Coping with life!

[DALederle]

I guess that coping with life is really what most of my post are about. And we all have to cope with what our lives give us to handle, each in our own way.
Right now everything is in a holding pattern while I try and deal with my current health problem.
What's irrating is how much this is putting a dent in what my routines are.
Riding my exercise bike has become very hard to do. They taken me off my Andro Gel, which is for my low testosterone level. It was under 4% and I was told that that was dangerously low. With it I usually feel pretty good even with my breathing problems. Without it I'm feeling weak and tired all the time and tend to want to lie down and take naps. I've had days were I spend most of my time napping. So my trade off of treatment versus quality of life has me wondering, right now, what kind of effort is all this worth?
And I haven't had my first radiation treatment yet. It just got moved from Today to next Monday morning.
So what I will be like in a week is anybody's guess.
In fact I haven't even been on line much lately, because sitting at the 'puter makes me tired. So what's next?
I had a bad experience the other day getting to my Cardiologist for a heart check up. It was cold and even with my oxygen tanks walking from the parking lot to his office took almost as long as the drive getting there. I face the same problem with the radiation therapy. It's not the drive it's walking into the building on my own.
And yes, I'm feeling sad right now. But no, I'm not looking for sympathy. There's many people worse off then me. But I've begun to realise that our society doesn't care. Even the medical profession, whose business is our health, doesn't seem to grasp the effort it takes to get to their treatments. It just makes me wonder sometimes.
It also makes me understand why other people just don't care about wether or not men wear skirts or if we even should.
It's just not on their radar as an issue. We are, basically, on our own when it comes to any fashion rights, if there are such a thing in the first place.
Oh, well! That's todays load of sour grapes, which is what I'm feel in the mood for right now.
I'll try to get more positive late!

Dennis A. Lederle

Live long and prosper!
Grok?

[Big and Bashful]

I grok!

[Kirbstone]

Dennis,
I have read your sad story and I sympathise with your condition. As you have to lug oxygen around with you to cover any distance walking you should be registered disabled. Here there are lots of people who go shopping and pay visits to hospitals &c using motorised wheelchairs. There is some form of subsidy for this, exactly what I don't know, but for your regular visits to the radiation clinic one of those would be just the ticket.
They cannot bring the radiation equipment to you at home, so something ought to be done to facilitate your visits to them.
Having become dependant on Male hormone suppliments the sudden withdrawal of these will understandably leave you feeling low. They'll probably put you on oestrogen (female hormone) shortly, which may cause you further upset initially, but all this is better than Chaemo., which is a real sick-maker.

I'm afraid grok isn't on my vocabulary....yet!

Tom K.

[Big and Bashful]

Dennis,
I have read your sad story and I sympathise with your condition. As you have to lug oxygen around with you to cover any distance walking you should be registered disabled. Here there are lots of people who go shopping and pay visits to hospitals &c using motorised wheelchairs. There is some form of subsidy for this, exactly what I don't know, but for your regular visits to the radiation clinic one of those would be just the ticket.
They cannot bring the radiation equipment to you at home, so something ought to be done to facilitate your visits to them.
Having become dependant on Male hormone suppliments the sudden withdrawal of these will understandably leave you feeling low. They'll probably put you on oestrogen (female hormone) shortly, which may cause you further upset initially, but all this is better than Chaemo., which is a real sick-maker.

I'm afraid grok isn't on my vocabulary....yet!

Tom K.

Grok, Read some Robert Heinlein, I think it is Stranger in a Strange Land, if memory serves me right, but I bet I am wrong.

[DALederle]

Yes, Grok is the Martian word for drink! It was in my second cousin's (Robert A. Heinlein) novel Stranger In A Strange Land and it really means to thoroughly undertsand a subject. Which most of us (yes me too) can't really do. But I try when I approach any subject that interests me to learn as much as I can. I seldom suceed, which is why I am a mortal man and not Valatine Michael Smith.
It is a really good book that I recomend highly for a thought provoking read. Not perfect but RAH is a great yearn spinner or at least he was.
Strangely enough he might have started the first of the hippy enclaves. I remember in the early 1960s most of the college kids I knew, who would later be called hippies, were reading this book and trying to start an earthly version of the Martian "Nest" that RAH described. Unfortunatly there was no Martian language to learn and expand their minds so many of them turned to drugs or acid. It was an example of good intenetions in a purely fictional novel going astray. In some of his later, semi autobiography writings, RAH does mention that he felt bad over the way the hippies mis-interpreted his writing the way they did. His story wasn't supposed to be about real life things to do.
Like L. Ron Hubbard, who is a good sci-fi writer but has that spun off cult that try and make sense of his ramblings.
Oh-oh! I'm rambling again! Time to shut up!
Its what happens when your home alone with two dogs and two cats! Can't discuss a thing with them! Of course they are good listeners and never give me a hard time!

