Another good day!

Just back from another good Dr. visit.

No bad news from my 3rd scan (last scan was Friday) doctor said all is still going well. Nothing to be concerned about. Scan is still looking good, and nothing bad is showing up...now if only the chemo took less time...

Lou Prete

Sent from Samsung tablet

I didn't mention this...

Two weeks ago I asked the doctor about how long the chemo would last.

He said "if all goes well we would be doing this treatment for the rest of the year."  (that would be @ around mid to late May)

Then he said "if I continue to improve, or remain the same,  we would probably drop the second chemo and continue the Avastin probably once a month."

He didn't really say, but I assume he was referring to like forever. 

I didn't ask him, at the time, it may have been more than I wanted to know.  I was not overly pleased with the answer, but is what it is. 

I guess whatever happens...

So that's whats going on down here.

Lou Prete

Sent from Samsung tablet

One year ago...

...Sailing from Messina to Barcelona.

Today, another good scan.  Things just don't get much better than this.

Dr. said scan was just as good as before. Nothing to worry about. Just keep on keeping on. 

If things get any better I won't know what to do.

Sent from Samsung tablet

The good news never stops...

So, this morning as the Dr. was getting ready to leave, Kathy asked him about driving, and he said if it had been 6 months since the seizure it would be OK to start driving again.

I about fell over because this was the guy who said that he'd never give me permission to drive again.

He said that I shouldn't be alone in the car for a while, but I'm pretty happy about that news. (especially since I wound up driving part of the way home yesterday)

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another good Dr. visit

I met with Dr. Asher (brain surgeon) today.

After looking at the scans he basically said, "Well, it looks like I'm done with you for a while."

He said that if Dr. Haggstrom finds anything new, or things start going bad he'll contact me but the scans look good and there is nothing more I can do for you at this time.

Basically, while not cured, there is nothing else that he can really do for me at this time and to have a nice day.

Lets just say it was a good day!

So after some waiting around it was finally time to visit the Dr

(11:00am sometimes seems late.)

So we finally get there and the Dr's all about "squeeze my fingers,  touch my nose, step down, step up...blah, blah..."

Finally he says "Have you seen the film yet?"

And I say "no, that's why we're here I thought."

So he pulls it up on the computer, side-by-side with the one taken right after the surgery and I won't say the tumor is gone,  but it sure looks different. The X shaped thing in the middle is nearly symmetric (way out before), and the area where the tumor was is filled back in with pretty normal colored looking stuff. The edge that was left over from before (the part of the tumor the surgeon couldn't get) is darker which makes it look more normal (kind of like brain stuff).

They say you can't win with this type of tumor, but I'm feeling pretty good about the way things went today in spite of all that...

Lou Prete

Sent from Samsung tablet

MRI results

Friday I had my first "post-operation" MRI.

Tomorrow I will meet with Dr. Haggstrom (chemo dude) to discuss the results. 

I am, of course, hoping for good news.  There really hasn't been a lot of good news except that I have been feeling pretty good for a guy with a brain tumor...ok well I have been tired but that's just part of the game,  right. 

Hopefully there will be something good to say after all this.

I also have a meeting with Dr. Asher (surgeon) on Monday,  July 1.

Lou Prete

Sent from Samsung tablet

in case you were wondering...

how that scar thing is shaping up, here's a photo.

As you can see it's coming along pretty well.  Mostly shrunk down to not much left.

2nd chemo treatment

Mike said he was disappointed that I hadn't been blogging about the chemo treatments.  Here's a shot of the port...unfortunately you really can't see it because of the gauze and all.  Maybe next time I'll be more ready and get a shot as she's hooking it up.

Lou Prete

Sent from Samsung tablet

if this had worked...

the issues were many and I finally gave up on the idea of the blog.  the main thing was that I had it set up to send either e-mail from the i-pad, or pic messages from my phone which would post to the blog.

well the phone wasn't "smart" enough and the ship's e-mail server never could get reconciled with the i-pad and after the former NASA computer whiz couldn't get it working I gave up.

but if it had worked it may have been something like this:

