Gator's Cancer Treatment Journal

2009-09-01T01:24:00.000-07:00

If you haven't read this journal yet then please scroll down and read on......
If you're looking for an update on this journal.. click on our profile -->
scroll down to the bottom of the page where it lists our blogs and click on "Gators Cancer Treatment Continues". It's still a work in progress but I will try to post regularly....Thank you for taking the time to check it out!

2009-07-20T19:38:00.001-07:00

2009-06-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

Deb Barker gave us these bears, she said they reminded her of us because we're always together....

Thank you for checking out our journal. We've kept track of most of what has happened to us during Gator's cancer treatment. I put it all on my laptop and just this past week decided to put it online. Just scroll down! If you see pictures dating back to 2004 it's because I didn't set the date stamp on my camera! All pictures you see here were taken within the past 9 months. Double click on a picture to enlarge it and then click the back arrow to go back to the journal.

This started out as just a short letter to let our friends and family know what's been happening but everyone who know's us can tell you we do love to talk and so it's turned into a book which Gator say's to tell you, we hope goes on and on and on and on..........

2009-06-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

Our friend Sean died April 28th 2009 from lymphoma

RIP - We Love You

2009-06-03T02:21:00.000-07:00

We would like to begin by saying that September 1^st (“Gator Day”) was one of the most beautiful and memorable days of our lives. We just want to thank everyone! We won’t mention any names for fear of having a senior moment and leaving someone’s name out! Our loved ones have put so much of their heart and soul into helping us fight this. All the people who worked so hard at the benefit, the honest vendors, the Harley raffle ticket sales, food preparation, donations and sales, T-shirts, The auction, raffles, stuffed Gator sales, Rich March’s Karaoke, Corrie’s Ark petting zoo, the use of the American Heritage campground, music (The Western Trail Outlaws), garage sales, cash donations, news articles that were written…..just to name a few, not to mention hundreds of our closest friends who came to the event! We are very humbled by all the love and support that was shown that day and even though some of the money was stolen, that feeling is something that we will never forget and can never be taken from us! One very special thing that happened that day was when three little girls ranging in age from 11 to 13yrs who had been camping at the campground where the benefit was being held, heard about Gator and came up to him and asked if he minded if they prayed for him. They put their hands on his chest and back and each one said a prayer. The last girl to pray said: “Dear Jesus please send your angels to Gator and please give him a few of mine!” Then she prayed that the doctor would look at Gators X-ray and say “What the heck! Where’s the cancer!” What sweethearts….

2009-06-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

Elwood and Bad girl

Giving up our bikes was one of the hardest things we’ve ever done, but the money we received from the raffle of our motorcycles (thanks to the hard work and determination of our friends!) enabled us to pay off a few bills, get the flight sim. for Gator, live in Seattle for 2wks and buy "Beamer" !

2009-06-03T01:12:00.000-07:00

What A Ride!

2009-06-03T01:10:00.000-07:00

We were able to buy a 1994 BMW convertible with some of the money, what a blessing! We love “Beamer” (who wouldn’t at 30 miles to the gallon?) and Gator loves driving his new ride… it’s a good thing because we spend so much time driving to and from Seattle and Lakewood every week!

A couple of days after “Gator Day”, some gal, probably in her late 20’s, followed us out of Costco and out to our car, she darn near climbed over me in the passenger seat trying to get to Gator to tell him that she read about him in the article in the Olympian. She told him all about her dad having cancer and wished him well and said he was in her prayers. Gator has had so many people do things like that since he was diagnosed in August. All the support has just been amazing….it even comes from people we don’t know. I guess I should try to start from the beginning…

2009-06-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

At the end of July, 2008 Gator started coughing up blood. We never even thought about lung cancer. Maybe we were just in denial. He’s been fighting emphysema for many years and we actually thought maybe he had a bad case of bronchitis. After several doctor’s visits, an x-ray and ct scan, on August 6^th (the day before his birthday!) his doctor called to tell us he had lung cancer. A little later after the initial shock Gator said “Didn’t see that one coming!”

The doctor told us about the cancer, on the phone just as we were walking out the door to go to work at the Kickstand Bar & Grill in Napavine. What a long night that was! I just wanted to break down crying. Gator says he was just in shock and total disbelief and it was a very, very, long night.

2009-06-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

2009-06-03T00:58:00.000-07:00

What made things a lot easier were all the friends that showed up to celebrate Gators birthday. I ran the show by myself for awhile so Gator could visit but by about 10:30 he came back to the stage just exhausted…it was all very overwhelming for both of us. We love everyone who was there and I don’t think we could have handled that first night as well as we did if our friends hadn’t been there.

2009-06-03T00:42:00.000-07:00

Can You Feel The Love?

2009-06-03T00:37:00.000-07:00

2009-06-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

The next day - August 7^th, Gators birthday, we drove to Spokane to visit with my brother Duffy. We had planned this trip for awhile to celebrate both Gator and my brother’s birthday.

2009-06-02T23:57:00.000-07:00

My brother "Duffy" named the Silvertone "Root-Beer Brown Betty" after he restored it.

Gator gave “Brown Betty”, to my brother a few years ago. “My brother Duffy came from Spokane for a visit and He and Gator got to talking about the fact that Duffy’s dream guitar was a 1960’s model Silver tone. Well Gator told him “Let me make your dream come true!” It just so happened that he had one in a box out in the garage! He had trucked over a million miles with this guitar in the sleeper of his truck. They spent many long nights together! Gator had already dismantled it and put it in boxes planning to restore it. Well being the kind of guy he is, Gator had still never got around to putting it together over 20 years later! My brother called me a couple of months ago and said if we could find a (used) Mexican Telecaster guitar for him he would give Gator his totally refurbished Silver tone back! A couple of weeks later my brother called me again and said he was going to give Gator the guitar as a surprise for his birthday anyway and not to worry about finding the Telecaster. Well it didn’t matter because even though Gator didn’t know about my brother’s surprise for him, he had already put a brand new Telecaster on our account at Music 6000 as a surprise for my brother’s birthday! Heh, heh, heh…. Boy were they surprised! It was pretty funny because they were both talking to me and making me promise to keep their secrets!

2009-06-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

Gator and I were deep in shock the whole drive over to Spokane…..I don’t think we said more than 2 sentences to each other and I was crying behind my sunglasses for most of the trip. I don’t think Gator noticed. I think we gradually got over the shock and were able to kind of deal with day to day life a little better after visiting with my brother for a few days. It helped keep our minds occupied with something other than the cancer. While we were there my brother gave Gator a tattoo on his forearm of a purple ribbon (Cancer awareness) and the words …

…“I Will Survive”

2009-06-02T19:25:00.000-07:00

For about the first month after the diagnosis I cried for several hours every morning before Gator woke up. I called it my daily meltdown. I would call friends and family and they would talk me through it and usually this helped. I think Gator caught on because he decided to have me wake him up at 9am every morning instead of noon. Now I don’t have as much time to sit around by myself and dwell on things.

The official diagnoses of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (metasized to lymph nodes and liver) wasn’t made until 2 weeks after Gators birthday, after 3 bronchoscope’s and a Mediastynscopy to get a biopsy. These tests caused Gators left vocal chord to stop working. Not being able to talk and Sing is the worst part of all this for Gator. He says he thinks he could handle everything else if he could just sing again….

2009-06-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

Doctor Goodman, the lung specialist, left us alone in the room for a minute, so I snuck a peak at the computer before he came back. It was the wrong thing to do because I saw that it was metastatic lung cancer and totally lost it, but couldn’t say anything to Gator because I had no idea what exactly that meant! I had done some reading on the internet so I knew enough for it to scare the crap out of me but not enough to explain anything! It was so devastating! I just hugged him crying, and he said; “It’s going to be alright”…I said; “No, it isn’t!” and just kept hugging him….Dr. Goodman sent us to see the oncologist.

