March 4, 2007 • another blasted checkup

I head back to D.C. on Sunday evening for more scans — last trip was “inconclusive” which means they found a slight enlargement of the tumor area on the millimeter scale; according to the NIH docs, no cause for panic, it could be the MRI machine that day, differences in my body, or hopefully, it is swelling because it is under assault from the chemotherapy! But just in case they are pulling me back up there for PET, CAT and more MRI scans. That is Mon, Tues, Wed, then a Neuroclinic for my arm on Thurs, NIH to evaluate/see scans on Friday, and back home on Saturday, hopefully in time to see some 7 yr old coach pitch baseball! Then we’re going camping for the boys’ Spring Break; gonna be great!

Of course there remains so much to do in the house — hanging pictures, furnishing, finding places for everything and putting everything in its place. Sheila is doing a great job making the new house a home. We’ll be ready for visitors in no time.

Once again I have to plug for our wounded — over 3000 dead, but there are so many coming home severely wounded everyday. pray for them and their families; please honor them in your hearts; I promise you, none of these guys are sticking around for the money — it is their love of country, loyalty to its citizens, and real patriotism that keeps our soldiers fighting. I’m not there anymore but when I was, I wasn’t gonna get blown up by an IED. Trust me; there is no greater feeling than having a citizen of the U.S. shake your hand and thank you for serving for them. Hell, in D.C. I have folks who aren’t yet citizens thanking me for the U.S. stepping up when their countries can’t or won’t.

If you didn‚t get to see Bob Woodruff “Reports on Iraq” a couple of nights ago, I highly recommend going on ABC.com and taking 45 minutes to watch the streaming video — he is the co-anchor that got wounded so severely last year and gives incredible insight both into the war and to the road back many of the injured and their families face.

Thanks to those of you who‚ve shared your own cancer struggles; it is encouraging to know I’m not alone, and to be able to be sympathetic with each other.

Thank you all for your help and support. Speak to you soon,
Danny

February 10, 2007

MRIs are inconclusive, which is NOT what I wanted…I wanted to hear that, without a doubt, I’m kicking this things ass. The pics show no growth externally but no shrinkage either…unfortunately they both showed that it might be growing back internally, in the space they cut out; that would mean the chemo isn’t working. Good caveat: it could just be contrast dye leakage and mean nothing bad.

So no reason to panic, but both Walter Reed Neuro and NIH Neuro feel they need to bring me back up the first week of March for more scans (PET, CAT and another MRI). Good news is that they think the chemo is at least keeping it under control…no growth showing on the margins, although we don’t know how fast it was growing to begin with.

Walter Reed wants to take this nodule out of my right arm soonest to get to the pathologists, so they squeezed me into their OR schedule on Tuesday, 13 Feb…this extends my trip until 15 Feb (they want me to stick around one extra day, to ensure no adverse reactions). They also have a neuroclinic the first week in March to try to figure out my right arm nerve atrophy, which will correspond to my scan trip in March.

Just a quick answer to the questions folks have been calling to ask. Thanks again for all your concern.

All my love, Dan

February 4, 2007

Made it to D.C. again last night…already have three MRIs down, one to go and a handful of appointments at Walter Reed and the National Institutes of Health Neuro-Oncology Branch. Pray for no growth or shrinkage to show on the MRIs, or I may be back under the knife to get more of the damnable thing out of my noggin’. I will most likely be here for a week and will update you when home.

Speaking of which, we have moved into our new home…finally! It has been a long road since Hurricane Ivan in Sep ‘04 and there are still challenges with the house, but we have a place to call “home” and it is the only one for which we are paying.

Once more I must tell you how much it means to me to have all y’alls support and prayers (that is the real plural “y’all”! Welcome to the South!). From my readings and conversations positivism is the only true way to beat cancer, and I’ve always been the type person that loves and craves to converse and spend time with you, my friends and family. Every e-mail, phone call, card and letter has meant more than you can know.

