November 30, 2010

I wish that I wrote as well as Norm does. I tend to be pretty factual but so be it. I had an appt. to get a shot for my arthritic knee so John Jendrzejewski stayed with Norm. I think they were able to solve most of the problems of the world.- politics, medicine etc. Later, Linda, an Occupational Therapist visited for an evaluation after his stroke. She thought he was doing great. His right arm isn't at 100% but almost all the strength has returned. He is walking with a walker and his speech is great. We have so much to be thankful for. This was my " test" blog so we'll see if it goes though.

What a Difference a Week Makes!

Since his stroke a week ago, I never expected him to be up walking, speaking clearly and using his right arm again. he is enjoying his food, reading some, watching TV. We are getting ready for Christmas. Lucy and Sofie visited and helped decorate the tree. We had a very nice Thanksgiving with both Andy, Pete and their families here. Huber's catered- I couldn't have done better myself. Marge

A Busy Few Days

The past two days have been a whirlwind of people and activities. Marge and Norm have been meeting all of the hospice team members and have been very pleased with the care so far. Norm just hollered from the back to praise all of the folks from hospice. They are great people and already a wonderful support system. Yesterday they met the chaplain, and really enjoyed him. The bath aide came to help as well. Today Norm had some physical therapy, and they confirmed that he did indeed have a stroke, not a TIA. There are a few lingering symptoms, but all in all, he is doing really well. After PT, they saw the nurse, the social worker, and had two deliveries from the medical supply people. Carl stopped by as well as Dean Herman for a visit with Norm. Judy J. did some shopping for Marge and came by with a grocery delivery. Andy, Ali, Brady and Drew arrived from Redmond and Pete and Tracy will be here any minute. The phone has been ringing off the hook, but things are getting accomplished and Marge is getting things checked off her list (lists) - so she is able to rest easier at night. Other than that, not much is going on....

I think Norm is a little tired today, but has such a positive spirit and really seems at peace with all of the commotion around him. Still pain free and alert - with the dog on his lap.

That's all for now, its time to go and sit with Norm.

Update

Marge and Norm asked me to update the blog this morning with a few bits of news from the past couple of days...

Norm has started hospice care and is resting comfortably at home. He is awake and aware and probably watching Sunday football right now.

Yesterday, he had a small setback, it appears that he had another TIA/stroke. He was unable to talk very well and having trouble swallowing again. But, the good news is that most of the syptoms have improved over night and he's doing much better today. A nurse will be by later today for an evaluation.

Norm is settled into his hospital stlyle bed in the master bedroom and Marge has been resting in the guest room right across the hall. The one who is benefitting from the the most is the dog, Larue. She's been invited up on to Norm's bed and has taken her favorite place by his side. She continues to be his constant companion.

We are still planning Thanksgiving dinner and will have it catered by Huber's. Please keep Norm and Marge in your thoughts and prayers and give your love ones and extra hug today and everyday.

We will continue to keep updates coming if anything changes.

Congratulations and condolences

Congratulations to the Washington Huskies for beating ex-coach NewWeisel.

Congratulations to Ron Gardenhire for winning AL Manager of Year award.

Congratulations to King Felix for winning AL Cy Young award.

Condolences to snake-bit Portland Trail-Blazers on first drafting Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan, then repeating the mistake by drafting Greg Oden over Kevin Durant. 773 is the number of points Durant has scored in his past 25 regular-season games, the same number Oden has scored since he was drafted 3-1/2 years ago.

Native American Poem

Taken from, of all places, the Signals holiday 2010 catalog.

"Don't stand by my grave and weep, for I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond's glint on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn's rain. Don't stand by my grave and cry. I am not there. I did not die."

Catch up to date

I spent the past three days as an inpatient at Sunnyside Hospital and was discharged home last evening. While there I had a repeat MRI of the brain, which shows tumor progression despite all treatment efforts, which glioblastomas are wont to do. I feel fortunate and blessed for the good year I've had since my diagnosis a year ago Thanksgiving, and I am thankful for the love and support of family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. I am especially lucky to have Marge, my rock and strength through all of this. I am reminded of Lou Gehrig (1903-1941), who was afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and his farewell speech when he retired from baseball:

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.

"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies - that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.

"So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."

Later ALS became synonymous with Lou Gehrig's Disease. I feel equally fortunate as Lou Gehrig to be blessed with "a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than I dreamed existed...." And of course blessed with Andy and Ali, Pete and Tracy, and four beautiful grandchildren. I really don't feel that I've had "a tough break." I, like Lou Gehrig, consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

This afternoon I was admitted to the Kaiser hospice program, which is a wonderful resource. One step at a time, one day at a time.

