Life in a round house by a salt marsh.

I am looking for a way to update family and friends about my prostate cancer. I decided to use our family blog. If you decide you don’t want to get these messages, just enter your email address in the “Subscribe Here” box in the right sidebar and click “Unsubscribe”. I am placing a subscribe box at the end of this message so you can use that one if you wish.

First a little background on my prostate cancer. It has been about 10 years since I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I had retired from GM but we were still living in Indiana. We did some searching for a retirement location and picked Beaufort, SC. We were in the process of building our home in Beaufort and moving when the cancer was found. I did not want to be disabled by surgery while all that was going on so I picked external beam radiation. After 42 trips to the linear accelerator at Hilton Head Hospital my PSA went down to 0.2, a very low reading. That was in 2001 and it stayed low until last year when it started rising at an ever increasing rate. The latest reading is 20.

I was being treated by a urologist but I decided to add a oncologist to the team. Dr. Chahin at the Keyserling Cancer Center has been agressive in his approach. First I had a bone scan which came back negative and he thought I might not need chemotherapy but he also ordered MRIs which show cancer in my back and hip. I had surgery to install a “power port” under the skin on my chest. This makes it easier to give the chemo and draw blood samples. I will not need the usual IV in my wrist.

This week I had my first Zometa treatment for the bones and my first chemo treatment. So far I am doing fine.

On Friday afternoon I met Dr. McNab the radiation oncologist at the cancer center. After learning that my pain had almost disappeared completely he said I was not yet a candidate for radiation. When and if the pain get so severe that drugs don’t help, that’s the time for radiation. He seems to be a very skilled doctor with 30 years of radiation experience. I am very impressed with the cancer center we have in Beaufort.

Your email:

 

Mckayla with Mom and Dad

You can see we are just a little proud of our new grand daughter and April and Joe so here is yet another picture. This is the official picture from the hospital.

Baby girl McKayla Elizabeth was born at
10:36:00 AM
on
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
to
April and Joseph
at
Borgess Medical Center

McKayla Elizabeth

Weight: 6 lbs 14 oz.
Length: 19.50 in.
——————————-

McKayla
One who is like God, the very promise of God, a bringer of light
——————————-

God has answered our prayers.

McKayla Elizabeth Morgan arrived by c-section at 10:36 AM today in Kalamazoo, MI. April, McKayla and Joe are doing fine. Joe said a picture may come later.

Recently we have been through a lot but I think God wanted us to go through it to make us stronger. I thank God for giveing me a way to serve Him with websites for my church and other churches and Christian missions. Now blogs have replaced normal websites for most applications. The WordPress engine allows me to make websites for smail companies and organizations that want to be able to control the content themselves. Ithemes.com has been an innovator in making themes that convert the normal blog into a website but with a lot more. One I did for a local church is www.shellpointbaptistchurch.org. The content can be maintained by the church secretary and the sermons are posted by the men in the sound booth.

April and Joe drove down from Kalamazoo, MI to spend Christmas with us. The weather was beautiful that week. We even went out to the beach on Hunting Island.

April enjoys helping decorate so we usually get the tree at the last minute on Christmas eve. This year that did not work our. All of the tree places were sold out so we did not have a tree. April decorated the fireplace instead. The best gift of all was the news that April is expecting a child in April 2009. We hope to go up to visit her and Dawn around Mother’s Day.

The “big 3″ car makers are in trouble again. I retired from GM almost 10 years ago but I could see this coming 10 years before that. The big gas guzzler SUV’s were the money makers and little attention was given to making fuel efficient cars or cars that used alternative energy sources.

Now they depend on a bailout from Washington for survival. I think we should do that but I see an opportunity here to do something that breathes life into the industry and meets national energy goals. I think the bailout should be with strings attached (maybe ropes or chains). The main string should be that these companies would provide a plan that includes dates and times for putting fuel efficient, electric, and gasoline free vehicles on the market.

The following is a video on GM’s development status on the hydrogen fuel cell car. This amazing technology is emission free and uses no gasoline.

