Chondrosarcoma – ah shit, bob's sick

To all those who have helped support Sher, Alberic and I this year.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS and THANK YOU TO ALL!

Bill N. – Florida
Howard and Sandy C. – Iowa
Rose M. – Uppsala, Sweden
Ray L. – New Hampshire
Bill A. – Vermont
Steve and Sara S. – New York
Harry M. – Vermont
Josh F. – SC
Sandra K. – Arizona
Herb and Teri M. – New Hampshire
Paul (Mac) T. and Family – Vermont
Lysz S. Florida
Louise P. – Vermont
Jason R. – New Hampshire
William and Rebecca B. – Vermont
Collen O. – New Hampshire
David L. – Vermont
Jack and Arlene M. – New Jersey
Fab W. – California
Kevin D. – Massachusettes
Lydia R. – Vermont
Rob S. – Florida
Alberic A. – Vermont
Sherian V. – London, England
Michael D. – Illinois
Peter D. – Vermont
Jane N. – Vermont
Dave and Linda J. – London, Canada
Tony E. – WOOL.fm
Mike C. – Vermont, New Jersey
Virginia G. – New Jersey
Thomas D. – Massachusettes
Dr. Gary C. – Vermont
James T. and Wife – Tennessee
Lydia R. – Vermont
Sandy D. – Vermont
Fab and Lynette W. – New Jersey
Deborah J. – Virginia
Jimmy A. – Vermont
Maryjane – Vermont
Jackie R. – New Hampshire
David P. – Massachusettes
Tom B. – Massachusettes
David S. – Maine
Mary Ann W. – Michigan
Bernie A. – New Hampshire
Dakota M. – USA
Bob and Sandy D. – Vermont
Christine and Dad S. – Colorado
Cathy T. – Massachusettes
Read more…

What’s going on tonight at our house?

Baking  holiday cookies,  eating them warm from the oven, with cold milk, wrapping gifts, bows, boxes, listening to seasonal music, laughing, being thankful, wishing, watching holiday movies, holiday preparations, ribbons, tree decorating, hanging mistletoe love, peace, children, friends … and all the things the season is about.

Just a short post tonight.

Today was a good day. I felt well and accomplished some things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I ran some errands this morning and then drove to White River Jct, VT. to work! Although I didn’t actually work, it was a pleasure to get into the office and begin to get the feel once again. I plan to do the same tomorrow. It was the first time in four months that I’d been to work! Felt great.

It was also nice to see some of my co-workers again.

I had the opportunity to attend a Holiday office party for one of our clients that I’d worked for prior to my leaving, and I did. That was wonderful too.

On New Years Eve we are going to start up again and do a live radio broadcast! This will be a test broadcast of sorts and should be begin 8:30pm until whenever … maybe midnight. I’ve some great new tunes lined up and hopefully some jocularity. There’s a lot going on in the news these days so there’s plenty to talk about … let’s face it, just our Health Care system should be enough to keep the show running for months by itself.

This will be the first live broadcast since last July (when we stopped for a vacation break) that we’ll be back on the airwaves. You can find a link and listen in, on either http://www.spoxtalk.com/ or http://www.alienlove.com/ … come and join us (Sher and I) if you’re not attending a New Year Eve party, just hanging around the house, or just plain bored. Crappy Music, Poor Commentary and Boring Political Topics are coming you’re way!

OK, that’s enough, because I’m making all these plans, and I’m not 100% sure I can deliver on them! But it did feel great to have a day that was active today.

ps. Was great to see Colleen O. today!

Today, treatments went well again, proton is without a doubt, hundreds of times nicer to deal with then IMRT. After spending the weekend without any treatments (as always), and then the last few days with only proton, I can truly say, that I feel better now, then at any time since I’ve started treatments in Boston.

As a quick explanation of the differences in IMRT and proton treatments, it kind of goes like this: With IMRT, they set you up, run the machine and a 2 or 3 hours later you get sick with nausea and all the other stuff. It also takes two or three days to get it out of your system. On top of this, you have whatever pain you when you walked in the door … so basically, you’re never feeling good.

