-patient basis, some of which can be done in Abilene. I do not know details of a schedule yet.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude. First of all to God, the Great Healer. But please understand -- if this treatment had not worked, God is still good. Second I am grateful to my family. The love and support I feel makes living a precious gift, each moment to be savored and cherished.

Finally, to the Body of Christ on this earth, I extend my sincere thanks. Hundreds, if not thousands, of this Body have been praying for me and for Be, and encouraging us daily . It is a humbling experience to be the center of such devotion. We are accepting this gift in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, and to the praise of His glorious name. I and my family have been lifted to a higher plain in the spiritual world, and we are eternally grateful. May God bless each of you with spiritual gifts that are beyond what you could ever dream or imagine. There is no boundary to God's mercy, love, and grace.

Update

2009-06-24T14:54:00.003-05:00

It is time to give an update straight from the P. E. area. Every cycle of my chemotherapy lasts four weeks. Monday was three weeks so I had a bone marrow biopsy to check my progress.

When I started the chemo I had these bad cells in my marrow measured at 21%. The bad guys are called "blasts" and they are red cells produced by the cancer that are larger than regular red cells, and they live longer. They crowd out the good cells so I end up with not enough blood. The goal of the first four-week cycle is to get the blasts measure down to 5% or lower. This state is called "remission." At this level of measurement my good stem cells can produce enough good blood that I can be out of the protective environment. From the biopsy Monday the blasts are down to 9%. There seems to be some hope that the blast measure will continue to decline this week. So I do not have a definitive report to give you. I will have another biopsy this coming Monday and it will determine what will happen next. I am unwilling to speculate what that will be.

The best case is that the blasts go down and I enter the "continuing" phases of my treatment. The goal of these phases is to continue to attack the cancer, but with doses of chemo that do not take my body so far down to need the P. E. So I ask you to pray that my blasts will be down low enough.

One perplexing aspect of this ordeal is that my body is supposed to start increasing my blood counts. This is not happening yet, but the doctors do not seem to be concerned. So pray that I can remain patient. The good news is that I am suffering almost no side effects. I have had no fever since Saturday night, and I am sleeping much better. In fact, they are taking me off of some of the antibiotics because I have had no fever for a while. I am slowly losing the excess fluid that has accumulated in my body. I have no appetite, but I am able to force myself to eat so that I can remain healthy. I am trying to exercise my legs and lungs, but it is difficult because I am so weak. Nevertheless, God is good.

And the USA just beat the best soccer team in the world (Spain) 2-0. What a great game.

What Cancer Cannot Do

2009-06-19T23:20:00.002-05:00

The following is in a pamphlet from the Chaplaincy and Pastoral Education ministry of M. D. Anderson Hospital. It has probably been distributed widely, but I had not seen it, and it meant a great deal to me. So I am sharing it with you.

Cancer is so limited . . .

it cannot cripple Love.
it cannot shatter Hope.
it cannot corrode Faith.
it cannot destroy Peace.
it cannot kill Friendship.
it cannot suppress Memories.
it cannot silence Courage.
it cannot invade the Soul.
it cannot steal Eternal Life.
it cannot conquer the Spirit.

Cancer is so limited!

Golf Gods

2009-06-16T13:20:00.002-05:00

Through the years my golfing buddies and I have learned an important lesson. Let's say that we have been working on our game pretty hard and we go to the course to try it out. It sometimes starts out to be one of those magic days -- the ball goes where we plan for it to go, our putts are on the line we try to hit, we can consistently hit the ball instead of topping, hitting fat, etc. It is at this time one is tempted to say, "I think I have finally figured this game out." The lesson we have learned is to NEVER say that, because the instant you do, the golf gods take it personally and set about to prove to you just how idiotically wrong you are. The rest of the round is usually no fun at all.

As we all know, golf reflects life itself, so one should apply this principle in life as well. Sunday, I violated it. I declared that I had turned the corner with respect to my roller coaster fever. I was seriously expecting to feel good from now on. So of course it turned and bit me. I am still on the roller coaster. But the good news is that the high temps are lower than they used to be, and the peaks seem to be gradually decreasing. Mind you, I am NOT saying that they will continue that way (hear that, fever gods?) but it seems to be a trend.

I am getting a full bank of antibiotics, and a serious anti fungal medication, and likely will continue to do so until my body recovers enough to take over. My counts have not started to rebound yet, and the nurses assure me that it takes time. So please pray that the anti-stuff works, and that I can be patient.

Looking forward to getting to watch a lot of the US Open starting Thursday.

Roller Coaster

2009-06-14T16:59:00.002-05:00

Starting Tuesday, I have been on a roller coaster ride with my temperature. This is caused by infections of some type or types somewhere or somewheres in my body. We have been running through various different antibiotics with not much success. One of the roller coaster days (they run together for me without much distinction) I was given a C T Scan. They looked at my lungs and my sinuses. My sinuses have been outputting tremendous amounts of phlegm. Gross, and it makes my head and face hurt.

The scan showed a possible fungus infection in a lung, but no problems with the sinuses. They have started me on a strong anti fungal medicine, which can have some revolting side effects. But, God be praised, I do not seem to be suffering them. Then this morning, the doctor said that there was a possible second infection site in the lungs which, I think, is bacterial. So I am getting a steady supply of antibiotics, and I will continue to get these until my body had recovered enough to protect itself. It is amazing how much more efficient God's healing methods are than man's.

Therefore a prayer request is that my body will start rebounding quickly and take over the fight against the infections. Clearly I am feeling better because I have felt like doing two posts today. God be praised.

Day 10, 3 Days Late.

2009-06-14T13:50:00.002-05:00

Day 10 is significant because it is my last day of chemotherapy in the "start-up" cycle of treatment in the clinical trial. Each treatment cycle lasts 28 days, so I now have 18 days to "recover" before the next cycle. What I receive in the next cycle will not be known until near the end of the first cycle, because it depends on how my body is reacting to the first doses. One possibility is that I will have to repeat the same procedure as the first time. Pray that is not the case. The other possibility is that I will enter a regimen of 17 "continuing" cycles as prescribed by the clinical trial. Of course, they may have to take me out of the trial at any time because things are not working as they should. Pray that that does not happen.

There is my future, as far as we can see. I should mention that I should not have to be hospitalized much during the "continuing" cycles. In fact, a lot of that may be able to be done in Abilene. We shall see.

God is good.

From now on, do not count on daily posts. I will post when I have enough information to be worth reading about. Please keep praying.

Day 9

2009-06-10T21:09:00.003-05:00

We are having trouble conquering my fevers. Last night about midnight I could tell my temperature was climbing. It reached 102 degrees. Another call to the doctor, warm blankets, ice packs, and medicines finally brought it down to where I could sleep. Then this morning I awoke about 7:30 and felt great. I ordered breakfast, ate it, answered e-mail, etc.

The doctor came much earlier today and caught me with my pants down. Be was rubbing creme on my rash and my pajamas were down at my feet. No one batted an eye -- Be subtly pulled a sheet over my lower half. The Doctor is perplexed about my continuing fevers. My lungs are clear -- no pneumonia, my urine shows nothing,
and my blood work shows nothing. I do have pressure in my sinuses and my head drains a lot. So they took a swab there today and will run a test on it. They have also started me on a second type of antibiotic. The drainage from my sinus has left me with laryngitis. Bummer! You know how I love to talk.

My temperature started up again about noon, but they got it under enough control that I did not feel too bad, just listless. So now we are praying specifically that we can find and defeat the infection somewhere in my body. One of the nurses pointed out that when you have no defense against infection, it is difficult to find where it is located.

My temperature is up a little tonight, but I hope I can sleep it off. In any case, God is good.

Day 8

2009-06-09T21:55:00.006-05:00

Late in the day yesterday my temperature started to rise and I started feeling droopy. I went to bed at 10:00 pm and immediately fell asleep. About 11:45 I got up to use the bathroom and during that process, I got a tremendous case of the shivers. The nurse came in about that time and noticed it. She took my temperature and it was high enough that she was required to call the doctor. They started giving me drugs to stop the shivering and to lower my temperature and I slept until 7:30 am. Of course, there were brief times where I had my vital signs taken, had some of my blood taken, and so forth.

About 8:00 this morning, they started me on an infusion antibiotic but I was still feverish and feeling really lousy as well as still sleepy. When Be came I just lay in bed and hardly moved. We battled this condition all morning and into the afternoon. About 3:00 pm I suddenly felt hungry. So I ordered some lunch, ate it, and have been feeling a lot better since. I even did 12 minutes on the "exercise bike." Tonight at 8:30 I had a supper of a hamburger and onion rings. Oh, I was given another bag of red blood cells today. I am anticipating a much better day tomorrow.

Here are the promised photos: Me on my bike and Be in her cap and gown.

Day 7

2009-06-08T21:00:00.002-05:00

Today I did not feel bad and I did not feel good. I slept between 5 and 6 hours last night, and took a few short naps today. But the main thing is that I seem to running through ALL the side effects of chemo. Now I am developing a rash. It has not been very itchy, but the nurse just brought me some creme to help it heal and ease the itch. I even got a back rub from her since Be is back at my brother's place. I also started some diarrhea this morning. They gave me a pill for that and all is ok so far.

We discovered in the PE it is more difficult to keep me supplied with clean clothes, and they will not permit my usual habit of bathing and changing only once a week. So before she came here today, Be went to target and bought me some more pajamas. I wear pajama bottoms and T-shirts that I got for giving blood at Meek Blood Center. It is ironic isn't it? I donated almost 16 gallons of whole blood, and now I am quickly getting it back. Today it was a bag of platelets and another bag of red blood cells. I should feel better tomorrow.

