Aloha!
I was listening to the song “Breakaway” and thought of my oldest daughter Taylor and the lovely, lyrical, ballet dance she performed very beautifully.
Sunday I did a little, 40 mile bicycle ride when I got back from San Francisco. I rode through the wet lands behind Valley River Center and saw some beautiful Great Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets.
I picked up some drugs at the Willamette Valley Cancer Center yesterday. I had some time between picking up my medications and meeting a friend for dinner. I had a loaf of moldy bread with me. I went to Autzen Park and fed the geese, seagulls and ducks. I had the geese eating out of my hands. Sometimes they would nip the skin on my fingers and hands a little. It did not hurt and kind of tickled a little bit. Geese do not have beaks and geese have no teeth. I even had a few Canadian Geese eating out of my hand.
I had fun and thought good thoughts of Taylor while feeding the ducks, geese, and seagulls. Thinking of Taylor reminds me of the abundance of goodness that surrounds us and is within us all the time.
Peace and Love,
Jack
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
First Post Radiation and Chemo Cycle News, Continue the Healing, Courage based decisions, Please call and write
Aloha!
I had the end of radiation therapy and end of chemo therapy cycle zero Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy imaging tests on Friday morning. My resident oncologist, Dr. Lieu, at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF) interpreted the results. Dr. Lieu looked like a kid in a candy shop. He was grinning ear to ear as he told me, a friend, and my parents his interpretation of the images.
At this stage in treatment for my version of brain cancer, imaging results are usually very ambiguous. The image will generally show that the tumor actually appears to be growing. This is because in my ignorant view, an MRI does not show a very clear difference between dead tumor, live tumor, and swelling. Dr. Lieu compared the image taken Friday to earlier images and the tumor is shrinking. The images indicate that the clinical trial treatment UCSF is using and Willamette Valley Cancer Center’s implementation appears to be effective for me.
I attribute the effectiveness of treatment to a great surgery, skillful radiation treatments, and the chemo therapy of the clinical trial drug and the standard poison. I also believe the wonderful support I have enjoyed from work, my coworkers, my family and friends, my health care workers, and my community has helped measurably to assist in curing cancer.
I do yoga, meditation, other exercise, and only ingest only real food into my body. Other than caffeine and my pre-MRI ride, 10 mg Valium, I am drug free except for my chemo. I think actively managing stress helps in keeping the immune system strong. My chemo is literally a butt kicker but does not seem to affect me other than my digestive track. I have worked with my nurse and appear to have those side effects managed well. All of the body’s systems from the nervous system to the digestive system are important. I am not taking any side effects lightly. The liver is part of the digestive system and my liver has much work to do with these expensive and apparently effective drugs.
I am not giving my liver or other body parts any extra work to do until about Christmas 2008. That Yule Time beer is going to taste great! Come to think of it, I’ll have a fine, Oregon Microbrew for my first alcoholic beverage in over a year this Winter holiday season.
I am continuing up the healing especially since we have some positive news. We are only in Stage 5 of many stages of curing cancer. I consider the lead up to hospitalization the "Prologue". My dear friend Artemis saved my life and got me safely delivered to the Sacred Heart Emergency Room. Stage 1 was a brilliantly, succesful emergency craniotomy which left me a fully functioning human being. Stage 2 was the hospitalization and waiting for the pathology results. Stage 3 was acceptance of a serious disease. Stage 4 was radiation therapy and the first chemo cycle.
We have many more stages until we roll into Paris on the Champs-Elysees . It is going to be a fun, challenging, rewarding ride. I like to ride up mountains so fun, challenging, and rewarding is an accurate description of what I feel. It is good to make decisions from a position of courage. It must be difficult to make decisions from a fearful place.
Please call or write. The newness and excitement of the brain cancer diagnosis is wearing off. I like talking with friends and family. Most of my friends and family enjoy a measurably better command of the English Language than my German Shepherd Dogs. A talk pumps me up and I use the energy to stay strong, light, and effective.
