LIFE AT 61 - LIFE IS AN UPDATE!

Well we have a dreary rainy day here in St. Louis.  HOWEVER that is such a blessing.  Like a lot of the country, we have been in a huge drought for most of the summer and even going back to a lot of the spring.  Multiple days of 100+ temps, high humidity, but NO rain.  NOW we are getting the remnants of Hurricane Issac.  THANKFULLY we at this time are not getting torrential rains, or high winds like our friends on the Gulf Coast.  Keep them in your prayers.  A lot of areas actually got it as bad as Katrina was, even though this storm was not as bad, but it was huge and just seemed to sit in one place and dump huge amounts of rain on the area.  Lots of flooding going on.

Well it has been 7 weeks since my last radiation treatment, and Im doing pretty well for having gone thru all that stuff.  My taste is coming back, probably around 80%, but the dry mouth is still ever present.  Sometimes I feel like a raccoon when I eat.  I take a bite of food, and a drink of water, bite of food, drink of water, drink of water, bite of food.  LOL  Really probably a much healthier way of eating but certainly NOT the way Im accustomed to.  Some foods, especially bread type food, or real sugar type of foods are particularly hard to eat because it is an almost immediate drying of my mouth.  Really lets you know what the saliva in your mouth really does.  (I dont have much of that just yet), but hopefully that will be on the rebound soon.

Ive seen both of my doctors in the last week or so, and both seem impressed that I am able to eat and really have NO pain.  I give all the credit for that to God.  He is the real healer.  Im where I am because of God.  Without Him, I would still be fighting this disease and I will be honest, I dont think I would have the strength to do it.  When they gave me the diagnosis back in February, they called it Stage 4!!  That is very shocking to hear, but it also shows that NOTHING is too big for God.  They called it that because it had spread to my lymph nodes.

You might remember that a short time ago, I mentioned a friend of mines mother!  She has had a bit of an issue come up and I would love for you to keep her in prayer.  Apparently an infection of some kind has gotten into her surgery area and is causing issues.

In other news, Ive started riding my bike again.  The 1st foray back into the riding was interesting only about 5 miles, but considering that I had not ridden but a couple of times since January, I was happy with that.  Well Ive progressed to the point that I got in 15+ miles the other day.  Im also working out at the Y.  They have a new program for cancer survivors, patients, and their support people called LIVESTRONG.  This is sponsored by the Lance Armstrong Foundation.  You may or may not know but Lance Armstrong had cancer some years ago, recovered and started this foundation to help others.  Regardless of what you might believe about Lance Armstrong, his foundation does a great work, and I for one appreciate it.  I will be riding in the PEDAL THE CAUSE bike ride here in St. Louis on October 7.  Im doing the 25 mile bike ride to raise funds for cancer research.  The cool thing about this ride is that 100% of the funds raise stay here in St. Louis to fund cancer research.  If you could donate to this, I would totally appreciate it.   Here is a link to that site.  

https://www.pedalthecause.org/donate_cart.jsp?MemberID=17912

You can just click on this and it will take you to my little profile on the website.

Thats about all for now.  I will keep everyone updated as things go forward.  I do have another PET scan on September 24, and that is a formality I already know that there will be nothing out of order seen.

I will be headed to CA for a short vacation and then a week of work out there installing a new sound/lighting/video system for a church in Fresno.  Should be a lot of fun!!