The day seemed to pass pretty quickly, and I got in two sessions of more than 10 minutes each on my "exercise bike." I will post a photo when I get the cable to download it into the computer.

Be went to the second (and last) of the classes she has to attend to learn how to be prepared to take care of my infusion port when I am discharged from the hospital. But she cannot eat in my room, so we cannot have lunch together. She took care of both those chores efficiently. I think you know that she has to wear floppy shoes, a gown, gloves, and a mask the entire time she is here with me, while I am free as a bird. She is a real trooper. On the other hand, she gets to go out of the room and I do not.

I have a different doctor seeing me now, but she says essentially the same thing he did. Today she asked me how I am doing. I told her that I did not know, and would she tell me. She said I am doing good.

Finally, Be observed that many, many people are praying for us, so she offered to pray for their requests if they would send them. She reads them to me and I pray also. When I have trouble sleeping at night, I start praying. Then I fall asleep. When I wake later and need to fall again, I start right where I left off.

God hears our prayers, and He is good.

Day 6 - Movin' on up - to the penthouse

2009-06-07T21:16:00.002-05:00

It worked the way I hoped. I went to bed and slept. I really rested last night, and took no pain medicine. Today I slept very little. Just some cat naps, but I always do that. Praise God!

I felt good all day today. Be went to church with Tinker and Betty, and came to the hospital in time to eat her lunch while I ate mine. But that is the last time for a while that we will eat together because a room finally opened up in the protective environment (PE) area.

When we learned we were moving up to the 10th floor, we also learned that we could watch a video clip describing what it would be like up here. BIG MISTAKE! It turns out the video is out-of-date and it scared us to death. It talked about Be having to be behind a glass panel and talking to me by phone. It also said I could not have my cell phone or computer in the room. We both almost cried.

But it is not like that. They accepted all of my stuff into the room. Be can be in the room with me but she has to wear a cap and gown. (She must be graduating.) I also have some minor inconveniences. I have to potty in a bag, and take only sponge baths. They trying to prevent places where fungi can grow. The air in the room is circulated and purified six times every hour.

It feels very pure in here, maybe a whiff of heaven's environment? God is good.

Oh, and Tiger came from 4 back and won the Memorial Golf Tournament.

Day Five -- A Benchmark

2009-06-06T22:01:00.002-05:00

This was the fifth day of taking chemotherapy. The protocol for the clinical trial I am in calls for an infusion chemo once a day for five days and a chemo by injection through a needle twice a day for 10 days. So now I have had five infusions and 10 shots. For the next five days I will get only the shots. I hope this removes some of the side-effects. Today was pretty good in the way I felt because I have started taking a pain killer. I just take it when I request it, and it stops the aching in my leg and back muscles. I did walk before the infusion last night as planned, and slept through most of the hour of the infusion. Then I took a pain pill and felt ok but I got very little sleep. But this morning I took another pain pill and slept off and on for about two hours. I took short naps several times during the day and have felt pretty good with the help of the pain medicine.

Today was Be's birthday, so Tuell and Sharla and their three daughters flew to Houston to spend part of the day with her and celebrate her birthday. Be met them at Hobby airport a little before 10 and they all came directly to M. D. Anderson. Be and Tuell came up to my room and helped my get the room and myself presentable, then they went back down and Tuell and Sharla came up while Be played with the girls. There is a skywalk over a main street which may be seen from the window of my room. So Be and the girls went in the skywalk to a place where I could see them and they could see me, and I talked to them by cell phone. That was wonderful. Tuell and Sharla left a little after 12 and took Be out to eat, and gave her a birthday cake they had brought, and then went to a park near the hospital. Be said they had a great time, and she took them to the airport so they could catch a 5:00 o'clock flight. Then she came back here until we had both eaten supper. She will go to church with Tinker and Betty in the morning before returning up here.

I am still not in isolation but will go as soon as a room is available. When the doctor came in this morning he said, "We came to see how you are doing with the little green monsters!" With a large smile I said, "I hope you were not offended by that." He said it was very funny and he was not offended at all. He says he wishes all his patients were doing as well as me. That is very encouraging.

I am going to walk a little bit in a minute, and I am expecting to sleep much better tonight. We just praise God for how He is answering our prayers in many, many ways. Please keep praying. God is good.

Day Four

2009-06-05T22:13:00.002-05:00

The plan worked pretty well. By exercising right before the chemo, and taking two pain pills soon after, I slept much better last night. And today I felt better, although I did have to request one pain pill this afternoon. It worked. One of the nurses encouraged me to walk outside of the cluster of rooms in my ward, so we walked far enough that as we were returning we went back through the doors that say "Only leukemia patients and their visitors permitted." The nurse wanted me to walk to help me keep from retaining fluids.

This was a very encouraging day. When the doctor and his henchpersons came in to see me this morning he said, "I don't know why I even come in here. You are doing great. If all my patients were like you I could go drink coffee all morning!" That gave me the courage to pull off my joke about the little green men at the foot of my bed. When all of them started looking at the foot of my bed to see the little green men, I knew I could not keep them in suspense so I quickly said, "That was a joke." And they all laughed. One of them, who has seen us several times and sounds like he has a German accent, felt free to smilingly comment that Mrs. Green was wearing green today.

Be had to spend about two hours attending a class to learn how to take care of my infusion port when I get out of the hospital. She has to go to another one before we leave, and then prove that she can do it successfully. She is still like she was in college. She used to think that she was going to FAIL many exams that she prepared for, and then she would usually make an A.

I plan to use the same strategy tonight that worked last night, and I hope to feel good when Tuell and Sharla and their three girls come to see me tomorrow. Of course, I will not get to be face-to-face with the girls, but we are devising strategies for my being able to talk to them on the phone while they can see me in my hospital window.

I just reflected for a moment to decide how to close this post. I cannot come up with anything better -- God is good!

Day Three

2009-06-04T22:09:00.002-05:00

My sweet wife suggested that I munch on crushed ice to help fight off the nausea. So I equipped myself for the battle by exercising in a rocker in my room at about 11 pm to get myself really tired. I got a cup of ice ready, and located a half bag of baked potato chips and placed it handy. Up to a point, it worked. I slept for the hour during the infusion of the gunk that makes me sick, then woke up and started eating the ice and the potato chips. The nausea was under control enough that I did not need medication to fight it off. That was great.

But the downside is that an new enemy attacked. With increasing vigor, my muscles started aching like the worst case of the flu I have ever had. I tried exercising and it helped, but that can only last so long because I get tired. I watched an old Cary Grant black-and-white movie to keep my mind active. But still no sleep. About 3 am, I asked for a pain pill and was told they were not permitted to give me one after 2 am. Bummer. So I made it through the night with fitful sleep. When Be came, I was feeling horrible. She rubbed my back and my legs and it felt so good. She also insisted that I order some breakfast even though I was not hungry at all. Where does she get this wisdom? I ate some breakfast at about 11 am, and felt some better for a while. In the afternoon I tried watching the Memorial Golf Tournament, and I slept off and on the rest of the afternoon. Sometime during this ordeal I asked for a pain pill, and it helped. Tonight I am feeling pretty good --watching the Lakers destroy the Magic and reading e-mail and Facebook.

I had a surprise visitor this morning -- Brent Isbell. The story behind this is that Brent is the pulpit minister for the Bering Drive Church of Christ here in Houston, and we at the University Church of Christ have just hired him to be our new pulpit minister. He said he has been getting a ton of e-mail from UCC members telling him that I was down here. I was really glad to meet him, and I like him a lot, even though have only briefly met.

Tonight I plan to have the ice and potato chips handy, and I plan to exercise until I am tired. But I have also requested two pain pills to help me sleep. The doctor says that I am doing great. When I complained about the insomnia and nausea, he said that it was from the chemo. When I complained about the flu-like symptoms, he said that it was the chemo. Tomorrow I plan to complain about little green men at the foot of my bed and see if that is the result of chemo. Of course there are no little green men (those come from the DT's), but I hope to make him laugh.

I love you all. God is good.

PS. Be donated platelets today to help M. D. Anderson Hospital. It took more than three hours of her time. Isn't she a sweetheart? I am immeasurably blessed.

Day 2 Finished

2009-06-03T20:48:00.002-05:00

I take the infusion chemo at midnight each night. I was planning to just sleep through it, but as you know, it did not happen. I finally got about an hour of sleep from 10:30 to 11:30 last night, so I needed to do something to help me sleep during the infusion. So I walked in place in my room for about 10 minutes to get my body tired. And it worked! The nurse started the infusion and I fell asleep. I woke when she came back at 1 am. I tried to go back to sleep and it would not happen. About 2:00 am I started feeling nauseous. After about 30 minutes of trying to will the nausea away, I called for some medication. The medicine knocked me out and a person woke me at 6:30 to draw blood. After that I was in and out of sleep, but still feeling poorly. Finally at about 8:30 I felt good enough to order breakfast.

Be came at about 9:15 as I was eating. She is still having trouble finding a spot to park in the cheaper lot. But we are still exploring options for parking.

Both yesterday and today, a young summer intern from the Life Line ministry of the Bering Drive Church of Christ came in to visit us. It turns out that he just finished his sophomore year at ACU. He is very nice and offers to help us in any way he can. Also a lady from the M. D. Anderson blood bank came in yesterday, and she encouraged Be to donate platelets while she is here. In Abilene, we cannot both give whole blood AND platelets, but here you can. So Be plans to do that in the morning at 10 am. She left at 5:30 so she could go to church with Tinker and Betty.

I was given another unit of blood this afternoon and I am feeling quite alert and strong tonight. In fact, I put on my face mask and walked around the nurses' station several times. It felt good to walk.

Now I wait for the third bout. Thank you for praying. God is good.

Cure For Narcolepsy?