Thank you all for your help and support…

January 15, 2007

I apologize that I haven‚t sent an update in so long. We‚ve been overwhelmed trying to juggle home building, basketball season, and a trip to Tucson over Christmas Break. In the meantime, I ended up working two jobs for about 2 months; my boss got pulled to a new job unexpectedly and short notice, so I had to stand in as Chief of Wing Safety and do my own job until after the New Year, when they assigned a new Chief of Safety. Long hours at work, a sweet wife and two little guys to spend time with means I neglect my e-mail; don‚t get me wrong, I read it, I just don‚t answer it very often; so for those of you that have e-mailed and I haven‚t replied, I apologize a second time. Everyone‚s e-mails and phone calls are so appreciated and truly keep my spirits and positive attitude peaked out. I promise I‚ll do better replying in the future. No pics this time; I‚m trying to see if hotmail will actually work for a strictly text message; later I‚ll put it through it‚s paces.

Over those two months I also continued my chemo regimen and physical therapy to improve overall strength and my balance — continue to struggle with both. I‚ve lost about 20 pounds since surgery in June; docs tell me it is normal, especially on chemo, simply because I don‚t eat enough. I‚m on anti-nausea meds, but still feel nauseous all the time when on chemo. Thankfully, I‚m not a puker, but it would be nice to get some action, instead of the incessant salivating mouth and cramps all day∑this lasts all the way through the week after a chemo week (getting payback for what Sheila had to go through during pregnancy). That is why I‚ve lost weight; hence, I don‚t feel stronger and haven‚t gotten more “fit;” I‚m working on it though. I‚m taking physical therapy a little more serious now that I‚m getting some balance back.

I just finished my 4th week of chemo on Friday, 12 Jan. As you know the cycle is 5 days on, 23 days off, for a 28 day cycle; so I started the day after the full moon and I guess that I am the alpha female! HA.

All the work Sheila has put in for our new home is nearly complete. We got stalled out after Thanksgiving when the interior was being built. There are so many details; it just got further and further behind (I‚m sure any of you that have built a house are chuckling). We were supposed to be out of our rental 15 Dec 06, then 15 Jan 07, now our lease expires 31 Jan 07 and we should make it. Final cleaning and painting are going on this week (the painter has been here so long and there are so many things wrong, I‚m beginning to wonder if we‚ll have to have our own “Eldon” the live in painter, like Murphy Brown did!). We plan on moving a little bit each day over the next two weeks, moving big stuff on the weekends with a little help from our friends.

I‚m heading up for my second big check-up at NIH and WRAMC in D.C. in the first week of Feb. Appointment times are still pending but I know I have two at NIH on 6 & 7 Feb, and maybe another nerve clinic with possible lumpectomy and biopsy for my right arm atrophy problem at WRAMC. They need a new spinal and an upper humorous MRI to try and get to the bottom of this right arm atrophy thing, and I‚m really anxious to get “fixed up” and building my arm strength back. We had a blessed Christmas in Tucson — it snowed on the Santa Catalina Mts. the day before we came home; so my tropic-raised boys (born in Okinawa and direct to FLA) got to see snow for the first time — obviously, real snow was much colder than it looks on TV and movies. HA!!

Let me ask you to remember all those around us with their own crosses to bear and help where you can (most are far heavier than mine; and I have all of you helping me bear the load to boot!). There are opportunities everywhere. My friends, Mike and Laura Duffy, decided to run a marathon on 14 Jan to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; I haven‚t talked to them yet (I figured I‚d let them recover a day or two and get home), but I do know that they surpassed their pledge monetary goal through gifts pledged by family and friends. Thanks Mike and Laura!

I don‚t know if you saw Adam West (AKA the REAL Batman) on the game show 1 vs. 100, but the charity he played for was the Wounded Warrior Project — way to go Mayor West!!! The link is below again with stories that are very inspiring and enlightening. Our soldiers need support after they‚ve sacrificed so much for our country, and I‚m afraid it will only get worse with the new push in Iraq. These folks are supporting them. Like I mentioned before, you can also see which companies and celebrities have stepped up and in turn reward them for their loyalty to our soldiers.

http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org

All our love,
Dan and Sheila

November 13, 2006 • The House That Sheila Built

After I made it home in September, it got VERY busy here trying to catch up on all I missed…like the “House that Sheila built” (picture attached…we’re almost there!!!), 6-8 Year old Soccer and 4-6 Year old Soccer (AKA “Herding Cats”…kudos to Aidan’s coaches…that is NOT easy, but it IS appreciated). I made it home in time to see Aidan actually score his first goal yesterday in the last game of the season! He struggled through, didn’t get into as much as the big boy, who scored 10 goals and wants to play in the World Cup someday. You can see how they each approached games and uniforms.