Gator’s daughter came to Seattle with us to hear the diagnosis and the prognosis which was pretty horrible. The oncologist “Dr. Grim” (what a name for an oncologist!) told us that “unfortunately most people with this type of cancer only live for about a year”. What a nightmare! I think the three of us walked around in a kind of a trance for the rest of the day.

2009-06-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

We walked down by the waterfront for awhile then we went to Red Robin for dinner and the bartender came to our table and found the three of us crying so he bought us all shots of Tequila. After we explained to him what was going on he told us that his mother was waiting for test results to find out whether or not she had breast cancer. We didn’t stay there very long. That night we drove for what seemed like forever looking for a motel..

The Seattle VA put together a team of doctors and other professionals to take care of Gator and they all decided from what they read in his files that he wouldn’t be able to handle any radiation. Then they met Gator!

On Monday, Sept. 22^nd he began 10 days of radiation (Mon - Fri) after which he showed no side effects! We had to stay in Seattle for 10 days while Gator got radiation treatments every day. The treatments took 15 minutes and then we had to keep ourselves occupied for the rest of the day.

2009-06-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

We went to the Science Center, The Experience Music Project (EMP), and spent a couple of days checking out the flight museum! If our friends hadn’t helped us raffle our bikes we never would have been able to do all these things. On the days that we couldn’t go anywhere because of other doctor’s appointments during the day, we were so depressed….

2009-06-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

At the Flight Museum Gator was checking out the space capsule. He ignored the signs and just had to touch! Alarms and lights went off and he just walked away pretending not to notice!

2009-06-02T18:44:00.001-07:00

To help keep his mind off how tired and sick he might feel from the chemo we took some of the money from the benefit and had Fred over at River Jordan computers in Tumwater put a flight simulator program together for him. He fly’s for hours! I really think it helped, he loves it!

2009-06-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

Son Robby (in hat) with friend Ricky

Gator on flight simulator

2009-06-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

On Oct. 6^th the pic line was put in and he received his first dose of Chemotherapy. The Chemo he gets in Seattle at the VA every 21 days. He has a pic line in his left arm and we go to American Lake VA hospital in Lakewood every Monday to have the dressing changed and tubes flushed.

2009-06-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

The first chemotherapy session was pretty scary, for me anyway. Gator slept through it for the most part. I kept asking him if he felt alright because I couldn’t get the fact that they were pumping poison into his bloodstream out of my head! He seemed fine though and he even drove us back to the motel at the end of the day. They gave him pills to take for the first two days after the chemo and some other pills to take for nausea if he needed them after the two days but he never did take them! In the Chemo room there were usually 5 or 6 people getting chemo or fluids or some other kind of medicine through an IV. The doctors would come in and talk to the patients about everything and anything right in front of everyone else! It was so impersonal….

2009-06-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

Gator and Son

2009-06-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

About a week after his first Chemo we took a trip to Oregon to visit with Gator’s son, and daughter and 4 of our grandbabies. Gator, Kevin (his son) and Tanner (his grandson) floated down the river. They didn’t catch many fish but Gator really enjoyed it.

2009-06-02T15:31:00.000-07:00

Gator, Kevin, Tanner (Allie helping!)

The shirt that Tanner has on is the one that our friend Hank Fox had made, to sell to help raise money for us… (I “heart” a singing Gator, and it says “I Will Survive” at the bottom)

2009-06-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

Daughter

Karyn

2009-06-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

Tanner

and

Allie

Justin

2009-06-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

Tiffany

2009-05-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

Later that day we met up with Alec & Deb Cheechov (old truckin' buddy!) and went to Mary McCranks for dinner. We were sitting there minding our own business when this man I’m guessing in his late 50’s walked up to Gator put out his hand and asked Gator if he could shake his hand, of course Gator said yes and then this man shook his hand and said; “Long life to you my friend” and walked away! We have no idea why he did that or who the guy was but Gator’s daughter swears he was an angel...

2009-05-31T11:54:00.000-07:00

On our way home from visiting with the kids in Oregon, we stopped in to see Gator’s cousin “Delo” and her hubby Ed. Delores is a tiny little thing and only has about ¼ of a lung caused by having Tuberculosis as a child. Gator call’s her “Lil Delores” and she call’s him “Lil Teebie” (Stevie? I know a lot of people reading this have never known Gator’s real name!) Delo took care of Gator’s mom for years. She and Ed have come to visit us a few times over the years and we go see them off and on, not as often as we should but we do stay in contact by phone. Ed says I make the best cookies! We love them both very much. We gave Delo a little gator necklace that we bought for her at a restaurant on the way to Oregon. I loved that necklace but we didn’t have enough money for two of them so we just bought the one for Delo. When we got home from our trip we went to Curio City (the store where I had been selling some of my artwork) and the owner met us at the door with a little box. He said someone had anonymously left it there for me! I opened the box and inside was the little gator necklace! We have no idea who or where it came from ….it hangs from the rear view mirror in the Beamer…

2009-05-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

Dr. Grim the oncologist
(yes that's his real name!)
with Gator

The Doctor said Gator should drink 64oz of water a day and try to get up and move around even when he doesn’t feel like it so that’s what we’re going to do. We bought the little 8oz bottles of water from Costco and Gator say’s it doesn’t seem quite so overwhelming to have to drink 8 of those. We also walk by the waterfront and at the mall to try to keep moving….

After his 2nd dose of Chemo Gator went to an appointment with his oncologist who looks like a tall “Doogie Houser”. He looked at Gator who had lost his hair 2 wks after the first Chemo and said; you look different, and you’ve GAINED weight?! Gator had gained 6 lbs! Other than a few hic-ups the first week he hasn’t felt any nausea from the chemo! He’s been drinking his water and walking as much as he can….

2009-05-31T11:36:00.000-07:00

While Gator received his 3^rd chemo treatment I had to stay at the motel (“The Days Inn”) because I was sick. I got up to take a shower about noon and as soon as I got out someone tried to open the door of our room! It was two men who said they were housekeeping. Yes, I was dressed when it happened!. I called the front desk and asked them if they had any men working in housekeeping ‘cause I had never seen any and they said no. They said they would check into it and called right back and said it was the manager and he needed to get into our room for something. I said ‘for what?!” and she said we were supposed to have checked out that morning so it was just a screw up with our reservations…LOL We always seem to have problems at this motel, we’re going to talk to the VA about staying at one of their other ones.

Gator said I missed a pretty loud party in the cancer care clinic! There was an argument between 2 of the patients about Obama! He said finally an old man (another patient) jumped in and pointed at Gator and said can’t you see this poor guy is trying to sleep!

So they stopped…..wouldn’t you know Gator would try to sleep during all the fun? He still feels pretty good and is having no major side effects from the chemo! (Other than the hair!)

About 2 weeks after his 3^rd chemotherapy Gator started having some pretty bad pains in his legs affecting the way he walked. They went away after about a week. The doc. Said we may have to reduce his dose a little because it might be getting too toxic for him…we’ll see what happens.

2009-05-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

Well we held off a week on Gators 4^th chemo. He got sick with a bad cough the week before so they did a ct scan of his lungs at American Lake in Lakewood on Wednesday to check for pneumonia. They scanned from his nose down to his pelvic area because since he lost his voice they’ve been carefully watching to make sure the cancer doesn’t spread to his throat, well in the scan they found 4 spots on the base of his brain! They tried to tell us it may be nothing but we were horrified anyway. Dr. Grim called us at home to say that it would be 2 weeks before they could get him in for an MRI and boy did I raise a stink! I started calling around to see if there was any way we could get him seen at a regular hospital and get some financial aide to pay for it. I gave the oncologist the phone number of someone at Centralia hospital who said they could get the MRI done in 3 days. That was Thursday morning. By Thursday afternoon Dr. Grim called back to say he had been on the phone for hours discussing Gator’s case and that he arranged for the MRI to be done just before Gators Chemo.

