Back in the fall when I testified before Congress, representative Roybal-Allard hosted me,and she was also kind enough to have this very flattering entry put into the congressional record…
Health-wise, I continue to regain strength in the hopes of trying another treatment once I’m strong enough.
I’m sorry I haven’t posted much recently; there just hasn’t been too much notable going on. Mostly, I’m resting and rebuilding strength. Today has been my best day in a while; I took at 2 hour nap in the afternoon, but other that that have been up and active all day.
Today’s box score:
Creatanine (kidney function): 2.8
CA19-9 (tumor marker): 634
Blood Pressure: 135 / 85
May 10th, 2008: Vroom!
For Mother’s Day, we managed to arrange to have Jai get away for a night in a local hotel, where she was able to sleep in until 9am; a truly rare treat for a mother of three little kids!
We also took a spin in a “kit car” of a 1965 Shelby Cobra.
This amazing video with Dr. Randy Pausch is a moving live story told to Diane Sawyer. I loved the message he is conveying to people and a legacy he is leaving his children, as a blueprint to live by. We can all learn from Dr. Pausch and his valuable life lessons he so graciously shares.
Dr. Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Last September (2007) he gave his last lecture. This is a tradition among College Professors – giving your last lecture as though you were dying.The rub is, Dr Randy Pausch, is in all likelihood dying. He is battling pancreatic cancer. Diagnosed with the cancer on August 15, 2007 and given 3-6 months to live, today he is still going. Here is what he wrote on his own blog on February 15, 2008:
Feb 15: Six months later …. and still alive & healthy Today is a pretty important day. It was August 15th, 2007, when I was told I likely had “three to six months of good health left.”Today is six months from that day. Just to prove I’m still alive, here I am, holding today’s New York Times! I rode my bike today; the cumulative effects of the chemotherapy are hurting my stamina some, but I bet I can still run a quarter mile faster than most Americans.The doctors weren’t wrong; they always said that if the palliative chemo worked, I’d buy more time, but that it was a long shot. And the doctors have done a brilliant job of tweaking my regimen to help my odds. How much longer this will work is hard to know, but I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left, no matter how many or how few of them I get.
This is Randy on Oprah giving an abridged version of his “last lecture”. This is what we mean when we say courage.Read Randy’s blog here
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