January 29, 2007
We made a fast trip to the VA in Houston and back. I didn't realize how fast the car could accelerate from a dead stop to 80 until riding with Mark at the wheel. He has a sense of urgency to his life and tries to do lots of things fast as if running out of time and he could be. We just don't know how long he has. His sister asked me why I said on the blog that he was bored. "Didn't he just get back from a trip (see trip in blog below?" I explained to Stephanie that the person with cancer has a different perspective. Never knowing if he will get extremely sick or die in the next 20 minutes, 20 days or 20 weeks, Mark wants to cram in everything fun that he can. He feels better when he has some trip or event planned to look forward to. We were to stay in Houston until Wednesday late, but the chemotherapy was cancelled as Mark's white cell count was too low. His doctor this week was very easy to talk to (remember a different doctor each visit at the VA oncology unit). The doctor was Dr. Breene (spelling? It starts with a B and rhymes with Greene). On the way home Mark appologized for being cranky due to being in pain and expressed concern it was a wasted trip because he could not have chemo, but I encouraged him to think otherwise. Why was this trip not a waste of time? Mark learned his wbcs were down. He got a shot of neupogen to help bring them back up. He had a good talk with the doctor and with his favorite nurse Abraham Ferrer (see story and picture below about nurse Ferrer). We ate a lot of seafood again and I enjoyed the process and I suspect Mark did too the way he attacked those king crab claws and crawfish gumbo.

January 20, 2007
Mr. Mark Gets Time off from Chemo; Takes Solo Trip To Jackson Mississippi and to Antones in Austin to Hear Pinetop Perkins; a Music Legend

Jackson, Mississippi
Surprise of all surprises. Mark was scheduled for chemotherapy three weeks in a row at the VA hospital, but unexpectedly the plan changed and he was given two weeks off. Mark and Mom planned a trip to Jacksonville, Illinois to visit friends and relatives, flying into nearby Springfield; a weekend last minute special cheap fare.This plan was changed because an ice storm was expected in the midwest. Mom found Mark a bargain ticket to Jackson Mississippi to visit his friend Ken and Ken's brother Gary. The guys sat in rockers on Ken's cabin porch out in the country, visited Ken's mother, checked out the casino food, rode motorcycles, and fished. Austin got an ice storm too. Mom worked 26 hours straight at the drug study clinic because relief staff could not make it in. Mark stayed two extra days in Jackson because of the likelihood of cancelled flights or not being able to get home from the Austin airport due to road closures. Sleeping in airports would be too much for someone with cancer. Mom came home from the 26 hour work experience and slept 15 hours straight.
Mr. Mark is lucky so many people love and care about him and he wants to live every minute he can. Loving kindness makes all the difference in the world to Mark and to others who are seriously ill and those who care for them.

Pinetop Perkins - Mark and Mom got an invitation from Barry Nowlin Friday night to hear music legend Pinetop Perkins at Antones, a famous music club in Austin. . At age 93 Pinetop plays great piano and has a wonderful singing voice. Unfortunately mom had to work but Mark was able to go and enjoy Pinetop's presentation for a couple of hours. Thank-you Barry! Mom worked 3-11 and Mark beat her home. He was fast asleep in his bed when Mom came home. Mark requires lots of rest, but miracle of miracles he is getting out and about. Check out Pinetop's concert dates accross the USA at http://www.pinetopperkins.com/index.htm Did you know that Pinetop was the piano player for Muddy Waters Band for 12 years? In addition to being a blues man he plays boggie woogie which is something mom loves.

Mark is lucky to have people wanting to spent time with him and share special events with him and even luckier for being able to do this. Think back to a few weeks ago when he could not get out of bed long due to pain and had trouble riding in a car to Houston. Now he is up more, much less pain, and he is able to drive to Houston. Mark still has to pace himself. After the two hour visit to Antones, he did some major resting.

Addendum January 22
MEDICO
We are getting e-mails from folks who volunteered with MEDICO in remote areas of Honduras and Nicaragua at the same time Mark and Mom did in the past. We think about the astounding things our teams did in bringing medical, eye, and dental care to people in the Moskito Coast and other isolated areas and the wonderful adventures we had. Mark and Mom can't go to remote areas far removed from modern medicine now, but would love to hear from more MEDICO volunteers and maybe you would like to learn more about MEDICO http://www.medico.org/ or more about some of our adventures in remote areas of the world .
Addendum January 27, o7
Today Mark is bored and has been bored most of this week. He has energy to use and can't come up with anything to do other than work on the computer. He bought some new software and hardware for the computer and is playing with it. This morning he advised me that he needs something to look forward to and asked when was his mom getting around to planning a trip or something. We head to Houston tomorrow in preparation for three days of chemotherapy. This is not what he had in mind.
Instructions:
If you click on any picture on the blog it will enlarge and you can see the details; for example click on the picture of Mark and his nurse in the next blog and you can see their faces. There are links throughout the blog that you can click on such as MEDICO and that webpage will come up.