A husband's thoughts on his wife, their kids, and their life as they all face cancer together.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
4G 25-May
Dinner
Running clinic
Talking to an old friend
Early bed
Mexican Green Drink
Kale, spinach, cucumber, Jalepeno, cilantro, carrots, celery, ginger, a lemon and a lime.
Yummy.
And let’s be crystal-fucking-clear about the onerous task I am asking of folks to save their own skins:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.-Stopping by woods on a snowy evening- Robert Frost
I’ve been waiting a while for this one.
The Lives They Lived - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com
It is amazing how many hospice stories I hear that are so funny. I think people’s changes in perception of what is important let the good stuff shine through.
Four Good Things for 9-Jan
- Finished three PowerPoint sets I need for the next two days
- Baked bread for the first time
- Talked and laughed and cried with fellow caregivers
- Got daughter through chemo again
- went to bed before 11:00 PM
peace
Four Good things catchup
1-Jan:
- Only a sip of champagne and no cake at Booska’s birthday
- Played street hockey with my family
- Got a load of laundry done
- Went to bed early
2-Jan:
- Cooked a good dinner
- Spent time with daughter at market
- Did a 30 min walk with my wife
- No beer or ice cream
3-Jan:
- Spent day with other daughter at chemo
- Good breakfast
- 20 min walk/jog
- Updated my tumblr
4-Jan:
- Blogged
- Walked enough that my legs are tired
- No booze or sweets
- Did not freak out with wife and kid at hospital
5-Jan:
- Got girls off to school after visiting with their Mom in the hospital
- Picked up the house
- Arranged shopping and laundry help from friends
- Slept with the kids so they were comforted
6-Jan
- Picked up Gorgeous from the hospital
- Laundry
- Paid bills
- Cooked dinner
7-Jan:
- Ran & pushups
- Made the bed
- Got the house setup for Gorgeous and her painful hip
- Got Booska to sleep in her bed again
8-Jan
- Vacuumed
- Made bread
- Shopped
- Bought wife flowers
Week One Results
Recap
Goals/Current
- Lose 10 pounds by Feb 1st (
290Actually 287 on our home scale as of 12/28) - Halfway through Couch-to-5k (nada)
- No booze (daily)
- No dessert (daily)
- Be able to do 75 pushups in 10 minutes (20 in poor form)
This Week:
- 279 - dropped 8 lbs since 12/28!
- Did day one along with the rest of my excercise, felt good and went .2 miles further than I did 10 months ago when I started. Going to skip ahead a few days tomorrow
- Dry!
- Sour! I did have about a teaspoon of honey when I finished my kids yogurt and granola for breakfast one day. Other than that, no soda, sweets, and trying to limit the carbs as well (that is going to be my February goals)
- Did 12 good ones, following the 100 pushups program
Pretty happy with how I did this week, especially with the hell week I had. To recap:
- 12/31 - Guy makes illegal U-turn, hits my Jeep, me and my girls miss the train to Boston and need to take the bus with Booska sitting on my lap.
- 1/2 - Visiting nurse comes to take blood from Booska, general yelling ensues
- 1/3 - Booska goes in for chemo
- 1/4 - Booska spikes a fever, pukes on Mom. Mom comes home from hospital and her hip is pretty painful. We think it is due to sleeping on the hospital bed.
- 1/4 - Gorgeous (Mom) calls me in severe pain, I tell her to call her oncologist and then 911 to get her to the hospital. Turns out she has a bleed in her hip muscle (iliac) because she is on a blood thinner.
- 1/5 - Gorgeous has to stay in another night for pain management and to make sure bleeding is controlled.
I figure if I can get through that week, including meals at the hospital and on the run, without sweets or drinking, the rest of the month should be easy.
peace
Do Life Challenge
WEEK ONE CHALLENGES:
(Since we’re all at different places in our health and fitness journeys, there will be some differing challenges.)
- Write down five quantifiable goals for yourself. Emphasis on quantifiable. And they must be realistically achievable within one month (more on this below the challenges).
- Assess yourself and write down your current stats in all five areas. Do you want to lose six pounds? Find out exactly where you are now. Do you want to run a 35-minute 5K? Write down your current time. Etc. You might need to get creative with assessments. That’s okay. There is no requirement on your goals or your assessments.
- By Monday night, get on the floor an do as many pushups as you can. Modified (from your knees) or regular. It doesn’t matter how many you can do. Write this number down in a notebook or word document. Pushups will be a “fun” recurring litmus test throughout the 12 weeks.
- Beginners: Do 120 minutes of exercise this week. The exercise can be anything physical as long as you’re working that heart rate. Walking, running, cycling, rollerblading, yoga, weight-lifting, anything.
- Identify your biggest excuse. Write it down on a wall in your house. Then in your notebook write a way to eliminate that excuse. Not enough time in the day? “Eliminate American Idol and Glee.” Sorry
- Each night before bed, write four things you did well that day.
Goals/Current
- Lose 10 pounds by Feb 1st (290)
- Halfway through Couch-to-5k (nada)
- No booze (daily)
- No dessert (daily)
- Be able to do 75 pushups in 10 minutes (20 in poor form)
Excuse:
I don’t have the time
Fix:
Schedule it!
Four for 6-Jan
- Managed to keep of the sweets, again.
- Fixed my EZ pass credit card
- Got my wife home from the hospital and tucked in safely to bed
- Accepted some much needed help for shopping and child care
One of the things I have been having a hard time with is accepting other people’s help.
I need it now with all that is going on in my life, but it is hard to be so independent for so long and suddenly need others to help with laundry, shopping, etc.
I look forward to a couple of weeks from now when Gorgeous is feeling better.
The Good Short Life With A.L.S. – NYTimes.com
I HAVE wonderful friends. In this last year, one took me to Istanbul. One gave me a box of hand-crafted chocolates. Fifteen of them held two rousing, pre-posthumous wakes for me. Several wrote…
No All-Star Game for You, Sleepy Head
“Heroes rise to the occasion.”
— John Gruber, July 9, 2011
“… unless they are sleepy or have better things to do that day.”
— Derek Jeter, July 12, 2011
Source: Jeter criticized for skipping All-Star festivities
[Pictured: Dramatic recreation of how Derek Jeter is spending the All-Star break]
(Source: americanmccarver)