Monday morning at the Seattle VA Gator had the MRI done and then had his chemo. He slept through the chemo because he had taken a Lorazipan to calm him down before the MRI (he hates them!) and the Lorazipan mixed with the benedril that they give him with the chemo just knocked him out!

We got back to our motel room and had to wait until the next day to find out whether or not the spots on the brain were cancer. I called home that night to check our messages and the radiology oncology department had left a message wanting to schedule an appointment with Gator for the next day. Gator wasn’t supposed to get any more radiation so we new the cancer had spread. What a way to find out! We new the cancer was in his brain but couldn’t find out how much or if we had any options until the next day. What a long miserable night. Lucky for Gator the medicine was still in his system so he was pretty calm and just went to sleep. I took one of Gators oxycodones and after a long cry was able to finally go to sleep.

The next day we met with Dr. Grim and the radiologist oncologist and they said Gator could get something called “Gamma Knife surgery” done at Harbor View. Eventually he may need to get whole brain radiation but this Gamma Knife will work as long as there is no more than 5 or 6 lesions on the brain. He can get this treatment over and over again….

2009-05-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

12-19-08 Beamer Snowed In!

2009-05-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

We missed the first scheduled appointment to get the MRI and Gamma Knife surgery at Harbor View because of the snow. It is rescheduled for the MRI on New Years Eve, and

Jan 2^ndhe’ll have the Gamma Knife.

12-20-08

We are still snowed in but heard the roads to the store were clear so I dug our van out and shoveled a path to the street and we headed for IGA to get a turkey for Christmas. When we got on highway 12 we realized that the roads were pretty clear so we decided to go to Wal-Mart. There were no carts available at Wal-Mart so Gator got in one of the motorized carts and we did a little last minute Christmas shopping. We were almost done when Gator said he had to get something to eat because he was seeing stars so we went over to Mickey Dees and ordered some burgers. I Left Gator eating his burger and went to get wrapping paper. By the time I got back he was shivering violently with his chin resting on his chest! I asked him if he needed to go to the hospital and he said no he was just fatigued from the Chemo and just wanted to go home. So HE drives us home doing about 30 mph on I-5 and then when we get home he refused to get out of the van!

He said it was too cold out there and he was staying in the van where it was warm. I went inside and got the bed ready for him and turned on the water to make him some hot cocoa and then went back outside to bring him in. He came in and sat at the kitchen table shivering like crazy!…..we took his temp. it was 102.3 so I gave him some Tylenol and called the oncologist in Seattle and they said to take him to the emergency room.

So…… back to the van and 35 mph back to Centralia to the hospital! By the time we got there his temp was 103.3, he spent 12 miserable hours there and then we came home with a prescription for some strong antibiotics.

The antibiotics had a price tag of $120 for 7 pills and we didn’t have the money so we would have to drive to Lakewood to the VA hospital in order for them to be covered by the VA. Well Gator just wanted to go to bed so that’s what he did. I got on the horn to our friend Kat and she called two more of our friends, Booger and Deb and they all decided that they would pay for the pills and pick them up at the Centralia Safeway. Well I got the emergency room doctor to call in a prescription to Safeway pharmacy but he called the one in Chehalis by mistake. This worked out perfect because Booger and Deb were only a block and a half away at the time! Then I called the Chehalis Pharmacy to tell them our friends were coming to pick up the medication for us. I asked them if the price was $120, they said yes but there’s no charge this time because they had a voucher from the company for that drug! What a great Christmas miracle! By Christmas Eve Gator was feeling much better and by Christmas morning whatever bug he had seemed to be gone!

2009-05-31T10:35:00.000-07:00

12-30-08

We stayed Tues. night in Tukwila at the Extended Stay Homestead. What a nice place. We had an apt. sized fridge/freezer plus a 2 burner stove and kitchen table and bar stools! It was nice not to be bothered by housekeeping every morning! They only cleaned the rooms once a week ….more if you asked.

Wednesday morning (New Years Eve!) Gator went into the Roosevelt clinic in Seattle for a high resolution MRI. This one would determine whether or not he could have the Gamma Knife surgery on Friday. If they found too many lesions in his brain then he would have to have whole brain radiation which causes some short term memory loss and fatigue and a lot of senior moments.

Eventually they will probably have to do the whole brain radiation but they only found 3 small tumors and one tiny one. After the MRI we went over to the UW to meet with the specialist from Fred Hutchinson (Dr. Rockhill) who would be doing the surgery on Friday. He told us that everything was a go!

We went back to the motel room New Years Eve pretty relieved that he could have the surgery and that they didn’t find more cancer! Thursday our friends Dan & Trudy came over from Oakville and took us out to lunch….it was a nice break to keep our mind off things.

2009-05-31T10:21:00.000-07:00

Too Much Sparkling Cider!

2009-05-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

( Just before the surgery Gator was "as nervous as a cat in a roomful of rockers!")

Friday morning we left the motel at 7am and arrived at his 8am appointment at Harbor View right on time. Gator had everyone laughing right off the get go when he looked around and said “boy, that’s a relief” and the doctor, nurse and I all asked what are you talking about and he said; “I was stressed out all morning trying to find this place and now I know I’m in the right room”…..there was a sign on the door that said “right room”, the room on the left said “left room”! (Picture of the surgeon (Dr. Rockhill) and Gator at the Ghamma Knife machine)

2009-05-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

He says it's not

as bad as it looks!

2009-05-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

Gator said two guys that looked liked a couple of linebackers manually twisted the screws into his skull and attached a cage on his head so they could bolt him into the Gamma Knife machine. He sat there in that cage waiting for his surgery from 9:00am to about 3:00pm. The surgery before Gator’s took longer than expected…

They bolted the cage on Gator’s head to the table (looks like an MRI tube) and into a giant helmet so there would be no movement, the helmet had 201 holes in it. The radiation beams shoot through each little hole and by themselves won’t have any affect but when they join together at the targeted lesion they are very powerful!

2009-05-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

Gator said he wouldn't reccomend it for a ride at Disneyland,

but it wasn't too bad! The surgery took about 3 hours to complete. The surgeon said he got everything he aimed at. He had to manually adjust the helmet for the last lesion but he got it! He was worried he wouldn’t be able to get the whole thing but he did….Now we wait 30 days for another MRI to see if there are any changes….hopefully things disappeared or at least shrunk but we could find more or they could still grow or there could be no change which is not necessarily bad because the cells could be dead but the size wouldn’t change….it would be like having scar tissue. Again…we just have to wait and see…

2009-05-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

We couldn’t afford to pay for the pain medication at Harbor View so we had to drive over to the Seattle VA and pick up a prescription there in order for the VA to cover it. I left Gator in the car with a police officer standing by keeping an eye on him and went in to get the prescription. It had been called in 4 hours earlier but the doctor forgot to turn in the paper copy so they weren’t able to fill it!

