MDX -1106

foxhd said:

Reading back a little you mention being of english and welsh with irish thrown in there. My mother was welsh and father irish. Her name was Welsh, his Driscoll. Her side migrated to Pittsburgh to work in the steel industry. His side came through Canada as fur traders.

foxhd said:

bright
..Good thing I copied this, cuz I lost it in submitting it.. Infusion #3 complete. Now the good and the bad. The good. Lung tumors are smaller!..YEA!!..blood work is good!..Yea!!..Now the bad...new lesions in my illiac crest and vertebrae...Boo.....Looked at my pet scans and they were lit up like a Christmas tree... Wrong glow Gary... Weren't there 6 weeks ago. Kind of explains the pain I've had in my hip, chest and back...but, It may also be the massive inflammatory effect from the MDX going nuts on some renegade cells. I'll have another infusion every 3 weeks. Next cat scan is in 6 weeks...I may just wait a little longer before I buy new tires for my truck.

So, What's new with you guys?

Texas_wedge said:

Agreed
I believe I can Gary - and so do I!

Talking of glowing, I've just had lunch (now eating like a medium-sized horse and regaining lost weight) after a really enjoyable 18 holes at a cold but brilliantly sunny Carnoustie. The Course was very quiet and we went round in 2 3/4 hours. I shot 45 out, 38 back which guaranteed me a good appetite.

Texas_wedge said:

Nae sweat
as they say hereabouts. It's the winter course tees and greens [and mats :-( ] and the conditions were great. It sounds like you're having something like scottish weather - 4 seasons in one day - I reckon we usually get ours in roughly half day units. It's -2C here now and was when we teed off but warmed up a treat during the round - my new pic. shows how nice it got (my garden and adjacent fairway bathed in afternoon sunshine with light reflected off the lake we look over). I've notified our winter league organiser I'll be in the match on Sunday and that will be me back to 4 rounds a week (always assuming!).

I'm due to get the bottom line on Thursday and a little anxious about how my Wife will take it (she'll be with me). I wasn't much bothered when I got the dx (which I'd guessed as likely) and not too concerned about the wait, the surgery or the recovery, all of which were helped no end by joining the club here. It was all fairly predictable. I'm apprehensive now, though, because I realise the chips are down. It's extraordinary to think that I may be told that the best guess is that I have a few months to live or maybe thirty years. The consoling factor is that it will only be a well-informed guess and we never know what the future holds anyway. My intention is to make it AT LEAST 30 YEARS and I aim to fulfil the golfer's dream of shooting my age. That, as you know, is usually achieved not by getting a brilliant score but by living long enough for age to engulf handicap! It would be nice to achieve it soon by a devastating score but I'll be happy to settle for the other way of doing it!

Texas_wedge said:

Distaff superiority
Thanks Gary. What you say is absolutely right. Moreover you can help me a bit more. My Wife is exceptionally clever and I need your help to get my head round the following problem: Delighted with a golf match win yesterday (new picture is me on the 4th tee) I floated the idea that if the Consul ....... mail just arrived and includes the MAARS program - yippee, can't wait and will let you know what I think of it ...... tant says I'm likely to live more than 12 months, my Wife might like to spring me the new Taylor Made R11s driver.

She countered with the analysis that she ought to buy me one if the Consultant says I won't last for 12 months - it will be a consolation prize for the bad news; if however he says otherwise I won't need the consolation and the fact that I'm not getting a new driver will be a reminder that the prognosis is better and the continuing lack of it will be emblematic of a brighter future. Now, bearing in mind that my Wife is, among other things, a qualified and experienced clinical psychologist and someone with a wicked sense of humour, do you think I'm being out-maneouvred here?!

The post also contains letter of confirmation of my appointment on Thursday so I'm even happier that the MAARS material has arrived before then. I've been briefly in correspondence with Gerald White the past few days and it's very apparent to me that he's the real deal - highly intelligent, a hard scientist but a lateral thinker, open to new ideas and admirably independent-minded. It inspires confidence in his program which, as he wisely stresses, is complementary to treatment by the medics, not an alternative/substitute, so more anon.

Texas_wedge said:

Distaff superiority
Funnily enough Gary, we do just the same! Thanks for reminding me - that really IS the correct solution.

Re MAARS, I've begun reading the book. You could go into a bookstore and pick up a picaresque novel or a social history treatise and find it less engaging than this. I'm a slow reader (years of close textual analysis in lit crit and philosophy and later intensive study of case law have made me overly meticulous) so it may be a little while before I can give you a properly considered opinion.

Played Carnoustie this morning. Hovering above freezing, dampish, with a biting wind blowing - good Scottish golfing weather. Yesterday I played the entire round in shirtsleeves but not so today. After ten holes we got a brief stinging hailstorm, followed by strengthening wind and then rain-showers. You know how impossible it is to explain the pleasure to non-golfers. Pin positions were evil and the course (full greens and most pins at the very back) played unbelievably long. After being in around ten bunkers there was no chance of even breaking a hundred. Are you under snow yet?