Agosto 1 - 2, 2012
But I don't want to go to Detroit...
or Paris either for that matter, but that's where we went.  About 1/2 way to the airport we gat an automated message that our flight from CLT to JFK has been delayed @ 2 hours.  Since we only had an hour and 20 min lay-over that wasn't good news.  As we pull into longterm parking another message. The flight is now 2 1/2 hours late.  Long story short; we are "protected" on a flight from Charlotte to Detroit to Paris to Barcelona, and instead of arriving at 9:40am with a leisurely 7 hours to catch the boat via a prearranged transfer shuttle, we now are scheduled to arrive at 2:35pm which is 35 minutes after the shuttle service ends and leaves us 2 hours to get to the ship, if there are no further delays...which there were.
The plane from Paris to Barcelona was @ 40 minutes late, landing at 3:15.  The ship was to sail at 5:00pm but embarkation was to end at 4:00.  Luckily we had no checked bags, hussled off the plane, caught a taxi and got to the ship around 3:45.
I the short amount of time left before the ship sailed, we got our bags to the stateroom, found Mike and family, and broke my (brand new) glasses...

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Agosto 3

Marseilles, Les Baux De Provence

Former captial of Provence now a quiet little mountain top village with @ 20 full itme residents and a lot of pictures of Grace Kelly since at some point this was part of the realm of the Prince of Monaco, and they made a movie in part here.

Pretty neat little place, and they drive cars on those roads!!

the village isn't that visible from below as it blends with the mountain so well, that was part of the defence

 



they actually drive cars on these streets

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Agosto 4

Florence (Firenze)

Many places in Florence prohibited photographs and/or videos.

Piazza de Signoria













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Santa Maria del Fiore (il Duomo)

Il Duomo

the bell tower

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Ponte Vecchio

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The Accademia:



pictures were not permitted inside Galleria dell' Accademia, but Mike and I made arrangements to meet David out back for a photo op : )

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Agosto 5

Roma

Piazza San Pietro and Basilica San Pietro in Vaticano was a real highlight for Kathy.  Beyond that I don't have the words.

in St. Peter's Square, the Basilica in the background.

the Pieta

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Trevi Fountain

this just started out as a way to get some water into the city...

then they got all carried away.  the water is coming from 24 km away.

you know the words...sing along

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Arch of Constantine

Colosseo
the old ruins were very interesting...but frankly they weren't in great shape.

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Agosto 6

Naples, Vesuvius, Pompeii

the sun beginning to rise over Mt. Vesuvius as we arrive at the port of Naples

Me at the top of Mt. Vesuvius with 2 red-headed Kathys.



Pompeii was destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 a.d. the advancements they had made were incredible.



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Agosto 8

Dubrovnik, Croatia

We really had no idea what to expect here, and had trouble deciding what to do.  We wound up just taking a cab to "The Old Town" and walking the city walls and the streets.  What a pleasant surprize.







walking the city wall

a view of the "Old Town" from the wall.

this shot was from our table at lunch in Old Town.  Croatia is the only place we visited that wasn't part of the EU.  So they didn't take Euros (well, some places did but they weren't supposed to).  Lunch cost about 80 Kuna, that's about 13 USD.

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Agosto 9 - 10

Venice

When you consider that Venice is built on poles that were stuck into the muck about 700 years ago I don't know whether the fact that it is sinking is nearly as amazing as the fact that it hasn't sunk already.

Of course we rode a gondola in Venice.  Our gondoleer lost his gondoleer hat at the first bridge we went under, wouldn't sing, and talked only sparingly (when he wasn't on his phone.) SHEESH!

lookin' for shade anywhere! Italia e molto caldo in agosto!!!

along the Canal Grande

in la Piazza San Marco (the Basilica in the backgrond)



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Agosto 12

Messina, Sicily

Remembering the fate of the Costa Concordia I will note that from the vantage point of the ship there is very little space between Sicily and the "toe of the boot"

the boxy little light house is on Sicily, the hills across the water are not.

The Greek Theater in Taormino with a view of the bay.

a rather poor shot of Mt Etna.

from Messina, which was the port where the boat docked to Taormina, which was the town we visited was @ 25 miles and we must have gone thru at least 30 tunnels to get there, in the photo below you can see spans of bridges that seem to disappear into the mountain-sides...tunnels.

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Agosto 14

Barcelona, Spain

La Rambla

Catederal Barri Gotic

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so that's sorta what it might have looked like if things had worked like I planned, well actually there would have been fewer pix.