2009-05-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

We had them page Dr. Quang the Radiation Oncologist and while we were waiting for his call back they tried to tell me that Gator would have to be seen in the Emergency room in order to get the pain medicine. Luckily Dr. Quang called back while we were talking and the lady came out from the back and told the pharmacist that “he is on the phone and do not send them to the emergency room and he wants to talk to you now! Well the pharmacist came back in a couple of minutes and said the Dr. was already at home but he was coming back to the hospital and would be there in about 20 minutes. He showed up in ½ and hour, he had been trying all the doors in the hospital but because by this time it was after hours they only had the main entrance open! He really went out of his way to help us! Today is Sat. Jan 3^rd- The day after the Gamma Knife…

They said Gator could wake up in the morn with a funny looking face from the Novocain they used to numb his head leaching down to his face, but luckily that didn’t happen. His left eye is a little droopy but he has no swelling where they drilled the screws in and he has no headache and doesn’t even need the pain medication! After the surgery the nurse showed me how to roll a giant Q-tip to put some antibiotic cream in the holes where the screws were in Gators head. She said we would have to do this for 3 or 4 days. I was not looking forward to it! The next morning I removed the bandages to do what I had to do and the holes were totally closed! Gator is on so many prayer chains….Thank you all… It’s working! He just continues to do exactly the opposite of what the doctors expect! He says the next thing we need to focus on is his voice!

2009-05-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

1-16-09

We stayed in Tukwila at the Homestead Jan. 11^th, Sunday night. Monday morning at 8am Gator started Chemo treatment #5. It lasted from 8am to 4pm. The oncologist came in to talk with us during the treatment he said to save us a trip to his office the next day. At first he said because the cancer is responding so well to the chemo and Gator is not having any major side effects that he would like to continue on with the treatments. When he first started chemo the doc. Said after 6 treatments we would probably stop for a while to give Gators body a break. Now he wants to keep going because Gator is handling the treatments so well and the chemo is working. Then after talking to the oncologist about Gator wanting to work on getting his voice back he said maybe we SHOULD stop the chemo for a couple of months and concentrate on Gators voice.

Dr. Grim said he was going to talk to Oto (ear,nose, throat doc.) on Wednesday about speeding up the process of getting Gators voice back. We had an appt. scheduled for Thursday with Oto. So on Tuesday our appt. with Dr. Grim was cancelled because we had already seen him.

I made pancakes for breakfast and while I was cooking them the smoke alarm went off about 5 times! The last time I got so frustrated that I tried to throw my coat over the alarm and knocked it off the wall! I plugged it back into the wall totally ignoring the sticker on the alarm that read “Do Not Tamper With Smoke Detector Alarm Will Sound”. Everything seemed fine, we hung out in our room for a couple more hours then went to the mall.

2009-05-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

Before we left home our friend Patti came out to our show at Rounders in McCleary and gave us $150. She told us to go to the Rainforest café in Tukwila which is only a couple of blocks from our motel so we did. It was very nice, very spendy and so noisy that I couldn’t hear Gator but it was fun! We hung out at the South Center Mall for a bit and then went back to the room.

2009-05-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

Gator bought me this little monkey at the
Rainforest Cafe

2009-05-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

At about 8pm and after being in our room for a few minutes we noticed that the smoke alarm was chirping. We called the front desk and the clerk said the smoke alarm probably just needed a battery so he came to our room to replace it. He noticed the sticker on the detector and decides he didn’t want to touch it so he told us we would have to change rooms. Would you believe the room right next door to us was available and it was a deluxe!! Who says crime doesn’t pay? King size bed, 32” TV, Roll away couch…..We said we didn’t mind moving at all! So we did….. Wednesday we hung out in our new room for most of the day then went to the mall to get some exercise. Back at our room Gator soaked in the tub and I made a lot of phone calls to family and friends.

2009-05-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

1-21-09

Today is Wednesday, January 21. We’ve been home since Friday, we got the grandbabies Friday night and they went home Monday night. When we were taking the girls home they were singing songs to Papa and I. About 2 years ago we recorded a Cd for the grandbabies. On the CD I sang songs that I’ve been singing to them and songs that I used to sing to their mom. The girls were singing these songs to us. Songs like “Mares eat Oats” “Love can build a bridge”, “In my Daughters Eyes” and “Truck Drivers Sweetheart”. Gator sings “Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star” and “Help Pour out the Rain” on the disc. Our 7 yr old grandbaby “Miriam” said; “you know which one is our favorite?” and I asked which one? All three girls in unison said; “Help pour out the rain”! Then Miriam said: “You know what our favorite part is? It’s when there’s no music playing and you can just hear papa’s voice!” Then our 5yr old granddaughter (Tirzah) quietly said; “I will never, never, never, never forget papa’s voice.” Of course Papa and I started crying. Papa told the girls when he gets his voice back he and the girls are going to record that song together!span>

(UPDATE: Gator got his voice back 3-17-09 and recorded the song! http://www.gatorsjulesr2at.blogspot.com)

2009-05-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

1-24-09

The appointment with Oto wasn’t until 3pm so we hung out in the room until then. At the appointment we waited 20 minutes to see the doctor for 5 minutes so he could tell Gator “you still don’t have a voice” and then told him he could come in for the temporary procedure the following week. As we were scheduling the appointment for the following Thursday with the receptionist, some lady in a white coat came in from the back room and the receptionist said to her “this is for that same day?” The nurse said “just schedule it!” I had a bad feeling that they were going to reschedule Gator, so I asked the receptionist to please not change Gators appointment. I told her this is really important to us and if you have to bump someone bump someone else! She said I’m not going to change his appointment. I thanked her and we left. The next afternoon we got a phone call postponing the appointment for another week! I started crying on the phone because we were planning on doing the karaoke show at Rounders that weekend and Gator would finally get to do the announcing! He also had 7 old friends from Oregon coming to visit that weekend and he would have had his voice back! I was just so disappointed for him…..I’m sure he was too but he just doesn’t let anyone know. The Lady on the phone said “Are you crying?” “It’s just a minor procedure!” I told her it’s not a minor thing this is major! My husband has been without his voice 4 months now and we have a job to do that weekend. There was no changing her mind so the appointment is set for Thursday Jan. 29^th.

2009-05-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Just a short time before the guys came to visit, Roy & his wife Kelly came to spend the day with us!

1-26-09

Only 3 of Gator’s truckin’ buddies were able to show but they all had a really good time!

It was really hard for Gator to visit without his voice but he managed to get some stories told, with only a few tears and lots of laughs!

Roy

2009-05-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

Billy Ray

Harley

2009-05-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

1-29-09

Steve McNally called today just as we were getting ready to head for Seattle for Gator’s throat surgery. This is the first time he has called us since he ripped us off ( we really don’t know for sure how much, $10,000 +) at the benefit. We’ve stopped in a few times to see if he had the $5,000 that we settled on for him to pay us but he never did. He claims that he thinks Mike & Cindy (the jeweler & his wife) stole the benefit money from us and that they were stealing things from the store and pawning the items they stole. He says Mike has been in trouble 12 times in the past for check fraud. He claims they caused Curio City to close down. He says State Farm insurance is after them and they will go to jail. He also claims that he loaned Mike and Cindy $3,000 & then another $4, 000 (I think it was benefit money if he really did loan them money!) and Mike has about $60,000 in Gems. I told Steve that whoever stole the money is right even with a baby rapist in my book and that we would not just get past this like he wants, until he pays the money he agreed to pay us. He wants us to talk to him face to face but I think he’s trying to work us and may be worried about what we might say if there’s an investigation. He needs to just pay us and then leave us the hell alone. Okay, I’ve been writing about the “journey” through cancer treatment but I just had to write about the whole situation with Steve because it really is causing a lot of stress in our lives right now. Gator believes that Steve started out with good intentions and may have even been trying to make more money for us (and maybe some for himself!) by gambling at the casino. Instead he lost it all! His girlfriend (Ann) told us the night we gave our motorcycles to the new owners (October 1rst) that he was at the casino 3 or 4 times a week since we had the benefit! She also said we should do a background check on him because it would help us to understand what Steve did to us! It sounds like he’s done this before ok, enough about that…

2009-05-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

1-30-09

Well , Gator had the procedure done on his throat (the one that would make him talk immediately!) NOT! He’s very horse! The first thing the doctor said was “this procedure is pretty tricky when it’s done in the clinic”! Why wouldn’t they do it in surgery then like we asked them to do in the first place?? The doctor said that because Gator couldn’t quit swallowing and gagging during the procedure he wasn’t able to inject all the stuff behind his left vocal chord that he needed. He says he thinks it will work anyway but we have to wait a week for the swelling to go down before we can tell if it worked. He scheduled him sometime in February to get the same thing done again only this time they’ll knock him out for it! If his voice comes back this week the doctor wants us to call and cancel the surgery. We tried to tell them that Gator’s gag reflex was too strong and we wanted them to do the surgery in the first place but they wouldn’t listen! They had to do it their way first!