With the Proton treatments, 5 -10 minutes after treatment, I get some swelling and pain in the tumor for an hour or two (take a pain killer), but then, it’s completely gone. This is making all the difference in the world in my ability to work and function on a decent level. I’m really excited, hopefully it’ll stay like this.

If it weren’t for the pain in my hip, that is caused by a large piece of cartilage, that the tumor has grown, I’d have to say that I’m feeling close to 100% normal. What a relief, I was thinking that I may have to spend the rest of life feeling like I did this past week.

Proton, at least for the moment, is definitely doing the trick. This I can live with, literally.

I wish I would’ve started off with these treatments instead of the others, but I have to assume they were necessary to have. At this point it’s been six days since I’ve had no IMRT and I’m starting to feel good again!

So, I really have to hand it to Doc, he was correct in saying that proton would be a lot easier and gentler. He was right.

When I woke up this morning, and my head was clear, and I didn’t feel sickened or nausea-ated, I thought the dissipation of radiation, is what was going on.

Now, if things can stay like this for the rest of the treatment schedule, I have a chance at completing some of the tasks I set out to do while being in Boston.

Today was another great day, well … great in the sense that nothing bad or negative happened. First off, the weather here in Boston and Nahant was absolutely perfect and the forecast for tomorrow is more of the same but even warmer! Possibly reaching as high as 70 degrees. Wow … finally it feels like those aches and pains that damp cold weather has been putting in my back are starting to lighten up.

This morning I arrived a tad early at MGH (light traffic), so I went to the coffee shop before hitting treatment to grab a fast decaf while I was waiting. Yeah, you read correctly, decaf … I’ve said many a time “what in the world is the sense of decaffeinated coffee, who would ever drink that!” … well, now I know. Decaf is for folks that have to sit still for ½ hour every moring :.

As I’m fixing my coffee, sugar in the cup first, then the hot coffee, stir it, then add the milk, and stir it again … it’s got to be in that order or it just doesn’t taste right. I hear from behind me “Good morning Mr. Skold”. The first thought that ran through my mind was … “who the heck knows me out here? I don’t know anyone here”. I turned around and to my surprise it was Doc Delaney getting his morning decaf!

“Hi Doc! … how are you this fine morning?” Doc looked over with a grin and said “I think I’m still running on three cylinders”. We stepped outside the shop, grabbed a table, and chatted for about 10 mins before I had to go to treatment and he had to actually show up for work! It was wonderful to see the human side of Doc again. In general you only see your doctor when you’re in for a visit or something is wrong … this was a welcome change. Doctors do have a human side … at least mine does.

Speaking of Mr. Skold, my last name is of Swedish descent. From what I understand, and this comes direct from my dear friend Rose in Sweden, the name Skold means shield, like a warriors shield.  So, I come from a family of shield makers, important people way back when. Ok … where am I going with this?

It got me to thinking, and suggested by Rose, that if I were going to get a tattoo of a design that I was creating … it would be a good starting place for the design. Hence, a shield for the basic shape. So this is where I began. This is by no means finished … but it is a start.

Here’s a light explanation of the symbolic meaning of the items in the tattoo. Colors are not decided upon yet.

1.) Shield shape is for Skold
2.) The green mountains represent Vermont, the Green Mountain State. There are seven mountains.
3.) The sun coming up in the mountains, has seven rays coming out from it also
4.)Proton Power (thanks to Howard for those words), pretty self explanatory.
5.) The blue moon … Sher’s nickname
6.) 5 stars represent, Monday thru Friday treatments
7.) Swirl is the energy that I have received, from having such a huge friendship base (in otherwords, all of YOU)
8.) City skyline represents Boston, a city on the water.
9.) H and the +(plus sign), are the proton symbols.
10.) The blue on the bottom represents Nahant, Massachusetts, where I’m staying … I need to add a smal fishing or sail boat. Maybe a Viking ship shape.

Now remember, this is a first pass, a trial, it’s likely to change and change a lot. Hopefully the right-hand side will be about extending life, buying more time, and family. We’ll see what comes out of that.

Your thoughts and ideas on this are welcome, email or comment!

I also have to figure out where I’m going to put it … maybe right over the tumor? … lower, right side,  back!

I may make the shield a lot more pronounced, stronger … like what you’d think of as a Viking’s Shield.