English actor Geoffrey Hughes has passed away

English actor Geoffrey Hughes has passed away

2 February 1944 – 27 July 2012

Prostate cancer has claimed the life of one of my favorite English actors. I am fortunate enough to have his personalized autographed picture hanging on the wall here by my desk. I sent him a birthday greeting a number of years ago, not expecting anything in response, but out of his big heart he replied.

I especially enjoyed him as the character "Onslo" in the British sitcom "Keeping Up Appearances" - a must see for you Americans.

An excerpt from Wikipedia:

As well as a wide range of TV and film appearances, Hughes was best known for a series of supporting roles in popular UK television dramas. He played Vernon Scripps in the British drama series Heartbeat (2001–05, 2007); Twiggy in the popular television comedy The Royle Family (1998–2000, 2006, 2008); Onslow in the sitcom Keeping Up Appearances (1990–95) and Eddie Yeats in the soap opera Coronation Street (1974–83, 1987).

R.I.P. Mr. Hughes

7.5 Weeks of Radiation

Yes, this is the place I lay down upon every week day.


Five weeks of radiation beam treatment are over with only 17 additional 'focused' zaps to go.


I have felt a lot more fatigued this past week and have that stiff pain in my neck and those nagging background headaches.


Looking forward to it all being over and the side effects to wind down - the oncologist said side effects can endure for six months.

Glowing Report – Feeling Radiant!

I'm almost halfway through my radiation treatments and don't notice any overly intolerable side effects.


I can hardly wait to be done with this portion and my final injection one week later!


Then... it will probably be about 3-4 months for that final injection's side effects to wear away.

Then I'm home free!

Rays of Hope!

Tomorrow commences my 37 weekdays in a row treatment with beams of radiation.

I have taken the paraffin liquid for over a week already and was surprised that it was not bad at all - at least compared to one of those fad oil drinking diets where one uses fowl tasting oils.

I found that over the past 10 days or so I have been literally exhausted by 19:30 each evening and force myself to stay up until 20:00 or 20:30, but still must get up at least every hour to use the restroom due to the 'feeling' of need. I am also experiencing joint pains in my wrists and right ankle - may have hip pains in the near future according to the side-effect list.

Looking forward to after my last radiation rays on October 9 followed by my last shot on October 15. Then just a few months until that shot's side effects wear down and all is back to normal.

Where's Doctor McCoy when you need him the most?

Counting Sheep

Counting Sheep

or

Counting on Sheep?

It gets wearisome after 6+ months of light and short sleep intervals. Counting on the practice of counting sheep is only relaxing at best.


The good news is... two more of those shots and the reasons for sleeping short 20 minute to 1 hour 'naps' should start to wind away 3-4 months after the last injection during week 42.


Onward I go... into the blue!

California Summer!

Actually …

… I am a long way from my home state of California. After my second 12-week interval shot, the hot-flashes seem to have shifted to more of having flashes of feeling normal. I am warm-hot most of the time. The benefit is experiencing a California feeling summer in Norway!

Working outside is an added benefit to my current state of warmness. I sweat just like those 40c/104°F California days working in arid areas on construction projects running as fast as possible. I actually feel better than I have in years, which I am sure is due to the sweating cycle of my body finally being able to function normally at my California life-long levels again.

Plus, I saved the price of a trip back home – too bad    L

Until next time …

One More Shot for the Road

Getting ready for next week's second injection of hormone blocking remedy into my stomach lining.

I was able to sleep 4 whole unbroken hours last night for the first time in weeks, followed by the normal 1 hour wakeups until dawn. My previous record was 2 hours 2 times. Not quite sure if this was because I am so exhausted, or that it's time for the next shot and the last 12-week's medicine dose is dwindling away.

I'm ready for that big needle! C'mon, nurse ...