I’m so angry….poor Gator, his throat hurts (they poked that needle right into his Adam’s apple 5 times!) and its black and blue. He coughs better now though and he actually makes a sound when he burps which he’s very happy about! LOL He’s still got that positive attitude…..its 1pm and we’re still in Tukwila at the motel. Gator’s sleeping and we’ll be heading home a little later today so Gator can see if he can work a microphone yet. Sunday night we’ll come back and Monday morning he’ll get his final Chemo treatment (6 treatments per session) of the first session. We won’t know until the following week (Feb. 10^th) whether he’ll stop the Chemo for a couple of months or continue on. We should also find out that same day just how well the Gamma Knife treatment worked….

2-2-09

We arrived at the “Homestead” hotel yesterday at about 2pm. We got here early so we could watch the super bowl. What a game! Steelers beat the Cardinals 27 to 23 …

We got up this morning (Monday) at 7am and got to the VA Hospital at 8am. They drew blood and made him wait for the results for the first hour then at 9am started the Chemo and by 3:30 he was done. He feels good! Not even sleepy from the chemo, doesn’t even feel queasy…he had a double sausage sandwich from Jack in the box for dinner! I swear the man has an iron stomach! LOL

We met a couple from Alaska in the Cancer Care clinic today. The guy was getting chemo for throat cancer …. Come to find out they’re staying in the room right next door to us! Small world…

2009-05-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

I went to the OTO (Otolaryngology) Department today while Gator was getting his chemo, to see if they had scheduled him for the surgery (2^nd try!) to fix his voice. They didn’t. They haven’t managed to do anything they’ve said they would do from the beginning. His neck is still sore from where they tortured him last week trying to do the procedure that he requested they do in surgery! I told the receptionist that I wanted them to schedule the surgery like they said they would and she said she would have the doctor call me. I told her no…I don’t want to talk to the doctor, I told her to schedule the appt. or I would get a hold of the patient advocate. She gave me the direct phone number to her line and wants me to call at 7:30 am and she said she would put me right through to the guy who will schedule the surgery. I told her if this didn’t work the next call I would make would be to the patient advocate. Gator asked me to mention, if anyone reading this ever feels like they have a legitimate complaint about the VA get in touch with the patient advocate department. We did! Don’t sit around complaining to everyone that will listen because not everyone will help you….the advocate does!

I am so tired of this…..Gator can’t take much more! He is handling everything else like a champ but his voice is so important to him! He’s really getting frustrated. It’s been over 4 months with no voice now….

The MRI and CT scan are both scheduled for February 9^th and then we’ll see Dr. Grim the following day to hear what the game plan is. They’ll either remove the pic line from his arm that day or tell us when his next appointment for chemo is. We have to stay the night at the motel tonight just to make sure Gator gets no serious side effects from the Chemo then we’ll head back home in the morning.

2009-05-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

2-07-09

Our friend Pat brought his guitar for us to play and some Omeprazole (antacid) for us, it was fun seeing him! We live so far out we don’t get to see our friends nearly enough!

2009-05-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

2-8-09

We are staying in Tukwila tonight… brought the fixing’s for French dips. Just going to eat dinner and then go to sleep, we are soooo tired because we did the karaoke show at Rounders Friday night and last night. Gator is dragging butt today, not too nervous about the MRI & CT scans tomorrow, just worried about the results on Tuesday!...

2-9-09

Ooops! We weren’t supposed to stay here last night! I didn’t think about it until this morning. They allow us to stay in the motel the night before chemotherapy because he has to be there so early in the morning. His appointments today don’t even start until noon! LOL We’re so used to coming up on Sunday that we didn’t even think about it. The front desk just said to have the VA call them….shoot I hope they still cover the room, we’re pretty broke these days. Gator made it through the MRI & CT scan with flying colors. He is a little claustrophobic so they give him Lorazipan and make him loopy which make things fly by for him! Lol We actually got done an hour early and went back to the motel by 3pm. It’s 6:30 now and he has been asleep since about 4pm. We’re really nervous about the results tomorrow but we’re trying to keep positive attitudes. Gator said this is the turning point in his cancer care.

We have to decide whether to continue on with the chemo or to take a few months off. I’m so afraid their going to find more cancer in his brain! We know the cancer has been shrinking in his lungs but we just don’t know how much. I think Gator is going to ask them tomorrow. I don’t want to push so I’m not going to ask him if he plans on asking to see the scans… I wish I could take a lorazepan before going in tomorrow for the results!

2009-05-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

2-10-09

We got to the appointment at the East clinic 20 minutes late this morning. Not a good way to start the day. It was snowing too! Just what we need…..NOT! The East clinic (The Same Day Unit) is where he will have the surgery done on his throat. First they checked Gators weight and vitals then sent him to get blood drawn and the pic line flushed and re-bandaged. The pic line was plugged up so they couldn’t draw blood so they had to inject something into it to clean it out and we had to wait for an hour before it would take effect. We had lunch while we waited the hour then went back up to the IV clinic and it worked. They drew the blood and sent us to the waiting room to wait to be seen by the Medical doctor to talk about Gators medical history for the pre-op evaluation.

When the evaluation was over we headed over to registration to fill out the means test. This is something the VA has him do every year to keep track of all the big money Gator makes throughout the year….Then we finally got to go to the oncology appointment with Dr. Grim to find out the results of the MRI & CT scan.

First of all the MRI showed no new spots. The old spots are still visible but the radiation oncologist said they would be. They said after the Gamma knife surgery the lesions would be like scar tissue, dead cells that would still show up on the MRI. The only way to tell if it worked will be if they don’t grow. That’s messed up! But no new spots is fantastic news! The CT scan showed that the cancer in the lungs shrunk a little bit more but not enough to continue on with the Chemo. Dr. Grim said normally they only do 4 Chemo treatments in the 21 day sessions and that Gator got 6 so he got more than the average guy. The spots were shrinking less each time he did the chemo. So rather than continue on for such a small response and risk damaging a major organ, they would give Gator a break from the chemo and let him build up strength. Then he’ll start back up with a different kind of chemo next time around.

We go back in 30 days to have an x-ray because Gator aspirated some liquid into his lung and they want to make sure it doesn’t turn into pneumonia. He was drinking some Gatorade right after the screwed up procedure they did on his throat 10 days ago and because of the swelling and the fact that the left vocal chord is laying over the liquid backwashed into his lung a little bit. They put him on antibiotics to fight possible infection. We can’t let anything get in the way of the surgery next Tuesday….

Gator will come back in to see Dr. Grim on 3-10 to get the results from the x-ray and to just kind of check up on him. Then in May he should get another CT scan to check on his lungs. We won’t know when they plan on the next MRI until we hear from Dr. Rockhill (the guy who did the Gamma Knife surgery) this week sometime. So anyway, Gator will keep the pic line in his arm until after the surgery on Tuesday then out it comes! He’s really looking forward to that!

