Stop and Smell the Dandelions

Across the Fence #552


This is the time of year when all those little yellow flowers start appearing in lawns all over the country, including ours, but we live in the country now and don't have any close neighbors that have to worry about our dandelion seeds blowing onto their yards.

 I'm not going to worry about the dandelions this year. I might even go out, pick a few, and smell them. When we lived in Madison, we had neighbors surrounding us. If their lawns were nice and green, they didn’t appreciate dandelions. I also spent a lot of time, money, and effort trying to kill them. But this year things have changed. 

I recently came across a speed bump on the Uff Da Bahn of life. Everything looks a lot different to me right now. As some of you already know from comments made by editors, I’m dealing with some health problems.

 I’d like to address those problems so you have an idea what’s going on. I don't plan to hide anything. I can tell you right now, before I go any farther, I plan to keep writing this column as long as I can and as long as there are people who want to read it. 

During the past couple months, I started having problems with the left side of my body and my left hand. I always write my stories longhand first on a yellow pad and then type it into the computer. My handwriting greatly deteriorated. I’d try and reread what I had written so I could type it into a file. I had problems using my computer. Everything came out wrong. I thought something was wrong with my computer and had that checked. Linda could use it just fine. I started knocking over coffee cups, and dropping things. It was like carpal tunnel in my left hand. I’ve had that before and couldn't open a gas cap or the top of a bottle. Many little things were piling up. Then I noticed my thinking and reasoning was not as clear. Linda realized when we were out driving that my decision-making was slow. The light would turn green and I'd still be sitting there. A lot of little things were cropping up. I was still walking 2 to 3 miles a day, but found it was getting harder and harder to find the energy to start. I was unsteady on my feet. 

We were scheduled to leave on a 8-day bus trip to NewYork City on May 16. I knew it was not a good time to be going on a trip. Thankfully, we decided to cancel.                                                                                                       

On May 21, I tried getting off my riding mower and couldn't move my left leg. I came in the house and Linda said we’re going right to the clinic. Dr. Fouts was there and able to see me. They did some testing and blood tests. It was decided I should have an MRI. On Saturday, May 23 at 12:30, I had a full body and brain MRI scan. An hour later I was on my way to Gundersen Health Center ER in La Crosse. I would spend the next week at Gundersen on the neurology science floor. I walked in. The nurse said to me, “People don't usually walk in here. They ride in a wheelchair.” I told her, “I plan to walk out too.” 

Steroid treatment was begun immediately to shrink the swelling in my brain. Other tests were done to see what kind of movement I still had left on my left-hand side and they did therapy sessions twice a day to help me do things I had trouble doing. I had another MRI scan to better isolate what was going on. The surgeons had a very good idea what I had from studying the scans. The plan was to do exploratory surgery and a biopsy. On Thursday, May 28th, I had surgery that confirmed what the doctors expected. I have a malignant brain tumor called Glioblastoma. To put it mildly, if you're going to have a brain tumor it’s not the one you want. It’s probably the most aggressive, fastest-growing brain tumor you can have. It’s situated on the right hand side of my brain on the control panel for the left-hand side of my body. Surgical removal is not an option. The plan is to use radiation and chemo drugs to try and slow down the growth and hopefully reduce the size to keep more pressure off my control center. Now it ‘s wait until June18th when they remove the staples and make sure the incision in my skull has healed properly. Then we can begin radiation treatments every day for six weeks. At the same time, I’ll also be undergoing chemotherapy treatment every day. After that we go to chemo only for the next month and then another MRI to see where we are.

I’m in full fighting mode! I come from a long line of Viking warriors. The VC and NVA in Vietnam couldn‘t kill me, and I plan to battle this hitchhiker in my brain and kick the crap out of it too.  

People who thought I didn’t have brain, will now have to eat their words. The surgeon found one. 

By the way, I did walk out, when I was released after surgery. The nurse let me walk out my door into the hall, where I agreed to ride in the wheelchair so she wouldn’t get in trouble. That was important to me.

So that's where we are. There are many things I can't do with my left hand at this point, including operate a computer. Just drinking a cup of coffee can be a challenge. 

The worst part has been not being able to write. I couldn’t write longhand or on the computer. I'm very lucky, this past weekend my son-in-law Tim, installed the Dragon program on my computer, a voice recognition program, so I'm writing this story by sitting here and talking into a microphone and it converts what I say into words. It will take some practice getting used to, but it’s working great. Across the Fence is back in business.

Photo by friend and relative, Jon Olav Andersen in Toten, Norway.

Meanwhile, I urge everyone to stop and smell the dandelions. Look around you and enjoy all the little details in your life. Live life to the fullest and don’t waste a precious moment.

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