Columbus and the Valley

Check, Check, Check

Jill and I decided to make a road trip out of our upcoming journey out to Houston’s M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. We travel well together. Easy, like a Sunday morning. Amish grocery stores, funky shops, great local restaurants way off the beaten path and maybe an occasional casino might catch our attention for either a few minutes or a few hours. We haven’t done that for a while, so we decided to get some good face time while we’re getting some windshield time as we nervously await the news of where this cancer journey is going to take us.

I know we have the love of this community going with us, like the Verizon network. Every day, someone approaches me to wish us good luck and Godspeed. More often than not, I don’t remember their name, but they know me and they are pulling for good news for us. That is the power of love.

We’ll be blogging along the way with my iPhone, so it will be brief until we get to our hotel. I will log an extensive post after we’ve had a chance to experience M. D. Anderson’s world-class reputation and get to visit with Dr. Pagliaro. Since it is almost a certainty that the adrenal gland tumor is a renal cell carcinoma metastasis, we’ll be praying for three things:
• We get to work with surgeon, Dr. Christopher Wood
• We get a quick surgical date
• That they also get a chance during this surgery to biopsy the cyst/tumor/suspicious spot on Strainer

Regardless of your religious persuasion, Jill and I will appreciate your prayers, your best wishes, your good karma, your monster mojos, your blessings or a tip of your beer on Monday, July 16. That is the day that will determine our future.

Sorry for this short post, but the real reason for it is to test my blog’s notification system. Many, many of you have reported that although you used to get email notifications of a new post, you’re not getting them any more. Others have said they’ve never gotten them even though they subscribed. Our IT consultant has tweaked the settings and he thinks he’s been able to alleviate some of the notification problems.

I really don’t know how to do this. Maybe this would work: If you notice something different (hopefully better) about a notification for this post, please post a comment on the blog to that effect. If I don’t hear some good news on that front, we’ll continue to try to find a good way to let people know when there is new content here.

Early to Bed

I had a nice conversation with Dr. Tamorie Smith this morning. I was up front with her that I had beaten her up pretty badly in my last evening blog post. She was really nice and we had a great, although short, conversation. She answered all my questions with professional ease and I feel good about the medication Dr. Shah prescribed and the prospects of controlling the gout for the future. The pain is almost completely gone in my toe and I’m able to move it with ease.

That is a good thing, because I’ll be doing some walking tomorrow in New York City before our appointment with Dr. Dutcher. We fly very early in the morning, so we’re just about to turn in and try to get some sleep.

Jill and I really appreciate the outpouring of love and support from so many people as we prepare to take this next step on the journey to beat this cancer. I got a call tonight from someone who has a very similar tumor in his spine to the one I had. He is seeking some feedback from my neurosurgeon, Dr. Mike Gorum, because of the good outcome I had from my very tricky operation.

I also want to thank Chuck Williams and photographer Mike Haskey for the very nice Sunday story and photos in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. They did a great job and I’m particularly happy that the Salvation Army got some great ink during a vital part of their year. They do so much good work across the country for people who are in need, especially during the holidays. I was happy to ring that bell again this year!

Just a short post to say thank you to our legion of supporters. We go tomorrow with hope, determination and the knowledge that our “Verizon Network” of supporters will be right there with us throughout the entire trip. I just wish Dr. Pippas could be with us. And Gayla and Sandy (two Hardaway High School classmates and also medical professionals who volunteered to go along with us) who are just trying to wrangle a shopping trip to NYC, I’m sure.

Goodnight. I’ll post again tomorrow as soon as I can. I also hope I’ll be able to upload some video of the meeting with Dr. D.