(2-10-09 cont..)

One final bit of awesome news we got today is that the spot on Gators liver is NOT Cancer! Wow! That was so good to hear…..I’ve been really worried about what they planned on doing with that. Such a relief….We also asked about Gator getting his hair back before he has to start up the next chemo session. Dr. Grim said the average person usually has to start up the chemo again after about 3 months but Gator hasn’t been going with the norm since all this started. He also said he probably wouldn’t get his hair back before the next session of chemo begins but to keep our fingers crossed because it could happen.

2009-05-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

Well after the appointment with Dr. Grim we headed back upstairs to finish the pre–op crap. We finally got done talking with the anesthesiologist and the nurse at 5:30 then we went to the pharmacy to pick up the antibiotics. We didn’t get out of there until 7:30pm then went out to find our car. The Valets were all gone so we had to track down a police officer to give us the keys to our car. Then we froze our butts off walking down to the very bottom end of the parking lot in the snow to get our car! We made it back to the motel by about 8pm, had some microwave lasagna and now we’re just kicking it, enjoying the fact that we got this super stressful day behind us. We leave for home in the morning….

2-17-09

We arrived at Seattle VA hospital at 6am after a long sleepless night at the motel. We are nervous and exited about Gator getting the procedure done to get his voice back. We are also very worried that it won’t work! He’s been without a voice for 5 months now and we all know that one of the many special things about Gator is his voice. He’s been told that it’s too bad there isn’t a way to bottle that voice up! Several years ago my Aunt Darla had lung surgery and was in a coma for 2 days after the surgery. She just wouldn’t wake up. Gator walked in the room and told her “Come on Sweetie, you gotta wake up…how we gonna go for that motorcycle ride if your laying there in that bed? Heh, Heh, Heh……” She smiled and opened her eyes! I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t been standing there and witnessed it myself!! LOL

So anyway we clock in at the Same Day Unit at 6am, and they call Gator at 6:15. At 6:40 they wheel him by me right passed the waiting room door. This never happens, he usually has to come back to the waiting room dressed in the hospital gown and slippers. I hate that! They make these veterans dress in a hospital gown and come back into the waiting room in their stocking feet and the ones with dentures have to turn their teeth over to loved ones or leave them in a locker and then come sit in front of a bunch of strangers. How humiliating! This time they take Gator and send him straight to surgery. There I sit for the next 3 hours worrying about every little risk the doctors warned us about! I’m worried about Gator not being able to breathe again on his own after they try to remove the breathing tube or not being able to swallow again or the procedure just not working!

2009-05-30T13:33:00.000-07:00

One of the girls in the waiting room is the niece of my children’s kindergarten teacher!

So we talk awhile about how small a world it is then another girl in the waiting room asked me what Gator is getting done and I totally lost it! It just happens….whenever… I never know when the water works will start. Sometimes I almost feel guilty because I can tell people all about the cancer without batting an eye and then another time I’ll be talking about some small thing that is getting done and break down crying. This isn’t a small thing though this is huge! So I tell five strangers in the waiting room (through my tears!) all about the biopsy that took his voice and the cancer and the brain radiation and even the benefit money getting stolen! I just unloaded! Very therapeutic!

2009-05-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

Kelly, Terry and Gator

We have met some very nice people while going through this unfortunately most of them are also going through hell in their lives right now. There is one man in particular that we’ve become friends with through all this. His name is Kelly. He rides a Harley and Gator and him have been going through the radiation and chemo pretty much at the same time. They lost their hair at the same time and it’s really helped having someone to talk with who can kind-of understand what your going through. We never asked him what kind of cancer he had but the one thing other than motorcycles that him and Gator have in common is their positive attitudes. They have both been very strong through all this! It’s just amazing…. Kelly told us not to buy into it when the Doctor gives you a certain amount of time to live … he said he went past his time limit 6 months ago!

2009-05-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

At 10am I see him go by and I sneak down the hall where they left him to see how he’s doing. His voice sounds a little louder & somewhat hoarse. He says his upper gum feels like someone slammed him in the mouth. He sounds good, not too loopy. The doctor told him it could take up to 3 wks to get his voice back…..here we go again!

2009-05-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

The nurse came out and told me to go down to the pharmacy and pick up his pain medication and he would be able to leave in about a half an hour.He came out a few minutes after I got back and we went over to the IV clinic to have the pic line removed. Gator says he’s tired of feeling like a professional rodeo rider whenever he takes a shower or bath. He had to hold his pic line arm up in the air like a bull rider so it didn’t get wet!

2009-05-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

The Doctor forgot to put in the order to have it removed so we went up to the Cancer Care Unit to talk to Ellen, the Physicians Assistant (the person we called whenever we wanted to have anything done) She kicks butt…really went out of her way to make things easier for us. She even gave us her cell phone number to get in touch with her in case of emergency. We asked her to put the order in and then I took a picture of her and Gator.

2009-05-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

I also had to get a picture of one of the receptionists, “Werku”, another part of the team who made things run so much smoother for us. He even ordered lunch for us today and hand delivered the trays to us in the waiting room. We had been there since 6am and didn’t have much for dinner the night before and nothing to eat all day. Werku always fixed any reservation screw ups for us with lodging and put us straight through to Ellen whenever we called.

2009-05-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

Gator with "Werku"

"Yessi" is one of the nurses who gives Gator his chemo

2009-05-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

We went back down to the IV clinic and had the pic line removed, it took about 5 minutes! The people in the clinic have been awesome and they are great at their job.

Marsha and Gator

2009-05-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

Marsha and Sheila took care of the pic line at the Seattle VA Hospital

Gator says other than not having a voice, it hasn’t been that bad, a lot of ups and downs but man what a ride!!!

We headed down to Dr. Grims office to give him one of our cd’s we recorded and to let him know how the procedure on Gator’s throat went.

He took us into his office so I could get a picture of him. We sat down and talked about the possibility of Gator getting his hair back.

We are coming back in 30 days to have an x-ray done and then in another 2 months to have a CT scan and an MRI done and then we’ll just keep watching and waiting…

2009-05-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

After a quick stop at Radiology Oncology to get pictures of the receptionists and the Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Quang we finally headed back to the motel. By now Gators voice is sounding pretty damn good! I can’t shut him up! LOL He even tried singing “Doe a Dear” and teared up a little. We made 38 phone calls to let people know his voice is back and many of the people we talked to ended up in tears because they were so happy to hear his voice. I only let him talk for a couple of minutes to each person, (some were longer there was just no stopping him! LOL), he’s supposed to take it easy for the next couple of days. The next morning at 6am I picked up our continental breakfast from the front desk and we just sat there and talked. We haven’t been able to really sit and bullshit for 5 months! My hearing isn’t all that great and it’s really been frustrating for both of us with me having to say “huh” all the time and him having to repeat whatever it was he whispered. He woke up talking this morning! He said; “Good morning…I love you!” he sounds like the old Gator.

The back of his neck, his chest, and throat are a little sore this morning, he says it feels like they used the paddles to bring him back after the procedure! By 7am he was trying to sing “Hey there little red riding hood…” sounds GREAT! LOL He can’t wait to get back to the studio and practice some songs. We have a show this weekend at Rounders in McCleary, I hope he doesn’t overdue it and lose his voice again before then.

We checked out of the motel at 11am and started to make our way back home. About 7 miles from the motel the rear right tire on the Beamer had a blowout! We called our friend Scott Weldy in Seattle and he brought a car jack and changed the tire for us. We thought we had a jack in a little locked compartment in the trunk, but it turned out to be a battery! So Scotty got us on the road again and after a couple of stops we finally made it home.

