What's That Slop You're Eating?

I concluded my last entry with a reference to the Honeymooners or at least Jackie Gleason in general so why not continue. Gleason was a Saturday night staple at the Taylor Family home in the late 1950s or whenever the show was popular. One night Ralph Kramden walks in and says to his ole buddy Ed Norton who is hovering over a bowl of soup "what's that slop you're eating?" It reminds me of my daily regimen of "product." Once Diane told me it had already been partially digested which is suppose to help my nausea, the slop analogy is always with me. This stuff is awful but it also is breakfast, lunch, dinner, cocktails, snacks, and dessert. I am not losing any more weight and ingest about 6 cans every 24 hours.

I have been waiting to write until I had some sort of break through but one has been slow coming. While the phlebitis has cleared up, I have substituted sores in the front of my tongue which are like chancre surrounding the tongue. We did manage to get some medicine (diflucan) and it has finally kicked in and I have some relief from the pain. My biggest challenges of late are mouth dryness and taste buds that have been destroyed and make nothing sound good. Darn it. I had hoped to by-pass this little issue but a quick call to Coach P let me know that "Gordy, now this is when it gets tough. People think because treatment has been completed you are feeling better and simply will not be the case for a number of weeks. This will all be very incremental--don't forget that." I sort of needed that wake-up call and have to remember to take things one day at a time.

On a positive note, I do feel better today. I took a 40-minute walk at 6:30 this morning and then around noon worked in the yard for 90 minutes. Diane was not pleased and in retrospect, I may have overdone it a little bit but all of this will involve daily adjustments.

Over the last weekend, Van Pogue and his lovely wife Lisa stopped by. They live in northern California and they were in town on some family business. Van is a Macomb native and always wanted to be like me when he grew up but instead he is a very handsome 6'2"--some guys get all the luck.

Gordon and Ryan have arrived for the weekend. And conveniently for them, the lawn had just been mowed. NO--not by me.

We see Dr. El-Khoury on Tuesday morning in Burlington. I guess he and his staff miss me. Or maybe they miss Diane.

I never thought the day would come but I do have trouble speaking--very thick. Actually, this is the point of contention between Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. I look at her and say "damn it, listen to me. How many times do I have to repeat myself." To which Diane replies, "try to articulate a little more--slow down."