All hail

All Hail, Part I

All hail the mighty Minnesota Gophers, who upset Illinois on the road today, 38-34. Minnesota, 2-9 overall, 1-6 Big Ten, hadn't won a Big Ten game in November since 2006.

Former University of Oregon coach Mike Bellotti has made it known that he is interested in getting back into the coaching business. He had a 116-55 record at UO. He has expressed an interest in the open Colorado job; Colorado joins the Pac-12 conference next year. If it doesn't work out there for either party, the Gophers could do worse than Mike Bellotti (e.g., Tim Brewster).

All Hail, Part II

All hail the mighty Washington State Cougars, who upset Oregon State on the road today, 31-14, and in so doing, broke a 16-game Pac-10 losing streak. Pete and Tracy (WSU grad) were at the game, and Andy (OSU grad) was home, licking his wounds.

Airborne takes off, but why?

CONSUMER REPORTS February 2006

"There's a natural way to boost your immune system to fight the germs and viruses that cause colds," says a press release for Airborne, an "effervescent health formula" whose ingredients include herbal extracts, vitamins, electrolytes, amino acids, and antioxidants. A schoolteacher consulted with nutrition experts and herbalists to come up with its formula.

Airborne had sales of more than $65 million for the 12 months ending in October 2005. Even Oprah has said she keeps it on hand. Although Airborne claims "there's nothing else like it," it has spawned two imitators, AirShield, sold at CVS, and Wal-borne, sold at Walgreen's.

Each tablet of all three products contains 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C. For Airborne and Wal-borne, the recommended adult dose is one tablet every three hours "as necessary." A spokesman for Airborne said that as of January 2006, the label of the new pink-grapefruit flavor will list a maximum dosage of three tablets per day for up to 21 days. (Labels for other flavors are scheduled to change in fall 2006.) AirShield suggests up to four tablets a day.

But dosages that high could be cause for concern. Taking more than 2,000 mg of vitamin C per day can greatly increase the risk of diarrhea and gastrointestinal upset, according to the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, which advises the government about recommended levels of nutrients.

Eric Taylor, M.D., a nephrologist at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, says that he would hesitate to recommend any vitamin C supplement for some people who have had the most common type of kidney stones because of an increased risk of more stones.

With regard to Airborne's effectiveness, a company representative cited an unpublished clinical trial as evidence that the product fights colds. But the study was small, not statistically validated or peer reviewed, and sponsored by the manufacturer. Whether Airborne and its imitators work or not, think twice about taking the top dosage. Here's a reason to think three times: 10 tablets cost $5 to $7.

Milwaukee more mellow than Portland?

What was Forbes smoking when it ranked the Rose City No. 4 on its list of laid-back U.S. cities?

By Peter Ames Carlin
The Oregonian
Thursday, November 11. 2010

Forbes magazine released a study to measure the relative mellowness of America's biggest cities. Portland came in fourth.
Fourth?
Fourth.
Fourth?!?

No way.

Our mossy burg is out-mellowed by Minneapolis-St. Paul, those passive-aggressive Minnesota twins? Laid less-back than Milwaukee? Out-chilled by the post-industrial, ghost-filled transit nightmare that is Boston?

Aargh!

Ridiculous. Not just that, it's a travesty! A nightmare!

Those corporate-friendly geniuses at Forbes are oh-so-proud of their study's "metrics," with its statistical measurements of traffic, unemployment, natural environment and relaxation-to-work ratios.

But why no metrics to measure the stress factor introduced by tens of thousands of high-strung, overachievers stalking like zombies around the campuses of Harvard, M.I.T. and Boston College? And what of that city's crazy-making traffic circles, or Milwaukee's cheese-and-cheap-beer diet? Or how about the Twin Cities' jolly dance between the deathly cold of its tundra winters to its sweltering, humid, mosquito-infested summers?

And somehow those circles of hell are somehow more relaxed than our cheerful, car-dodging, light-running cyclists. Less terrifying than the free-floating nation beyond Nike's gun-turreted berm. More fun than the record-setting monsoons that blow in every June for the Rose Festival.

The city that raised Tonya Harding, and nurtured a post-adolescent Monica Lewinsky. Where otherwise intelligent citizens gird for University of Oregon vs. Oregon State University games like the Montagues taking on the Capulets. Where the strip clubs outnumber the churches and the higher-than-U.S.-average unemployment has really taken the edge off of the morning rush hour.

