Five Months on a Feeding Tube!

 

Feeding tube installed in my stomach.

Feeding food and syringe used to inject food into tube.

 Love & Peas Protein Powder.

 Chocolate Ensure Plus.

My protein shake.

Thirty-five consecutive radiation treatments lasting from mid November through late December destroyed my taste buds and caused a condition called Mucositis. Because of that solid food and water had either no taste or a metallic taste so I was forced on to a liquid diet. Due to concerned about my plunging weight it was decided to install a feeding tube directly into my stomach so I would get needed calories and water..

Along with the feeding tube I continued to drink homemade protein shakes which surprisingly tasted great!! The feeding tube was finally removed as I was holding my weight orally for a month. I must say I was glad to see it go!

Refinishing our old Hummingbird feeder.

Scored a big Perky Pet find on the internet and was able to order new feeding flowers for our rather weather worn Hummingbird feeder. A quick cut of fresh red spray paint along with the new yellow flowers and we're ready for our Hummer season!

Finally Super Bowl Champs!

Seattle Seahawks 2013 Season Super Bowl Champs!!!

I've been waiting for this since 1976!

Go Seahawks!!

New Pants!!

New pants that actually fit me!!

 New underwear and belt too!

 From a 40 to a 34 waste!!

Since my tonsil cancer has effected my taste buds and I suffer with Mucositis, a side effect from radiation treatments, I have been unable to eat solid foods since August 2013. I started this adventure at 207 pounds and weighed in today at 148 pounds. I've gone from a 40 to a 34 waste!

Christmas 2013

Marco helping to wrap presents.

Christmas Tree.

 Carolyn, June and Sam.

 Maddy and I with the same haircut, lol!

Grams snack table.

Beth looking good after her Christmas morning discharge from the hospital! She was so happy to be home!

Christmas was a delightful day with Beth being discharged from the hospital that very morning. It was wonderful having her home and not celebrating the day in the hospital.

Christmas Outdoor Light Display 2013

Snowman and new 6' Christmas Tree under side yard trees.

Santa, Rudolph and presents under front yard tree.

Display at the end of front steps.

Front steps and door.

Neighbors all gathered this year to help my put up our outdoor Christmas lights.

Thanks to Chris, Sam, Tom, Joe and Neal!!

Working on the Railroad

 New 12x4' layout.

 Finally room enough to place the entire town.

Building part of the town housing area.

DCC Canadian National C-Liner.

Main Street divider treeline.

Recuperating from cancer has given me lots of free time to work on my HO model railroad. I designed and built a completely new DCC 12x4' layout. Using my air powered nail gun made the construction a snap! I'll never use a hammer again, lol!

The layout base is covered with pink insulation foam allowing me to easily sculpt surface features such as hills, valleys and even river beds!

Using new DCC technology will facilitate multi train scheduling so numerous trains can run on one track!

Spring 2014

 Daffodils

 Purple Crocus

Crab-tree Blossoms

Spring is trying to blossom even with our weird weather swings over the past few weeks!

Winter 2014

January 2014 brought our area two winter blasts. 

Our first blast closed Atlanta down and stranded commuters in their cars on local highways and children in local schools for several days. Public opinion of local leaders and weather forecast personal was at an all time low to say the least, lol! 

Our second blast left seven inches of snow but was gone in a day with the return of sunny weather!

The last picture is our house covered in snow taken by our neighbor Dawn Smith.

Recovery Time Model Building

 Apollo 11 Command Module

 HE 162 Volksjager

 Bell X-1

Spirit of St. Louis

ME 163 Komet

Over my five month recover time I have returned to building 1/32 model airplanes to add to the collection of my Basement Air Force! I have 30 plus models hanging over my model railroad.

Cancer Treatment 2013

 Certificate of Completion

 Radiation Mask

 Having a radiation treatment!

 I lost all my hair during Chemo treatments!

Radiation burns on my neck, ouch!!!

From September through December I endured two rounds of chemo treatments followed by thirty five consecutive days of radiation treatments accompanied by weekly chemo injections!

August 2013 Open Heart Surgery!

 Just after my open heart surgery.

Flowers from Beth.

On the evening of August 10 I was enjoying a movie with Beth when my left arm suddenly began to hurt. Knowing what that potentially meant I had Beth drive me to the hospital! Sure enough I suffered a second heart attack due to a blocked 1999 stent implant. Open heart surgery was the result of that heart attack. I was hospitalized for a week and returned home as good as new but with cancer, lol!!

Back to Blogging!

Good Morning.

My apologies for my resent neglect of our family blog over the past few months!

With the constantly changing social network situation Facebook has become the new source of family contact. All our friends, family etc have made the move to Facebook making my seven year family blog a bit of a dinosaur but truthfully I have missed my creative blogging, lol!! So back to it!!

As you can see by this recent picture I look a bit different. Last August I suffered another heart attack resulting in a double bypass! During my stay in the hospital I was also diagnosed with stage 4 tonsil cancer which I have been undergoing treatment for over the past seven months. I have endured two rounds of chemo and thirty five consecutive radiation/chemo treatments.

Happily I’m on the mend although a lot skinnier than when I started the treatments! All parties are confident that my next PET scan, in a few weeks, will show no further cancer.

By the way thanks to everyone for their constant and ongoing prayers on my behalf. They all have been greatly appreciated.

Ralph.