About Lugnut -- Patrick Malone

Patrick- I've been thinking about you a lot. My wife has just finished her 4th surgery in the last 2 months and is about to start what they call dose-dense chemo in a couple of weeks. People like you and she are the definition in my book of class AND bravery. Taking the bitter with the sweet and doing what you have to do without any sense of self-pity. Her long term prognosis is pretty good so that helps her (and me), but so far she has not caught any breaks at all in terms of what was anticipated vs. what actually happened. And of course at some point you just have to decide either to trust the docs or not; there is no way you can have the independent knowledge to know that from a medical standpoint you are doing the right thing if your not a Dr. yourself. That doesn't mean that you have to do what they recommend, but if you can't trust your doc to give you valid info on something as complicated and significant (understatement!) as cancer therapy, then you're really up $hit creek. BTW, with the new anti-nausea drugs, is the smoking recreational or medicinal? Hard for us to know how to plan for this, especially with a 16 year old in the house. I guess we will just let it come to us.

Glad to hear that you have had a good time with your buds. I'm not a shooter but hanging out and drinking some good booze and listening to some tunes, sounds like what I like to do with my friends; just substitute golf for skeet! Don't get a chance to do it that often; note to self to do that kind of thing more often.

I'm thinking about you and will be sending all good thoughts for good results on your CT scan.

Swampwalker,

Make no mistake about it. Being the spouse of a cancer patient is probably worse than having the disease. I can only think of those poor souls who's children are stricken with this madness and I'm so thankful I'm not in that postion. In all things it can always be worse.

I wish your wife the best, from the bottom of my heart. As for you I hope and pray that you can maintain your own health during these trying times. Look after yourself. Your wife and family need you.

The smoking was purely recreational. I don't really partake anymore unless a close friend brings some over. How could I not smoke with these guys? We go back over thirty years together when that's what we all did. It does bring back fond memories too. Like the time one of the guys coughed into the bong, blowing the glowing embers into the air. When it came down it landed on his head catching his hair on fire. THAT was a Furry Freak Brothers incident if there ever was one.

I'll be thinking of you and your wife and keep you in my prayers. Fight the good fight.

Michael ... I'm sorry to hear about the challenges you and your wife are facing. I'm sending wishes and prayers your way, and hope you will have the strength to prevail.

Pat, I had heard that smoking was bad for your health, but I had no idea it could cause instaneous combustion of the hair. What a hoot.

In high school, two of us went with a third friend to his dad's karate club and sauna late at night. We were without papers or a pipe. Being resourceful, I found some gum in someone's drawer and a garden hose in the basement. I got the foil from the gum, laid it in the hose, and perforated the foil with a paper clip. Wallah -- instant pipe. My friend borrowed the pipe-contraption ... and a day later got pulled over, and the police found that pipe and busted him. Two months later, he borrowed a gag pipe I had made from a gasmask and a corncob. Yep ... he got pulled over again and the police found that one as well. They made him get therapy. LOL.

But seriously, Michael, Pat ... please know that you and your wives are in my prayers.

Thanks, guys. I can relate to the humor. I used to work in a plumbing warehouse back in the 60s and got quite creative with brass pipe fittings. I also remember travelling home from Woodstock (yes the 1969 Woodstock) and getting stopped and searched by some local yocal cops. They made me empty every pocket except the one that would have landed us in the slammer!!

My wife Susan is making it all so very easy on everyone. Great sense of humor (including lots of cancer jokes). So far, except for recovering from the surgeries, she has been completely healthy. That's the hardest part for her; she felt fine until they started treating her. And tough; after her 3rd op, which they said would be 1-2 weeks recovery, she was back to work in 1.5 days!! tis most recent they say 2-6 weeks and she is planning on going back this Wed after 1 week. So far I have been very lucky; she's made it awefully easy on me. The 3 of us (my wife, son and I) had one shouting match about a week ago but that's all. 'Course with a VERY smart, VERY stubborn, 16 year old, that's probably 5-10 less than our typical weekly total ;~) I really do appreciate the good thoughts and kind words, tho.

Hi all,

I'm uncertain about posting certain stuff here and this is one of those difficult posts that I'm going to sugar coat a little.

Last week I developed abdominal pain that progressively got worse and was not controllable with the current doses of pain meds. We moved up my scheduled CT scan to this last Monday and a visit with my oncologist to yesterday. The Xeloda did not work. The cancer has spread to many area in my intestinal cavity with an associated fluid build up that was causing the pain.

The only purpose for any of the chemo treatments has been to aleviate symptoms. There is one last type of drug I can use that may halt/reverse this for awhile and I accepted the offer and yesterday had my first round of Taxol via port injection. We'll see where this goes from here.

This isn't what I had desired to do and if I could turn back the clock (and have a crystal ball) I'd do things differntly. In a sense, through no fault of my own, I've painted myself into a corner. That's about all I can say within my comfort level of sharing with you guys. Man, I don't want to go into the gory details for fear of turning some of the readers off. Anyone that feels there may be value in more information can contact me personally and I'll be glad to share.

I really want all of you to know that my goal remains to enjoy every day to the maximum. With that in mind I have plans to outsmart the worst part of this situation in a fun way.

I sold my '67 Nova ten second REALLY COOL street car yesterday. Did I mention how COOL it is?? Anyway, the sale has freed up a large chunk of change. Most of the proceeds will go toward a better car for my wife and a new roof for the house among other sucky things to buy. I am going to buy myself a new, at least new to me, preamp and likely a new cartridge.

I sold the Wright preamp and am considering the TAD reference that BizzyBee is offering. The audition period and 10% restocking fee seems very reasonable and if it's within my performance needs I'll be happy. If anyone has any input about this preamp, especially how well it does on the frequency extremes I'd really appreciate hearing about it. I have access to a large variety of the best old tubes to experiment with. The preamp is cheap enough to allow me to buy another cartridge. My preferences for cartridges are different from most of the ears that follow this thread. I'd really like a Sumiko Celebration but am concerned about the amount of gain in the mc section of the TAD. I'd like to know if Sumiko has a dedicated step up for this cartridge and how much it is. The alternative is the Blackbird which I know will work and clearly is within my budget. I haven't heard the Blackbird but have heard the Celebration. Input is always welcome.