Spend a day on our streets, and you'll see: No reason to feel anxious around here. Our aggression is way too passive, for one thing. Unless, of course, you question our mellowness.

Some advice for Forbes: steer clear of Portland. Unless you want a nice, relaxed butt-kicking, that is.

Sex, pugs and rock'n' roll

The origins of the pug remain a mystery, though a forerunner of the modern breed enjoyed a pampered existence in ancient China. Holland is said to be the first European country to welcome the pug, probably because some Dutch merchant said, "I've always wanted a dog that snorts like a pig and stares at me with its hiney." Pugs were the official dog of Holland's House of Orange.

Pugs have been featured in television and film, including Frank the Pug in the film Men in Black, its sequel and the follow-up animated series. Other films featuring the breed include The Adventures of Milo and Otis, Disney's Pocahontas, 12 Rounds, Marie Antoinette, and Dune. On television, they have appeared in shows such as The King of Queens, Spin City, Legend of the Dragon, The West Wing and Eastenders.

In a 23 May 2007, web issue of The Onion, the breed was lampooned in a fake news article titled "Dog Breeders Issue Massive Recall of '07 Pugs". The piece satirized pugs and their breeders by writing of the dog and its characteristics as a faulty product, "evidenced" by a fictional quote from the American Pug Breeders Association director: "While pug owners are accustomed to dog malfunction, the latest animals are prone to more problems than just the usual joint failures, overheating, seizures, chronic respiratory defects, and inability to breed without assistance. The latest model Pug is simply not in any way a viable dog ."

Avastin infusion today

I had my fourth of six planned Avastin (bevacizumab) infusions today. As with the first three, I tolerated it without incident. Then, of course, comes the repeat MRI after #6.

Wayward Vikings win one for the caterer

The wackiest of all the NFL's 2010 train wrecks scores a thrilling overtime win

By Jason Gay
The Wall Street Journal
Monday, November 8, 2010

They have a quarterback who's so old, he has thrown touchdown passes to Percy Harvin and Henry Fonda.

They traded for a controversial wide receiver—only to cut him when he acted controversially.

They have a coach who gets fired on the Internet at least nine times a day.

They are the Most Interesting 3-5 Football Team in the World.

They are the magnetic but underachieving Minnesota Vikings, and to call them a soap opera is to be highly charitable to the authors of soap operas. Not even the most gifted TV scribe could compose such a bizarre script. After a dramatic run to the NFC Championship Game last year, the Vikings dragged Brett Favre out of his self-imposed retirement home, hoping he'd make one last Super Bowl push.

Instead, the 2010 Vikings have been shredded by injuries, painful losses and acid, in-house dissension. Mr. Favre has played erratically, squabbled with head coach Brad Childress, and gotten himself tangled in weird allegations from his 2008 lost season with the New York Jets. Randy Moss came and went after a calamitous four-game cameo that reportedly included a rude insult of a Vikings team caterer.

To cap it off, Mr. Childress had a lively disagreement with Mr. Harvin at practice on Friday. Rumors swirled about the coach's fragile job status before Sunday's date with Arizona.

So what does Minnesota go out and do? It falls behind the Cardinals 24-10 with less than five minutes remaining—Mr. Childress nearly put his coach's headset on eBay—only to have Mr. Favre revive the Vikes with a series of dramatic drives in a career high 446-yard passing day en route to a 27-24 overtime victory.

Just like they drew it up!

The NFL is traditionally praised for its competitive parity, from which a brilliant team sometimes emerges—like the New England Patriots in 2007, or the Indianapolis Colts or New Orleans Saints last year.

This year, however, the train wrecks seem more compelling than the pace cars. There isn't a breakout team—there isn't even a team with fewer than two losses—but there are plenty of brilliant disasters. America's Scream in Dallas. Buffalo. Denver. San Francisco. Washington, Earth's least cohesive 4-4 team.

And wackiest of all are the Vikings, who may not make the playoffs but have proved as entertaining as anything Bill Belichick and Rex Ryan are cooking up.

It was nice to see Minnesota get some relief Sunday. The sports world has been cruel to the Land of 10,000 Lakes in the past month—a tough playoff sweep of the Twins, the unraveling of the University of Minnesota in college football, the shocker loss by former Gopher turned UFC sensation Brock Lesnar.

But then the Vikings went out and won one for the caterer.

They shoot flu-shot skeptics don't they?

Joe Queenan's "Moving Targets" column, The Wall Street Journal, November 6, 2010.

