A lot of stuff happening...

Maybe I will come back and make this more entertaining but I will just quickly get folks up to date who are curious.

My teeth are good.  They were cleared on Monday, so that is off my list.  The radiation can go forward. My (new) dentist did find a couple of small cavities but took care of them the same day.  I spent 4 hours there but had a fine time.  I am not a dentist-phobe at all. My dentist, who sort of reminded me of the golfer Phil Mickelson, is a lefty—like Phil.  And, they have wifi in the office—can't live without that!

My medical organization, Physician's Medical Group, did approve my radiation at Stanford but not my chemo. Since it is being done concurrently, this means I will have to go to Stanford in the morning for radiation followed by chemo in the afternoon in Santa Cruz. Argh.  Double argh.  Triple argh.  I am appealing this decision but I have been told that most of these aren't overturned.  My PCP, though, is going to bat for me, and I think that is the best hope.  I will give a longer report about this in the future.

And, in other news...


The privet tree—the leaves, bark and berries—are poisonous to dogs.  Doug and Laura's back yard is dominated by these trees.  Our little chew-on-anything puppy discovered this truth about privets yesterday, as did we.  She is doing fine now but we did have a bad few hours, but the vet gave her the thumbs up.  Leslie is raking now.

In the meantime, Leslie's dad had surgery to repair a leaky heart valve yesterday (all went well) and Leslie's aunt is in hospice.

Beyond that, life is hum-drum...

Late addition to this post: The 32-year-old man who we consider the closest thing to our son dropped by and told us he is being treated for testicular cancer. Damn!