Peace and Love,
Jack Burton
I had the end of radiation therapy and end of chemo therapy cycle zero Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy imaging tests on Friday morning. My resident oncologist, Dr. Lieu, at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF) interpreted the results. Dr. Lieu looked like a kid in a candy shop. He was grinning ear to ear as he told me, a friend, and my parents his interpretation of the images.
At this stage in treatment for my version of brain cancer, imaging results are usually very ambiguous. The image will generally show that the tumor actually appears to be growing. This is because in my ignorant view, an MRI does not show a very clear difference between dead tumor, live tumor, and swelling. Dr. Lieu compared the image taken Friday to earlier images and the tumor is shrinking. The images indicate that the clinical trial treatment UCSF is using and Willamette Valley Cancer Center’s implementation appears to be effective for me.
I attribute the effectiveness of treatment to a great surgery, skillful radiation treatments, and the chemo therapy of the clinical trial drug and the standard poison. I also believe the wonderful support I have enjoyed from work, my coworkers, my family and friends, my health care workers, and my community has helped measurably to assist in curing cancer.
I do yoga, meditation, other exercise, and only ingest only real food into my body. Other than caffeine and my pre-MRI ride, 10 mg Valium, I am drug free except for my chemo. I think actively managing stress helps in keeping the immune system strong. My chemo is literally a butt kicker but does not seem to affect me other than my digestive track. I have worked with my nurse and appear to have those side effects managed well. All of the body’s systems from the nervous system to the digestive system are important. I am not taking any side effects lightly. The liver is part of the digestive system and my liver has much work to do with these expensive and apparently effective drugs.
I am not giving my liver or other body parts any extra work to do until about Christmas 2008. That Yule Time beer is going to taste great! Come to think of it, I’ll have a fine, Oregon Microbrew for my first alcoholic beverage in over a year this Winter holiday season.
I am continuing up the healing especially since we have some positive news. We are only in Stage 5 of many stages of curing cancer. I consider the lead up to hospitalization the "Prologue". My dear friend Artemis saved my life and got me safely delivered to the Sacred Heart Emergency Room. Stage 1 was a brilliantly, succesful emergency craniotomy which left me a fully functioning human being. Stage 2 was the hospitalization and waiting for the pathology results. Stage 3 was acceptance of a serious disease. Stage 4 was radiation therapy and the first chemo cycle.
We have many more stages until we roll into Paris on the Champs-Elysees . It is going to be a fun, challenging, rewarding ride. I like to ride up mountains so fun, challenging, and rewarding is an accurate description of what I feel. It is good to make decisions from a position of courage. It must be difficult to make decisions from a fearful place.
Please call or write. The newness and excitement of the brain cancer diagnosis is wearing off. I like talking with friends and family. Most of my friends and family enjoy a measurably better command of the English Language than my German Shepherd Dogs. A talk pumps me up and I use the energy to stay strong, light, and effective.
Peace and Love,
Jack Burton
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Rules Shmules, McKnight Burton Banter, Pathfinders, Conversion, Point of View, Duct Tape, Dog Tail Amputation
It is a little difficult to see but the photo of the sign that reads "DOGS ON LEASH AT ALL TIMES" shows Mojo on a distance "sit/stay". I gave Mojo the command from about 20 yards away while defiantley saying, "Rules shmules. We do not need any limits, arbitrary expectectations, prejudices, or statistics do we Mojo? Let's go have fun and enjoy the beautiful day boy."Mojo and I enjoyed the three and a half mile snowshoe and bare paw hike around suttle lake while my most excellent, licensed, massage therapist, Marilyn Magic Hands worked on a couple of clients for the Lodge at Suttle Lake. Mojo and I drove Magic to Suttle Lake in my super cool, white, 1993 Nissan Xtra Cab 4X4 with the Oregon Salmon plates that reads "BITEME". It is a good thing Mojo and I offered our skillful services because the road getting into Suttle Lake had over a foot deep, soft, and slippery. Highway 20 was also a snowy, slippery, mess, and no place for a nice person in a two wheel drive, passenger car.
The photo below shows Black Butte and a melted patch of Suttle Lake from the opposite end of Suttle Lake from the Suttle Lake Lodge. The Lodge at Suttle Lake is gorgeous and the food is good, http://www.thelodgeatsuttlelake.com/ . Magic gives amazing massages. Please treat me and yourself to a visit to my home soon.
