HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 11/25/07

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 11/25/07

To start, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope and pray that you all had a nice day and could spend time reflecting on what you can be grateful for.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving at the Plummer house in sunny South Florida. My brother Scott and his wife Amy, their daughter Lila, and new born boy Ethan traveled all the way from Austin, TX to be with us. And my mom and dad timed their return for four more weeks to help out so they could be here, too. It was really great to get everyone together and the cousins all had a blast together.

Long time since I have blogged and it doesn’t really seem like this much time has passed. I do have a lot of news to catch you all up on.

LAST RADIATION EFFORT SUCCESSFUL
Two weeks ago I underwent yet another amazing medical procedure called Cyber Knife. After our last bout with a rogue tumor causing mind debilitating pain leading to hospitals stays, I asked what other tumors are in my body that have the potential for that. A very quick answer came back that I had a 3cm tumor at the juncture where my spine and rib begin, that is right on the nerve and adjacent to my spinal column and that could very well cause me trouble in the future. Really????? Well what the @%#$ can we do about it NOW. The answer came back quick again. Cyber Knife. We’ll let’s do it. Ok. SO we set up the scans, the plan and in three visits down to the Cyber Knife Clinic of Miami (in Kendall), we took care of it.

CHEMO OVER
For starters, the Friday after Thanksgiving marked my last Chemotherapy session!!! There are no more scheduled infusions between now and a full work up of scans to determine what if any next steps are. I am praying very hard that I can be done with direct treatment (chemo, radiation, surgery). I can tell you the last two chemos have been more of a struggle for me. I have had to deal with more nausea than I have in the past. The doctors tell me it is just the cumulative effects. So, I am expecting this week to be a tougher one. I will rely on the thoughts that I may be done forever with chemo as positive motivation this week when I am feeling sick and down.

With the risk of letting you all know that I am not always some super tough – “I can do anything at all times” guy - I can honestly say that I am sick of being sick. I have not felt “right” since late June (the weekend of my first Chemo treatment). I am also tired of being weak. I have lost all my strength. But that leads me to my second piece of good news.

EXERCISE STARTED
This last week marked me starting up Aquatic Physical therapy for core, leg and back conditioning. I have also begun walking around my neighborhood. I can announce that I can already walk a half mile without stopping (about 15-20 minutes on my feet). Trust me in that this is a real improvement over what I started with. This is the renewal of my triathlon training. I will keep you posted on when I will set up my first competitive appearance!

HOME BOUGHT IN ILLINOIS
Amy and I went on a home search trip for a very long weekend three weeks ago. We saw a bunch of homes and had established a short list of three existing, but brand new homes or building one from scratch in a certain development. We essentially told all four builders that the best deal got our business and let them all know about each other. As the days passed, the deals got sweeter and then one finally made the move we couldn’t have dreamed of asking for and we jumped on it.

It is a very large 4 bed, 2.5 bath, home with a den in the Plainfield / Bolingbrook / Naperville area and will be only 15-20 minutes from my parents and 35 minutes from work if I can miss the bulk of rush hour.

Needless to say we are excited about the home and excited about that part of the process being over with. Now we just need to deal with selling our home and moving. That is the next topic aside from a clean bill of health that we need. We have only had two people look at the house in the time it has been on the market. Please pray that the right buyer will come soon.

I think that is all for me to write about right now. Thanks for all of your prayers. Sorry for those of you that check this frequently only to see that I have lamely waited another long time period to update.

I love you all,
Eric