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Bud Baker

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  1. Bud Baker

    The Lioness

    I'm so sorry to read this. Condolences to Andrea and to all her family and friends.
  2. So sorry to read this. Condolences to you and all his family and friends.
  3. Welcome, Dani. I had the upper half of my left lung removed over four years ago, and I'm still doing great, so hang in there, it's doable. Best wishes and keep us posted.
  4. Sorry to hear that you're having such a hard time with the chemo, Judy. The Gemzar (gemcitabine) gave me such a headache that they did an MRI on my head to make sure the cancer hadn't spread there, so you're not the only one who's headache made them think twice. Hang in there. I hope it gets easier.
  5. Bud Baker

    Gemzar

    I had three rounds of it. It gave me a headache on chemo day, and I always felt really feeble the next day, but it never knocked me down nearly as much or nearly as long as cisplatin did.
  6. Good afternoon everyone! It's another 80 degree afternoon here, but windier than the last couple of days. Rose and I did just over 39 miles in the club ride this morning. Rose came home and crashed for a couple of hours, so it's safe to say the hills wore her out.......LOL. I enjoyed last night's support group, but not the drive home. I was doing 70 mph on I-35W when I hit a ladder that was laying in the middle of the road. By the time I got stopped, this is what my left rear tire looked like.
  7. Good afternoon, everyone! It was another beautiful day here, with a high in the low 80's. Someone tell me how this happened: We had a drought for the entire year last year while I was working 45 hours a week, and now that I'm not working at all, the lakes are staying flooded to the point that the fishing is no good. I'm thinking I'll make a trip to Lake Cleburne on Wednesday. It's a small lake that's only about 25 miles from here. It's not as flooded as most lakes around here, and the water there tends to clear up quicker, so I'm going to see if I can find any crappie. Rose and I did our second ride on the new tandem today, and tomorrow morning, we're going to do a club ride. The Rusty Chain Gang, which is mostly older riders in the Fort Worth Bicycling Association club, has Tuesday rides that start just six miles from our house, so we're going to ride to the start and join them tomorrow. Rose has only been back riding for a couple of months, and I know there are at least a few hills that are tougher than anything we've tried since she's been riding again, so wish us luck on the ride. It's time for me to get ready for this month's support group meeting. Katie needs at least one energetic attendee to harass her, so that will be my job. Have a great evening, all!
  8. Bud Baker

    Stable is good!

