Hey Y'all. I apologize for being away so long. I'll bring you up to date on what's been going on.
This post will tell you some things only four people know about...my wife, two daughters, and son in law. My wife knows all of it and the other three know most of it. I wasn't going to tell y'all about it but Don said it maybe a good idea that it may help someone else.
As many of y'all know, about four years ago I developed Type II diabetes. When it was discovered by the doctors at the Army hospital the numbers were higher than they had ever seen and said if I had not come in when I did I may not have made it over two months longer. I followed all the programs they set forward and in less than a year I was completely diabetes free.
Also, doing that time I had a few skin cancers that turned out benign and were removed.
About two and a half years ago I was told I had prostate cancer and it was stage 1. The Army said it was a result of Agent Orange in Viet Nam. I don't believe that. Agent Orange is blamed for a lot of things. I think it was something different. I think God called St. Peter over and said "Pete, I think I over did it with Dee Stafford. I gave the boy good looks, strong brain, and excellent health. It ain't right one man should have all of that in one package. I think I'll knock down some of that health. Let's give him a dose of prostrate cancer." That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
The treatment was to watch the PSA because the cancer is slow growing. When they initially found it they had taken six probes in the prostate and one was cancerous. Well, since that time we have been watching it and things were gradually going pretty good and it was treated with some pills. Last month the PSA increased significantly and a saturation biopsy was scheduled. In that one 12 probes are taken. That was about three weeks ago and I'm waiting on the results. The last time took awhile also because they had to send them off to CA to make sure. I guess I'll call this week to see what's going on. There are only two options: radiation and operation to take the prostate out. I don't want to go through the radiation and the doctor, who is great, said I'm butting against the upper limit of the age to have the operation. So, I guess that will be done pretty soon.
About six months ago some tests showed some concern with my kidneys and scheduled me to see a kidney doctor. By the way, they don't call it the kidney clinic. It's got a fancy name--Nephrology Services. The doctor did some more tests and said the diabetes had left some scarring and cause a 40% reduction in my kidney function. I recently went for either an MRI or CAT SCAN for another test. It maybe an MRI cause I didn't see any cats. I'm got to go back and see the results of that. The bottom line is the kidney situation is still a work in progress and don't know what the level of concern is with it.
That brings me to the Gathering this year. I know some of y'all need to make reservations on planes to get the best deal pretty soon. Right now, I don't know what is happening with all these tests and I would hate for y'all to schedule time off and transportation and then I not be able to handle things. For that reason, I don't think we will be able to have the Gathering this year. If things work out OK, we'll do it next year. I'm sorry to tell y'all that but things are in a state of flux right now and I'd hate to see anyone lose money.
Well, that's about it. I'll do another post about the remodeling of our kitchen. It came out great even with the over budget and over time for completion. My daughter worked up a post on it with pictures and I'll send them to Don and ask him to forward it to the site.
I'm sorry for the cancellation,
Dee