This is mojo just standing around on a "stand stay" at the start of my hike. Mojo and I have been friends for nearly 10 years. Mojo will be 10 next month. He is a good dog.
Dave McNight and Jack Burton bantered today about religion, economics, and politics. I will spare you the details but I do enjoy discussing, debating, and even disagreeing with my friend. Respect goes along way in our relationship and there are no off topics for us. We agree on most anything of consequence.
Today we grappled with our opinions on economics, politics, organized religion, spirituality, fast motorcycles and the nuckle heads that ride them, and my barking dogs. We had fun discussion and I think we solidified our understanding that McKnight and Burton arrive at the the same truth often from different paths. After all, McKnight and Burton are Pathfinders.
I am a pathfinder. My path does not require me to to convert anyone to my way of believing, thinking, doing, or feeling about anything. I can show many alternative paths including paths that I enjoy. I am skilled and have fun finding falacies in peoples reasoning including my own, but I am not going to tell anyone what to believe.
I fixed my hood, bug and rock deflector with Gorilla Glue and Duct Tape. Not only did I save over $70 but I felt the satisfaction of problem solving and skillful implimentation. I believe the result will be asthetically pleasing as well. I used metallic, silver duct tape.
This is the very same duct tape I used on Artemis' Great Dane Jolly's tail. The vetrinarian's tecnique to fix a bleeding dog tail involved a 30 CC syringe container that was uncomfortable for Jolly and fell off. The veterinarian advised that Jolly's tail would most likely have to be amputated.
I accepted dog tail amputation as one of the many possible outcomes for dear, sweet, Jolly's tail. I felt I could improve on that outcome. Jack Burton came up with the idea of foam pipe insulation and metallic duct tape. Nothing likes biting into metallic duct tape and the foam pipe insulation is soft and light. Jolly has a full length, Great Dane Tail that whips through the air often producing sonic booms to this day. I practiced medicine without a license on Jolly over a year and a half ago.
Peace and Love,
Jack Burton
"Like I tell my dog, I only snowshoe as fast as I can see."
Friday, February 8, 2008
Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer, Perfection?, Al Socrates and Yoda, Merriam-Webster, Voltaire, Machiavelli and Franklin
Aloha Friends and Family,
I feel good. I have been home for three days and I feel nice. Last night I went out with a friend to the one and only local bar in McKenzie Bridge and listened to some live music by a local, acoustic guitar player and singer. It was fun. Doc played some Johnny Cash tunes and it was a fun evening. I had a Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer and some water. The $5 steak and potato special was good.
Perfection? I am looking at the perfect fir tree out my window. This is the same tree that is mending with an eight foot, steel, fence post, black duct tape, and a tall wooden pole. My mother and I mended this 12 foot tall tree when the weight of snow snapped it in half about 6 feet above ground level. I mended this tree because there was still some bark and wood fibers holding on. The top of the tree has not died and I can see that the tree has not lost any needles. I will enjoy watching this beautiful tree mend and grow.
You are perfect. As perfect humans, we make mistakes. That is what we do. It is our mission as humans to learn. Mistakes are one of the tools that we acquire knowledge and sometimes wisdom with.
I am a good yogi. I practice to make my postures blissfully manifest in the physical world. I practice for many reasons. One of the reasons I practice yoga is yoga is fun on many levels.
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”, Albert Einstein.
"The unexamined life is not worth living.", Socrates.
“You must unlearn what you have learned.”, Yoda.
Merriam-Webster defines “common sense” as sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. “Judgment” is defined as an opinion, estimate, or evaluation, something believed or asserted. I believe many people have there own private definitions of what they believe common sense is to them. I assert that the definition of “common sense” is not common among human beings. That is not my judgment. That is my observation derived by experiment and examination.