Two weeks ago, at the insistence of my wife, I went and got a flu shot. I am one of those people who hates getting flu shots because I subscribe to the addled, scientifically insupportable, just plain stupid myth that if you get a flu shot you'll get the flu. But because my wife runs a senior-citizen center—pro bono—in our town, I understood that it would look bad if I did not get a flu shot. It would lend credence to the scientifically insupportable and fundamentally idiotic myth that getting a flu shot will give you the flu.

Three hours after I got the flu shot, I started to feel sick. Headache, mild sore throat, rasping. I mentioned this to a friend and she snapped, "You can't get the flu from a flu shot. They use dead flu virus in the serum they inject you with. It's just a coincidence." The next day I felt worse, and the next day, and the next. Each time I mentioned the flu shot to friends, they got really defensive and said that I must have already been incubating a nasty cold, because the flu shot could not make me sick. They referred me to assorted websites where I could get more information. They made me feel like a moron for even suggesting that there might be a connection between the flu shot and my deteriorating physical condition.

Five days later, fully prone at death's doorstep, I went to the doctor. He told me that I had a throat infection and an eye infection, and that my ears didn't look so good, either. He wrote me prescriptions for cough syrup, antibiotics and eye drops. When I mentioned how weird it was that I got sick—like, really sick—right after the flu shot, he laughed as if I were a four-year-old.

"You can't get sick from the flu shot," he chided me. "The cells in the flu serum are dead."

"So it was just a coincidence?"

"Yes, just a coincidence."

All these days later, my infection is abating, but only slowly. I still feel terrible. I still can't sleep. I still have headaches and a sore throat, and I can't clear my lungs, and I'm coughing a lot. But I'm not mentioning my wretched condition to anyone anymore. I'm tired of the abuse. I'm tired of being singled out as a flu-shot agnostic. There's something about questioning the efficacy of flu shots that automatically puts you in the same category as climate-change deniers. People hate it if you say anything bad about flu shots; it's worse than saying that you believe in the Laffer Curve.

"If you got a flu shot and then won the lottery, you wouldn't think you won the lottery just because you got a flu shot," sneered one friend, quoting a popular website. "It's just a coincidence."

"You don't take care of yourself, and then you blame the flu shot," said another.

"You already had a cold when you got the flu shot," my wife insisted.

"If I already had a cold, why would I agree to get the flu shot?" I fired back.

"You don't always think things through," she suggested.

Let me be clear on one thing: I do not seriously believe that my hideous illness that has now dragged on for more than 10 days is connected in any way, shape or form with my getting that flu shot. The science is clear on that. And I certainly don't want to be responsible for old people in my town getting really sick or dying because they deliberately didn't get a flu shot after I perpetuated some imbecilic myth. I don't want blood on my hands.

So I'm letting this thing go. I got a flu shot; I got really sick; it was all a strange coincidence. Still, next year, come flu-shot time, I'm going to start coughing and wheezing and hacking and spewing a few days before I'm due for my shot, so my wife will let me take a pass. I'm not afraid of needles, I'm not afraid of my wife, and I'm not afraid of the flu. But I'm deathly afraid of coincidences.

Home for Thanksgiving

The day before Thanksgiving, a man in Ohio calls his adult son in Michigan. "Son, I've had enough. After 40 years of marriage, I've decided to leave your mother." The son hysterically responded: "Dad, this cannot be happening. Don't do a thing until we get there to talk some sense into you!" The son then called his sister in Illinois, who became equally hysterical. She also called her father: "Dad, we're not going to let this happen, you and mom stay put, we'll be there tomorrow to work things out!" The father hung up the phone, looked at his wife and said: "The kids are coming for Thanksgiving, and they're paying their own way."

(Shamelessly pilfered from "The Edge" column in The Oregonian.)

Midterm election day edition

What they are saying....

Texas Rangers: Who was driving that freight train?
Republicans: Throw the bastards out.
Democrats: Stay the course.
Tea-baggers: I am not a witch.
SF Giant fans: Let Timmy smoke.
Randy Moss: I play when I want to play.
Charlie Sheen: Where are my pants?

Transitions

Trail Blazer legend Maurice Lucas dies at age 58.
Theodore Sorensen, speechwriter and counsel for President Kennedy, dies at age 82.
Artie Wilson, Negro Leagues great and former Portland Beavers star, dies at 90.
Reversing a trend here, Andy Muilenburg turns 39 on November 1. Happy birthday!
Much to the chagrin of Andy Muilenburg, Oregon Ducks take top spot in BCS standings.