“Knock on wood”

Chemo cocktail # 5 is now underway. Tom is almost at the halfway point (41.67%). He feels well most of the time (sometimes even great). We are finding that when he gets off the chemo pump on Friday and the Saturday that follows, he is extremely tired and somewhat light-headed. (Of course, we’ve always known about the “light-headedness” due to lack of hair!) A couple of times he’s had numbness around his lips (light neuropathy) and still has the occasional hot flash. When he met with Dr. Danzo, the oncologist, he said that Tom’s numbers from a recent blood work-up looked good. His hemoglobin has stayed in the 11ish range, but his blood platelets have gone down, but are not dangerously low yet. They said he has a ways to go before they would feel the need to medically respond to that. So, “knock on wood”, everything seems to be going well at this time.

Tom has played golf at Currie several times and tells Peg that he’s played some of his best golf games yet. He plays in the morning to his lessen his risk of problems with sun sensitivity as a side effect of chemo. This past Monday he played golf with his two brother-in-laws and his 89 year old father-in-law in an American Cancer Society fundraiser. When he came home, his blue eyes had turned brown with the amount of “BS” that was shared among that particular foursome.

Tom and Peg have been able to go to a number of Loons games. His three sons got Tom a Loons jacket for Father’s Day so that he would be warm on some of those cool game nights. He didn’t take it with him when he went to the game on Saturday night because it was 80 degrees when the game started, but he sure wished he had it when the temperature dropped about 20 degrees midway into the game. At the game that night, Tom and Peg sat with the Bullock Creek Schools Retiree’s group. Tom really enjoyed visiting with the retired “Creekers”. It was especially nice to see and sit with old college friends, Steve and Sharon. Steve, now a retired minister, was a onetime teacher and coach at Bullock Creek. At this very same game, Tom and Peg’s daughter-in-law Jeanette was hit by a line drive foul ball. Fortunately, it hit her in the hand and not the head or face and it didn’t hit Tom & Peg’s grandchildren sitting next to her. At last report, after x-rays, it appears that nothing is broken, but she’s got a very sore and bruised hand. We’re thankful that Jeanette is ok.

Recently, Tom had the opportunity to meet for “burgers, beer and BS” with some of his other college buddies. It all started when one of the guys got a new cell phone which he had in his back pocket. When he sat down, for some unknown reason, Tom’s cell phone number was pushed; so when Tom would answer, he could see who was calling, but nobody was talking on the other “end” (literally). This happened several different times over the period of a week. Finally Tom reached the guy and asked if he had been trying to call him. The guy said no, but then explained about his new phone. So after this conversation and a few more phone calls to guys all around the state and one who was visiting from Hawaii, they planned the aforementioned get-together. All because of this guy who "sat on his butt" all day, (or maybe it was divine providence?). This is a true story, no ifs, ands or “butts” about it and I’m sure this person will, thanks to his phone, be the butt of jokes for many years to come.

We love seeing and hearing from all of you---it helps keep our minds off the scary stuff. Your prayers for Tom’s good health and healing as he goes through his chemo treatments over the next three to four months mean so much.