I think Socrates’ great talent was his awareness of his own ignorance. From the humble and powerful position of awareness, a philosopher can study situations from new angles. From a powerful position of humility we can challenge old ways of thinking to develop peaceful, loving, profitable, and sustainable solutions where the “common sense” lore of doing more of what is not working to solve a perceived issue is failing. I have seen people put spin on failure by calling their results “better” than it was before. Out of respect of the election year and you my friends and family, I will not publicly mention any specific inanities especially those of the current administration that embarrass and shame America at home and around the world.
"The enemy of good is better.", Voltaire and my Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. Goodknife.
I will follow my thoughts and experiences through on the thought above. I see people, and I used to be one of those people, concerned with better or best. Better or best means nothing to me if "better or best" is other than good. Sometimes good enough is good. How often have I tried to "fix" something that is good and messed up by making the good broken? Sometimes it is good to enjoy the good and attend to what is not good to make something good. If you take effort to make something not good into something that is good, the result will most likely be better. What is more important is the result will be good and the effort had a positive intention to create good.
I am not interested in better. I am focused on good. A punch in the eye may be better than getting hit by a speeding freight train in the eye, but neither are good options. I choose none of the above when confronted by choices like death or horribly maimed. Is it better to fight over there or over here? As a yogi, I know there are an abundance of possibilities and choices. Very rarely are there only two options available to thinking and feeling people.
I am prepared to elaborate but my elaboration may tend to the political. I will shy away from the kill or be killed, fear and be feared, success or surrender, acceptable collateral damage or cowardice, preemptive war or slavery, 100 year Iraq occupation or cut and run, and other moronic debates. If you roll around in the mud with a pig you both get dirty, but the pig likes it.
I want to dove tail that thought in with Mahatmas Gandhi's saying, "Satisfaction lies in the effort and not in the attainment." I think it was me who said, "The ends never justify the means." I guess I do not agree with Machiavelli on a few things. What defines us is how we do things not our results. I could mention that Benjamin Franklin said something like people willing to give up liberty for security deserve neither security nor liberty. I could say something more radical than that but I think I will go cure some cancer this evening instead. I could say that the President of the United States did the best of his ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States but I will not say that even though I know George’s best is not good.
Unlearn what you have learned. You feel what you feel and feeling is good. Humans can master the ability to think about what they want to think about. Our thoughts bring about our feelings. When I think of good things I have good feelings. I like feeling good. I have mastered the powerful ability of not thinking. I was advantaged with a giant brain tumor that thinking would cause intense headaches, vomiting, or seizures. A human can not think or think only about what they want to think about by will alone. More thinking is not always better than less thinking. It is important to be thoughtful and it is important to have good thoughts. It is also important to feel the universal life force energy. "Life creates it, makes it grow. It's energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we." , Yoda. Yoda sure is swell and I understand a dry, fly angler.
Peace and Love,
Jack Burton
"It takes courage, genius, or love to make things simpler, smaller, and peaceful."
I feel good. I have been home for three days and I feel nice. Last night I went out with a friend to the one and only local bar in McKenzie Bridge and listened to some live music by a local, acoustic guitar player and singer. It was fun. Doc played some Johnny Cash tunes and it was a fun evening. I had a Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer and some water. The $5 steak and potato special was good.
Perfection? I am looking at the perfect fir tree out my window. This is the same tree that is mending with an eight foot, steel, fence post, black duct tape, and a tall wooden pole. My mother and I mended this 12 foot tall tree when the weight of snow snapped it in half about 6 feet above ground level. I mended this tree because there was still some bark and wood fibers holding on. The top of the tree has not died and I can see that the tree has not lost any needles. I will enjoy watching this beautiful tree mend and grow.
You are perfect. As perfect humans, we make mistakes. That is what we do. It is our mission as humans to learn. Mistakes are one of the tools that we acquire knowledge and sometimes wisdom with.
I am a good yogi. I practice to make my postures blissfully manifest in the physical world. I practice for many reasons. One of the reasons I practice yoga is yoga is fun on many levels.
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”, Albert Einstein.
"The unexamined life is not worth living.", Socrates.
“You must unlearn what you have learned.”, Yoda.
Merriam-Webster defines “common sense” as sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. “Judgment” is defined as an opinion, estimate, or evaluation, something believed or asserted. I believe many people have there own private definitions of what they believe common sense is to them. I assert that the definition of “common sense” is not common among human beings. That is not my judgment. That is my observation derived by experiment and examination.