Last year we finished painting all we could do before the weather got too cold and we put things away. The work was not complete and the 40 ft ladder is very hard to put up so we left it standing next to the little deck just outside our bathroom on the top floor. We discovered that our cat Covey would use the ladder to come up to that deck which has a cat flap into our bathroom. Peggy thought it was "cute" and requested that the ladder be left in place. Soon Covey taught his friend Clyde to also come up the ladder. All went well for the colder months but as Spring came creatures came back to life in the woods and the marsh. The cats wanted to "show their appreciation" by bringing "gifts". At first it was not too bad, a bird or a dead mouse. As the weather warmed it got worse, a large rabbit. We can’t immagine how they managed to get it up the ladder. Live birds and worst of all, live snakes. I think there were 3 of them. I had to use the pick up tool I use outside to grab them and take them outside. The last one was discovered when I got up one morning last week and put my feet in my bedroom slippers. The left foot felt fine but when I walked the right foot felt like I was standing on a piece of rope. You guessed it, when I shook it out a live snake fell on the floor. I rushed for the pickup tool and got the thing outside. I don’t think any of the snakes were poisonous. The first ones were black but the last one was a reddish brown on top and greenish on the bottom. We have taken the ladder down much to the disappointment of the cats. We hope there is nothing else that we don’t know about in the house but Peggy is a little worried. You are welcome to visit but, shake out your shoes.

John

Peggy’s younger brother Elmer and his wife Joan live in Denton, MD. They had not seen each other for a few years and wanted to get together but neither of us wanted the long drive. We decided to meet and have a day an two nights together in Oriental, NC. We thought it would be an interesting place and about half way. April helped us find a good deal ($25/day) on a rental car using priceline.com. On May 6 we followed the route recommended by mapquest.com that took us up I95 to mid NC then straight east to the coast. We arrived around 5 PM and Elmer and Joan were waiting. Our room at the River Neuse Suites proved to be unusual in a nice way. It was a 3 room suite so we had two bedrooms and a common living and dining area. The dining in and around town was OK but tend to be a little heavy on fried foods.

Oriental is known as the "Sailing Capital of North Carolina" and we saw sailboats everywhere. They were docked all around town and many were up out of the water on metal support stands. These were large expensive boats. The town has many businesses that support sailboats such as sail makers. Oriental is not on any main roads or routes but it has clearly been "discovered" with several new residential real estate developments.

Elmer took us on a scenic drive on Wednesday morning that featured a ferry ride. North Carolina has many ferrys as part of it’s highway system and must of them are free. We are looking at a possible trip next year to Oriental with a one day scenic trip that would include a ride on 4 ferrys. It was a great place to get together and talk, enjoy the food and the scenery.

While we were there we were thinking of our sailboat loving friend George. He called us the day after we returned. Strange how things like that happen sometimes.

On our trip home we choose to go by Route 17 and that proved to be just as good. There are more stop lights and small town along the way where you must watch your speed. We did not have a problem this time and got home by 5 PM. Our neighbors, Bootsie and Gerry, did a great job keeping our cats while we were away. We had a wonderful trip but we were glad to be back to paradise.

April is graduating with a masters degree in education technology. She has worked hard for it and she will graduate with a 4.0 grade average. You might say we are more than a little proud of her.

April in her graduation robe

An old fashioned winter chest cold had me in it’s grip for about 10 day. It’s not over yet but am feeling much better. Good enough to go for a short walk around the neighborhood with Peggy. The world has discovered this beautiful place and some bought lots and are building houses nearby. Our 5 acre lot will keep anyone from getting too close. I know this sounds like we are hermits and want to keep away from people. That is not true, we like people when it’s time to party but we also love our quiet time when we can be alone.

The the temperature was in the 60s today, perfect for a walk in the woods. We have had cold, wind and rain recently so this is a very welcome relief. I see lots of work to do outside as the days get warmer. One of my projects is to build a small ornamental pond using a hole dug out by a moonshiner back in the 20s. We also want to move our supply of scrap treated lumber to another place so we can make a circular drive. The delivery men will love that so they don’t have to back or see saw their delivery trucks.