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…
We are all familiar with the saying “There’s a first time for everything”. Many of those first’s are locked into our memories forever. First’s like: your first kiss, the first time you drove a stick shift, the birth of your first child, or the first child getting onto the bus for their first time. Yep, many of our firsts are first’s for the one we share it with as well. Doesn’t matter your age, first’s continue to be inevitable…
I was gently reminded by more than one person that it has been a while since I posted an update on Suzanne. Well, I could blame the weather; how about the time change; or maybe the full moon. Actually, it’s the fact that things are going pretty smoothly and our regular life has taken over. We operate on a three-week calendar now that the PATHway trial has started. On our last visit to Chicago, Suzanne had her ‘arch nemesis’ the…
The message at church this week was part two of a three-week series on “Dangerous Prayers”; The focus was, ‘Break Me’ – Praying to be broken. Knowing what it is to be broken, I found this discussion to be very interesting to see how others interpret it. The concept of asking that your spirit be broken enough to realize how much God is needed in your life was not new to me. After the service on our way to St…
If you’re old enough to remember The Jefferson’s on television, you probably know the main character was George Jefferson, a loud, wiry, funny guy who owned a successful dry cleaning business allowing him to “move on up, to the east side”. His wife’s name was Louise but he fondly called her Weezy. Well, since Wednesday, I’ve been fondly calling Suzanne, Weezy. As it turns out, after she had her Tracheostomy removed, air leaks out the trach hole as she breaths…