I think Socrates’ great talent was his awareness of his own ignorance. From the humble and powerful position of awareness, a philosopher can study situations from new angles. From a powerful position of humility we can challenge old ways of thinking to develop peaceful, loving, profitable, and sustainable solutions where the “common sense” lore of doing more of what is not working to solve a perceived issue is failing. I have seen people put spin on failure by calling their results “better” than it was before. Out of respect of the election year and you my friends and family, I will not publicly mention any specific inanities especially those of the current administration that embarrass and shame America at home and around the world.
"The enemy of good is better.", Voltaire and my Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. Goodknife.
I will follow my thoughts and experiences through on the thought above. I see people, and I used to be one of those people, concerned with better or best. Better or best means nothing to me if "better or best" is other than good. Sometimes good enough is good. How often have I tried to "fix" something that is good and messed up by making the good broken? Sometimes it is good to enjoy the good and attend to what is not good to make something good. If you take effort to make something not good into something that is good, the result will most likely be better. What is more important is the result will be good and the effort had a positive intention to create good.
I am not interested in better. I am focused on good. A punch in the eye may be better than getting hit by a speeding freight train in the eye, but neither are good options. I choose none of the above when confronted by choices like death or horribly maimed. Is it better to fight over there or over here? As a yogi, I know there are an abundance of possibilities and choices. Very rarely are there only two options available to thinking and feeling people.
I am prepared to elaborate but my elaboration may tend to the political. I will shy away from the kill or be killed, fear and be feared, success or surrender, acceptable collateral damage or cowardice, preemptive war or slavery, 100 year Iraq occupation or cut and run, and other moronic debates. If you roll around in the mud with a pig you both get dirty, but the pig likes it.
I want to dove tail that thought in with Mahatmas Gandhi's saying, "Satisfaction lies in the effort and not in the attainment." I think it was me who said, "The ends never justify the means." I guess I do not agree with Machiavelli on a few things. What defines us is how we do things not our results. I could mention that Benjamin Franklin said something like people willing to give up liberty for security deserve neither security nor liberty. I could say something more radical than that but I think I will go cure some cancer this evening instead. I could say that the President of the United States did the best of his ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States but I will not say that even though I know George’s best is not good.
Unlearn what you have learned. You feel what you feel and feeling is good. Humans can master the ability to think about what they want to think about. Our thoughts bring about our feelings. When I think of good things I have good feelings. I like feeling good. I have mastered the powerful ability of not thinking. I was advantaged with a giant brain tumor that thinking would cause intense headaches, vomiting, or seizures. A human can not think or think only about what they want to think about by will alone. More thinking is not always better than less thinking. It is important to be thoughtful and it is important to have good thoughts. It is also important to feel the universal life force energy. "Life creates it, makes it grow. It's energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we." , Yoda. Yoda sure is swell and I understand a dry, fly angler.
Peace and Love,
Jack Burton
"It takes courage, genius, or love to make things simpler, smaller, and peaceful."
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Chick Magnet, Breakaway, Sometimes Adverbs and Adjectives, I Am Grateful, I Am Home, I Am, Auspicious Day, Polarity Calibration, I Am Lucky
Aloha friends, family, and neighbors!
I am glad you like my temple scar. My scar is a chick magnet. I feel I may need to adjust the polarity of the magnetism towards attraction rather than the result it appears to have on women. It seems to get people laughing. Laughter feels good.
The chorus from this Kelly Clarkson song, "Breakaway", reminds me of a beautiful, lyrical, ballet dance my daughter Taylor performed a couple of years ago to this song.
"I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes til' I touch the sky
And I'll make a wish
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget all the ones that I love
I'll take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway"
Taylor is a very beautiful dancer. Taylor is strong. Taylor is light. Taylor is good. I love Taylor.
Sometimes adverbs and adjectives often ruin perfectly good subjects. Let us take the subject of unconditional love. Why ruin a perfectly good concept like love by putting conditions on love? Love is pure. Love is the eternal manifesting itself in order to experience bliss.
