Grey Friday

Well it looks like we are all set for another round of punishing rain today. What a bummer. I hope everyone stays safe and dry.

Dad had a great day yesterday. He got up into the wheelchair (With help) 3 times. Total time was about an hour or so. He ate well and also made it to sit in the living room with my aunt and cousin for a while. This morning I gave him a nice shave and the physical therapist will be here shortly. He does have some pain in his back today and for the past few days he has been complaining more of pain in various places. I attribute this to the fact that he has been moving around more now than he has in the past 2 months. While I am sure that is a factor, i do also realize that the pains are in places where the cancer is in his bone. We called Sloan Kettering to see what the process would be if we decided to have a consultation. Up until now, we have been doing as much as we can to make him comfortable because we were told there was no hope. 6 months have passed and we have him on an alternative program along with hospice. He seems stable and now we want to go further. I'll keep you all posted on what becomes of all of that.

I am holding up OK. Sherry is doing well and things are status-quo at this point. Lets hope they stay like this for a while. God knows we can use the break.

OK the physical therapist left here about 20 minuets ago. Dad did extremely well! He got up from bed using the walker and sat in the wheelchair all on his own. She worked with him on some exercises and when it was time to go back into the bed, he surprised us by doing it all alone. The therapist was shocked and we all think he is doing great. He did get a bit sick right after getting himself into bed though. He pushed himself allot but he felt better quickly. He asked the therapist if she thought he would ever walk again and she said "absolutely as long as you keep up the exercises". That made him very happy. In the kitchen, she was talking to my mom and myself. She said that dad is not the "typical" hospice patient. She said most of them look as if they have days left and they usually are very confused. She is impressed with dad and how well he is doing. Lets hope he keeps up the good work :)

Mom and Dad
Here is a picture of my mom and dad on there wedding day. I just thought I would put up this picture because I really like it :)

I am human... I swear!

Well I went to the doctor yesterday because of the nagging chest pains and shortness of breath. After a good examination and an EKG, I was informed that all seemed OK and I need not worry. Apparently my symptoms are most likely stress and anxiety related. There certainly is no lack of stress and anxiety in my life what with my dad being terminally ill and Cindy going through what she is going through. Still though I want to be sure so I asked for a full blood work-up, a chest x-ray and a stress test with EKG. I will make the appointments this week for all of that. I had my former doctor forward my history to my new doctor and she was going through it. She saw no history of any major illness or even a simple cold or flu. She asked me if I had ever had an operation, any alergies... anything at all. The truth is that I have not had a cold or flu in over 4 years and when I do get one, it lasts for 2 days tops. I am not allergic to poison ivy, poison oak, and meds that usually make people sleepy (Ni-Quell) wire me. The doctor said that I have a bullet proof immune system! Sherry always says that I am not human. My blood is red just like yours... I am human. Just maybe a bit more evolved lol!

Dad did OK yesterday. The nurse came and said he looked real good but told him that he needs to get out of bed more. The problem is that his back starts to hurt when he sits in the wheelchair. Still though he got up once just to sit in the living room for 5 minuets. His pain came back and I put him back in his bed. About an hour later he was hungry and wanted to eat in the kitchen so I got him in the wheelchair again and he ate. Twice in one day is impressive and I was very happy. From there I went over to Sherry's to see Cindy. She looks great and she seems to be getting her voice back again. Sherry, Cindy and I hung out and just talked a while. We had a few laughs and things with her seem to be on track. Cindy's husband Andrew and her daughter Malissa are coming in today from Florida. I'm sure Cindy will be so happy to see her. I cant wait to see her too. She has gotten so big!

From there, I kept Sherry company while she gave the dog a bath. I saw that she was squirming some and I know her back has been killing her. After the dog was clean and dry, I offered her a massage. She accepted and so I did. From what I am told, I give a killer massage. That was basically the end of the night. I gave her the massage until she was 3/4 asleep, said good night and came home. I have allot to do today and I am hoping I can get it all accomplished. Wish me luck!

Thats all for now. I hope everyone has/is having a great week so far. Keep a chin up... things have a way of getting better :)

Welcome to Monday!

Well its Monday again. I went to JFK to pick Sherry up from her Florida trip. The traffic was unreal! I hate traffic and here on Staten Island, there is never a shortage of it. I was happy to see Sherry as always. She said I was in a "Generic" mood which I really didn't understand. She said it irks her and I guess if I was around someone in a "generic" mood it would irk me as well. With that in mind I went ahead and stopped being "generic" and we stopped for pizza :)

When I got home, I found that my parents best friends stopped in for a surprise visit. I'm happy because they could really use the company. I'm sure dad was happy to see them as well as mom. Dad was a little sick today but he is doing OK now and had a nice lunch. Lets hope the rest of the day and night goes so well.

I'm going to keep this a short one. My weekend was a quiet one and now we start a new week. I hope everyone is doing well and I will "talk" to you soon.

Memories can be found in the strangest of places!

I finally got around to cleaning out the trunk of the car. I'm not done yet because of the sheer volume of stuff back there but I got a nice chunk done. My first instinct was to just close my eyes and start to toss stuff away but soon realized that there were important papers and such back there including some of my old writings. Its amazing to me when I read some of the things I have written in the past. Some surprises me because i actually like what I am reading and some make me take a step back and wonder what the hell I was thinking. Then I came across one that made my eyes swell up and place a large lump in my throat. I came across a short poem I wrote when my cousin Joey died in a motorcycle accident which I later revised so I could read it at my grandmothers funeral. I was not ready for the flood of emotion that came over me in that split second. I promptly placed it into the "save" pile and moved on. I found old cards given to me... some of them from people no longer with me... and just about every letter Sherry ever wrote to me. I also found this one very short story I wrote a long time ago thats only about a paragraph long but it is very powerful considering the situation we are going through with my dad. I am finding it hard to put away. Maybe I will post it at some point. Its funny how people always say that memories are precious and we should hold them close at all times. Who would have thought that not only were mine always close to me in my heart, but also less that 4 feet away every time I got into my car. Something about that amazes me.

I'm sad to say that yesterday was a bad day again. Dad was doing good all day but started to feel ill around 10:00 last night. Mom was also not feeling well and between the 2 of them, I was up until around 3 A.M. Dad threw up again last night far more than once and mom spent the evening in the ladies room. I'm sorry for the graphic descriptions but it is what it is. Between worrying about the 2 of them, I'm a bit spent. Today was actually a good one and now its almost 1 A.M and all seems quiet. Thank God for small favors.

Well another Saturday has come and gone. It was a quiet one for me. The weather today was right up my alley... cool and clear. It felt like a September day and it made me happy. I hope everyone's weekend is going well. Mines going OK. It could be better but it could be a hell of allot worse.