Birthday 2009

Another birthday has come and gone. I had a wonderful day. I took an early morning walk along the river to find a geocache. It was located in/near a cool old log barn. The light was perfect at that time of morning.

It was a very cool morning and the mist was hanging low in the valleys and along the river. I took this short video of the curls of mist following the flow of the river downstream. It was very serene.

After that I met my brother John and his family for breakfast. I spent much of the afternoon on the phone talking to well wishers and in the evening I went to dinner with Sue, Harold, Cindy, Richard, and Mary Lou. It was a very good day.


I did get some health news in the days surrounding the weekend, too. I saw my pulmonologist on Friday. He said that I haven't shown any further loss of lung capacity since this time last year. By way of background information, they never got an accurate measure of my lung capacity from before the disease kicked in. The first test I had for that was after I had had the pneumonia and the tumor was suspected. It's likely my one lung was already compromised somewhat at that point. I'm showing a reduction of about 10 to 15 percent of lung capacity since then, due to the surgery. The fact that the lung capacity hasn't changed in a year is good news.

On another front, I went to the podiatrist today to see what the MRI had shown about my torn Achilles tendon. It turns out that it has a tear that involves about 1.5 inches of the tendon. From what he told me, if it's not treated it might snap or 'rupture'. Hearing that gave me the willies. I have to wear a large and cumbersome boot thing for four weeks. After that I'll have another MRI to see how much it might have healed. If it doesn't recover much, then I might have to have surgery. I'm not happy about that.

The boot is annoying but I'm going to do my best with it. If it allows the tendon to heal then it will have been worth the effort. I don't want to have the surgery if I can help it. I'll take whatever steps I need to get it as close as I can to 'good as new' so it won't give me trouble in the long term.

A new development

Well, yesterday I found out that I have a torn Achilles tendon. Since I started this blog to report health info during my tumor episode, it seems fitting to record this latest news here, too. Actually yesterday was just the day I got confirmation about what is going on. I knew something had been up for over a year. It hurts A LOT some of the time but not consistently. Lately it started to swell so I went to the doctor who sent me to a podiatrist. That doctor sent me for an MRI which confirmed the tendon tear.

I think this all started up when I pulled the tendon in August of 2008 while getting ready for that 5K at Disney World. It has taken a long time to ripen into a problem. I don't know what I'll need to do to get this one fixed. Of course I went right to the web and read all sorts of conflicting information about theraputic footwear, physical therapy and/or surgery. I'll wait until the doctor fills me in when I see him later this month. In the meantime I'll be hobbling along as usual.

Speaking of hobbling along, I have been trying to keep up with the morning walks despite the whole tendon/ankle thing. This morning I came upon my first real autumn leaf. It was still dark so I took a photo of it with my snappy new Blackberry phone with a built-in flash. Here's that picture.


Just before I saw the leaf I spotted a deer on the edge of the woods. This one was a buck with antlers. While I often see deer in the morning before dawn I have never spotted a buck like this before. That was a cool experience. From what I have read, this is the time of year when you're most likely to spot a buck. They grow antlers over the spring/summer and they begin to shed their covering of velvet in August as autumn approaches and deer romance season begins. They evidently shed the antlers once the honeymoon is over in December or later in the winter. We looked at each other for a while in the half light before he trotted off into the woods. A nice way to begin the day.

Autumn arrives

It was in the low 50s when I got up this morning. Yesterday you could tell that autumn had arrived. It was cooler than it had been for a long time and the light was different, particularly early in the morning and evening. Walking today the air was very crisp and clear. The moon had set by the time I started and I saw the constellation Orion for the first time since last winter. Orion is one of the few constellations that I can recognize and I always associate it with the autumn and winter seasons.

There were many deer out this morning. That could be due to the cooler weather or the fact that the moon had set and it was still very dark. I came upon eight of them in sets of one or two. One of them was standing next to the sidewalk as I went by and was very unimpressed by me. She just watched me mosey by. That was a memorable moment.