2009-06-02T19:06:00.002-05:00

It appears that I have accidentally discovered a cure for narcolepsy -- leukemia! I got very little sleep Sunday night, then had the long day Monday with no sleep, and last night it felt like I did not get more than one or two hours of sleep. Today was more relaxed but only about an hour of sleep during the day. I pray that tonight is better.

I am through the first of five 24-hour cycles. I started receiving the first of five infusions of chemo just before midnight. Maybe that is why I could not sleep. We will find out tonight when I get the second one. Then at 4:00 in the morning I was given a shot of a different chemo, and then another one 12 hours later. This cycle will continue for four more days. The shots are not bad, and when I am not in the hospital, either Be will give them to me or I will do it myself

Be arrived about 10:30 exasperated because our favorite (cheaper) parking lot was full. So, at my encouragement, she parked in one of the more expensive ones. It did not take much encouragement! She will probably adjust her departure time in the morning to be able to find a spot in the cheaper lot, even though the traffic may be heavier.

Iwas given two units of blood today, so I should feel stronger tomorrow. Today I was exceedingly tired all day. But I did some reading, and Be and I played a game of gin rummy. She let me beat her. :) I do not have much of an appetite, but I am forcing myself to eat. So far no major reactions to chemo.

No matter what, God is good. I know that I do not have to ask you to keep praying. I love you all.

In The Hospital

2009-06-01T20:54:00.002-05:00

Be and I got away later than we planned on Sunday but the trip seemed to take less time than before. So we arrived at Tinker and Betty's at just the right time -- they were home from church and just finishing supper. We were supposed to be at MD Anderson at 8:00 this morning, and Tinker said that traffic would be bad at that time, so we headed back for bed about 9:45. One delay in getting away Sunday was a very nice thing. Our small group that has Bible study together most Sunday evenings came to our house after the morning service and prayed over us. That was a great blessing.

This morning we arose about 6, planning to leave at 6:45. We ate breakfast, and got away at 7:00. But the traffic was not too bad, so by the time we parked in the remote parking and walked (slowly) to the hospital, it was about 8:15, and we were pretty much on schedule. I had my vital signs taken, then they drew several vials of blood, and we rode a cart to another building, arriving at 9:00, the correct time for my next appointment.

This appointment was so they could place a port in my arm in which to give the chemotherapy. The port is on my upper right arm, and the tube runs through my vein to a point near my heart. I had a moment of light-headedness during the insertion and felt quite hot, but it passed quickly. The nurse (male) doing the procedure said it was a bit unusual for a person to experience this, but he did not seem concerned. By the time the procedure was done, I was fine. But then I had to go for an X-ray to make sure that the tube was in the correct place. It was.

Next we went on to another place to have my heart examined so that I could be accepted into the clinical trial. They made Be stay in the waiting area while this happened, and they did not tell us how long it would take. I began to feel sorry for her because I was in there a long time. First I went to get an injection that would "mark" my red blood cells. Then I had to just sit there for 20 minutes. Next they injected some radioactive juice in me, and sent me down the hall to a "men's waiting area." They separated the men from the women because many of the patients were wearing the gowns that are open in the back. I had on my regular clothes. After some time I heard a female voice down the hall call out, "Mrs. Green?" So I yelled out, "That's MISTER Green," and all the men in the room laughed. The girl was very embarrassed.

I was taken to a room, put on a flat bed, and rolled under this cover that was to take pictures of my heart. The first picture took one minute. The second and third pictures took 10 minutes each! Poor Be had no idea what was going on. Finally I came back to where she was waiting at about 1:15 and we headed to eat before our appointment with the Dr. at 2:15. This meant that we rode the cart (actually I rode and Be walked) back to the main building and had lunch in the cafeteria. We did not have to rush and had plenty of time.

But we were taken in to a private room pretty quickly. We answered questions for a nurse, then a PA, and then the doctor came. The latest bone marrow biopsy confirmed the other one. I have 21% "blasts" in my bone marrow, so I officially have AML. I passed the heart test, and the process for starting to admit me began. This was about 3:30. Also I had to sign papers that I understood what terrible things could happen to me.

At the admission area, we learned that a room would not be available until about 8:00 pm. It was about 4:45 at this time. So we decided to go out for one last fling. We tried to go to the Galleria Mall, but three different people could not describe how to get there in a way that worked for me. We ended up at a very nice strip mall, and ate at a mexican food place called Esperito's (I think.) We split an order of fajitas (chicken and beef combination) and it was very good. We arrived back at the admission area about 7:30 and they got us in a room right away. But it is probabaly a temporary room because one was not available in the "isolation" area where I am supposed to be. But they plan to start my chomotherapy tonight anyway. Be stayed here until about 8:30 and she is driving to Tinker's now, by herself for the first time. She was not looking forward to that.

Well, if you made it to here in this story, I'm amazed. It is long. More to come later. Please keep praying for both Be and me.

Let The Adventure Begin

2009-05-31T09:52:00.003-05:00

It is Sunday morning and everyone is at church -- except me. It is too dangerous for me to be around that many people, even with a mask. Also I tire out very quickly.

Becky and I will drive to Tinker's house right after church this morning, and then tomorrow I most likely will be admitted to M. D. Anderson hospital in the leukemia ward. My goal is to give daily updates on this blog, but I do not know how tired and sick I will be. So we will see.

I am looking at my upcoming experiences much like as if I were climbing a fourteener. On those climbs, I always started with great anticipation, then quickly grew very weary. During that time I would think, "Why am I doing this?" Then I would reach the time that I would count 20 steps up the slope, then stop and rest for about a minute. This would continue until I had to rest longer. Finally I would be able to be on the summit, and it was glorious. My heart was always filled with praise because of the vista that God had placed before me, and because He gave the the strength, energy, and drive to accomplish the goal.

I am looking forward to being on the summit of this trek. But I confess that I cannot see what I am typing right now because of the tears. Lord, give me faith! Please pray -- for me and for Be.

God is good. Let the adventure begin.

Dying Candle

2009-03-18T00:04:00.006-05:00

A person is, apparently, never too old to live and learn. In the first photo below is a candle that burned lower to the bottom than any of our candles had ever done. We were fascinated with it. The wick was not in a metal support but was folded to the side at the bottom. So eventually the entire wick was burning across the bottom of the candle. We decided to just watch the eventual demise of the candle while we ate supper.

As you can see, the candle was on a glass candle holder that kept the wax from running onto the table. Everything was under control. Then the glass exploded. We had glass in our tomatoes, in our french fries, on our onions, and there was a fire burning on our table.

At this time we had a major disagreement: I proceeded to try to blow out the fire and Be was arguing for smothering it. I blew it out before she could stop me. Here is a picture of the spot that now remains on our table. Live and learn.

A Joke

2009-02-20T11:09:00.002-06:00

I made up a joke this morning, and then Be helped me refine it and make it better. Here is the final result.

How does a family of lollipop makers show love and concern for each other?

They lick after each other.

Inspiration Strikes

2009-01-18T22:07:00.005-06:00

Have you also had those times when you have wrestled with a problem to no avail? A reasonable solution escapes you for a long time and the problem becomes irritatingly passionate with you. Then a moment of inspiration strikes at an odd time. With me, it has happened several times while I was taking a shower.

This week it happened again. We have this new TV and I was having trouble getting the cables hooked up correctly. You see, we have a vcr and a dvd player/recorder that also have to be connected. But Rho and Tuell helped me get everything working so well that we were able to make dvd's of the Discovery Channel's Planet Earth program.

Then I messed everything up. Some of my colleagues at work told me that I could get HD tv on the local channels with a $40 antenna. That way I could watch HD programs without having to pay an extra monthy fee to the dish company. Of course, I could not get the HD signal unless it was on a local channel, but that sounded good to me. So I went to Best Buy with the book that came with our TV, and quizzed a salesman about it. I bought one of the units, and he showed me how to hook it up, even writing the instructions in my book.

Nothing works like it is supposed to, does it? When I got home, the place where I was supposed to attach the cable from the antenna already had a cable attached to it. So I disconnected that cable and attached the antenna. The HD picture on CBS came in BEAUTIFULLY! Also on ABC and NBC. FOX did not do so well, but I had already been told that would be the case. But if I wanted to watch the TV using the dish, I had to disconnect the antenna cable and rehook the cable that was previously there. Aaargh! It worked, but it was a pain.

Several days later I took a shower late at night and the solution hit me. I wondered why it had taken me so long to figure out such a reasonable solution. The next morning I hooked the antenna to the place I was told, and took the other cable completely off. Now when I want to watch the TV using the dish, I use the dvd port. Everything works fine. You see, we ran the dish through the dvd so that we could record the unscrambled signal before it reached the TV. If I switch to the TV port, I get the antenna signal, which does not go through the dvd recorder. My recorder cannot record HD signals anyway, so no harm done. Life is good.

The reason I had the extra cable, it turns out, was so that I could watch the dish signal without going through the dvd recorder. The cable effectively by-passed the dvd recorder. All clear? Well, that's the news from Abilene where all the TV signals are clear, all the radios are loud, and all the college students are lazy bums.
(That, of course, is a joke.)

Look At That Smile

2009-01-08T00:17:00.003-06:00

Taylor celebrated Rho's birthday by going to the orthodontist and having braces glued to her teeth. For quite some time she has thought that having braces would be a cool thing. Now she has them, and it is painful. She is not yet able to play her flute because it makes her lip press against her braces and causes her teeth to hurt. But she has progressed to the point that she can blow a note or two.

Some of the other consequences about having braces on her teeth are that Be is having to be very creative in what she fixes for Taylor to eat. Also we have a boat load of cleaning tools and cleansing agents taking space in the bathroom. Finally, we have to dig very deep in our pockets to pay for this torture. Is it worth it? Yes.