I took my first 5 day cycle of chemo mid-October and started my second cycle today…it is 5 days on, then 23 days off to let my body recover…I definitely need the recovery time…the blessing is the chemo (Temodar) is in pill form, so I don’t have to go through the IV push type chemo. But this stuff is so toxic, no one is supposed to handle it but me…makes sense, we’re trying to kill part of me off! But it makes me extremely nauseous (I’ve got two different anti-nausea meds) and really tired…I can still sleep after 16 hours. So I’m on a 28 day cycle…Sheila and I are competing to see who sets the cycle! Right now, I’m most regular…every third quarter moon I start my misery.

I just got back from my first check-up at NIH and WRAMC in D.C. for the last week. Appointment times were changing right up until I left on 2 November and then, you know my luck, during my first day of appointments at NIH on Friday, I got the mother of all stomach flu, was barely able to finish my MRI (which WRAMC couldn’t read anyway), and I spent the rest of the weekend in my hotel room and bathroom. My buddy Scot Angus took care of me with runs to CVS and bottles of Gatorade, although those just provided ammo for the puke machine. I couldn’t eat more than dry toast and tea until Monday.

Tuesday I got to see my oncologist at WRAMC and then Thursday, I met with the “WRAMC Neurology and Neuro-surgery Peripheral Neuropathy Clinic” to try to figure out what is wrong with my right arm (luckily it was chaired by my tumor neuro-surgeon; who has a vested interest in me).

I told you in the last message that for the last 5 years I’ve seen progressive atrophy of my right arm triceps and forearm; I’m right-handed but my left arm is 1.5 inches bigger than my right! I started complaining to the flight docs about it in Okinawa, but didn’t get very far until this spring, when I insisted on a referral since I’d had the left arm seizure and needed my right arm to work. A good flight doc paid attention, sent me to orthopedics, then physical therapists, who suspected spinal damage. I then went to a very thorough neurologist who listened closely to my symptoms (headaches/left side numbness) and decided to order a brain MRI along with the spinal MRI. You may remember that this is how the tumor was found…not even looking for it.

Bottom line is that the entire panel of neurosurgeons and neurologists couldn’t figure out what is wrong with my arm by poking and prodding, they want a new spinal MRI, and further tests; also I may get to get some more surgery…yayyyy! If I wasn’t having a hard time picking up my four year old I probably wouldn’t care, but I need some help here…Declan I’d need a forklift to pick up, so he’ll just have to deal with it. It is so good to be home and alive, especially standing in church listening to Declan sing “Glory to God in the Highest”…makes me cry just thinking about it…I can’t believe he turns 7 years old on Thursday. Thank God for my family and all the support we’re getting. Speaking of which, we’ll be moving to the new house soon, so we’re planning on having a “moving party”…we’ll need help but will buy all the beer.

In every update I think I’ve talked about our young wounded military men and women…I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind y’all again. It really affected me while up there. This trip I met the family of another young man who just lost a leg from just below the knee down. He felt fortunate, however, because his driver lost his legs mid-thigh. If you get a chance, checkout the Wounded Warrior Project link below. The stories are very inspiring and enlightening. Our soldiers need support after they’ve sacrificed so much for our country, and these people are supporting them. Like I mentioned before, you can also see which companies and celebrities have stepped up and in turn reward them for their loyalty to our soldiers.

http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org

All my love,
Dan

September 19, 2006 • initial treatment complete

I am done with radiation and the initial chemotherapy!!! I hit the midpoint of treatment with the side effects I told you about before, but while some have intensified (i.e. my skin looks very sun burned, and I’m oh so tired all the time), I don’t smell like poop anymore, I’m regaining some of my balance, and just like over the last 20 years, I am again getting better looking every day!

The two words in the greeting above mean so much more and have taken on such a richer tone and deeper meaning in the last three months. I know many of you have experienced tragedy and you know what I’m talking about already (hell, we’ve experienced a lot of tragedy together through the years). I wax emotional, not from a need to remind y’all of tragedy, but to let you all know that without your prayers, e-mails, calls, visits, positive thoughts and reinforcement, well, I would still be here, because I’m “Strong like Bull”, I just wouldn’t be here doing so well, nor would I feel so positive about my future while a terrorist sits in the middle of my noggin’. Thank you all so much.

