Tangboy's Blog

Alrighty, today is P-day…

P stands for PET and PET stands for… well… okay I am not really sure. Anyhoo basically it’s a pleasant scan that shows if there is any cancerous activity in your body. “Great, why doens’t everyone have one of these every year to check if they have cancer?” – you ask out loud and startle another person in the room because you’re talking outloud instead of inside your head like normal.

Here let me enlighten you. Here is a summary of what goes on.

Gotta be at hospital by 7:30am
Login/register about 7:45-8:00
Head to the scanning labs
Login/register again 8:00-8:15
Get called to the back where a very nice friendly young man pulls out a wonderful needle and announces “this will hurt a bit” and procedes to shove it up your vein!
Get a shot of something that adheres to you blood cells.
Get a shot of something in a lead syringe that adheres to the stuff that adheres to your blood cells.
Go back into a room where you’re not supposed to move, just lay on a comfy chair.
Snuggle into a warm blanket.
Sleep.
Sleep.
Wake up to the loud nurse talking about “dumb patients” (just kidding, she was just not awake yet)
Sleep.
Sleep.
Sleep.
Wake up from some deep sleep to a nurse trying to wake you up to come back to the “coffin” room.
Lay on table after emptying your pockets and assuring you have no belt on.
Snuggle down with warm blanket on odd shaped table (looks like a diving board)
Get your arms strapped down so you don’t move.
Slide into cave like place while machine makes funny noises.
Sleep.
Sleep.
etc
Wake up, go home.
2-8 months later get $1000 medical bill (yes after insurance has gone through)

Now why list all this? There is no price on your life, we must do what we must do to make sure we’re alive and well and ready to live each day to it’s fullest.

I have had the scan 3 times and it’s not fun but I know that God is in contorl of whatever happens to me or my body and allows some things to happen for odd and interesting reasons. We need to look for the exciting/interesting/painful/learned/eventful results of what happens to us. Keep your chin up, realize God has a plan for you if you let Him. Anyway I have been resting up after the scan and am ready to return back to work!

Hope you all are doing well and having a splended day!
-me

Morning everyone,

Tis a beautiful day today, very crisp and clear… a perfect day for caching (geocaching that is!). I am sitting here this Friday morning while my students are mentoring to some of the lower graders, had song service and are reading bible stories to them. It is a neat experience we face every Friday, need to figure out some new things to keep the kids attention, I think the bible stories are getting a little boring/old?!

Well this weekend Amy has off so it looks like we will be doing something fun, maybe hiking House Mountain Saturday afternoon with the dogs? I would like to grab a couple geocaches around Knoxville, just found my 100th cache a couple days ago, pretty stoaked about that but need to keep the numbers going before my father catches up with me!

It looks like Tuesday, the 23rd, I have my PET scan which will let us know if I am clear of my cancer for awhile longer, at least til the next check up. This scan requires me to go in, get an IV and an injection. I have to sit in a room all by myself for an hour while the meds adhere to my blood cells and then get a huge injection of radiation that attaches to that stuff that is sticking to my blood cells. Then lay on a table for about 30-45 minutes, grab a nap and relax (as much as I can with an IV in my arm). I will be radioactive for a bit so I will probably not go to school afterwards because I am not sure how long it will take or how good it is for me to be around little kiddies while glowing green.

I am a bit more anxious about this scan then the last one because I haven’t had any treatments in awhile and I really do not want to restart them if something shows up on the scan. I know that the Lord is in control and knows what was, is, and will be, but that doens’t neccesarily make things easier. If it is His will then I will follow that and live my life to the best that I can.

So my question to you is, if you had a check up with the doctor and found out that you have cancer, how would that change your day, week, month, year, lifetime? What would you do differently? How would you feel? How would you interact with your loved ones, or even better, how would you act to those you don’t get along with? What would change. I challenge you to take some time and think about how cancer would make a difference in your life and what you would do with the time that you may have left.

Sorry if that sounds a bit rough for a Friday morning but I always have a lot on my mind. I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy your wonderful Sabbath!
-me

Here I sit this unusually warm Friday the 5th of January. The weather has just been really odd lately and it’s kinda rough going from shorts and a t-shirt to winter jacket all in the span of 8 hours.

Things have been going very good as of late. Spent some time up in VA with my family for the first part of the holidays. Then a quick stay at home and relax. Off to Asheville, North Carolina to visit the meinhardt clan and visit the Biltmore estates during the evening. Back to Knoxville for a couple days and then down to Chattanooga to visit the Knickerbockers.

It just seemed like the time flew by as we were driving from one destination to another. Too many things to do and too little time.

Now we are on the downhill side of school. We have arrived safely (for the most part) on the second semester and it just seems like we can cruise on through til Graduation in May right?!

I have a scan coming up here soon to get a check on the cancer stuff and whatnot. Ok student’s bothering me right now about their Sudoku issues (past time for them during the day when they have free time) so take it easy and I’ll catch u all later!
-me