Happy New Year

Well.... No news is good news when dealing with this disease. I say that because it has been a while since I last posted here.

I was a little over optimistic about the Marinol. It is not as good as I was hoping for putting down the chronic nausea. The stoned feeling subsided and the nausea still comes back in unpredictable waves. Counterintuitively I think I can control the nausea by eating a little when I feel nausea. Part of the problem is I need an empty stomach for 3 hours twice a day when I take some of my meds. It is when my stomach is empty that the nausea comes on the most. One thing is that I have not vomited since I have been taking Marinol. It might be that the nausea is fading as my chemo wears off.

There is no sign yet that my hair is coming back. I still have a few wispy wizardly hairs clinging to my eyebrows. They are not those bushy eyebrows that used to remind my mom of uncle Frank anymore.

I still have to take immune suppressants. I have to wear a mask in the halls of our apartment complex and I am not allowed to mingle with the public.

I feel so grateful for having Billie with me. I feel like I owe her so much because she is so good. I don't touch door handles or anything out in public. She opens doors for me and pumps the gas in the car. So far so good because I am free from infections when I am extremely susceptible.

Billie and I are still taking daily walks. The mushroom hunting hit the glory hole last weekend. We found five beautiful King Bolete buttons that must have weighed five pounds total. I sliced and browned one in a little butter and fed it to Billie and she really lighted up. That was one very tasty mushroom. You should have seen the fervor she was hunting with the next time we went out. Seeing her poking around in the duff is one of the small things that really make life enjoyable right now. She has bolete fever really bad.

We still go on regular walks in Fort Funston. I like to talk with some of the dog owners about their dogs. A few weeks ago I asked a couple who had Portuguese Water Dogs if they had them pre Bo or post Bo. The guy was very quick to answer, "Pre Bo". Another couple had a pair of Vizlas with e-collars on. They look a lot like my pointers. I told them that I would be doing the same thing using e-collars just to make sure they stay nearby.

Last week we saw a show on PBS called "History Detectives". The topic was about two dueling pistols and if they were used in the Terry/ Broderick duel in 1858. It turns out that the site of the duel is within walking distance of our apartment complex. I did a lot of history reading on the internet and then we walked over to the site. The site was a little hard to find with all of the building that has gone on since the duel. It is still there with granite markers where each man stood. Broderick died after his weapon discharged in the ground in front of him. His piece had a stuck hair trigger that was very sensitive. Terry had a free shot and he killed Broderick. Terry's matching weapon still had the hair trigger adjustable. Terry was a southern sympathizer and Broderick wanted California to be a free state. Terry was the chief justice of the California supreme court. Broderick was a state senator.