2009-05-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

Gator spent several hours in the music room singing today! It was awesome. His voice is not quite the same but he was able to sing about 10 Haggard songs. He didn’t sing real loud and was being careful not to strain. He really enjoyed himself…..it was pretty emotional.

2009-05-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

2-19-09

Gator woke up this morning still feeling the pain in the back of his neck and in his chest so I called the surgeon who did the procedure and asked him about it. He said that they had “manipulated his airway” and that he would have a sore throat but should not have any pain in his chest! He said to call 911 and get him to the hospital. Well Gator said he did not need 911 but agreed to go to St. Petes in Olympia. So we spent the day in the Emergency room. They said that there was a possibility that when they removed the pic line a clot had broken loose and could have ended up in his lung. They did a CT scan to look for clots and checked his heart markers and said everything came back fine so after 7hrs they sent him home. Gator thinks he’s just sore from the procedure and they stretched some muscles a little further than they were used to…..

It’s probably a good thing we went in to the Emergency room because he was planning on washing the car today and he is supposed to be taking it easy…..he slept most of the day in the ER. LOL

2-26-09

Well we were supposed to go to Seattle today for Gator’s follow up after the procedure but it snowed and because we are running on a spare and have no jack we really didn’t want to chance driving that far so we called and postponed the appt. His voice gradually faded away again. Not quite the whisper he had before but not much volume or clarity.

3-4-09

Called Seattle VA OTO dept. (Ear, Nose, and Throat) yesterday to see what day they had rescheduled Gator’s follow up appointment for and she said “how about tomorrow at 10:30” so we went in today and she tells us the appointment is for Thursday!

Well we convinced her to get Gator in to see the doctor who was there. He was so much better than the guy who has been seeing Gator. He put the tube up Gator’s nose (the tube with the camera) and Gator said he never felt a thing! Usually it’s just torture!

2009-05-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

The left vocal chord is still not moving so he scheduled Gator to get the same procedure done (3^rd time’s a charm!) on St. Patrick’s Day! The doctor said they were supposed to inject the Symetra in between the vocal chord and the muscle and they got it on the outside of the muscle so the chord slipped down and it stopped working after only a day. He set up the appointment for the procedure right away…..here we go again! We are getting so frustrated with these people; they just don’t seem very competent! Well the procedure is scheduled for a lucky day anyway maybe that’ll help! We need all the help we can get….

3-09-09

We stayed in Tukwila tonight again. I worked on labeling 50 CD’s that a guy wanted done right away and Gator slept!

3-10-09

We arrived at the Seattle VA at 7am. Gator got his pre-op stuff all done and then he went to an appointment at the speech department at 11am. The gal there gave him some exercises to do to strengthen his left vocal chord and that was about it!

Gator with Speach Therapist

We had lunch at the canteen and then went to see Dr. Grim at 1:30. I have been so worried about this appointment because he was going to tell us the results on the CT scan and I had to ask him if the fluid on his lung that they’ve been watching could possibly be cancer. The Doctor said NO! Whew! Just had to ask….we decided to go home instead of staying at the motel. The next time we come up here it will be on St. Patrick’s day and Gator WILL get his voice back! On the way home we stopped by Costco and ran into Mike Palms step sister Karen James. She said she wanted to meet up with us because she has some stuff called “Xango” that she wants Gator to drink. I guess it’s supposed to be some miracle drink. If it doesn’t taste bad he said he’ll try it. At this point we’re willing to try anything within reason, and this drink has mango, strawberry, grape…and a whole bunch of other juices in it and nothing else so why not?

3-16-09

We arrived at the extended stay motel at about 3:30pm. Samuel, the guy at the front desk is from Scotland and seems to have taken a liking to us! He checked us into the deluxe room, he’s done that the last couple of times he was here. That’s pretty cool… We went through 2 snowstorms and 1 traffic jam to get here. I made some BBQ chicken at home and we brought it with us along with some instant taters. Yum Yum….. I brought my face paints with me so I could paint a leprechaun on Gator’s forehead before the surgery.

2009-05-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

3-17-09

We got up at 4:30am and I jumped in the shower and then painted a shamrock on Gator’s head. We didn’t have time to do the leprechaun! Oh well, it was pretty cute. We got there at 6am. Gator was called back at 6:30 and the waiting began! He was done by noon and we started home. We decided not to stay at the motel after the surgery because we just didn’t feel like it……we get so tired of being away from home.

I drove for a while but I was so sleepy I started to fall asleep at the wheel so Gator had to take over even though he probably still had some of the anesthesia in his system, it was the lesser of the two evils! The surgery seems to have been a success…..he’s a little hoarse but they said he would be for about a week. So we just wait and hope and pray…..

3-18-09

Gators voice is working very well. Almost back to normal!

2009-05-29T18:29:00.000-07:00

3-21-09
We worked at Rounders tonight. Gator was having some pretty sharp pains in his lower left side. When we got home we took his temperature and it was 101. He took a hydrocodone and the fever broke.

3-22-09

Gator’s temp is normal this morning but he still has pretty bad pain in his side. Today is Sunday so we’ll call the doctor in Seattle tomorrow and see what we should do. They may have us come in tomorrow and stay the night you never know. I just hope it’s not that spot on his liver that the doctor told us we shouldn’t worry about!
We called Ellen and she said he should go in to the Urgent Care in Lakewood but Gator convinced her to let him wait until Tuesday when he has an appointment with the lung specialist, Dr. Goodman. She said if no fever today then we can wait until tomorrow but if the fever comes back he has to be seen today.

2009-05-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

3-24-09
Today is Tuesday, the fever didn’t come back. Today we saw Dr. Goodman, the lung specialist. He said he’s impressed with how well Gator looks and feels. He said the cancer in Gators lungs has all “shrunk up famously” with Dr. Grim’s treatment. He also said that most people that he sends out of his office with the diagnosis he gave Gator six months earlier, never make it back to his office!

2009-05-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

3-29-09
Gator woke up this morning about 3:30 AM with a temp of 103. Not sure what’s going on! No cough or anything else just a fever….

3-31-09
He’s been fighting the fever off and on since Weds (the 29th) and now finally today he’s coughing up green crap so we know he’s got pneumonia! He started taking some antibiotics that we already had, did a nebulizer treatment, took a hydrocodone (leftover from the vocal chord surgery!) and I made him eat scrambled eggs and toast at 5:30am because he hasn’t eaten in two days and he can’t miss his Merle Haggard concert on Thurs. April 2nd!
4-1-09
Gator is still in bed with a fever but he’s eating and taking in fluids…trying hard to keep up his strength so he can see his hero Merle tomorrow. His son Kevin (in Oregon) is really sick too and it sounds like he’s going to miss the concert! What a bummer! We really wanted him to go. His daughter Karyn is going though so that will be nice. We received a gift card for $250 from Safeway and a $50 gift card from Fred Meyer all arranged by a man named Peter from Cancer Lifeline…perfect timing, we were out of everything!!
4-2-09 Concert Day! Today is my 19yr old son Robby’s birthday, Merles birthday is April 6th....

2009-05-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

Grandaughter

"Tiffany"

2009-05-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

Gator and Bill at Kristofferson's Bus!

Merle signed Gator's hat!

Karyn and Dad

Merle's Bus

2009-05-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

Me, Bonnie, MikeM, Jo, Bill, Tiffany and Karyn at the Merle Haggard concert April 2nd, 2009

2009-05-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

We have no idea who this woman is, she just had to have her picture taken with Gator!

Gator got right out of bed after days of not being up it was tough for him to get his sea legs working! But he did and we went to see Merle with Bill, Joann, MikeM, Bonnie and Gator’s daughter Karyn and granddaughter Tiffany. We really had a good time. Gator is a little hoarse from coughing and Karyn was bummed because she hasn’t heard her dad’s voice in a long time, except on the phone. Hopefully his voice will come back once he starts feeling better….

