A big step

The Start sign at the beginning of the course

Last weekend, Sue and I went down to Disney World to participate in the Everest Challenge endurance event. It included a 5K run, a short obstacle course, and a scavenger hunt. Sue had heard about it and suggested that we sign up. For me it was a landmark way to put all the challenges of last year behind me. I had been walking some but not in any sort of athletic way so about six weeks ago Sue and I started a program of timed 5K walks to get in better shape. It worked. We did our 5K in our best time ever. We checked the results and we came in with the bottom third of the participants but that's way better than dead last. The course was through the Animal Kingdom park and they kept the park open for the participants after the race so that we could ride the rides and relax a bit. It was a ton of fun. The event was held on Saturday evening. Animal Kingdom usually isn't open at night so it was fun to be there in the dark. The lighting on the Everest ride and the water ride was impressive. It wasn't crowded at all so we were able to go on the water ride three times in a row. We were soaked but happy.

In front of the Tree of Life in the Animal Kingdom park

A view of the Everest ride from a bridge at Animal Kingdom

While we were there we did an assortment of other fun things, too. On Friday evening we went to Pleasure Island to go to the Adventurer's Club one last time (first time for me). It closed for good on Saturday and was jammed when we were there. We also toured through Epcot. I had been there before but we did several of the things that I had missed or were new since I was there last. The Soarin' ride was really cool.

What with one thing and another I had slipped way out of shape over these last few years and at this time last year I didn't think I'd be doing anything like this again. This event was a BIG DEAL for me. I had a wonderful time and am grateful to Sue for setting it all up.

Our very cool medals and the race shirts. We got the standard event shirt plus Sue ordered us team shirts. Our team name was Bluffingwildly.

Birthday has come and gone

The birthday weekend was a very quiet one. That is just what I was hoping for. Last year I had a spectacular series of celebrations (see "A wonderful day" from last September.) That was a big year and the birthday came at a time when the lung surgery was looming in the near future. It was reassuring that this year there is nothing going on that would call for a big acknowledgement of the day. I had a great time, of course, with dinner with my family on Sunday and other time spent with friends. Just what I had hoped for.

I mentioned to my brother John yesterday that I am now older and chubbier than I have ever been in my life. He pointed out that it was OK to work on not getting chubbier but that getting even older was actually a good thing. A wise perspective.

Monday, Monday

Well, the weekend has past and Monday has come again. I have had a busy day of it trying to get things done early because I will be out at a lot of meetings at the end of the week.

The weekend was good but too busy. I did learn one thing, though. At a party someone jokingly (I hope) asked when I was going to stop talking about the lung surgery. I know I do refer to it a lot so I'm going to try to be conscious of that and keep a lid on remarks about it.

My home computer died over the weekend. That was a bad piece of news. I'm going to be working to buy a new one and to figure out how to extract the data from my old hard drive. I know that's possible but I'm not quite sure how to approach it yet. I guess I'll be getting a new computer for my birthday - and delaying the someday purchase of a fancy new TV.

All good news

I am home from the pulmonologist and surgeon appointments. All of the news was good. Here are the pivotal words from the CT scan report, "There is no evidence of infiltrate, consolidation, mass or nodule." I had no indication that I would get any news other than this but it had been on my mind a lot nevertheless. So many others have received worse and completely unexpected news this year.

My pulmonologist, Dr. Nanavaty, gave me a lung function test today, too. From what he told me, I have about 80% of the lung function that would be expected from someone of my age, race and sex. He doesn't have any measure from before I got sick so he compares me to the statistical standard. He did have the pre-op test results and it turns out that the lung capacity is about 10% less now than it was before the surger. That makes sense. I had evidently been working with less than the usual amount of lung when that first test was done.

I will have to go back regularly for follow up testing but they don't seem scary now. What a year, or couple of years this has been.

An interesting piece of information

I read news item online this morning about a study that shows that intellectual activities can cause you to eat more. It was lead by Jean-Philippe Chaput at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada. According to the study, people who were involved in more intense mental activity ate 29.4 percent more calories. This was very liberating for me to read. Now I can attribute any weight problem I might have to my overactive brain rather than my underactive body. This is good news. Of course, the article does go on to say that people who eat less have greater mental acuity and, of course, are thinner. I might think about that over a bag of chips.

I don't know how long the article will be availalbe online but I read it here: http://www.livescience.com/health/080904-brain-food.html

CT scan done

This morning I had the CT scan for Wednesday's follow-up appointments. Aside from a little insurance authorization issue that all seems to have gone well. I did feel the effects of the iodine contrast injection much more this time than last time. I didn't have any bad reactions, though.

Here's a little video of the CT scan. This time I only got top-down images rather than front to back ones. It's not expected to show anything surprising but it could be full of unusual things for all I can tell. It looks like there are two separate runs with different levels of contrast. Here's some infomation I just learned - while the scan goes from top down, the view is the one you would see if you were looking up from my feet. That means that right side where lung was removed is shown on the left.