    That's great news, Janet! Congrats!
  9. Good evening, everyone! We survived the storms here, though every porta-potty stop on today's bike ride had to be bypassed because they had all blown over. Rose and I did 26 miles on the tandem today. It will likely be our last ride on that bike. I'm headed to Oklahoma City tomorrow to pick up a nicer tandem. It's a RANS Screamer. Eric, the 200k was great, but I was a seriously tired camper afterward. The only two other riders who showed up were both strong riders, we started out with too fast a pace for me against a howling headwind, I burned too many matches early, and by the end of the ride I was just turning the pedals and trying to keep moving. I finished the 127.8 miles in 8:40, a good 200k time for me. At my winter weight and in my winter shape, that's too fast for me, and I was feeling it for a few days. Have a great evening, all!
  10. Good evening, everyone! Good old chemo. I forgot how much fun it was. MI Judy, after I was already finished with chemo, I had a couple of inches of vein on my left arm harden and really hurt. I mentioned it to my primary doctor during my 6 month checkup. He took one look at it and said, "Chemo". It turns out that another advantage of a port is that it puts the chemo in a bigger vein near your heart, where it gets dispersed very quickly, so doesn't just sit there and fry a vein like it can in your arm. Yours will heal, but it will take a little while. Isn't cisplatin lovely? It seems to have to many ways to get you. For me, it was nerve damage. I got severe pain in my toes after the second round. Gabapentin relieved the pain, but I knew the nerve damage it was doing could be permanent. It's the biggest reason I ended my chemo after three rounds, rather than the four the onc wanted to do. I still get pain from my toes on long bike rides, ever since my chemo. Putting pressure on pedals for long rides can bother your feet anyway, and I guess it's worse if you have nerve damage too. But that seems to be the only long term issue I have from it, so I guess I'm lucky. Here's a photo of what white crappie from Lake Benbrook look like at spawning time. I caught these today. The male is at the top of the photo and the female on the bottom. The bobber and jig shown are what I caught them on. Notice how dark the male is. That only happens at spawning time. I called this photo: Benbrook soul mates, who got rudely interrupted today.
  11. Good evening, everyone! Hang in there, MI Judy. You're starting your chemo about a month later than I did 4 years ago. I never did get nausea, but the cisplatin really knocked me for a loop. I had days where I stayed pretty much out of it all day. The gemcitabine gave me headaches. Not much fun, I do recall. I had a good cooking week. I made baked parmesan crappie on Monday. It was the best baked crappie recipe we've tried. I finally got whole wheat bread to come out good in Rose's breadmaker for the first time yesterday. And today, I made a vegetarian gumbo that was surprisingly good. I'm going to make a good housewife yet. Tomorrow, I'm off to do a 200k ride, the first in a couple of months. Hopefully, my back and shoulder will hold up ok. Guess I'll turn the lights out for today. **CLICK**
  12. Janet, I've never had a port, so I can't answer your questions. I have to wonder, though, just how much the "that's just the way we've always done it" factor comes into play. I've never had real pain from the contrast, just the feeling that I'm on fire.
  13. KW Judy, glad you're feeling better today, and hope tomorrow will be much better. Eric, here's the bride and groom, along with the bride's daughter, my granddaughter. And here are Rose and I, sitting with good friends.
  14. Good evening, everyone! It's still Monday evening here, but I guess I'll reply to this post rather than starting another. It was 50 degrees when I got up this morning, and got up to 80 degrees this afternoon, under beautiful sunny skies. Spring has returned to north Texas. Good luck with your job application, Eric. It sounds like a job that would suit you well. I'll be job shopping too, pretty soon. I bought an ice cream maker a couple of weeks ago, and have been experimenting with recipes. Last night, I finally worked out a non-dairy ice cream recipe I really like. Variations of that will be my regular ice cream from now on. After only getting in one bike ride all week, with all the wind and rain, I managed to ride 49 miles Saturday morning before the rain hit again, and Rose and I did 32 miles on the tandem Sunday afternoon. So it wasn't too bad a mileage week after all. It was only a couple of hours after Saturday's ride that I was across town attending daughter Marie's wedding. It's very rare for me to be found wearing a tie, but here I was in one on Saturday, dancing with the bride.
  15. Good afternoon, everyone! It was 41 degrees when I got up this morning. Forecast high is 50. It's raining outside and more is on the way. Rose and I rode 32 miles in the 40 mph wind gusts Tuesday, but I haven't been on the bike since. The wind just keeps blowing and now it's raining too. The only thing I've done since then was when Rose and I went out and bought a new recliner last night. My old one was pretty ancient, and I wanted a bigger one since my dogs insist on joining me for all the TV watching I'm doing these days. So we bought a 52 inch wide recliner. Rose says I look like one of those comedy skits where they're trying to look like a child in a giant chair when I sit in it......LOL. We brought it home and unloaded it ourselves, no small feat since she's not supposed to lift more than 10 pounds with her left arm and I'm not supposed to lift more than 5 pounds with my left arm. Eric, I'm enrolled in a Pharmacy Technician program. They assist pharmacists, but it's a job that doesn't require nearly as much education as it does to become a real pharmacist. As drug dependent as our society in this country has become, there are lots of pharmacy technician jobs around, so I'm hoping to find work close to home, and less physically demanding work than I've been doing. Have a great day, all!
  16. Bud Baker

    PCI?