2009-05-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

I talked to Merle Haggard’s wife, Theresa, and told her “I’m the one who has been writing you about my husband who has lung cancer” she just nodded her head and said “ahhhh”…. Aren’t my letters the only ones she reads??? Well I’m sure they’ll remember who Gator is now, he got his “Hoss” hat signed by Merle!!!! Gator says: “We’re just makin’ memories!”

2009-05-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

4-6-09

We went to American Lake VA today. Found out that Gator doesn’t have pneumonia! He has bronchitis…..I guess that’s better. They gave him a really strong antibiotic called Avelox, (the same stuff they gave him last month!) the doctor seemed to think it would work. He said if there is some kind of bacterial infection in Gator’s lungs this medicine should take care of it. His voice is sounding much better.

Karyn called while we were in Lakewood. She said while she was in Burns Oregon the weekend after the Merle concert, some bikers came in to the bar she was in and she told them her daddy was a biker. They asked her his name and she told them they wouldn’t know him because he was from Washington. Then she told him his name was Gator and they said “THE Gator?” then she showed them the digital photos of her dad on her keychain we gave her and they said yep! That’s him! They heard about him online! Pretty wild….they told her to tell him he was in their prayers….

Gator’s been in a lot of people’s prayers for the past 9 months and its working!

2009-05-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

4-11-09

Gators blood pressure was 83/46!!!! We called the VA but because it is the weekend we were put through to the Nurse hotline and had to talk to someone in Dayton Ohio. It took 45 minutes before we got to talk to a real live person! She told us that she can’t tell us what to do but if his upper (systolic) pressure goes under 90 he needs to go to the emergency room. We’re pretty sure we know what’s going on. While Gator was getting chemo they added Metoprolol to his blood pressure meds. because the chemo raised his blood pressure, now that he’s off chemo it’s dumping his blood pressure. The problem is the bottle says not to stop the Metoprolol suddenly. His blood pressure is so low we don’t want him to take anything but even if we try to give him a half dose I don’t know if we can because the Metoprolol is such a tiny pill! We went to Chirps retirement party tonight, it was nice to sit around and visit with the old truckin’ buddies! Gator was pretty worn out by the end of the evening though…

4-12-09

Well today is Easter. Gator woke up with a bad sore throat. He has a slight cough but he still feels pretty good. We talked to the Grandbabies in Oregon on the phone (All but Tiff (the oldest) and Allie (the youngest), don’t know where they were. Robby (my son) moved back home yesterday so he was here for Easter dinner. Tomorrow we’ll call about the blood pressure.

4-13-09

Can’t seem to get through to anyone at the VA so Gator decided to stop taking the Metoprolol and his BP is staying right around 130/60 which is very good.

4-25-09

Today is Saturday and we were supposed to go to the “Johnny Cash” show in McCleary but Gator is sick again…temp of 101.8 and a cough. He’s been sick since the 23^rd. Monday we’ll go in and ask them to test him for “MRSA” and for the “Swine Flu”. Antibiotics don’t work…..he’s been fighting this too long! ( We found out later that we didn’t miss the Cash show because Dan Whyms (Johnny Cash) is sick too!)

2009-05-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

4-28-09

Went to American Lake VA hospital today, they took an x-ray and did blood tests. The doctor gave Gator steroids and Pseudoephedrine and it seems to be helping already. He’s also wearing his Oxygen again now.

5-1-09

Friday:

Well Dr. Mann just called (Gator’s General Practitioner) to tell us that Gator doesn’t have MRSA or Swine Flu and that his lungs look much better. Then she said that his Prostate screening results are back and they’re supposed to be less than four and he’s at 8.3….she says it may not be prostrate cancer but she wants him to come back in to retest. Gator’s dad had prostate cancer so the odds are not good. I feel like my heart is breaking again…Gator of course is being his same old positive self saying it could be so many other things like is age, or one of the meds. He’s on causing the high number. He says; “oh well if it is prostate cancer it’s just another set back!”

5-05-09

We went to Lakewood today to have blood drawn for another PSA (Prostate) test.

I called Ellen Nason today and she had me call the Seattle VA and schedule a CT scan of Gator’s lungs for Monday, May 11^th and then we have an appointment on the 12^th with the oncologist to discuss how everything is going…The end of May he will get the MRI to make sure the stuff in the brain hasn’t changed.

5-08-09

I finally called the VA because they never called us with the results! The second PSA test came back at 6.3 which means it dropped. That’s good news. The doctor said we will just wait for two months and then test again and see what happens. It could still be prostate cancer but that type of cancer grows and spreads so slowly that he really doesn’t need to worry about it right now. He just needs to take care of the lung cancer for now….

2009-05-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

5-11-09

Gator had his CT scan today. Tomorrow we will hear the results. We’re staying in Tukwila at the Extended stay hotel again…..we really like this place, it’s almost like home we’ve been here so much over the past 9 months! I’m really nervous about tomorrow but again Gator is a rock! He says he’s just not going to worry about it.

5-12-09

I tossed and turned all night last night! Gator slept like a baby! LOL We stopped in at the front desk of the hotel to turn in our room keys and so that “Justina” the clerk could see how good Gator is looking. As soon as he walked through the door she said “look at you!” “You look good! We gotta go out!” I said “Hey! Hey! Hey! and we all laughed. Justina is the person we get the continental breakfasts from every morning.

2009-05-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

We arrived at the Oncologists office at noon. We couldn’t check in until 12:30 so we just sat in the waiting room, patiently waiting … yeah right! It seemed like hours!

2009-05-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

We finally got called back at 1 o’clock. We sat there discussing everything from iron pills to asparagus for about the first 15 minutes! Finally the doctor said “you haven’t got the CT scan yet?” We told him that Gator had it done the day before so he checked the computer again. It said they were still waiting on the patient! I told the doctor I had been sitting there thinking he was pretty cold for making us sit there and wait for the results! Dr. Grim called radiology and got he results over the phone. When he got off the phone he said that not much had changed since the last CT scan. He said that there is a little swelling in the lung but that is normal and is caused by the radiation Gator received in October. He said it usually takes months to show up. He thinks that the spot on Gators lung that we thought was where he aspirated the Gatorade after the vocal chord surgery is actually pneumonitis which is common when a person gets radiation. So what they thought was aspirated liquid, pneumonia, or bronchitis they now say may be a side affect from the radiation! He also said that there are two lymph nodes located in the mediastynum that are swollen. He said this could be a result of Gator being sick for the past month and a half, or the radiation, or it could be the cancer.

2009-05-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

Dr. Grim said Gator is in “partial remission,” the cancer “shrunk up famously” and is not doing anything, but can still be seen. He was very happy with the way Gator looks and the way he’s been feeling. Gator is off the oxygen now too! Dr. Grim gave us his phone number because for the past 2 months we’ve had a real problem getting through to him. He told us to just call him the next time we have a problem. This is just another example of how this Doctor has been bending over backwards trying to do everything he can for Gator!

They’re scheduling another CT scan for June 22^nd to see if anything changes. He may have to start chemotherapy again depending on what they see on the scan next month. They’re postponing the MRI for around the same time. Dr. Grim said because Gator isn’t having any symptoms he doesn’t think there’s anything going on in his brain right now. Gator said he’s sure his friends will agree with the Doctor!

So again we wait…….

6-22-09 CT scan Seattle

6-23-09 Results from MRI and CT Scan Dr.Grim 1 o’clock

To be continued:

God willing…. for a long, long time………

Thank's for stopping by.

See ya later!

Bye from Gator ....... And Yours Truly Julie!

(6-6-2009)