There is no sound on the video. I was half tempted to add some sort of revolting squishy noises but that seemed to be a little too much. They don't anticipate that I'll get any scary news from this scan but I don't want to press my luck by being too flippant. It could be superstition but it seems to me that medical surprises usually come just as you've begun to let your guard down.

An interesting day

Yesterday my brother John and I drove to visit our aunt Dolores who has been sick and is in a rehab facility in Portage, PA. The visit went well. We took a Baltimore crabcake sandwich and that was a big hit. All in all, just visiting seems to mean so much. I learned a lot about that last year.

For the trip back we decided to take the scenic way along old Route 30 through to Gettysburg and then home. On our way we stopped by the Buchanan's Birthplace monument. It's tucked back in a little park in Pennsylvania. Here's a picture of John and me in front of it.


Just before Gettysburg we came across a great place that sold all sorts of concrete lawn ornaments. it seemed like a good idea to stop. They also sold some pottery items and John ended up with a couple of those. I left with a really cool concrete gargoyle. I don't quite know what I'm going to do with it but I couldn't pass it up. It will look great peeking out from under a bush. I'll have to feature it somehow for Hallowe'en first. Here's a photo in its current location. I had to put it on a tarp and drag it up the hill into the back yard.

Moving into September

Yesterday was my ten-month surgery landmark. It seems as if it was much longer ago now. I'm looking forward to the doctor appointments this week where I'll find out how much lung capacity I have left and will verify (I hope) that the CT scan shows that all is well.

Tropical storm Hanna blew through yesterday. That turned out not to be too much trouble. We did get some rain which was a plus. It is beautifully clear this morning and I just got back from my walk. Looking back, I do three miles in the morning now in about as much time as it took me to do less than a mile this time last year. Some of that is just due to routine but I think it must be a good sign.

The river was not too high this morning. I have seen it much higher after a summer thunderstorm. It may well have been higher yesterday, of course. On my way down I thought about how long it has been since I've seen a heron. I didn't expect anything today since the water was still moving at a good clip. As I was going over the bridge, though, a bird let loose with a very loud, raspy call. I couldn't see it in the darkness but when I got home I checked some bird song websites and sure enough, it was a heron. That was reassuring somehow.

Autumn is obviously on the way now. There are a lot of crisp leaves along the sides of the road (OK, maybe not so crisp this morning) and the autumn flowering clematis is in full bloom. Everything smells like autumn, my favorite season.

It occurred to me just this morning that my birthday is coming up in just under two weeks. What a wonderful time I had last year with the trip to Colorado with my family. There was a lot looming at that time. This year should be a quieter time, a more typical birthday. I'm glad to think that nothing out of the ordinary will seem necessary.

Small thrill

It has been a nice but low-key holiday weekend. My biggest thrill was buying a new vacuum cleaner yesterday. I have been using an old Hoover upright that I bought for $5 at a thrift store about 16 years ago. It finally bombed out on me. I bought a fairly low-end new Hoover now and it works great. I am having a great time vacuuming up a storm. It's probably sad that I'm enjoying this so much but that's the truth. Another big day in my life!

Appointments to prepare for appointments

OK, the CT scan is scheduled as of this morning. It turns out that I had to schedule some blood work before I can have that. And before the blood work can happen I have to pick up a form that says what tests are needed. So, for the one actual doctor appiontment to come off as scheduled I have to make three prelminary trips to different spots. It's interesting how all this works. I'll do all this gladly with the expectation that the news from all these test and appointments will be good. I don't expect to hear anything but positive news but it's hard not to get jumpy as these things approach.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the CT scan results look like. Last time I had one of those I was able to convert the image files into a movie. I'm hoping to do that again this time so that I can compare the two. It'll be interesting to see what it looks like with less lung taking up space. I wonder if anything has shifted around.

Appointments and appointments

This morning I spent a little time setting up appointments that I need to have. By the middle of September I will have gone for a follow up CT scan and had a lung surgeon and a pulmonologist follow-up appointment. That will be interesting. I'm supposed to get a pulmonary function test at that point so I'll get a feel for exactly how much lung capacity I have lost. I also made an appointment with the eye doctor. New glasses - always good. This time I might spring for the fancy sun-darkening ones. I've always wanted those.

Up a tree

On Saturday I was thinking about all the things I said I wanted to do when I was out with the hernia surgery. One of them was climbing the tree in the front yard. I had been up it before but haven't climbed up there for several years. I decided to hoist myself up at least part of the way. The tree trunk divides so I decided only to go up that far this time.


It's an easy climb because there are so many branches. It would be possible slip but it would be hard to fall out.


