Saturday, July 3, 2010

My Guys


We had a wonderful visit with our two sons, dear daughter-in-law, and three grandsons last week. Scott, the youngest, and his family have finally moved back from South Africa. He is now teaching at a private school in northern Mass, then they will move to Brooklyn where he got hired as head of the Science Department at a posh private school. The boys will be able to attend the school, which is fantastic news.

Arnie and I went up to Charlottesville to meet his new oncologist. This is a very nice man, and we both liked him a lot. He (Arnie) will be starting on a chemotherapy drug on or about July 20. We are awaiting news on help for paying for the drug, as it's over $7,000 a month. It is in pill form, and has the side effects of causing bleeding from the nose and other orifices, plus it makes your hands and feet hurt, sometimes so badly that it becomes hard to walk. Then, they lower the dose. He will take this four weeks on and two weeks off.

The bad news is, the cancer he has--Stage 4 renal cell cancer--is incurable. They can hopefully prolong his life with chemo, but he will have to stay on one kind or another for the rest of his life. I am behind him all the way. I'm happy that he's decided to try another chemotherapy drug, but I will understand completely if he decides that his quality of life has deteriorated too much and he doesn't want to take any more chemo.

We went to see Othello yesterday at the Blackfriar's Playhouse. The building is a replica of Shakespear's indoor theater. It was fabulous! We're going to try to go maybe every other month to see a play there.

Next week, Arnie has scheduled a private guide to show him places that General Mobey was. We will do other things, but that day Montana and I will be on our own. We'll hang around the hotel, and take walks and hopefully sit outside. However, the weather here has been so darn hot--we had three straight days of 100 degrees! No rain in sight, so I'm having to water every day. I sure can't do as much with a water hose as a good soaking rain can do for my gardens.

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