The reunion

This past weekend was our annual reunion. I went Friday and came home Saturday night. Sleeping over was not the best for me. Sunday I was sore all over - like I overdid it.

The weekend was everything it was cracked up to be. I didn't get too many short jokes. 5 minutes after we were all there, we all talked about where it would be next year. Everyone was mellow. Saturday we went to the cliffs overlooking the beach. The conversations were never ending. A good time was had by all. The house left a little to be desired, but at least we were all under 1 roof.

This past week they discovered an adenoma - a benign tumor - on my one of my parathyroids (there are 4 glands). This has caused the excess parathyroid hormone in my blood which has leached the calcium from my bones giving me osteoporosis. They are going to schedule surgery for me in January- they're all booked up till then and my levels are not high enough to warrent bumping someone from the schedule. The surgery is done as an outpatient, which is nice. They remove the tumor and while I'm still open, check my parathyroid levels. If they return to normal, they close me up and send me home. If the levels are still high, they remove most of the other 3 glands, close me up and send me home.

At the same time, my oncologist found that they do kyphoplasty at their facility in Oakland, about 60 miles away. My oncologist sent a referrel and they've scheduled me for an MRI to see if I qualify medically. If I qualify medically, they will schedule me after I have my parathyroids done - it's best done when my blood calcium is stable. The kyphoplasty will restore most of my lost height and there is a 95% chance it will rid me of my pain. FINALLY TO BE FREE OF TAKING PAIN MEDS. I should also be able to walk straight up, not hunched.

This has been a good week for me.