Category Archives: Mrs. Charm

The successful, last-minute black-eyed peas run

Posted on December 31, 2014 | 6 comments

Our local H.E.B. was sold out of the magic peas when I went late this afternoon so I scurried a few miles across the neighborhood to Randall’s and lo and behold they had several cans left. “I’ll be damned,” I said aloud I was so surprised to find any. A woman in the aisle beside me said, “Thanks for reminding me. I almost forgot.”

The peas were ordered up by Mrs. Charm who said we didn’t eat them on New Year’s Day last year and “Look what happened.” She was diagnosed with cancer. So this time she didn’t want to take any chances.

The magic is an old Southern tradition meticulously observed in our (Central) part of Texas. Eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day and you’ll have a lucky year. Don’t and you won’t. Like I say the mrs is in no mood to tempt fate again. So I didn’t give up when I found the shelves bare of them at H.E.B. And I’m sure glad I didn’t. Eat your peas, America!

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Posted in Cancer, Mrs. Charm, Texana, The Culture

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Uncertainties

Posted on December 26, 2014 | 1 comment

Mrs. Charm’s cancer treatments were going well until the other day when her latest scan found good news and bad. The good news: her lymphoma tumor load seems to have significantly decreased across the board just four doses into her eight-dose chemo regimen.

The bad: the scan showed there was a dark mass on her small intestine where it connects with the large one. It could be a hard tumor, possibly a sign of small intestine lymphoma which is not an unusual development in lymphoma cancers. Or, as her gastroenterologist said, because she has none of the expected symptoms of small intestine lymphoma, it could be a false reading and he could be chasing a ghost.

So this morning he made what Atul Gawande says in Complications, A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, is the hardest medical decision of all: to do nothing, not even a biopsy. Only to continue the chemo doses. And wait until the next scan six weeks from now, unless symptoms set in before then, to see if the mass is still there. And so there we are, still uncertain about what’s going on but still seeing progress and hoping for the best.

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Posted in Cancer, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering

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Choppers last at Radio Shack

Posted on December 18, 2014 | 4 comments

Stopped off at our local Radio Shack the other day for a radio-controlled “toy” for the almost-15-year-old Mr. Boy who has been busy acing his first-semester high school freshman finals. Just for fun. Radio Shack, alas, is going out of business. The retail empire will be missed hereabouts and certainly in its home base of Fort Worth.

Anyhow, the RC vehicles were consequently marked way down, most at 50 percent off, some more. I got him an RC stunt car for $10. It’ll probably break pretty quick. Most of them do. Still be fun for however long it lasts.

Longer, I’m sure, than one of the twin-rotor choppers so popular the last few years. Until people figured out that, however cool they look, they are expensive to buy, hard to fly and easy to break. Mr. B. and I still have the two Mrs. Charm got us last year. Still in their boxes. Cowards, yep.

Likewise the choppers at Radio Shack, almost the last kind of RC toy still on the local shelves despite markdowns of as much as 70 percent. Which still leaves the price at $30 plus.

Back in the day (in the 1980s, when we never used that expression), my first word-processing laptop for work was a Radio Shack Tandy, complete with rubber ear cups for transmitting back to the newsroom over a land-line phone receiver. Which I once did to my own amazement on an assignment in Pennsylvania. Later I got a better one (larger, flip-up screen) of my own, then called a Notebook. Memories.

Bye, bye Radio Shack. Rest in Peace.

UPDATE:  My RIP link turns out to be a slam on the company by a disgruntled employee. I was fooled by the “eulogy” headline. It’s a long gripe about how tough retail is for the cashier-person, the lowest of the low. I remember it well. It was/is low-paid and exhausting. It’s what high school and college kids often wind up with for jobs, until they find something better. When they vow never to go back.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Obituaries, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana, The Economy

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When boring is good

Posted on December 11, 2014 | 4 comments

Mrs. Charm’s struggle with Stage III Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, DLBCL continues towards apparent remission. So little has changed in the past month it’s become boring to write of and easy to forget to do it.

Fourth chemo session Monday is producing the same familiar exhaustion, and the white-blood cells booster shot on Tuesday some bone pain, but neither was unexpected.

She’s due for another scan next week, a PET this time, after which we’ll know for sure if the cancer continues to retreat from her lymph nodes. That’s what the most recent blood test suggests and the doc found nothing worrisome.

So there are times when boring is good and this is one of them.

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Posted in Cancer, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly

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Mr. Boy’s straight A’s

Posted on November 13, 2014 | 4 comments

He still wears shorts in the winter-time, despite the Arctic blast that settled into Central Texas overnight Tuesday. But I now have to concede that it makes a certain sense.

He rides a school bus now, a bus which stops a short distance away on our street. Then, as he says, he spends the rest of the day moving from classroom to classroom, most of them overheated and drowse-inducing. No, public schools still haven’t solved that problem.

And you have to admire him for his straight A’s so far in high school, including the 90 he pulled out of algebra again for the first semester’s second of three cycles. Thankfully he has his mother’s academic work habits instead of mine.

UPDATE:  The 90 turned into an 89. He was angry at himself, another good sign.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather

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Hair loss and exhaustion masking good news

Posted on October 29, 2014 | 6 comments

Post-chemo (Monday’s second round), Mrs. Charm is moving slowly about the Rancho, almost like someone twice her age. Her energy of the past ten days is nowhere in evidence. Her hair loss which began late last week also makes it harder to ignore what’s happening to her. Only her faded Paddington-Bear hat makes it seem like old times.

But her cancer doc said Monday the energy will return in a week or two, the hair will grow back eventually (though probably not for several more months), and, best of all, the cancer-swollen lymph nodes definitely are shrinking. So joy—momentarily in abeyance—continues at Rancho Roly Poly.

Further enhanced by several containers of goodies delivered yesterday by a favorite work colleague, the latest in the tidal wave of home-cooked and bought meals from many friends to show her how much they love her. Which makes me feel smart all over again for marrying her.

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Posted in Cancer, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly

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All systems go for second round of chemo

Posted on October 17, 2014 | 4 comments

Mrs. Charm passed her recent blood tests such that the doc cleared her to grocery shop for the first time in weeks. Good thing, too, as I was weary of trying to find all the brands she specifies. A real treasure hunt. I still doubt whole wheat blueberry waffles exist.

All systems are go for a second round of chemo on the 27th. Unfortunately it’s the second one where the hair generally falls out. It’ll probably be traumatic since she hasn’t seen her head since she was an infant and didn’t know what it was then. I am doing Web searches on scarves and other soft head-coverings. Any ideas?

Otherwise, joy has returned to Mudville (i.e. Rancho Roly Poly) as Mrs. C. actually has some energy, in spurts at least, between the usual bouts of lethargy. Probably the two recent get-well cards from her colleagues helped. I haven’t see so many notes and signatures since I graduated from high school.

And the cooked meals continue to arrive at least twice weekly with more than enough for leftovers. We like the homemade ones best, even the black-beans-and-rice health-food concoction the other day, but they’re all good. And free, too. Who could argue with free?

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Posted in Cancer, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly

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