This e-mail has some more pics for you. “Hook ‘em Horns”!! And thanks to Mr. Greg and Mr. Charlie, my primary Radiation Techs. See I told you Jason Alexander came up to the Ward along with Nikki and Mike, and that he is shorter than my sissy…makes you reevaluate the entire Seinfeld cast…I always though Jerry was very tall; apparently not.

I’ve started thinking of my Astrocytoma as a terrorist and the most fitting one is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the ugliest, hairiest, gotta-be-smelliest terrorist that we’ve caught (you know the fat, hairy, t-shirted, A-hole I’m talking about; see appropriate picture), so I have nicknamed it KSM2. And you know what? The US Army, Navy and Air Force are kicking KSM2’s arse! (USMC rocks too; Semper Fi; I’m just not working with any Devil Dogs right now, although I spent the day with a great one this weekend, and his sweet family).

Which leads me to the latest silver lining that I’ve noticed: somehow I’d forgotten how many truly extraordinary people are in and have been in my life. I know and have had the privilege of knowing an enormous amount of wonderful people in my relatively short lifetime. Somewhere along the line I’d lost track of that. Thank you all for reminding me.

Due to many requests, I finally was able to get some pictures of the KSM2. This is from one week after surgery, and the bright white areas are the tumor although a lot of it is edema or swelling (I believe the proper medical term is “angry brain”). It is a pretty big ‘un; can you believe that Advil and gin were hacking the pain for so long? They actually weren’t. You can see the small chunk they cut out best on the Vertical shot…it is the really bright, nearly solid tube looking shape near the centerline of my brain…that is blood products and cerebral fluid…they couldn’t take more without paralyzing me; that is what the radiation and chemo are for.

If I didn’t make it clear in a previous update, another reason the Murrays are blessed is that originally no one, including me, was looking for something in my brain (my seizure in the desert was masked by a low potassium condition, and I thought my 18 months of progressively worsening headaches were all hurricane stress, sinuses, or married w/ 2 kids induced). DUH!

Over the last 5 years I’ve been seeing progressive atrophy of my right arm triceps and forearm; I’m right handed but my left arm is 1.5 inches bigger than my right! I started complaining to the flight docs about it in Okinawa, but didn’t get very far until this spring, when I insisted on a referral since I’d had the left arm seizure and needed my right arm to work. A good flight doc paid attention, sent me to orthopedics, then physical therapists, who suspected spinal damage. I then went to a very thorough neurologist who listened closely to my symptoms (headaches/left side numbness) and decided to order a brain MRI along with the spinal MRI. That is how this tumor was found…not even looking for it.

The spinal MRI showed no damage, but the right arm issue is even more important now since I have so much left side weakness from the surgery. Thankfully, the orthopedics and neurology folks here have taken a great interest in my right arm and have started tracking down the cause. The most joyous moment was the nerve conduction test, where they shock you with low voltage and measure how fast it travels to different locations to test your nerves. The shocks aren’t too bad; bee-sting/ant-bite pain, but after 150 of them (I was keeping count which made the Doc laugh) I was just a little irritable…especially ‘cause there was no insect to kill, and smacking at a doctor holding a small cattle prod isn’t a good idea.

I head home on Wednesday, and am so looking forward to being with my sweet family. I’ll be getting large doses of chemo monthly for the next year, with checkups quarterly here at WRAMC and over at NIH, and we’ll be hoping to see shrinkage of the tumor over the next year. I’ll keep y’all in the loop, I promise.

In every update I think I’ve talked about our young wounded men and women. If you get a chance, checkout the Wounded Warrior Project link below. The stories are very inspiring and enlightening. Our soldiers need support after they’ve sacrificed so much for our country, and these people are supporting them. You can also see which companies and celebrities have stepped up and in turn reward them for their loyalty to our soldiers.

http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org

All my love,
Dan

September 12, 2006 • Stay on Target

Almost there…stay on target…stay on target! (A little 1977 film reference for my generation). Tomorrow is my last set of treatments; however I’ll be here until early next week with my final outprocessing and follow ups (Neuroscience, Oncology, Radiology, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Orthopaedics, etc.). I cannot wait to see and spend time with my sweet Sheila, Declan and Aidan.