I am very grateful for the love, comfort, and support of my adoptive family in Eugene Oregon. The Wamalamadingdangs are very good people and gave my parents peace of mind knowing I was in a nice home while Mom manned the fort and loved Mojo and Salena while I was receiving radiation treatments in town.
Brenda and Lorin accompanied me to the Willamette Valley Cancer Center on my last day to receive radiant beams of healing energy this go around. They were treated to my strapping leather clad, radiation technologists, securing me onto the “treatment” table with my “gimp” mask tightly secured to the head of the hard, stable table. Shane and Rick explained the gantry to my friends as I took my last treatment like the bound and gagged person I was.
I am grateful that the Wams and the WMCCs were able to meet each other. They have both been very good to me. It is very wonderful to be human and to be overcome with sniffles and tears at the thoughts and feelings I have for the Wams and the Willamette Valley Cancer Center. The Wams met my Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Captain America and his nurse Tracy Titanium. My care givers gave me a fine exit interview. I will be back to say hello. I may even bring my dogs by to meet the dog lovers at the Center of the Universe.
I am home with my dogs. I feel good. I need to do that polarity calibration on my temple magnet. The forest is very quiet with over a foot of snow under the trees. It feels good to be home. If it were not for the noise of my laptop fan and an occasional pop from my wood burning stove, the silence would be complete.
I completed Cycle 0 of my chemo therapy and my 33rd of 33 radiation treatments. Other than hair loss and some fatigue I feel strong like a bull elk, powerful like a mountain lion, skillful like a Great Blue Heron, and quick like a hummingbird.
I just love images of beautiful animals and wanted to share.
I have a 14 day break from chemo therapy and then I start up triple my old dose of Temodar for 5 days and then off for 23 to complete a 28 day cycle. The clinical trial drug, Enzastaurin, will be every day until December 25, 2008. I think December 25 is a very auspicious day to end chemo therapy. I will take ending chemo on December 25 as a good omen.
My Mom is having a friend of hers call me every day while she and Dad are in New Zealand. It is very nice for them to do this. I am very lucky.
Peace and Love,
Jack, Mojo, and Salena
I am glad you like my temple scar. My scar is a chick magnet. I feel I may need to adjust the polarity of the magnetism towards attraction rather than the result it appears to have on women. It seems to get people laughing. Laughter feels good.
The chorus from this Kelly Clarkson song, "Breakaway", reminds me of a beautiful, lyrical, ballet dance my daughter Taylor performed a couple of years ago to this song.
"I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes til' I touch the sky
And I'll make a wish
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget all the ones that I love
I'll take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway"
Taylor is a very beautiful dancer. Taylor is strong. Taylor is light. Taylor is good. I love Taylor.
Sometimes adverbs and adjectives often ruin perfectly good subjects. Let us take the subject of unconditional love. Why ruin a perfectly good concept like love by putting conditions on love? Love is pure. Love is the eternal manifesting itself in order to experience bliss.
I am very grateful for the love, comfort, and support of my adoptive family in Eugene Oregon. The Wamalamadingdangs are very good people and gave my parents peace of mind knowing I was in a nice home while Mom manned the fort and loved Mojo and Salena while I was receiving radiation treatments in town.
Brenda and Lorin accompanied me to the Willamette Valley Cancer Center on my last day to receive radiant beams of healing energy this go around. They were treated to my strapping leather clad, radiation technologists, securing me onto the “treatment” table with my “gimp” mask tightly secured to the head of the hard, stable table. Shane and Rick explained the gantry to my friends as I took my last treatment like the bound and gagged person I was.
I am grateful that the Wams and the WMCCs were able to meet each other. They have both been very good to me. It is very wonderful to be human and to be overcome with sniffles and tears at the thoughts and feelings I have for the Wams and the Willamette Valley Cancer Center. The Wams met my Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Captain America and his nurse Tracy Titanium. My care givers gave me a fine exit interview. I will be back to say hello. I may even bring my dogs by to meet the dog lovers at the Center of the Universe.
