DeanCarl Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 Ok ... there are a half a bizzillion of you guys out there. SOMEBODY please let us know how Tbone is doing. Dean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBone Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 Hi Dean, I am doing ok.I have been exhausted and spending a bunch of time sleeping.I am better today and plan to be in chat tonight.My sisters are fine too.We have all been pretty busy here.Take care and I hope to see y'all tonight.TBone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeTaa Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 Well, if there's anything I've learned during my short time on this board, it's that, "When DeanCarl speaks, I'd better listen!!" So now that DeanCarl is asking a question, I'm gonna answer! I'm sure TBone will speak for himself shortly, but I'll brief you . . . he's just extremely tired these days and is sleeping a LOT. Still doing the chest radiation . . . I think he's had 12 treatments, so that leaves another 6. As of last night, he still didn't have the official apples-to-apples comparison of his December scans against the scans from last week, but we're hoping to get them any time now. About half of the family (TBone's bunch, ViVi's bunch, my bunch, and MeMa) are going to a state park lodge this weekend and plan to compete in their first annual crappie fishing tournament. Got a pontoon boat rented for the day Saturday. Are we big fisherpeople? Heck no!! But our Daddy used to take us fishing a lot when we were kids, and we all still occasionally wet a hook, so we'll at least know what we're doing and have some fun! Maybe we'll take an air mattress on the boat so TBone can rest when he needs to. I can just see him cuddled up with my four-year-old little girl out there on the lake taking a nap when they both get cranky! Thanks for checking in on him, DeanCarl. It means a lot to all of us. Y'all just don't have any idea what this board means to TBone and his clan. Love and Blessings, TeeTaa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandyS Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Sounds like a blast TeeTaa! Better add the following to your list though: blanket, pillow, barf bag, crackers and drinking water! I hope TBone is hope for it and has some fun too, Hugs and prayers, SandyS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayos Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 It sounds like TBone is more than halfway thru his radiation treatments.....maybe he could try to 'backslide' thru the last six. He's one tuff cookie...that's for sure. Please convey to him how many of us are pulling for him. I'm sending you some strength that I'm not using right now. I've never run up against radiation....but my heart is with you as you fight....no matter what. BTW....I'm in awe of your family's staunch support for you and their deep involvement in your care. It's obvious TBone....."You are loved". You must be a very special guy.....and special guys always win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Dear Folks, Thanks for caring about us. I might add that TBone is also TRYING to stay awake to watch Elliott play baseball on the middle school team (he's gone 1 for 1 and 1 for 1 with 2 RBI in three games!) and to watch Dozier play tennis on the high school tennis team. There's another baseball game today and the weather here is absolutely gorgeous so maybe we'll all be at the game after TBone gets home from his treatment. He travels 35 miles every day to Columbus to get the radiation but it's a really pretty drive through the country so it's not so bad. I wish all of you could join us this weekend on the lake. I'll spend today and tomorrow rounding up poles, bait, etc. as we have about worn out all fishing tackle we keep here. The kids have been having a great time fishing around the pond since the bream and bass have been bedding. Anna caught a 1 lb. bream Sunday. She said she was practicing for this weekend. Abby and Livi will probably spend the latter part of the weekend catching tadpoles to take back to the big city and show their city friends. The frogs have gone crazy these past few nights - we have to close our windows because they are chirping and croaking so loud! Thank you again for your concern and for your love. ViVi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeTaa Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Okay, ViVi. That was cruel. As if it's not hard enough for me to have to live up here in the city, you have to go and bring up all the fun ballgames and tennis matches I have to miss. And then to add insult to injury, you even talk about the beloved country noises!! To the rest of y'all - mayos' message (at least I think that was the one before ViVi's) meant so much to me. We've always known we were so very lucky regarding our family closeness, but to be honest, since that was all we'd ever known, surely we didn't have the appreciation for it that we should have. So I for one want to thank you for opening my eyes to it. Hope not to jinx myself, but I'm just SUCH a lucky person (even won a Mercedes once - but that's a whole other story!) - and a large part of that luck is having this wonderful extended family to share with, learn from, cry with, sympathize with, and gain support from. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh yeah - we'll try to post photos of our fishing extravaganza! Love and Blessings, TeeTaa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanCarl Posted March 10, 2004 Author Share Posted March 10, 2004 ViVi, That mention of frogs took me way back! I grew up right next to a lake up in northeastern Washington (100 miles north of Spokane). From April to October we had the frog chorus going each night. I always kept my bedroom window open and would fall asleep to that sound (we had one BIG o' bullfrog with this wonderful base voice that seemed to live right under my window). I'd always associated warm weather with the sound of frogs croaking. When I joined the Navy in June of 1970 I had a lot of trouble falling asleep 'cause I missed that froggie "lullaby". Tbone, Get well soon, bud! I keep tellin' ya, there's a couple of HUGE albacore just waiting to be caught. Dean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhutch1366 Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 I love the night noises, especially the peeper frogs.... I'd love to join you for the fishing trip.. sounds fun... but... I have two daughters who between them have to give a small dance performance between sets at an Irish dance Friday night while the other one bathes a 15.5 hand horse who doesn't like his face washed, and clean his saddle and bridle, because Saturday and Sunday there are horse shows EACH DAY as well as St Patrick's Day Parades... and good ole mom is the taxi. I couldn't be more blessed, unless it was to hear the frogs and birds at my place by the highway. I'll adopt all you guys any time. I love family, and unfortunately mine is tiny tiny. Good luck in the fishing... and please don't push TBone in. He needs his