Aside from the fact that it's just fun to do, the view from up in the tree is great. You can see down into my back yard and out over the valley to the east. On Saturday there was just a light breeze so the tree didn't sway too much. It would swing quite a lot in a brisk wind.



There is a taller pine tree in the back yard. You can see quite a long way if you climb near to the top. It has lost some branches at the bottom in recent years so it's harder to get started going up there. I might try it again some time, though. That one really is an adventure.

In the mail

Like everyone else, the first thing I do when I get home is to check the mail. Usually it's full of assorted junk mail and advertisements for assorted things. Yesterday I didn't have any of that, just two handwritten notes. I don't think I have ever had that happen before.

The first note was from Rick, thanking me for things I did to help during and after Barry's illness. It was beautifully written and he said some of the kindest and most helpful things. I will hold onto it for a long time. The second was from my nephew Joe to thank me for a graduation present. I kid my nephews that I'm only being nice to them so they'll feel obligated to take care of me when I'm old. Joe told me that he'd be the first to take care of me when I'm old and decrepit in the home. That was both funny and reassuring. After this past year and a half, decrepit seems to be coming on sooner than I had anticipated!

What a wonderful moment to come home to find two kind and thoughtful messages. It made me feel as if I just might be getting things right some of the time.

Full moon and heron

This morning I took my usual walk down to the river before dawn. I'm trying to step up the pace a bit to get some real exercise. It was beautifully clear and the full moon lit up everything. A heron was standing in the river by the bridge. She was closer than usual and didn't fly away as they sometimes do. It has been a very long time since I've seen a heron there. A good sign, I hope.

A perplexing surprise

Today I just happened to notice a box that had been sent through our internal delivery system that was addresed to me and had been left on a file cabinet outside my office door. I don't know how long it might have been there. It didn't contain a note, just a Lava Lite themed box of Puffs tissues. It was evidently sent by someone who knows me well - or at least sent by someone who knows that I have more than one Lava Lite and that getting these mystery shipments in delivery is likely to drive me round the bend with curiosity. I did the usual forensic analysis of the box, trying to read through all the scratched out labels to figure out where it might have been before but that didn't pay off. It's a cool box, too. It has a lenticular Lava Lite picture on one side that changes depending on your angle of view. A fun surprise on a day that I could really use one.

OK, it turns out that the box was from Sharyn. I suspected a much. The scary part is that she had sent me an email to tell me that it was coming and I zoned out on that info.

And a new week begins

The memorial service this weekend was as good as it is possible for something like that to be. It has been a long series of events over the last year and a half. I am hoping for but not counting on a period where life assumes a mundane pace for a while. I feel like I have been given a barrage of experiences to help me understand more fully what is important and to spend my time on those things.

Nine months

As of today it has been nine months out of my big lung surgery. A lot went on leading up to that day and so much since then. It's hard to sort it all out.

An early autumn

Just yesterday I saw that some of the leaves on a tree near the library where I work have begun to change color already. On the drive home I noticed that some of the sumac trees along the side of the highway have begun to change as well.

I took a picture of the leaves on the tree by the library. Yesterday in the bright sun the colors were even more vibrant but today is a grey day.

Home from the memorial service

Connie and I arrived back from Jacksonville last night. The trip went as well as we could have hoped. We had a chance to spend a little time both with Barry's family and with Rick's family. We also met several people Barry had spoken about but that we had never met in person. All good and kind people.

From what I heard this weekend Barry faced more difficulties than I had ever imagined. He might sometimes have acknowledged that they were happening but he never complained.

People spoke beautifully at the service. The remarks were positive and hopeful - just as Barry wanted them to be. There were plenty of tears as well. That is as it should be. All part of a fitting tribute to someone who was taken away from us far too soon.

This weekend was difficult for everyone and everyone stepped up to that challenge.

There will be a service this Saturday, August 9 at 10:00 in the garden at St. John's United Church of Christ for those of us in the Baltimore area. I will be helping with that as much as I am needed.

In his blog posts, Barry always tried to end with something light so I'll try to do the same. Not twelve hours after I was out of town, my washing machine hot water hose burst and sprayed water all over the basement laundry area. It ran across the basement floor and out the garage door. I had been home for three weeks before that with the hernia surgery but the stupid hose waited just long enough to be sure I was hundreds of miles away before it popped. It evidently hadn't counted on my neighbors who stepped in and took care of things. A very lucky break for me. I bought new steel reinforced hoses this morning and will install them tonight. A minor problem but one I could have done without just now.

In Jacksonville

This week has been a blur with phone calls, arrangements, and a busy schedule at work. There are services for Barry in Jacksonville on August 3 (tomorrow) and in Baltimore on August 9. Barry's friend Connie and I had made plans to fly to Jacksonville to see him this weekend so we decided to come down for the service. We flew down last night. We'll see what we can do to help with things today andPublish Post will fly home after the service tomorrow.