But in this modern age, one gets to choose colors for the rubber bands that pull on the teeth. See if you can identify the two colors that Taylor chose.

What Can You Get For a Buck Fifty?

2008-12-05T00:35:00.005-06:00

If you shop the day after Thanksgiving you can get a nice shirt like I am wearing in the photo below. Actually, Tuell did the going and shopping. He got two such shirts for $1.50 each, and gave one of them to me. Is that not nice? There is a scanned ticket above verifying that the shirts were originally $20.00. It also shows that they are "croft and barrow" shirts. I haven't bought a shirt from a store in so long that I do not know if that is a good or bad brand!

Nothin' Could Be Sweet-ah!

2008-12-05T00:25:00.004-06:00

There is not much more pleasure in life than finding clever and loving post-it notes all over your house after your granddaughters leave. These notes were hand-written by Livian and Avalie, and were placed in places where we would find them after they left from the Thanksgiving visit. What a great surprise, and I am not sure we have found them all yet.

Please, No More Hospital Visits

2008-11-24T15:46:00.004-06:00

Last night (Sunday) at about 9:40 I boldly announced to Be, "You need to take me to the emergency room!" I had just washed out the cut in my finger and had seen that the gash was long enough and deep enough to need stitches.

You see, I was ripping a board on my radial arm saw to help secure the new top for our "entertainment center" and I accidentally cut my left index finger. But before we could go, I had to set the TV to record the rest of the football game I was watching, and Be had to wait a minute for the cupcakes she was cooking to finish. Then she had to spend a little time finding her purse. I wrapped my finger in an old towel and kept pressure on it until the nurse in the triage area removed it and said that I had done a good job of stopping the flow of blood. Stopping the flow was of some concern since I am on a therapeutic level of coumadin.

We checked in to the ER, then waited for four others before me to get patched up. One was a young girl who had several stab wounds, and whom the police were questioning as she waited and then went into the area where one sees the doctor. We finally made it in and then waited some more. A nurse came and looked at it. Then a PA came and looked at it. Then he apologized and said he had to go sew up someone else first. We waited long enough that we both had to go use the bathroom, and Be finally went out to the Toyota and got a book. I started trying to solve a math problem for the Problem of the Week contest. Finally the PA came and started sewing the gash back together. It took five stitches, and as he was finishing a doctor came in. Can you believe that his name was Dr. Henry Higgins? At about this time I fainted! I thought I was having a good nap but I woke up to find Dr. Higgins in my face and Be fanning me with a very small piece of paper. I was SO embarrassed.

They took an x-ray to see if the bone was damaged (it was not) and gave me a tetanus shot. Then we had to wait for my blood pressure to come back up. We finally got home about 2:30 am. And poor Be had to drive to Goldthwaite and back today. She was taking Gay Barton there to meet her son David Hancock. Fortunately Lenna was able to go with Be to help her stay awake on the way home. When I started writing this, they had just arrived home.

So the Lord took care of us again. I may have to change my sign at the church's building to: "Gracious God, thank you that I am still alive today and that I still have all of my fingers."

Those Dirty Birds

2008-11-18T17:48:00.009-06:00

It has happened again. The first time was during the construction of the new Ministry Activity Center at the UCC. I assumed that the bird was so dirty because of all the dust in the air from the construction.

But last week it happened again. Another bird flew into the picture window of our garage and left a dirty smudge. This time there was no construction, so birds must naturally be dirty.

My theory is that this time the bird was a dove trying to keep from being eaten by our neighbor's cat. By the way, most of what you see in the picture is a reflection of things that are outside the window. I took the picture outside at night. In case you have trouble seeing the dove imprint, I highlighted what I could see of the outline in the third picture.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

2008-11-18T00:05:00.003-06:00

You may have heard that, since we last bought a TV in 1972 or 1973, and since the world is going digital, Be and I decided to give ourselves a new TV for Christmas. We watched for a sale, found one, and bought one. Here is a picture of it in our family room. Of course, nothing is easy. Our TV stand needs some work to have room for everything, and I need to install a grounded plug rather than use an adapter. Also, I need help figuring out how to hook up all the peripherals. But in the meantime, I am enjoying FOOTBALL on the new TV. The picture is remarkable, even though you cannot tell it from this photo.

See If You Can Top This

2008-11-16T21:55:00.003-06:00

Saturday as I was returning from picking up our NEW TV, I had an opportunity that I could not pass up, even if it made us 8 minutes late to our 42 party. Can any of you beat this price?

Top 10 Reasons I Want to Retire

2008-11-14T22:23:00.002-06:00

10. I want to have more time to practice learning Spanish.

9. I want to write my autobiography. I can still remember the people who lived through the Great Depression.

8. I want to practice playing the guitar and the baritone ukulele.

7. I want to do woodworking in my garage.

6. I want to play more golf.

5. I want to fix up our house.

4. I am tired of hearing students say to me that I am a good person and a good teacher, but they cannot learn the way I teach.

3. I want to be involved in more ministries in the church like hospital visitation, the prison ministry, and a "handy man" ministry.

2. I want to spend more time with my wife, and as a part of that, work with her to eliminate the "piles" around the house.

1. I gave an exam last week. Seven out of thirty students passed. There were NO A's.

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I turned in a letter to my department chair today making official my plan to retire at the end of the Spring semester.

Abilene Pretending

2008-11-13T23:35:00.005-06:00

You may remember the "Big Country" name. It got replaced by the "Friendly Frontier." Some influential persons thought the label was not good enough for Abilene, so they spent over $100,000 with some "consultants" , who came up with "Abilene Frontiering". Even the spell-checker does not think too highly of this logo.

So I propose "Abilene Pretending." We can pretend that this is a classy city, with lots of good restaurants, and ample entertainment. We can pretend that we have good public transportation that the citizens support. You get the idea.

But the best thing is that we can pretend that there are mountains south and east of Abilene. Some are even snow-capped. We can make a believer of you. Click on the photo below -- and BELIEVE!

It is Handy to be Handy

2008-11-12T23:13:00.007-06:00

Be mentioned in her latest letter that I fixed the broken Venetian blind in our dining room. The first picture shows part of the problem with the old blind. One of the pull cords had become so frayed that the blind would not pull up and down without causing a lot of stress. I went to WalMart and bought some string to restring the old blind with.

Then Saturday I found a Venetian blind at a garage sale. I thought that at worst I could take the string off of it and use it on our old blind, because the string from WalMart did not look like true Venetian blind string. But I was not for sure I wanted to tackle that. With all my hesitation, the seller came down from $1 to $.50, so I bought it.

There was some hope that it would be the correct size. But it was not. It was too long and too wide. So in my usual bold fashion, I tackled cutting it down while I watched football on TV. It worked. You see the result. The the new blind is a lot nicer than our old one.

Sometimes it is handy to be handy.

Good News and Bad News

2008-11-04T22:33:00.002-06:00

The good news is that the motor was not damaged in Lenna's and Justin's car. The bad news is that the car would not go.

Here is the story. Lenna called us Saturday morning about 10 to say that their car died in the K-Mart parking lot and would not start. They thought the fuel pump went out, because the repairman had told Lenna several months earlier that it could go out at any time. So I drove the van and Be drove the Toyota out to tow the car to Vernon and Fletcher and then loan them the van while the car was being repaired. After a bit of discussion, we decided to tow the car to our house and let Justin check out the fuel filter. He took it off and there was a lot of gunk in it. So they bought a new one at the parts store and he put it in. In the meantime, Be went on by herself to run some errands that we had planned to do together. After changing out the fuel filter, the car still would not start, so Justin said he had done all he knew to do and we should go ahead and tow the car to Vernon and Fletcher. We called Be and told her what we were doing and she was way across town, and it was close to noon, so I aborted on going to garage sales with her. Lenna brought me home and they left with the van.

Monday Lenna called Vernon and Fletcher and asked them to look at the car. That afternoon they said that the timing belt had broken, and sometimes when that happens it bends the valves in the engine and ruins the engine. Clyde Fletcher recommended that we replace the timing belt and see if the engine was okay. I gave the okay, and the good new is that the engine was not damaged. The bad news is that it cost about $490 to replace the timing belt. But Lenna picked it up today (we temporarily (hopefully) paid the bill) and it runs good now. Please pray that the car will keep running until they get financially on their feet.

Justin seems to be appreciated at his place of work. He is back working on a rig now, which means that he will get more pay. Things still seem to be going well with them. Continue to pray. Our God is good and strong.

Again I dress up as myself for Halloween

2008-10-29T23:18:00.010-05:00

Rho called the other night and made a suggestion for how I could dress up for Halloween this year. I once before had dressed up as myself, and called it "Narcolepsy Man." So Rho suggested that I do something celebrating the fact that I now have a low white blood cell count. So there you have it! A Count is appropriate for Halloween, and I had the cloak for my Count routine at ACU. Here is the result. One of the close-up pictures shows my face with the white blood on it and the sign I wore so that people could know who I was. The other one shows a close-up of my feet. I could actually walk around in those shoes. Some of the kids at the trunk party at church (which gave us the opportunity to wear a costume) were utterly fascinated by my costume. You could see the wheels turning as they were sorting through why my legs were so short, and they were always pleased when they figured out that I was standing on my knees. The final picture is of both Be and me, and shows that I really was LOW, a LOW WHITE-BLOOD COUNT.

The 10 o'clock News

2008-10-20T22:13:00.004-05:00

At 10:00 pm, Monday, October 20, 2008, I was wheeled from room 6717 at Hendricks Hospital and taken home by my wonderful wife Be. I am now in my recliner giving you a late-breaking news report of recent events.