    PCI is Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation, also often called whole brain radiation. I have not had PCI, but I'm sure someone who can tell you more will be along soon. You might also check at GRACE for more information on it. Sorry to read of your dad's diagnosis, izzyleung. Best wishes for you both.
  17. Good morning, everyone! It was 40 degrees when I got up this morning. Forecast high is 61. That's a lot cooler than it's been the last few days. We had a cold front come in yesterday morning. KW Judy, like Lillian said, a TENS unit uses electrical impulses to help with pain. Electrical impulses, it seems, can interfere with pain signals going from a nerve to the brain. A TENS unit hooks to you with sticky electrodes (like those they use when they do an EKG). The VA gave me a TENS unit shortly after I signed up for VA health care in 2002. I used it the next few months, then never since until now. It's a reminder that it had been over 9 years since I tweaked my back this badly. My back steadily improved all week. I did a 25 mile bike ride on Thursday and spent yesterday fishing. So, I was only off the bike 5 days, and only went a week without fishing. I need to be very careful with my back for a while yet, but it looks like the worst is over. Time for me to get busy. Have a great Saturday, everyone!
  18. Bud Baker

    Good News

    Congrats, Paulette!
  19. Good morning, everyone! It is 57 degrees here. Forecast high is 76. Tomorrow, they're predicting 84 degrees! This will be my fourth day of doing nothing. My back is a bit better, but I'm still pretty cratered. I'm sitting here enjoying my TENS unit to start the day. Eric, I've started an online Pharmacy Tech program offered by the University of Texas at Arlington. I'm planning on making a career change to that for the rest of my working days, a profession that should be a bit easier on my cratered body than my current work. I was planning on quitting my job and starting this study later in the year, but since I'm home on medical leave, this seemed like a good time to get started. Glad you made it home, KW Judy. Have a great day, all!
  20. Good morning, everyone! It's 54 degrees outside right now. Forecast high is 63. In case nursing my shoulder wasn't enough, my back has cratered. This is lower than my previous back problems, sciatic pain on the right side. It's been coming on for a few months now, and I seemed to aggravate it while pushing my boat off the trailer last Wednesday. I was no doubt using my right side too much, favoring my bad left shoulder. The pain has gotten steadily worse since and now, my right hip hurts so much that I am pretty much non-functional. I broke out the old TENS unit I hadn't used in years, but I can't tell that it's helping much. At least it happened while I'm off work anyway. Speaking of which, I finally received my orthopedic evaluation appointment. It's on May 1st, so I guess I have plenty of time to get my back better. I'm going to see if I can get comfortable enough in this chair for long enough to start my online classes today. Have a great day, all!
  21. Hi Kelly. Welcome, and glad you found us! I had NSCLC, not small cell, but I wanted to take a minute to welcome you. Others who are more knowledgeable about small cell will be along shortly. I do know that small cell lung cancer often has a very good, and sometimes even complete, response to chemo, so your doctor is telling the truth. The problem is that small cell lung cancer so often comes back after that initial great response to treatment. But there are long term survivors of small cell lung cancer here, so join your doctor in being optimistic. Again, welcome, and keep us updated!
  22. Good evening, everyone! Rose and I watched the documentary, Semper Fi: Always Faithful, on Netflix this evening. It's about the contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune. Some of the scientists who are investigating this are calling it the worst case of contaminated drinking water ever in this country. My father was in the Marines and stationed at Camp Lejeune in the 1950's. I lived at on base housing, drank and bathed in that contaminated water, had chronic bronchitis for much of the rest of my childhood, had pneumonia twice before I was 22 years old, and am left wondering how much of my lung issues are related to that water. It is estimated that over a million people were exposed to those chemicals over the years. Watch this documentary if you get a chance. It will definitely hold your interest for an hour and 15 minutes. It's been 82 degrees the last two afternoons here. I was out fishing yesterday in shorts, short sleeves, and sandals. It's nice when you can do that in February. A front came in this afternoon and the temperature is falling now. I got several phone calls from work while I was fishing yesterday. I ended up talking to an outside service guy they had brought in, and talked him through fixing the machine. It's pretty bad when I have to help the outside service people......LOL. But he did have enough knowledge to get through it with my help. That wouldn't have been enough to get it done with one of our own people. I was fishing on a Wednesday and drawing a salary while I was doing it, so I guess I better not gripe though. Have a great night, all!
  23. Congrats on 7 1/2 years, Ella!
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