"...In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or
brilliance. They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not."

~ Anonymous
(taken from Matt Erbele's, It Takes Time to Get Good)

Sunday, August 29, 2010

For Whom the Bell Tolls..

..., it tolls for me.

And I guess, for thee as well, if you are a teacher or student.

le sigh

School has started.

Ok, quoting John Donne's fever induced epiphanies about illness and death is a bit dramatic, even for me, but summer has somewhat abruptly come to an end. Considering the amount of time I spent in hospitals, radiation centers, and doctors' offices this season, ol' Donne's most famous and bastardized quote seems somewhat apropos.

Hubby Update:

On Friday, hubby graduated from his 28 sessions and 5 and half weeks of radiation.

Halle-fucking-lleujah!

The Radiation center makes a big deal of it. At the end of the session they play Pomp and Circumstance, and they even give the 'graduate' a mortarboard and a diploma.

How ADORABLE is this?! He wanted to go all 'mug shot' for the photo since he is an alleged badass and all, but the receptionist and I made him giggle then the snapped this picture!

I have not written much about his radiation, because this summer was a tough road, but frankly, the radiation part was much easier than we expected. A lot of that was due to the Northern California Prostate Cancer Center where he got his radiation. No one wants to ever need a radiation oncologist, but these folks, make EVERY attempt to make this horrid experience easier on the patient and family.

Because we chose an aggressive treatment path it is hard to tell which of the treatments caused each of the bevy of side effects Mr. RBR has been experiencing. We suspect that the Hormone Deprivation Therapy (done with the Lupron injections) is responsible for most of the worst ones, and for exacerbating the others. I don't think we can blame the Lupron for a rather nasty radiation burn he got in a rather sensitive area.

Ahem. As much as I love the doctors, and staff and NCPCC, I did find reason to remind the good doctor that at the beginning of this shin dig, he promised to NOT fry the goods! They are currently a bit fried. Grrrr..

Anyhoo, he has to get one more 3 month shot of the Lupron on Sept. 13th, which will zap all testosterone production until December 13th. This makes a total of 9 months sans man juice. He is over it. I am over it. So what do I do?

Book a Hawaiian vacation. We leave December 20th. We are staying at the Ritz-Carlton in a deluxe oceanview room for 5 days. A bit overly extravagant for a teacher that lives in a 900 sq ft house and drives a 5 year old Honda, you say?

You bet your sweet bippy it is. And I do not care.

And if anyone feels the need to remind me that the human body is not a computer and just because the drug has a 3 month efficacy that does NOT mean that his testosterone gets flipped back on like a switch at 3 months and one day...

You can just shut it.

It is my fantasy and I am clinging to it.

Current score: Mr. RBR 3, Prostate Cancer 0


Other BIG News in the life of RBR (well, at least tangentially in the life of RBR):

I can't tell you yet.

But, I am SUPER excited.

Like SUPER DUPER excited.

But, like I said, I can't tell you yet.

But, rest assured it is the first news of 2010 that has not completely sucked ass.

But, I can't tell you yet.

So don't ask.

But you can bet your ass, when I can, I will.


More about the first week of school later... I have to go run. The exercise front has taken a hit as of late.... le sigh

26 comments:

Pam @ herbieontherun.com said...

Oooohhhhh, TELL IT, TELL IT, TELL IT!!!

I'm DYING to hear some good news! And it's about damn time you get some! (good news, that is...haha)

Soooooooooo happy for you and the hubs. You go to Hawaii and enjoy every SECOND of it! I can't think of a single better way to spend Christmas!

Lindsay said...

i was wondering where you were. you are all posty-posty and then mia. i missed you. kept meaning to email you but i suck and never actually did.

anywho. glad hubs is doing 'well' and moving along the road of recovery. hawaii for christmas, i'm not judging - just majorly jealous! well, maybe not about the ritz part... i'd feel so out of place there. they'd probably kick me out. haha.

Unknown said...

Cancer sucks. Sorry to hear about the burned bits, but he's past the worst of it, right? So time to celebrate. Hawaii sounds like the perfect place. :-)

SteveQ said...

When a woman says she has great news, but can't tell you what it is just yet, it always means the same thing - she has to tell family first, and that usually means one thing (which Lupron makes really difficult). Which brings me back to square one.

Spill it, girl!

SteveQ said...

Oh, and since Glaven's cut the comments from his blog and he's been wondering about something and I know he'll get to these comments: I emailed joyRuN and found out that everything's fine, she just felt she ran out of things to say and felt keeping up with other people's blogs was getting time-consuming, especially given that she had nothing for those others to comment upon.

Something like that.

Pahla said...

Congrats to the Graduate. Halle-fucking-llujah, indeed! Have a wonderful time on your vacation, you deserve it!

Ginny M said...

Can't wait to hear your good news!

Hawaii? Awesome!!!

Burned goods? Sounds awful, but let's hope for fast healing!

And school? Ackkk... I have to be back on Wed. Don't. want. to.

Diana said...

My big (secret) news was jumping out of an airplane! Can't wait to hear yours!!!
Congrats and big ass kudos for Hubby's "graduation"....may all continue to go well for you both!
Hawaii? In Winter? WTF? Why didn't you pick WI? It's way more fun here in winter than Hawaii! WTH were you thinking???