Fortunately, Be was able to stay in my room with me this morning until Dr. Martin (my primary care physician) came in at about 9:30. He felt that my progress was good enough that I could go home after I saw Dr. Heaven, the hematologist. We needed to see the hematologist to work out when I could schedule the bone marrow biopsy, and to work out the details of how I would get the anticoagulants Coumadin and Lovenox after I left the hospital. He even indicated that I could pretty much return to normal non-strenuous activity like walking, teaching, and golf (as long as I rode in a cart) almost immediately. Unfortunately, no one informed Dr. Heaven that I was waiting for him, so I sat in the bed until about 8:20 this evening. Dr. Heaven was a bit miffed that no one informed him about his key role in my release. He went back out of the room and called Dr. Martin. After a while, Dr. Martin called me in the hospital room and asked me if the insurance company had talked to me about the fact that they were not paying for my stay any longer. Of course, they had not. The insurance company had apparently called the nurses station and informed them. I am not sure what the cut-off time was, but Dr. Martin was miffed about that development. (Are you miffed that I have already used the word "miffed" twice? The problem is that I do not know how to spell chagrined.) Dr. Martin said he would call the insurance company in the morning and have a discussion about their decision and the way they communicated it. So that is all up in the air.

Then Dr. Heaven came back and we began to plan my dismissal from the hospital, and my care regimen for the next few days. The short story is that he wrote prescriptions for Coumadin and Lovenox. I will take both for a short while and then continue the Coumadin indefinitely. I may eventually be able to stop taking it depending on the cause of my clot and possibly other factors unknown to me at this time. I am to see Dr. Heaven Wednesday morning for the bone marrow biopsy. You see, I have two conditions plaguing me at the same time. One is the blood clot and the other is a low white blood cell count that was discovered in the pre-surgery testing for my toe surgeries. Those two maladies are probably unrelated, but they are both blood issues. So Dr. Heaven is the focal point of finding the cause and determining the treatment of both.

Unfortunately, Dr. Heaven is recommending a much more conservative approach to immediate future activities. He wants only short, slow walks at first, and gradually build up. He recommends no golf for two months. Aargh! He reluctantly gave me permission to teach a class Wednesday afternoon, but wants me to sit during the class as much a possible. Since I will see him Wednesday morning, maybe he will be a bit more lenient by then. We shall see. But I have committed myself to do what the doctors say, even going with the more conservative one. Persons die from events like the one I had last Thursday.

So what is causing my problems? The clots could be from genetic disorders or as a by-product of surgery and the resultant sedentary recovery time. Both the clotting and the low white blood cell count could be from some form of cancer. I choose to accept the opinion of Dr. Heaven's associate, Dr. Aks, who came to see me Sunday night. When I mentioned leukemia to her, she shook her head and said that I looked too healthy to have that. But unknown to us, she wrote an opinion in my charts that Dr. Martin mentioned this morning. Perhaps the cause of the low white count is the medication Provigil that I take for my narcolepsy. Therefore Dr. Heaven has taken me off of it for the time being. I am going to be one droopy critter again for a while. I am going to try very hard to get much more sleep at night now. As I say that, I see that it is now 11:10 and I am still writing this report. Oh my!

I will not teach my classes tomorrow (Tuesday) and I will not teach my class Wednesday morning. I plan to teach the one Wednesday afternoon, and we will see how I feel after that.

I am going to bed now at 11:50. More to come later.

A Whiff of Mortality

2008-10-19T10:04:00.005-05:00

The title is stolen from Garrison Keillor who said the phrase last night in the "Prairie Home Companion" show live from Moody Coliseum on the campus of Abilene Christian University. We had tickets to the show but did not get to go. Instead, Be and I listened to the show together, just the two of us, in room 6717 of Hendrick Hospital. Actually we only heard the first 1.5 hours of the show as a satellite link was lost for the last half hour of the show. NPR filled in with the last part of some former show. I may get to listen to the last part of it this afternoon on the recorded replay. Our tickets were not wasted. We were able to give them to Roberta Brown and Totsy Alderton, both of whom are members of the University Church of Christ where we attend. Totsy's husband was a former elder of the UCC who recently died suddenly of a heart attack during the night. Some of her children were in town and were going to the show so she was looking for a ticket. The fact that Totsy's husband recently died suddenly was a poignant moment for me because I thought specifically of him at 7:56 am Thursday morning. (More about that later.) We were pleased to provide tickets for these two sweet women, yet our tightwadiness showed up. We bought the cheapest tickets and apparently they were quite high up in the arena.

Becky was signed up to go to the Croptoberfest on Friday night and Saturday. She did not go. I told her that she should go because she needs to get the Pagosa Springs photo album put together. But I knew that she would not go. In fact, I knew that I would have made the same decision that she did if I were in her shoes.

I was scheduled to play golf Thursday afternoon but I did not do that. Instead I had chest X-rays, had an EKG, and listened to the blood pulse through my legs. It was during that last medical exam that I had the whiff of mortality. Because of all the missed opportunities listed above, I was planning to title this blog with "What a Revolting Development This Is" until I heard Keillor's phrase. You see, I had walked to school Thursday morning, and I had walked back to the car as we were headed to the doctor's office. I had walked into, and out of, the doctor's office. I had walked into the radiology area of the hospital, and then to the lab where the X-ray was taken. At this moment I do not remember when the EKG was done, but it was.

So I was finally on the examination table and a woman was getting up close and personal with me while examining the veins in my legs, including the upper-most veins in my legs. One leg was finished with no trouble found. In fact, I was giggling several times during the exam because the lady would turn on the sound and listen to the blood pulsing through the vein under scrutiny. It sometimes sounded like whales sound in the ocean, but then she would press lightly on my leg and the blood flow rate would increase with a sound like rrooooeeeeeEEEEEoour. You will need to hear my imitation some time. But finally the examiner's demeanor became more serious, and she said that she had found a clot. She went to get someone else to double check her finding, and also brought Be back to the examination room with her. The second person verified the results, and they said that they would call the doctor and start the procedure for me to be admitted to the hospital immediately. It had been since before 7:30 that morning that I had used the bathroom so I asked if I could go use the bathroom. "NO!" was very emphatically said. I was not allowed to get up! I could have used a plastic bottle, but my enthusiasm for using the bathroom was gone. I finally realized clearly that I almost died at 7:56 am when I had to stop walking to school because I was so out of breath. It was like I used to feel when I had just finished running the mile race in a high school track meet except that I could not recover my breathing nearly as quickly. I even had the bloody taste that I would get because I had used the deeper parts of my lungs that had not been used in a while. It was at that time Thursday morning that I thought of Jack Alderton and his heart attack. But I really did not think that I was having an attack because I felt no pain in my left arm. I just could not breath in enough oxygen.

I now know that it was foolish of me to slowly force my way on to school, but we do not have hindsight when making decisions. And I certainly did not want those students to be deprived of taking my wonderful exam that I had created for them. So I went on. And I made it. Now I have this inner feeling that my life is not worthless, nor is it to be wasted. I already had those feelings before but they are magnified somewhat now.

Please let me return to the saga of the hospital admission experience. They soon found me a room, and these two poor women tried to hoist me from the exam table to the gurney. I finally just scooted over on my on, and they seemed to appreciate it. They were also glad that I did not have lung failure in the process. I was rolled through the hospital to a room, I again scooted onto the room bed, and they told me to NOT get out of bed. Later I was scooted onto another cart and they transported me to a lung exam. I had to breath in some radiated air and hold my breath as long as I could while they took pictures of my lungs from several angles. I held my breath for almost a minute an a half. So you can see that I am not an invalid!. The pictures showed at least two pulmonary emboli in my right lung, and a larger one in my left lung. All indications are that the larger one was what caused my difficulty breathing on Thursday morning and the other two had happened before Thursday morning. It was about 4:45 when the results were coming out of the machine, and Dr. Martin (my primary care provider) was there to see the results as they were being produced. I am getting good care! Also the lab technician asked if it would be okay if he left me on the exam table for a few minutes as he wanted to quickly deliver the results to the radiologists before they left at 5:00. He came back after a few minutes pleased to report that he had been successful. When Dr. Martin saw the results he immediately called a pulmonary specialist to seek counsel. He also scheduled me to see a hemotologist. The main reason for the hemotologist is to help discover the cause of the blood clot. I will save that saga for another blog, hopefully to come soon.

At this time all I know is that I am stuck in this hospital bed until at least tomorrow. I was able to get up and slowly go into a shower in my room, sit on a chair, and with Be's help get cleaned up yesterday. More to come, and I apologize that almost all my blogs seem to be about my health issues. I always thought that I was a healthy person.

Tent Girl

2008-10-05T22:38:00.005-05:00

Life comes at us from interesting angles sometimes.

This past Wednesday night, Be and I were eating supper with the Holmans at the Ministry Activity Center at church. Our congregation's Campus Minister/Involvement Minister came to our table with a strange look on his face. He looked at Be and me as he said, "There is a girl here with a big heavy backpack who is needing a safe place to pitch her tent for the night. She is walking across the United States, arrived in Abilene this afternoon, and the Salvation Army will not let her put her tent on their property." After a few questions, we went over to the table where she was eating to introduce ourselves to her. Her name is Cheryllynn, and she confirmed that she is trekking across the USA from New Jersey to California. We agreed to let her put her tent in our yard and use our bathroom, but made no further commitments. It was a strange feeling having someone camp in our yard when we had an empty bedroom, but it was made easier that first night because Jade was staying in the room until Lenna returned from Dallas with Justin. You see Tent Girl and her tent in the photo. Please observe that the tent has no tent fly and is not very substantial. That will be important later.

