Saturday, January 21, 2012

Updates & Birrthdays

Before posting today's entry DR asked for some updates on my relatives that were dealing with some health issues. Cousin Jack died of prostate cancer about a month ago. Cousin Lavelle is managing her two cancers well and seems to be doing well. Mark W, the CPA that bought my business, brokeup with his power to downsize to just doing the clients that he likes and are easy to deal with (like Pat). His prostate cancer is controlled and his heart test have come out well but he is on blood pressure medicine. My other friend Mark that lost his wife the same week of his prostate cancer surgery is still struggling. More with the loss of his wife than with his cancer. He said the holidays were very hard.

I am not sure you remember Kaye. She used to post on the blog. She is from Texas and works for the Social Security Department. The reason she quit posting is she met a very nice man, Dave, and has been concentrating on that relationship. I go this email from her a few days ago:

"Dave will be having brain surgery in about 2 weeks to remove an aggressive growing tumor from the left side of his brain. That's in the area of speech and language. They sent him home from the hospital today to start steroid treatments to reduce the swelling before the surgery.

This all started the Sunday before Veterans Day in November. Dave came home from picking up some groceries and as we unpacked them, he was having difficulty in coming up with a word. Well, we all have that problem now and then. But this was really frustrating him. I asked him to try to write it down, and he wrote a 5 character word of all consonants. He tried to log into his computer, but the letters on the keys looked foreign. Suspecting a stroke, I took him to the ER. While in the ER, he had a seizure. After a 24 hour period of just about every test one could think of, Dave was diagnosed with a gray area in the left part of his brain."

She is asking for prayers and of course both her and Dave have mine.

Just a couple of articles today. I kind of hope we nail Mom's birthday dinner tonight:

http://news.yahoo.com/no-joke-3-inch-nail-removed-ill-mans-080153858.html

Mom is an animal lover and I hope the animal in the following article does prevent a nuclear war during the rest of your lifetime:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/17/dolphins-iran_n_1211412.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-nb%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D129191

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM. REMEMBER THE FOLLOWING PICTURE IS 96 YEARS-OLD SO IF YOU WANT A CLEARER LOOK JUST CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO ENLARGE IT:



Comment Away.

4 comments:

Lady DR said...

Thanks for the updates, Bill. I'm sorry to hear about Jack, but glad to hear Lavelle is managing her cancers well and the Mark W is doing well and downsizing his work. I so wish the other Mark could find a support group and help with his grief. I can imagine the holidays were difficult - the first ones always are, it seems.

Definitely sending prayers to Kaye and Dave and will continue to do and hope she keeps us posted. Thank goodness they found the tumor and it's operable.

Had seen a brief blurb on the man with the nail in his head. Modern medicine does produce miracles at times.

Interesting article on the dolphins. While I'm an animal lover, myself (bet none of you knew that), my question to the activists would be whether it's better to send our divers underwater to possibly die, rather than use the dolphins, who might be better equipped to locate the mines and such, without setting them off? And I have to agree with the issue that we could learn a lot from animals of various species about conflict resolution and getting along!

Have a great evening and hope your mom has the happiest of birthdays. Darling picture of her as a baby.

SymplyAmused said...

Hi Bill!
I just heard from Kaye myself about Dave and am sorry to hear it. I hope to chat with her on the phone this week because I'm remiss and don't stay in touch with people. I do hope you are doing good. Things are okay here. Trying to make it as best I can. At least I am healthy! (sort of) My prayers to everyone that needs them...

William J. said...

Hi DR

Jack's wife, Bernadine, is doing really well. Mom got a birthday card from her. I imagine in some way after such a long illness for Jack that she is feeling some relief.

Modern medicine is amazing at times. Now if they can just find a cure for all cancers.

My guess is that you were an animal lover. I think the ultimate is the animal gets in and out safe as well as the human. But if there is a choice save the human first. And in this case so many would benefit. I also agree we can learn a lot from various species about conflict resolution and many other things!

Bill

William J. said...

Hi Symply!

So good to see you!

I think Kaye needs a lot of support right now. She has to be scared as does Dave and his family.

I'm doing well, thank you. Stay healthy!!

Bill