In sporting events we are always looking for an old record to be beaten; fastest time in an Olympic event, most majors for a PGA golfer, individual career runs or goals, (and for Suzanne) highest score for a bull rider. We all have our own individual records we keep mentally or on paper; the fastest time in a marathon, the best round of golf, the time it took to mow the yard, (and for John) number of beers sampled. Monday,…
We all love a good celebration. Birthdays, Holidays, and especially anniversaries. We celebrate anniversaries for all kinds of things, Historic events like the founding of the country, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11; Cultural events like the moon landing and Woodstock; Organizational events like business openings or product introductions like the Ford Mustang; and then there are Life Marker events like birthdays, weddings and the death of a loved one. Of all these, the wedding anniversary is probably the most celebrated. Suzanne…
Wednesday was our sixth visit to Rush for Suzanne’s PATHway clinical trial. As usual, many Doctors are always anxious to see her while she is there. Her oncologist now only visits with her every other infusion, and this was the one. Very happy with all that he is seeing and always comments that her blood work comes back perfect. This is important to him because the trial drug Ketruda does cause many body organs to malfunction including the liver and…
Wouldn’t it be nice if everything we put on our schedule happened just as we planned it to? Take for example our trip to see The Beach Boys the other evening at the Champaign County Fair. Re-wind eighteen months ago when we purchased the tickets for a July 2020 concert. Well, COVID canceled that concert which was rescheduled for 2021. Now imagine telling your 4 or 7-year old that you’re going to Disneyland next year, that’s what it was like…
I remember when I was a child and stayed in Chicago with my (favorite) Aunt Esther. We would ride the elevated train to downtown just for the fun of it. She also took me to the Science and Industry Museum, an adventure that was always fun. The best part of the Museum was all the buttons, knobs & levers. Watching things happen because of the action you took was so exciting. What’s more fun than pushing buttons. As I got…
We were all given names at birth. Some have meaning, some are given on a whim, a famous person, a family name, or it just sounds right. Your name is your calling card from that day forward. John Fleshner Bruns was the name I was given at birth. The Bruns part is pretty simple, it’s my family name. Immigrants from Germany, I’m am the fourth generation in America. Fleshner was my mom’s maiden name. She was one of two daughters…
Becoming somewhat a routine now, Blood work, Doctors, infusion, traffic, this week’s trip to Chicago was somewhat uneventful. Suzanne’s Blood work was ‘perfect’ according to those we met with. As she is presenting some itchy spots on her skin, her PATHway coordinator commented that they were a symptom of the trial so there were good indications that she is getting the trial drug; a good thing. Happy with the way things were so Suzanne was off to infusion. Her swallowing…
I’ve had a radio station on Pandora for years that is just patriotic music and about the only day out of the year I listen to it is the Fourth of July. From the time I get up, on the way to friends & relatives, during the fireworks and then all the way back home, that music is always in my head. This day, the Fourth of July, has always been a big deal in my life. My dad was…
Every twelve weeks during Suzanne’s PATHway Trial, Neck and Chest CT scans are taken. Neck because that’s where the cancer was originally and chest because that’s the most common place it could show up again. One of the reasons she decided to take part in this trial was that scans are taken so often. That means that her doctors are more closely monitoring her health than if she had just followed the ‘Wait and See’ plan. Today was the first…
We all have our morning routines, who makes the coffee, who gets the bathroom first, who’s out the door first. For all my married life with Suzanne, our first routine has been to share a cup of coffee in bed while we watch the news and talk about the day ahead. This routine is such an important part of our day, I built a coffee bar in our upstairs hallway just outside our bedroom door so we didn’t have to…