Thursday she went to the church's building and Derrick showed her around ACU, she sat in on a psychology class, and met some people. As I was walking home after my morning classes to go play golf, she happened to come out of the church office and met me. She was very apologetic, but asked if she could keep staying in her tent in our yard for several more days. Derrick had interested her in staying long enough to attend our 9:00 o'clock service Sunday night that has more than 1000 students in attendance. I readily agreed, went home and told Be, and then left to play golf. This is now Sunday night and Be plans to take her to the Flying J truck stop at Tye in the morning so she can hitch a ride to San Antonio.

Since she has been here several days we have learned a bit about her. She is 28 years old, and is divorced. As she has travelled the USA, she has walked a lot, but has also caught rides (mainly with truckers) some of the time. As I mentioned, she started in New Jersey two months ago, and eventually got to Chicago. Then she started following the old Route 66 west. When she got to Amarillo, she decided to have a look at Texas. She went to Lubbock for a few days, and then came to Abilene. We have learned that when she was deposited in Abilene, she had no clue what to do. So she started crying and praying for God to help her figure out what to do. (I will mention here that before this trip she was not a religious person. But she claims that she has become more so through the sights and adventures that she has experienced.) Quite soon an Abilene city bus pulled up. She took this to be a sign and got on. She asked the driver for suggestions regarding her plight, and he suggested that she come to the UCC for supper and some help. He even made sure that she got on the correct transfer bus, and told the new driver to let her off at the UCC.

We have continued to feel funny with her sleeping in a tent and our room empty, but she seemed to prefer that. She wanted to impose on us as little as possible. However she ate supper with us Thursday and Friday night. Saturday morning she went to garage sales with us, and then Derrick gave us tickets so that we could join him and his family at the Kiwanis Fish Fry. She had lunch with us today, then attended our small group study here and had supper with us. She went to the 9:00 o'clock as planned, and came back soaked at about 10:30 because it had started raining. When she went to her tent, it was soaked inside and out. So her stuff is now drying out in our garage, and she is staying in the bedroom tonight.

It seems that our life is never boring.

One Boot, Two Boots, Three Boots, Four

2008-09-04T19:49:00.008-05:00

Tuesday I went to the doctor's office wearing ONE BOOT -- this boot.

I took with me TWO BOOTS in a plastic bag. These are the boots that I wore several years ago when I had bone spurs removed from both of my big toes at the same time. At my previous appointment, the doctor had said I was doing well enough that I should be able to get out of the big boot and into a "post surgery" boot that would be less restrictive. I told her that I already had one and she said to bring it to see if it would work. For the fun of it, I took them both.

Sure enough, my toe is doing great. She took out the stitches, and said she would get me a new boot. I whisked out my boots and said, "I already have one. In fact, I have two. The previous doctor did both of my toes at the same time." That was a bit of a slam at her husband because he would not do both toes at the same time. She looked at the boots and noticed that the soles were very stiff. In fact, she commented that the soles were wooden, and chuckled about my having "real" wooden shoes. So she rejected my boots and sent for a boot for which the sole is rubber, and therefore a bit more flexible. That is, she sent me home with THREE BOOTS in a bag.

I wore boot number FOUR home. Anyway, I am glad to be out of the klunker boot, except for the fact that I do not feel that I can wear shorts to teach in any more. My foot is doing great, and I should be in regular shoes a week from Tuesday.

Can Someone Give Her Some Help?

2008-08-23T20:17:00.010-05:00

By help, I do not mean physical help, rather psychological help. In the pictures you can see two more van loads of left-over garage sale items. Be and Jade went to garage sales this morning, and Be came home with two more commitments for left-over sale items. This is in preparation for another fund raising sale for Taylor's Washington D.C. trip. Granted, one of the commitments was from the Coopers, Taylor's other grandparents. But the other one was from Melaika Fitzgerald, who is about the same age as Lenna, and once lived just down the street from us and went to school with Lenna.

So this afternoon, we went to Melaika's place and FILLED the van. You can see the results stacked on our back porch and driveway. Before we could even get the van unloaded, the call came from the Coopers that their stuff was ready. We hurriedly unloaded the first van load, and then went for another one. The second photo shows what the back of our van looked like when we got home. The third photo shows a hide-a-bed and a rocking chair that are under the stuff you can see in the second photo. Fortunately, the Coopers had their stuff nicely boxed up, so we had no trouble loading it in. In fact, it is going to remain stored in our van for a few days.

Taylor will get some of the proceeds from the Coopers' sale, so she should we well on her way to achieving her goal for the trip. But Be is once again having to go through the massive job of organizing and pricing a LARGE amount of stuff for another sale.

Woe is she! When will she learn?

Better News Than Could Be Hoped

2008-08-16T00:24:00.003-05:00

My surgery went well today. Mrs. Dr. Bruton did it, and I like her much better. I do not have a pin in my toe because the area seemed stable to her, so it is held in place by a splint inside the boot. I am to keep my foot above my hip most of the time until my appointment with the Mrs. Dr. Monday. She also wants me to take the pain medicine until then even though I seem to not need it, so I will.

The sad part is that I will be wearing the boot when school starts. But the good news is that I will be able to teach all my classes, and I will not have to go to the pre-session meetings, nor to the opening chapel. Yeah!

Thanks for your prayers. They are working. Love to all.

The Countdown Is On

2008-08-14T10:41:00.004-05:00

Monday, my primary care physician was a bit chagrined that I was not able to have my surgery last week. But he ordered more blood tests, and said that he would check the results on Tuesday, and anticipating that they would not be too bad, he would try to expedite my surgery. He followed through, and I am scheduled for surgery tomorrow (Friday) at 10:00 am.

Therefore I have started getting stuff done that I need mobility to accomplish. Yesterday I went to my office and got as much done as I could hope for. This morning I got up early and started pulling up the dead sunflowers in the garden. Be was pleased about that, because she was thinking that she would have do it by herself. And those sunflowers make her itch something crazy. She came back from running in time to help me finish the job, and you see the result in the photo.

I am playing golf this afternoon at the Abilene Country Club. The club is letting the University Church have a "last round of golf with Eddie Sharp." We get a box lunch, a cart, warm-up balls, and 18 holes of golf for $20. That is a great deal, and things have worked out so that I can do it. I feel blessed.

Want to See Something Really Cool?

2008-08-09T18:42:00.002-05:00

Here is something I find incredible. Go to the web site http://maps.google.com/ and in the box next to the Search Maps tab type the following address: 1365 Cedar Crest Dr, Abilene, TX 79601, and then click on the Search Maps tab.

Next click on the Street View tab in the top right part of the picture. You should now see a little man and some streets marked in blue. There should also be an "A" tab in the picture. It is supposed to be at our house, but it missed us a little to the left. So drag the "man" to the blue street which curves in front of our house a little to the right of the "A" tab. You should be able to see our windmill now. You can rotate the picture 360 degrees, and can move up and down the street. You can also zoom in a little bit. Is that not wild? I just moved to a place on the street so that I can see both our windmill and our house in the background.

Now for the best part. I want to test your deductive reasoning skills, especially Tuell's. Move the little man to the back of our house and rotate so you can see our back yard. Here is the test: When was this picture taken? First one to comment a correct answer gets a raucous round of applause.

Woe Is Me

2008-08-09T17:25:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I was supposed to have my second (and last) toe surgeried. Alas, Mrs. Dr. Bruton would not do it. I am a bit anemic -- my hemoglobin is a bit low and I have a slightly low white blood cell count. She called my primary care doctor, Dr. Martin, but he was on vacation. This is twice that doctors' vacations have left me hanging this summer. Anyway, I will see Dr. Martin Monday to see how to proceed. I surely hope I can get the surgery done before school starts, even though that means I will have to wear a boot into my classes. But we will see. When I know something, I will let you know. Please pray that the correct decisions will be made.

What Can You Learn at the Social Security Office?

2008-07-28T21:05:00.004-05:00

For some reason, I have this idea that a blog was originally to be an opinion piece, for which there might be some disagreement. This piece I am writing is my opinion and there are definitely persons who disagree.

When we went to the Social Security office, we learned that since I am drawing social security payments, any children that I have that are still in elementary through high school (not older than 19) could be drawing monthly social security payments equal to half of what I am getting. That means that if Taylor were my daughter, then she would get these payments until she graduates from high school, or drops out of school. Now you can see where this is going. Be and I reasoned that Taylor has already lost over $10,000 because we did not know this fact. We cannot explain why this is the law -- it just is. So the very night we learned this we went to see Guinn and Callie and proposed that we adopt Taylor. We assured them that this would be a "paper" transition only, and our relationship with them, and Gordon, and Lenna would not change. Taylor could even keep her last name. You could see in Callie's face that this was not going to fly, and she said that they would need to talk to Gordon about it. I asked if it could be done quickly because money was flying out the window by the hour.

Two days went by, so I called. I was informed that Gordon had heard of some new GI benefit that "would be even better for Taylor." So I urged them to encourage him to look into this as quickly as possible. No word. Well, of all things, finally on Taylor's birthday, Gordon called her. Fancy that! I do no know how long it had been since she had heard from him, but now he is the "good daddy." I asked to talk to him, and he said that he had an appointment with an adviser the next day. Sure enough, the next day, Guinn was to pick up Taylor for the week-end, so he and Callie came together. With great flourish and smugness, she gave me a sheet of paper that was supposed to settle the question once and for all. Indeed, there is a new law that will take effect August 1, 2009, that will pay increased benefits to children of military personnel who meet certain requirements. Gordon meets all of the requirements.

The short version of it is that if Taylor goes to college (or trade school, or any other such higher education) following high school, she will be eligible for benefits through Gordon. It was too complicated to digest on the spot, so I told Guinn and Callie that I would look at the numbers and see what I found.