All the treatment I’ve received has been phenomenal…all those old jokes about Army hospitals and “medical hobby shops” do not apply!! The folks that have been attending to me for the last three months are our best and take excellent care of our troops…fault for any shortcomings in the system lies elsewhere, not with the “servants/caregivers.”

Here are some pics from my treatment midpoint to verify that I did get freakish looking for a little while, although saying I looked like a Skekses may have been overstating it a bit (but I did FEEL like one). Thanks to my buddy Dan Wilson for sending the Dark Crystal pic to show me I wasn’t that far gone. Shaving it helped; I’ll remain close shorn, like my buddy Buke (“have 2-blade, will travel”). Or I could go for a Native American Tribal look but don’t think that’ll fly at my day job…of course, neither will I. (budumbum…I know weak).

Also, I got some visitors on the 4th of July…Nicollette was very nice and loved on little Aidan a bit (no pic of that unfortunately); although she did have that shirt unbuttoned quite a ways, more power; she was visiting all the young wounded soldiers that day! Mike Bolton (that is how he introduced himself as “Mike”) is a really nice guy, just shorter than I thought, especially with that great big voice. Jason Alexander (George Costanza) also showed up; excellent person, but pic is a polaroid, not digital (also shorter than what you’d think from TV; head only to my shoulder, and I’m only 5′11″).

And most important, me getting love from my girl, and still with staples in my melon! Of course, I looked better a week post op than a month later mid-treatment. No worries as long as I have that sweet girl by my side (or choking me from behind…am I getting a hug or is this a sign of things to come?)

Once again, please KNOW that y’all kept me going up here by my lonesome with your prayers, visits, phone calls, positive vibes and e-mails (I’ve kept EVERY one as part of my cancer journal). The future remains uncertain with an ongoing fight ahead; and I’m girded up for battle!!! Or as our buddy Robert Earl Keen sings “The road goes on forever and the party never ends”!

Battle; Party; same thing right?!

September 7, 2006 • Big Ass Raygun

Filenames are self explanatory but I’ll expound/explain where necessary.

These are from my first week of radiation. The fields intersect inside my melon at my tumor. These are essentially X-rays not Gamma so they say I won’t turn green and look like Lou Ferrigno when I get angry…I’m very disappointed to be honest…the boys would try to tick me off (like they don’t try already)! No I don’t feel anything, but wake up sunburned every morning…no tan, just leathery skin.

More to follow, Dan

August 23, 2006 • Silver Linings

Today (23 Aug) marked my first treatment on the back half of the treatment period; 16 of 30 zaps and 22 of 42 drug treatments.

I’m three weeks in and the side effects are, in effect:

I’ve lost all the hair where they are zapping me (I look like a Skekses from the movie “The Dark Crystal” for you other “Children of the ’80s).

Daily headaches from the brain swelling if I don’t stay on schedule with my morphine.

Steroids to stem brain swelling make me irritated all the time and are also helping me put on weight in my torso and face…oncologists aren’t concerned…they’d rather I gain than lose weight.

I look sunburned all the time and am peeling. BTW, pure aloe from Whole Foods that I have to smear on my skin smells like poop…I didn’t know that…the other stuff you buy at the drug store for a real sunburn has nice fragrances added.

So I’m a heavy, irritable, hairless vulture looking dude that smells like doo-doo most of the time.

I still have weakness in my left side, but am doing normal and aquatic physical therapy 4 times per week. The pool is great since with the weakness my balance isn’t what it was; I can only stand on my left foot for about 15 seconds until I fall over. It is frustrating because I always had great balance, hence being a running back and the old nickname “WeebleWobble” because no matter how loaded or even after getting hit by a New Orleans cab, I wouldn’t fall down.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining… The fact that I am getting a chance to get treatment is amazing and wonderful in and of itself, when it could have gone so far before diagnosis that I was past the point of treatment. I met a gentlemen in the elevator two days ago, and he had the same scar as I have; I jokingly said, “Looks like Neurosurgery got their hands on you, too.” He said, “Yeah, twice.” I asked him what he had. He replied “Glioblastoma Multifome” (known as GBM) and asked about mine, to which I meekishly replied “Inflitrative Astrocytoma,” and felt like I’d put both of my size 11s in my cakehole. See, my tumor is the “Scream” of horror movies; there are some scary parts, but there is still some fun and laughs in there. A GBM is “The Exorcist.”

