Health Update

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, I've been asked a number of times how I'm feeling, what's up with my health and various other questions. Because of this, I thought I'd give you a brief update on my situation.

I didn't write about it here on Blogger, but did post about it in Facebook, so many of you already know what happened in the middle of February. My second surgery was February 10th,  and I had a third surgery scheduled for the 22nd. That surgery was postponed because 5 days after my second surgery I ended up in the emergency room and hospitalized for not one, but two pulmonary embolisms. Doctors put me on blood thinners right away and I have been steadily improving, but I'm not out of the woods yet. About a week ago, I developed a urinary tract infection (my second one since being diagnosed) and have been on a regimen of antibiotics to knock that out. I feel good overall, having gone on several four mile hikes over the last couple of days, so that's a good thing.

What it boils down to is my third surgery was rescheduled for six weeks down the road, because apparently I've been "stabilized" on my blood thinners. The surgery is still risky, but my urologist believes that he needs to get in and do some more work on the remaining tumor inside my bladder. And so I go in for surgery, tomorrow, the 29th of March. My doctor told me he didn't expect this surgery to last as long as the first one, which means my recovery should be quicker. Upshot of all of this is, this particular surgery will determine what the next line of treatment is for my cancer.

So if you don't hear from me in the next couple of days, that's the reason. As always, I have appreciated your kind words and support through all of this.

Collections and traditions

For those of you who know me well, you already know that I'm most comfortable in tee-shirts and shorts, unless it's the winter months and then it's tee-shirts and pants. Not really much difference, but at least it keeps my legs warm.

Anyway, most, if not all of my tee-shirts are ones that I've purchased when I travel. I started this way back in high school when the family would camp in Yosemite National Park almost every summer. And every time I was there, I would purchase a Go Climb a Rock tee-shirt. It sort of became a thing for a while there and I had a Go Climb a Street shirt that I bought in San Francisco and a Go Climb a Volcano shirt that I purchased in Lassen Volcanic National Park. I even had a gag tee-shirt that a friend of mine purchased for me that said Go Climb Mt. Fuji.  

After high school, I tended to drift away from the Climb shirts and just purchased ones that I liked. Most of these tee-shirts center around the national park experiences, but there's also novelty tee-shirts that some of my family and friends have purchased for me. So what does this have to do with anything?

Well, when I'm out and about I tend to wear a tee-shirt that fits the theme of the day.  If I'm geocaching, then of course, the likelihood is I'll be wearing a geocaching tee-shirt.  If I'm camping, more than likely, I'll be wearing a national park shirt. Family visits usually mean I'm wearing a shirt given to me by one of my kids.  You get the idea now.

After looking over some of my more recents shots I took at several national parks, it seems like I have a "Go to" shirt for when I enter a national park and get my photo taken at the entrance sign of said national park. I'm wondering if it's my subconscious telling me that I have to wear my Yellowstone National Park tee-shirt every time I enter a national park, or if it's just a coincidence? It's probably the latter, but no matter what, since this has become sort of a tradition, I obviously will be wearing that tee-shirt on my next excursion out into a national park, or at least when I get my photo taken at the entry point sign. And of course, because I noticed this, I'm going to either have to get back to Yellowstone to get a couple more tee-shirts, or order some on-line so I have a ready supply for future trips.