But the thing that made me so upset that I have had trouble sleeping, and have sometimes been a bear to live with (just ask Be) is this. Callie said that no matter what I determined, Gordon was not going to agree to our adopting Taylor. Then she went over to Taylor and got really close to her and said, "Your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you too much to let you be adopted. You are worth more than $40,000 to him." At this point, Be said, "What does that mean?" Callie said something of the form that she is worth more to him than any amount of money. Be reasoned that it would be Taylor's money - not his. He wasn't giving up anything. I said that if she meant that much to him, then HE could just give here the money and everything would be settled. She said that was not possible.

Then we got the story of Callie's background. Her parents split, and her mom remarried. The step-dad wanted to adopt Callie when she was 11, and apparently they told her that her dad did not love her, and that was why he was agreeing to the adoption. At this point her tears were flowing, and she reported that an uncle saved her from that disaster, and she quoted the words that he used to describe the step-dad. I will not repeat them. Callie said that she did not want Taylor to go through the trauma that she had to endure. We claimed that the cases were as different as black and white - we were not saying anything about any parents, no relationships would change, and we could get some money for Taylor that she was eligible for. But Callie clearly indicated that she did not trust us. I said, "Callie, you know us better than that." She said, "I think so, but . . ."

Now for the numbers. I calculate that if we could adopt Taylor by January of 2009, and if she finishes high school, then with 5% interest calculated, she would have about $59,000 when she graduates from high school. If she goes for the GI benefits, then she gets nothing if she does no more schooling. The GI bill will pay approximately $8430 per year for tuition after high school, plus $1000 per year for books and supplies, plus a housing allowance equal to a military E-5 category. I made what I consider to be a generous estimate of that figure, $725 per month. At the highest, I calculate that she could be awarded $72, 520 for schooling if she goes four years. I am assuming that they pay the housing in the summer whether she is in school or not.

So it is clear, is it not? The choice is $59,000 for sure which will be Taylor's to use any way she desires, or the potential of $72,000 paid to someone else if things work out right.

My opinion is that I am old enough to know that this world does not run on logic and wise choices. Rather it appears to me that most of the choices people make are based on emotion and self-serving interests. But I cannot seem to learn that, so I keep trying to use what I consider to be logical arguments, and only get frustrated and angry. As an example, consider the kind of "sound bites" that we get from politicians. Is there any logic in most of it? I do not think so - it is mostly emotion and self-serving platitudes.

Well, the end result is that some people are idiots. I leave it to you to decide who they are. Aren't you glad that you do not live with me? Isn't Be Green the best in the world? Yes, and AMEN.

Six Families. Huge!

2008-07-22T11:10:00.007-05:00

The advertisement in the newspaper said, "Six families. Huge."
Here is how you count the "families." First, our family. That is, Taylor's stuff and our junk.
Second, the leftovers from a garage sale in the Canterbury Trails area. We do not even know the name of the people, but there were at least two families involved in that sale.
Third, a whole van load of leftovers from the Willingham's estate sale.
Fourth, some things from Lenna and Jade.
Fifth, some really nice things from Steve and Carin Ezzell.
Finally, some things from Gene and Jeanette Linder.

All of these things (except Taylor's) were donated to help Taylor raise money for her trip to Washington, DC, which is to happen in March. These pictures were made during the sale. The recliner in the first picture was for sale but didn't sell. Nothing sold for more than $10, and there were only two of those items. But the quantity of stuff that was sold is indicated by the fact that Taylor cleared $350 in the sale. That was well beyond our expectations. By the way, we sold our dining room table--the only one our kids have ever known at our house. There was a bit of nostalgia in that.

After the sale, we took three wheelbarrows full to the dumpster. Yesterday we took several boxes of items to Goodwill. And we have a stack of stuff to take to the Christian Service Center. Be worked like you cannot imagine on this sale. Taylor owes her -- bigtime!

Bad News and Good News

2008-07-22T10:25:00.000-05:00

First the good news. I had the stitches removed yesterday and my toe is doing great.

Now the bad news. The foot doctor has decided to go on vacation during the time when I should have had the pin removed and had the second toe work done. He neglected to tell me about this. I found out when we went to the scheduler to get an appointment to have the pin removed. She started scheduling me for a week later than it should be. Needless to say, I became an unhappy camper since I would be wearing the boot for an extra unnecessary week. Be was with me, so calmer heads prevailed. She suggested we just wait there at the Dr.'s office and talk to him to see if he would let someone else pull the pin at the proper time. So we waited--thirty minutes. When we were called in, we got to see his wife instead, who is also a podiatrist, and was actually the first one I saw when this ordeal started. She was sympathetic with my dilemma, but was unwilling to turn the task over to another doctor in their office. Three of the four doctors were to be gone at the same time, and the one remaining was going to be swamped.

Now some more good news. She inspected my foot and decided on an alternative action. She got a "splint" ready, and then went ahead and pulled the pin from my foot. With the splint on, I can wear the boot for the originally scheduled time, and then get rid of it. But I also can now get my toe wet, so tonight I can TAKE A SHOWER! Everyone here is happy about that.

Now some more bad news. I still have to wait until later to get my second surgery, so I will have to be wearing the boot when school starts.

Now a little good news. My second surgery would have been two weeks later than I was originally to have it, but Mrs. Dr. has started back to doing some surgery also. She had cut back her schedule because of her three young children. But she said that she could do the surgery a week before Mr. Dr. could, if that was okay with me. I readily agreed because I like her better than him. The end of the story is that I appear to be scheduled for the second surgery only a week later than originally planned.

We shall see. One thing I know. One week from the day after tomorrow, I am taking the boot OFF, and then I can drive again.

$50 an Hour

2008-07-17T16:40:00.000-05:00

One way to think of it is that one hour cost us $50 this past Saturday. Another way to think of it is that a certain person earned more than 6000% interest from us on Tuesday of this week. Here is the story.

At the Willingham's estate sale on Saturday we looked at their dining room table and 8 chairs. It had originally been priced at $200 and was marked down to $100. The chair cushions will have to be replaced, and one of the chairs has tape holding the arm rest together. Also the finish is becoming "alligator skinned" on the table top so the whole set needs to be reworked. The table is oval-shaped and is 66 inches long and 45 inches wide. There are two leaves, each 16 inches wide. Be was concerned about my ever getting around to reworking the set, and where we would store it in the meantime. There was also concern about whether the table would sag in the middle when the leaves were put in it. So we decided to pass on it, and came home. While eating lunch we discussed how the table would fit in our room and how nice the set will look when it is refinished. Be finally decided that she could live with the table as it is until I can work on it. So we went back to the Willingham's. As we arrived, we saw one of the chairs on the front porch and we got this sinking feeling. Sure enough, Bonnie told us that a dealer had bought a whole bunch of the furniture (very cheaply) and was in the process of moving it. She seemed very sorry that it had been sold before we came back, and she said she would find out who bought it.

On Monday, while we were loading all the items they gave to us for Taylor's garage sale, I asked Bonnie again about the dealer. She did not know much information, but said the place was on Butternut near 1st street, and had a white fence in front of the "store." Tuesday morning, about 11:30, we finished a visit to the Social Security Office and drove to Butternut. We had not realized how many resale shops there are on that street. At the third one where we stopped, the lady owner knew of the Willingham sale and told us how to find the place where the dining room set would be. Then she said, "It may have already been sold because I did not see it still there this morning." Our hearts were sinking again as we drove several blocks and found the resale place. There WAS a fence, but is was not white, and all the goods for sale seemed to be outside.

We entered the sale lot and a quick look told us that the table and chairs were not there. There was a lady and a young man trying to wash a bed frame, but they mostly ignored us. I saw a shed off to the side which had a tarp covering the top half of the wide opening into the shed. I walked over and peeked under the tarp, and called to Be, "Here it is." That got the lady's attention, so she asked if we needed any help. I explained that we had seen the table and chairs at the Willingham's and that we were interested in possibly buying them. We went inside the shed, and there was a sign on the table, $400 -- with 8 chairs. So I started running down the set, telling all the things that were wrong with it, and she just looked at me like a tree full of owls. Finally we told her that we had come back to the Willingham's just after she had bought the furniture, so we knew the price that was posted there. I think Be almost fainted when she heard me say it, but I said, "Well, I will get the process started. We will give you $100 and write you a check right now. After a moment she said she would take $200. I said a few more bad things about it, and offered $130. She said good things about it and finally said $150. I hmmm'ed and haww'd a bit, and I could tell that she had reached her limit. So we accepted the bid. After we had given her the check, she said that someone earlier had agreed to pay her $350, but they did not show up to get it. She said she does not hold anything without a deposit. We went back that afternoon in the van and picked it up. You can see a picture of the table with one leaf in, and another picture of one of the chairs.

We are enjoying the table already, and we plan to sell our old table Saturday it we can. However, there is a great deal of nostalgia associated with that table. It is the only table our children have ever known, since we bought it after we had lived in Missouri only one year.

Okay, here is the teaser. What was the occasion for our visit to the Social Security Office, and what did we learn there?

Garage Sale Countdown

2008-07-16T08:37:00.000-05:00

Taylor has signed up for a trip to Washington, DC, in March of 2009. We agreed to pay half of her fee, but she must raise the other half. So there is to be a "benefit" garage sale to raise funds for her trip this Saturday. She has cleaned a lot of stuff out of her room to sell, and we have contributed some of our junk. But the organizers of the DC trip suggested that students go to other garage sales and offer to collect all items that do not sell, with the hope of selling them at their own sale.

This past Saturday Be and I and Jade went to some garage sales and at a few of them we mentioned about Taylor's fund raising effort. (Taylor was over at the Cooper's for the weekend. If you question why we would make this effort to help her, I think you can figure out where the money will come from if she does not raise it!) One lady took Be's telephone number and said she might call. Sure enough, about 2:00 that afternoon she called and said the items were stacked on the driveway and we could come get them. We took the GMC van and filled it about 2/3 full through the back seat. The people were very nice and helped us load the van. I think they felt sorry for me since I was wearing the boot.