Which leads me to the silver linings, which is really just another term for blessings, but sometimes you have to look hard to find them…don’t ever stop looking:

I am getting solid treatment; two years ago this drug treatment regimen wasn’t being used. The regimen has been shown to work for Grade 4 tumors, so should be very effective.

They took just enough brain so that I can still walk, talk, hug, play with my boys.

I’ve got fantastic family and friends that have been providing so much support I’ve been able to be in D.C. by myself to allow my family to return to normalcy…and have reconnected with many friends with whom I’d lost touch.

While I may not get to go back to flying, for awhile there I was “that guy” where my job was doing what I love to do.

We found this tumor before it gave me a Grand Mal seizure that left me completely incapacitated.

This could have happened while I was at the controls, in a descent below 500′, on night vision goggles, not leaving enough time for a copilot to notice before I augered in with 30 or 40 of our nations finest on board…that one gives me bad dreams sometimes…I kid you not.

I’ve got a wife that loves me even though I’m a heavy, irritable, hairless vulture that smells like doo-doo.

After all those deployments to the sandbox, I’ve been able to catch up on my “Gilmore Girls” episodes (I’m so worried about Rory being off at college!)

I truly believe in a greater power for all the silver linings.

One thing I want to remind y’all of is that I’m here daily with all these 18, 19 and 20 year old kids that are coming back from the desert sans limbs …when the news reports “wounded” soldiers after a bombing, they don’t usually mean bruises and scratches…explosions do awful things to our soldiers. It is getting so bad that, despite the BRAC that will close the Walter Reed Army Medical Center ‘installation’ by 2011, they are currently building a 30,000 square foot Army Amputee Patient Care Center. I’ve never been much of a chauvinist, but one of the strange and unsettling things is that I’m seeing more and more young women with their arms and legs blown off. Please, no matter your politics, when you see one of our Army or Marine soldiers, remember that they have volunteered to serve all of us, and that they typically leave their families for a year or more when they go to the desert, and have a VERY good chance of not coming back at all or of not coming back whole…when you see them, don’t be afraid to praise them…they deserve it.

All my love and respect…

August 3, 2006

I wasn’t supposed to start treatments until 7 Aug, but in the interest of “getting on with it” I asked if I could go earlier, so took my first chemo and radiation yesterday, and another dose today…should be done by mid-September.

I find a lot of this fascinating…the goal here is for the targeted chemo to weaken the tumor cells and the radiation will kill them while hopefully keeping the total dose under the amount that will kill my brain and blind me. They shoot my head in three different “fields” or areas to try to keep the amount of healthy cells killed to a minimum and where the beams cross is the tumor (yes they are crossing the beams but in this case it is good, Venkman). They shoot me in my forehead and in each temple. I get to wear a cool mask that holds my noggin still, but I can’t open my mouth or my eyes…I’ll send out a pic as soon as I can get them uploaded.

hair loss will probably take a couple of weeks to kick in, but I’m already feeling nauseous all the time especially in the evenings (which is why I’m sending this out now, and not tomorrow…can’t sleep when I feel like I’m gonna yack, which stinks ’cause I’m also tired most of the time…I can fall asleep sitting up anywhere, which I could only do in staff meetings or in the plane before). We’re hoping for maximum tumor cells killed, but probably won’t see actual tumor shrinkage until my body starts absorbing the dead cells.

Sheila, Declan and Aidan are back at home and the kids started school…both are already having fun and are excited about being “bigger” boys this year. Obviously I miss them and want to see them ASAP. Sheila is doing a great job “holding it all together” and building our new house. Besides missing my wife and boys that is my biggest disappointment right now…I really looked forward to seeing this house go up and finally declaring victory over losing eveything to the damn hurricanes.

I have to tell you all again how much the prayers, positive thoughts, calls, e-mails and visits have meant to me and my family. I’m not able to answer all the e-mails but I read everything, and y’all are and have been really encouraging to me.  I had to move hotels ’cause they ran out of days for me at the old one, so now I have good internet connectivity and airconditioning.  I’m always on my cell phone if you absolutely need to reach me…if I don’t answer it is because I’m in treatment, on the phone with a doc, my kids, my wife or my bookie, or praying to the porcelain god, but if you leave a message I’ll get back with you ASAP.

Love and Thanks…