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 |   My journey through (and beyond) the valley with Cancer as my companion. |
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Dear Friend: This is not a Blog about writing! (I already have one of those.) This is a blog about a journey I am taking with illness. I have recently been diagnosed with Cancer. My goal is honest therapy as I progress through, and beyond this new reality in my life. I hope that, somewhere along the way you will find some words that will help you too. While this is, in fact, an interactive Blog, I hope that you will scroll slowly down this page. For you see, the front of this Blog IS my journey. The entries are conversations that are held along the journey.Yes, there is a lot on it--before actually getting to the Blog entries. But, I hope that by the objects and words which appear before the Blog itself, you might come to understand just a little bit about me, and my journey, and some truly amazing friends who have agreed to journey with me. I hope that you, too, will choose to accompany me on my walk--through the Valley. I invite you to join me, and discover the wondrous truths, meet some truly amazing people, and share those "memorable" moments this journey will undoubtedly present. Come along, won't you? In His Care, ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Would you like to help me help others? I found this amazing organization, and I am proud to be a sponsor. I hope you will check it out. It's called The Network For Good.  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "RISUS OMNIA - INCRUMENTUS PER DEDECUS - SAPIENTIA PER DAMNUM" ("Every thing is funny - Growth through humiliation - Wisdom through loss") ~Leunig~ The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse. ~Helen Keller~ "If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people." ~Virginia Woolf~ ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "There is strength in truth." ~The Barton Family Crest~ ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” — Helen Keller, American social activist, public speaker and author (1880-1968) I have moved the list of my thanks for those who have helped to make this little Blog so very special. I hope that you will take a moment to read the list, growing every day, and let these fellow travellers along this journey know that you appreciate the contributions they make to our walk together.
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please feel free to click on the Blog Rings icon below to be transported to some of the very best of the Best Bloggers around WDC. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** If you are new to WDC, or to our Blogging community, I highly recommend the monthly edition of "The Blogville News". Feel free to click below, and let Scarlett   know that a Blogger sent ya!Hey! We've started a Christian's Blog Ring on WDC. Click on the logo, and join us! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Budroe
 Ring LeaderI have three publications at the moment. Here is a link to purchase my latest one. Buy a great read, and help a fellow writer out, Okay?  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| To my friends and fellow travelers on this journey: It's been a while, and there are some updates. The journey continues. I've decided to renew for three months, and see how this goes. I'm doing an awful lot of writing, and almost all of it is politically oriented. I want to get back into form, and continue this journal as was originally intended. I hope you will find words here to be educational, informative, and uplifting. But, as from the beginning, the words will be true words reflecting a continuing journey through, and beyond the valley. The short update: I recently had my Thyroid removed. Seven years of 1) trying to get my health and body stable enough to even consider surgery of any kind, and 2) trying to find a Surgeon willing to risk, with me, the surgery. While I failed on the first point, gains have been made. The Second point was fairly miraculous. After a non-stop chorus of "No Way!", a casual conversation between my PCP and one of his fellow church members, who happened to be an ENT Surgeon (he swears he was unaware of this. I believe him.) led to a series of meetings, tests, and a final conclusion (after 14 months) that he could, and would do the surgery. When I woke up (YAY!) and was lucid, the Surgeon told us that: 1) He had made the largest "cut" on me he had ever made, and 2) He removed the largest Thyroid he had ever seen from me. According to him, the organ was a fair representation of an "over-sized clown bow tie". The journey since the surgery has been very difficult on me and others. My first blood tests post-op showed a T4 level (norm=3.0-4.0) of 49.3. My body reacted immediately to the loss of the Thyroid, but has failed by refusal to respond to the medicine required for the rest of my life (Levothyroxin/Synthroid) which has left me living as one with extreme hypothyroidism. In short: Yuck! After several adjustments to the dosage of the drug--upwards the most recent T4 test showed a level of 56.2. The body and the drug seem not to be communicating well with each other. Yet again, the "pros" are stumped. *sigh* I've had a couple of visits to the "White Coats", but most of my day involves short periods of being awake punctuating nearly continuous bed time and non-restful sleep. While it is known that it will take approximately ONE YEAR for any drug effects to be reflected in my body or labs, any expectations that the current situation is acceptable are being disabused strenuously by myself. I have caregivers, nurses, etc. caring for me, my house and my three boys. Sara is the Captain of that particular team, and deserves Sainthood for her selfless giving to my care, and my life. I am, true to form, her worst enemy on this campaign. Yet, she is here. I now have TWO kitties with medical conditions: W.T. Fields has a kidney failure problem. We almost lost him a short while ago. He recovered and came home, much to the satisfaction, if only for more adversarial encounters with him since. He's a trooper. Dus T Fields has been diagnosed with--hold on to the bar!--Feline Diabetes. Now, when your kitty sacrifices himself for closer identity / affinity with his Daddy, that is a special pal. Like me, his Diabetes is not under control yet. We just brought him back from the Vet yesterday. He approved of that highly, and spent several hours being licked nearly into extinction by his two brothers. Shad O Fields, my ADHD child, is eternally juvenile, happy, innocently loving, inquisitive, and possessing the attention span of a hibernating gnat. He is like a ferret on steroids most of the time, but in a very happy and playful way. He loves his Daddy and his Brothers. Ditto. There will be more surgery, soon. The same Surgeon will remove the bilateral parotid tumors if/when the T4 levels become much closer to normal. Tempus fugit. There are stories of the journey that I must write. I will do that over the next little while. I hope you will join me as I continue this journey. Please keep me in your prayers and best thoughts as I do each of you. In His Care. Budroe ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
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