S. Baboo said...

The GeekGrl and I were out on a run this morning and I was wondering how Mr. RBR was doing. I'm glad he is well and glad you posted the details. The vacay sounds fab! Here is another thing I was thinking this morning, "Screw'em, the banks can have my money when I'm too old to take full advantage of it. In the mean time I'm gonna have a good time."

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

ZOMG, you harvested a turkey-basterful of Mr. RBR's man juice a few months ago and now YOU'RE PREGNANT!1!

Or you accidentally basted a turkey with it and are here to tell us it was surprisingly good and give us the recipe.

I really hope it's not option two because I likes me some gravy, but not man-gravy.

You better tell us what it is because I intend to come (as it were) back every day with increasingly sick guesses until you do.

And the man-gravy one above?

That's just DAY ONE.

Glad to hear Mr. B*tch is through that part of his ordeal!

Anne said...

So glad radiation is done! Glad good news are happening! Not so good school is started...but that vacation sounds awesome!!

Kate Geisen said...

OK, Glaven made me lol loud enough that my husband, who really doesn't "get" the whole blog experience, wanted to know what was so funny.

Congratulations on the graduation, and Hawaii sounds like just the perfect graduation present...for both of you! Here's hoping your fondest/dirtiest (at this point, probably much the same thing) wishes come true on that trip.

And school...I feel your pain. I've had students now for two weeks. It's not as bad as I always make it out to be...in fact, this year, it's pretty darn good...but it's no summer vacation.

Christi said...

Yea! I am so happy for your husband! You deserve a vacation and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! Please do tell on the news soon!

PunkRockRunner said...

You had me at “fever induced epiphanies”….

Oh, and you lost me at “man juice”….

Go ahead and text me the really super good news. I totally understand you not wanting the tell Katie and I promise not to spill the beans. I’ll be waiting by my phone….

All the best,

Ron

Katie A. said...

OMG! I am sooooo excited he has made it through all the treatments! I've been thinking and praying for you both! Big hugs!

Sorry school is starting :( Ha! Even though I'm not in school anymore, I alway feel a little pain in my heart for everyone when they have to go back! Good luck!

And, WTF is it with leaving such a cliff hanger like that! Sheesh! We need to run together!!!!!!!! Miss you!!! Hugs!!!

IronSnoopy said...

Firstly, Mr. RBR is adorable and I love the choice of shirts for a trip to nuclear frydom. Congrats to both of you for making it through that part of recovery and you can see the finish!

And to celebrate with a trip to Hawaii is envy-inspiring to the nth degree, but couldn't happen to cooler peeps.

Dying to know your news!

Regina said...

Yahoo! Glad Mr. RBR is doing well and graduated with full honors!

Hawaii?! Dude(ette)! That is great news. As for your non-news news...le sigh.....guess I will have to wait, but that shit had better be worth the wait! ;P

SteveQ said...

Hows this for a guess: you and your class are getting to make a field trip to the gulf coast - and you have to wait for the official announcement to be made.

Irene said...

Yay!

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Yeah so I know I said I'd come back every day and make increasingly more disgusting comments each day until you spilled your secret.

But - and I'm embarrassed to admit this - I'm having a hard¹ time coming² up with something to top my jizz-gravy comment. It seems I shot my wad, so to speak, with that one. And here I am like two full days later and I still haven't recovered.

So ... not tonight, dear. I have a headache.

So KEEP your fucking secret. See if I care!

Unless ... I was right about the jizz-gravy?
____
¹ That's what she said!

² That's -

Aw, fuck it! Too obvious.

SteveQ said...

John Donne's most commonly bastardized quote is actually: "Dude! I didn't space on paying you back. The check is like totally in the mail."

The Original MAJ said...

LOVE HIS SHIRT! I just got declared cancer-free and I found a t-shirt that says "It could be worse, I could have cancer. Oh wait. I do."

There's nothing better than having a healthy and positive attitude about it.

I love reading your entries. They make me ROFL.

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

SteveQ is mixing up his poets. His quote is from the other Metaphysical Poet - John Dun ... "Dun" as in "To importune (a debtor) for payment" ...

HAR!1!

That's right up there with my jizz-gravy comment!1!

So SPILL IT ALREADY, B*tch!1!

(Um ... I mean your secret. Not the jizz-gravy ...)

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Look, it's very hard (that's what ... etc.!) for me to admit this publicly (which is why I'm doing it on this godforsaken backwater of a blog), but I've been a member (so to speak) of fritterfuckers.org (the org is for "orgasm") for years now and I believe there are deep-fried banana fritters there who would ... um ... "service you as you require".

And the great thing about banana fritter boyfriends?

You never have to ask, "Is that a banana in your toasty, deep-fried shell?"

Because it always is.

(If it turns out to be a penis, send it back.)

Tricia said...

congrats to you and hubs, lovely news

Herself, the GeekGirl said...

Very happy to hear about himself's success with the chemo. Hawaii is, absolutely, the way to go. If that's what you need to do to celebrate, then do it!

I will get your news out of you this next weekend. I have 31 miles to slip alcohol into your water bottles.