We had also gone to an estate sale at the Roy Willingham house just down the street from us. Roy was a medical doctor and an elder at the University Church of Christ. We mentioned Taylor's situation to our friend Bonnie Willingham, and she asked Be to call her the following Monday to see if there was anything left Taylor could use. It turns out that there were a LOT of items, some of them very nice, left for us to choose from. This time we did not have to take everything, only the things we thought would sell. So Taylor, Be, and I loaded stuff from 4:30 to about 7:00 Monday evening. The van was FULL through the back seat. When I say full, many of you know my reputation for being able to pack, and I had one of my better days! I was exhausted that night, and this flurry of loading and unloading the van is why my post about Eddie Sharp was delayed.

So all of these items are now in our house ready to be sorted and labeled. Want to come help? I have been spending a fair amount of my time repairing some things in order to make them sell better. Some of that I can do with my foot up, but not much.

The pictures show the current state of our house. What a mess!

There is another interesting aspect regarding the sale at the Willingham's. That story will come in my next post.

Sad Sunday

2008-07-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

At the end of the worship service Sunday morning, Eddie Sharp announced that he is leaving UCC to begin preaching at the University Church of Christ in Austin. It is near the University of Texas. I always thought he would be here long enough to preach my funeral.

The auditorium was very quiet during his announcement, and you could see people crying. After the announcement as he was sitting down, the congregation gave him a standing ovation. I am sure he will joke that we were so glad to see him go that we stood and applauded when he told us. He has been here 28 years. He gave several reasons, and tried valiantly to explain that he was not upset about anything, and that the elders were not upset with him about anything. One of the factors is that he has a grandson living there. Also, he says that people need a new beginning every so often, and in the past he has been able to do that while remaining at UCC. But this time, he was struggling with finding a renewed energy.

Dickie Hill, the current chairman of the elders, gave a very good response. (The elders had known this was coming for a few days.) He said that the Sharps are now a part of our family, and always will be. He said it is hard when a family member leaves home, and we will be grieving for a while. He encouraged the congregation to be patient with the elders, because no one should make an important decision while they are still grieving. Very well stated. He had a hard time getting through his prepared notes.

In the near future, one of our members, Bill Young, will do most of the preaching, with others pitching in about once a month. Bill is a very good speaker, and he will do some of the office work that Eddie had been doing. We will hire a couple of part time people for a while to do some of the other things, and to help our current staff not be overburdened. Here is a link to a newspaper article about Eddie's announcement.

Well, that's the news from desert Abilene, where all the men are bow legged, all the women are good cooks, and all the children are mutant ninja turtles.

In my next posting, I will tell you why this one was a day late. Things are popping around here.

Recuperation

2008-07-13T22:04:00.000-05:00

You see in the picture the way I look much of the time now. I try to keep my foot elevated as much as possible. When the Olympics begin, I may not have much trouble staying in this pose.

Regarding my surgery, the doctor said that my toe was a "classic" illustration of the ravages of arthritis. He did the same surgery on a woman right after he did mine, and her surgery took 30 minutes less time. Usually the procedure goes through well-defined steps: First peel back the skin, then move out the muscles and ligaments, then the nerves, and finally you are at the bone. In my case, when the skin was pulled back, it was a tangle of bone spurs, scar tissue, and all the other. He had to be very careful not to mistake a nerve for a blood vessel, so he had to let more bleeding occur just to be sure. To indicate how good a job he did, he lightly rubbed various parts of my toe (during my check-up five days after the surgery) and I had feeling in all the places. He was very pleased.

In most people, the piece of the bone that gets sawed off comes out in one piece. In my case he had to chisel it up into several smaller pieces to get it out. Therefore I think that no-one should question that my surgery was needed.

It is now a week and 4 days after the surgery, and I am having to hold myself back because I am feeling so good. I went to church today, both class and worship, and made it fine. I took a folding chair from home and propped my foot up both in the Bible class and in the worship.

As a preview of coming news, I will say that my next posting will be about something that happened during the worship assembly today. Happy speculating!

Fix That Toe

2008-07-11T17:07:00.000-05:00

I have got some pressing issues out of the way and am ready to start being more regular in posting some daily life details. So I will start with my recent surgery. Arthritis has destroyed both of my big toe joints. I am getting my toes so they will move again via a type of surgery called a Keller bunionectomy. The surgeon has to open up the toe joint, clean off all the bone spurs (which were on top, bottom, and both sides), then saw off a part of one bone. As you probably know, a joint consists of a convex part on one bone and a concave part on the other bone. The part that is sawed off is the concave part from the smaller bone. Then some of the natural encapsulating tissue around the joint is stuffed into the gap and sewed in place. The joint is then held rigid with a pin for 4 weeks while scar tissue and whatever else fills in the gap so the toe will heal in the correct place. To keep from bending and hitting the pin, I have to wear a boot, which is really a cast that I can take off for a little bit if things get itchy or hurting. But I cannot let my toe get wet for the entire 4 weeks to keep from getting an infection.

My blood work indicated that I might have a higher-than-normal chance of getting an infection, so he has put me on two weeks of a very expensive anti-biotic medication. The photos show me pre-surgery, post surgery, and (do not look if you have a queasy stomach) the PIN!

I will give some more details in the next issue of the News From Bo.

Love to all.

Garage Sale Finds

2008-05-24T18:15:00.000-05:00

Today, Be and I went to some garage sales. At one we found a serger sewing machine. The people selling it go to our church, and they are preparing to become missionaries, so they will not be needing the machine any more. We did not "need" it either, but I was considering buying it because it was a good price, and was such a cool machine. Then Be had the idea that Sharla might like to have it, so we called her right then. Cell phones are so nice! The short end of the story is that we bought it for her, and you can see two views of it here.

We also bought a new exercise machine. Be calls it a "glider" so I will also. You do a sort of walking motion on it, and it keeps up with calories used, distance travelled, carbohydrates burned, time, heart rate, and some other stuff. We both used it this afternoon. My excuse for wanting to buy it is that I am committing to exercise more, and this seemed to be something I could and would do while I watch TV, or whatever. I hope it keeps me going with the exercise.

Bird Feeder Add-on

2008-05-23T12:36:00.000-05:00

When the doves would come to our bird feeder, they would sling food out of the tray and onto the ground like crazy. We were having to fill the feeder every day. Be learned that birds like "tray" feeders also, so she bought one that could be both a feeder and a bird bath. You can see the one she bought in the back of this photo. We started using it for a bath, but it gave me an idea.

So one Saturday, I got out my saw and some cedar that I had saved (for probably 30 years), and constructed a tray that could hang under our feeder. Now much of the sprayed food lands in the tray, and we do not have to fill the feeder nearly as much. We are really enjoying watching the birds feed outside our window.

Grant Rides

2008-04-29T00:12:00.000-05:00

If you know me, you know that I have been friends with a remarkable young man for many years. Grant has Asberger's syndrome, and has more mathematical talent than anyone I have ever known. But the things that make him so special also isolate him from the world in general. He is not normal, and society has trouble accepting people who are very different. Thus many of us at ACU have tried to be Grant's friends and supporters. He has been a great blessing to us.

One day it occurred to me that Grant might like to learn to ride a bicycle. I had taught all our kids to ride, and had also taught Taylor how to ride, so how hard could it be? Well, first of all, it is easier to learn when you are young. Also, Grant has to work hard to control himself in stressful situations. But he said several times that he wanted to learn. So we have started. We have to take the lessons in little steps. As we go through the process, you can see the stress building in him. So we agreed that we would practice until he thought it was time to quit for a while, and then we would begin again later.

So far we have had three sessions of about 30 minutes each. The first time he learned to stop the bike with the brakes and not fall down. But he never actually rode on his on. A week later I was able to let go of the bike for about three seconds, but I had to keep him from falling when he stopped. He would only go a few yards, and then hit the brakes.

But this last Saturday, he rode half way across the church parking lot after I helped him get started. He can now stop by himself without my having to keep him from falling. I am expecting that the next time we practice, he will get to where he can ride on his on without my help. That will be a great accomplishment for him. If it doesn't happen, then we will just keep trying until it does.

I feel really good about this project, and so does his mother.

Wonderful New Putter

2008-04-28T23:43:00.000-05:00

In March, Rho and Kristen gave me a gift certificate to Golfsmith for my Christmas present. The reason this happened in March is because our families were not able to be together at Christmas, so we waited to exchange gifts until we were together at spring break. Anyway, I had been using the same putter for about 30 years, and my golfing friends convinced me that it was time to update to some modern technology. So after I received the Christmas gift, I enlisted the help of my golfing guru, Jason Holland, and he and I decided what parts to order from Golfsmith. Then he helped me size and build the putter.

As you can see from the second photo, I am loving this putter. I just need to get it grooved before the boondoggle, which is arriving in less than two weeks.

At a garage sale Saturday, I bought a device that knocks my ball back to me when I putt it in the machine, so I am getting some good practice in our family room. Thanks again, Rho and Kristen. This gift is working out great. I even parred the 18th hole at Diamondback Thursday by making a 20 foot putt. Yeah!

First Blog -- From Colorado

2008-03-20T21:35:00.000-05:00

We are visiting Rho and his family during our spring break and I asked him to help me set up a blog site. Like a good teacher, he told me to just do it and ask questions if I needed. So far, no questions, but I am not done yet. We plan to drive to Gruver tomorrow to see Glenda and Elene. Then Saturday we will return home. We have heard that some bad storms (tornados) have occurred during our absence. It will be interesting to see what we find upon return.

Here is a photo of us while here in Colorado.