Dennis A. Lederle
Grok?

[Kirbstone]

With my wife away in England entertaining grandchildren during their half-term break, here I am home alone with two cats and two dogs, but added to these are two more cats and two more dogs, also four geese, seven ducks, many hens, a cock or two, twenty-four doves and three donkeys.!
All these must be fed and in the case of the poultry, let out in the mornings and shut in at night.......Predators include foxes, mink and birds of prey.

I'm also all in favour of an afternoon nap, much to my wife's annoyance, who has hers while I'm out at work. At work I nap during lunch hour in by far the most comfortable couch in the entire office....My Dental chair!!!
Tom K.

[STEVIE]

Yes, we go through life as best we can.
On the whole, you are absolutely correct, skirting for men is not a priority issue.
If you are truly hungry, that does not change if you are wearing a skirt or trousers.
It's all a question of priorities
Steve
Look after yourself.

[DALederle]

Hi! I'm back on line after almost two weeks of having problems! But now I've upgraded to Windows 7 and boy is that a relief after Vista.
But it wasn't computer problems that's kept me away. It was medical (sigh, again)!
I had just started my radiation treatments and suddenly I was very weak and tired, almost fainting even in a wheelchair. It turned out I had an internal GI bleed that showed up as black stool and was rushed into the hospital for four days until they got it under control. They are still not sure why it started or why it stoped. Something I ate? Change of medicine? Anxiety? No one knows. Later I have to go in for a follow set of tests, after my radiation treatment is ended.
The follow up is like something out of Star Trek.
I'm going to swallow a camera that moves through my GI tract and sends image to a recorder I'll wear on my waist. Far OUT!
But that's 5 weeks away, while I undergo my cancer, radiation treatment.
So anywho, I'm back and will be checking in again.
Amazing how unimportant the internet is when you have other problems that need you attention.

Dennis A. Lederle

Grok?

[Since1982]

I can grok tew, canoe grok tew? I also can canoe, canoe canoe tew?

[RichardA]

We all have our crosses to bear, but some are bigger than others

[Jack Williams]

Grok is what happens when I am turning something on the lathe and the carriage collides with the chuck!

[DALederle]

Grok is a word in the Martian Language, as invented by Robert A. Heinlein and it means to drink. To drink so deeply of a subject that you become one with it and therefor know all about it. I don't think any of use really can Grok in fullness. But, hey, I try!
I don't suceed, I just try!
I just finish this weeks radiation therapy. Staring to get some minor side effects, like the runs last night!
I'm now 1/3 of the way through with 6 more weeks to go.
I hope I can hold out!

Dennis A. Lederle

Grok?

[Since1982]

Dennis said: Grok is a word in the Martian Language, as invented by Robert A. Heinlein and it means to drink.

Um, Dennis, when, how and for how long did Heinlein visit Mars?? How many Martians did he meet and what did they look like? I always thought "Grok" was a purple fruit about the size of a softball and filled with a clear greenish liquid. Like the one "Grace" tossed to "Jake Sully" pronounced (Shhhake Soooley in the Navi' language)in the beginning of "Avatar" the movie.

[DALederle]

Skip:
You have to read Stanger In A Strange Land, by Robert A. Heinlein! I recomend this book to everyone who wants to enjoy a good yarn and have somethings to think about after you've read it. I did many years ago, when it first came out. It predates the Avatar movie by many years.
As to how long he spent on Mars, I couldn't say for sure.
But read the book and enjoy it!
Some say the whole hippie movement in the 1960s came about because some college kids were trying to create the martian "nests" talked about in the book but their was no language to learn so they turned to dope to "expand" their minds.
Share water, brother!

Dennis A. Lederle

Grok?

[Since1982]

Does it come in DVD or VHS movie form? Reading from books or magazines for me has parted ways. My eyes and arm muscles are not good enough any more to hold anything up to read it as I used to be able to do. I have at least 4 Poker Books that have been given me by friends that I can't read now, but would love to.