Round 18

A quick update on Round 18. Mostly it was the usual fare but it was a nice day. So, during my wait for my meds to be ready – usually 2 to 3 hours - I took a little walk around midtown-east. There sure are a lot of really good looking restaurants in the neighborhood (between 2nd and Lex from 43rd to 53rd)! Perhaps we’ll go in and try one during my off week one of these days, Sparks steakhouse is also in the neighborhood – that’s the place where John Gotti rubbed out Paul Castellano in the late 70’s. I’ve been there on business dinners in the past – good steak but I like to sit facing the door!

A little tidbit on health. There’s a marker in the blood that is used to judge the activity of colon cancer called CEA (Carcinoembryonic Antigen). People without cancer have a zero or near zero reading. When I started treatment last December, my level was 183. In the spring, it had dropped to 4. My onc told me that it is starting to slowly rise – to 8 and now 11. We’ll need to keep an eye on it. Although it’s a bit disturbing to see it rise, 11 is still a far cry from 183! So like a gunshot heard in the distance, it reminds me that danger is out there but still likely out of range.

Hope you are all enjoying the great weather! BB

Vacations and Bears in the Woods

Hey all. I haven’t blogged in some time so I thought I’d post a quick note. Since my last entry, I had another round of chemo (Round 17) and a CT scan to check my progress. My scan was “stable” again so I asked Dr S when I could get a break. He wants to stay the course for a couple of more months. I must admit that I’m getting antsy for a break because the side affects kind of grind on you. But I’m happy for the stable scan.

Last week, we went to Cape Cod for a little family vacation. As usual (we’ve gone to the Cape many, many times over the last 25 years or so), I enjoyed the salt air and the nice water. The weather was a little cool but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Cape Cod league baseball, walks along the salt marsh trails and good "chowda" is always a winner with me! We were planning to go for a few days to Cooperstown, NY to see the baseball hall of fame this week, but I unfortunately had one of my periodic medical breakdowns so we postponed the trip. Nothing serious but the side affects catch up to me for a day or two each week, and I‘m really pretty useless during those bouts. It’s unlucky that I had one right at the end of the Cape trip and so I couldn’t do the Cooperstown one. On a good note, however, we’ll probably re-plan it for the fall when there may be really nice autumn foliage!

This week David has one of his Richmond buddies staying with us for the week and I took them for a good walk in my beloved woods today. Caught a few frogs, jumped a few streams and kept an eye out for the bear reported in the woods this week. That bear’s been roaming around those woods for years now and does no harm – but I did give the kids the “how to handle yourself when you see a bear” instructions – and it kept them on their toes!

I go for Round 18 on Thursday. Can’t wait! ;)

Hope you are all well….BB