sleep... lol... XOXOX MaryAnn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeckyCW Posted March 13, 2004 Share Posted March 13, 2004 TBone, Tee Taa, ViVi and clan, I hope you all have a grand time fishin' and enjoying nature and each other this weekend. I echo the admiration of your family and how everyone rallies for TBone -- He's clearly a special guy, but you're all pretty special together. Love the idea of seeing photos from the fishing weekend... but I'd hate to see the "family in the woods" photos go away for long -- I just love them all. BeckyCW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mini george Posted March 14, 2004 Share Posted March 14, 2004 i hear ya dean.those frogs are croakin in my mind right now.we have a lake about sixty miles from my home town.my wife and i and also our grand daughters spend almost every weekend up there listening to those frogs as well as trying to catch a fish or two.hopefully Tbone and his family will hear those frogs too. me,i'd have to chop a long way down in the ice right now but we can dream can't we.see ya. mini george Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 Dear Dean Carl, BeckyCW, mayos, MaryAnn, mini george, and all of the rest of you who are tuned in here when you'd much, much rather be tuned into a different station, I'm typing to the beat of the frogs' croakin' and it's a nice sound but tonight it's not bringing a whole lot of peace. I want the frogs to sound like they did 3 months ago. I want everything to be all right with TBone and his family. I want us to look forward to the bream bedding and to dread the mosquitoes biting. I want us to look forward to watching the kids "belly buster" into the pond and anticipate refereeing the water fights that result. I want us to plan cousin birthday parties and wonder why we ever had the notion when the day actually arrives. I want the big kids to hide Easter eggs (or the big, big kids to hit painted golf balls) for the little kids to find like we 've done in years past. I want us to take a beach trip and watch the spastic flashlights as the cousins venture out on their crab hunting expeditions. I want the kids to ask if they can start the fire barrel early on Sat. morning and then watch them devour hotdogs and s'mores Sat. evening. I want us to gather in MeMa's big yard with lots of quilts and biscuits and lie flat of our backs, watching for the Perseids in August. I want us to be able to bring up fond, fond memories of Daddy without its bringing to mind the monster that is still in our midst. I want life to be the way it was before this monster once again made his presence. But I know that is not possible. So now what I want most is peace and comfort for TBone. I want him to feel better. I want him to eat so that he can regain his strength. I want him to keep doing his diligent research so that we can 'go forth' to fight the monster when the time is right. I want him to feel like cheering for Elliott on the ball field and Dozier on the tennis court. I want him to feel like cuddling with Anna. I want him to want to keep up the fight. I want him to know that I love him so much. I cannot walk in his shoes but that does not mean that I do not ache with his pain. ViVi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeckyCW Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 Oh, ViVi, Your message has me in tears. I wish so much you and your family could have all those things... right now! I hope you managed to have a good weekend together, despite the terrorist invading your family. My family had a camping expedition last summer, when David was in between treatments (finished chest radiation and chemo, but taking a break before PMI). It was great to be together in the hills of Virginia and to hear the crickets at night and have s'mores and all the rest. And we did have a very good time. But it hurt that David was not able to enjoy it all 100%. I know he did enjoy it, but it was a lot for someone who was so easily exhausted. Your message reminded me of this, and of how very, very, very much I want cancer to leave our family forever -- and how what I really want is for it never to have come in the first place. I want it to be the nightmare that you wake up and feel so relieved was just a bad dream. And every morning I wake up wishing that, still, almost a year later, and even though David is doing so well. I'm sorry -- I love all you folks, but I wish we'd never met like this. ViVi, you and TBone and the rest are in my prayers every day. BeckyCW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanCarl Posted March 16, 2004 Author Share Posted March 16, 2004 ViVi, Don't be so ready to give up on all those things just yet. We all know, deep in our hearts, that things probably will never be the same. But who says that means things are going to be WORSE? They may get BETTER! You probably already know this, but I'll say it anyway. You folks have something REALLY special going for you. I've had the opportunity to travel over half the world and meet all kinds of people and, from what I've seen, the love and support your family shows is a rare and precious thing. Seems to me there's a lot more 'smores to be eaten, a lot more "belly bustin'" to be done and a LOT more you folks will share. Dean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeTaa Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 Thanks, DeanCarl. You just don't know how much I needed to read that today. And I'm thinking ViVi and TBone might be the same way. Love, TeeTaa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhutch1366 Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 I don't think any of us would wish to do this over again, given a choice, even with the friends we've made here. But we don't have the choice. No sense wishing for different. What we can do is count the blessings we do have, and savor the moments that are good, and suspend the foreknowledge of this daXX disease. I choose this moment to be happy, to savor breathing, the love of my children, the satisfaction of a job I really like. What I can do something about, I will. Worrying never fixed anything, nor did anticipating. Tomorrow's cares will keep. I'll choose to deal with today, with the glass that's half full, and try to be good and remember everyone in my prayers. And I am glad if through the course of my bout with this disease I can help other folks out, get a few to quit smoking, dispense hugs as needed, shed a little light on an otherwise dark afternoon. Cancer is a part of my life, likely always will be. I have no choice about that. But it is NOT my whole life, NOT the focus of my life, and NOT going to win noway nohow. By proxy I can enjoy the family support that Tbone has, and the companionship that the married couples like Don and Lucie enjoy. Maybe someday....maybe not. But I choose to live life now, maybe more because of the da-- disease, because I KNOW I have that choice. Chin up, kid, and hang in there. It's all a matter of perspective. XOXOXOXOXOX MaryAnn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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