I am home with my dogs. I feel good. I need to do that polarity calibration on my temple magnet. The forest is very quiet with over a foot of snow under the trees. It feels good to be home. If it were not for the noise of my laptop fan and an occasional pop from my wood burning stove, the silence would be complete.
I completed Cycle 0 of my chemo therapy and my 33rd of 33 radiation treatments. Other than hair loss and some fatigue I feel strong like a bull elk, powerful like a mountain lion, skillful like a Great Blue Heron, and quick like a hummingbird.
I just love images of beautiful animals and wanted to share.
I have a 14 day break from chemo therapy and then I start up triple my old dose of Temodar for 5 days and then off for 23 to complete a 28 day cycle. The clinical trial drug, Enzastaurin, will be every day until December 25, 2008. I think December 25 is a very auspicious day to end chemo therapy. I will take ending chemo on December 25 as a good omen.
My Mom is having a friend of hers call me every day while she and Dad are in New Zealand. It is very nice for them to do this. I am very lucky.
Peace and Love,
Jack, Mojo, and Salena
Sunday, February 3, 2008
A Transformation of the Wrist, Benjamin Franklin, Cycle 0, Auspicious Day, U.S. Department of Peace, Wow!
“Buffalo” Keith Code wrote “A Twist of the Wrist, The Motorcycle Road Racers Handbook”. Wild Jack Burton believes that the motorcycle specific truths that Keith writes about can be applied to other aspects of life.
“Observing is the Basis of Change” is one of the motorcycle racing concepts in the book. I paraphrase other writers because as an artist, I find wordsmithing fun. The starting point for change is by observing what you do.
“Don’t Badmouth Yourself” or a positive way of saying that is to “add to correct actions and drop the incorrect”. If you are doing what you love, you are already doing more right than wrong. Observe yourself and forgive yourself for mistakes. I believe we are all perfect human beings. As perfect human beings we make mistakes. Mistakes are in our nature. Mistakes are what we do. I choose to observe, learn, forgive, and move on when mistakes are made.
“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
, Benjamin Franklin.
Cycle 0 of chemo therapy and radiation treatments ends Tuesday, February 5, 2008. I have nothing planned for the end of chemotherapy and radiation treatments Cycle 0. I do have a 14 day break between my next cycle of chemo I hope will give my body a chance to get clean.
I plotted my chemo cycles out on my Franklin Quest, Day Timer calendar. Cycle 12 ends on the auspicious day of December 25, 2008. I am unsure of the cosmic significance of that date but the date rings well with me and I am striving for a good result from the efforts to cure cancer. I have received very good support from friends, family, coworkers, caregivers, and my community.
A friend wrote me a letter and I would like to share some of the thoughts with you. I don't know if you are familiar with Marianne Williamson. She is a writer and lecturer, mainly related to A Course in Miracles. One of her goals is to create a U.S. Department of Peace. Such a department could just produce some of the Earth’s finer moments.
Wow! Just think of it. How cool would it be to have a cabinet level position whose goal was to promote peace in the world? Jesus, the Budha, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, George Washington, other very smart, loving, and cool beings, and I think it is a way cool idea.
Peace and Love
Jack Burton
Look at where you want to go. Establish and use reference points. Observe the entire scene.
“Observing is the Basis of Change” is one of the motorcycle racing concepts in the book. I paraphrase other writers because as an artist, I find wordsmithing fun. The starting point for change is by observing what you do.
“Don’t Badmouth Yourself” or a positive way of saying that is to “add to correct actions and drop the incorrect”. If you are doing what you love, you are already doing more right than wrong. Observe yourself and forgive yourself for mistakes. I believe we are all perfect human beings. As perfect human beings we make mistakes. Mistakes are in our nature. Mistakes are what we do. I choose to observe, learn, forgive, and move on when mistakes are made.
“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
, Benjamin Franklin.
Cycle 0 of chemo therapy and radiation treatments ends Tuesday, February 5, 2008. I have nothing planned for the end of chemotherapy and radiation treatments Cycle 0. I do have a 14 day break between my next cycle of chemo I hope will give my body a chance to get clean.
I plotted my chemo cycles out on my Franklin Quest, Day Timer calendar. Cycle 12 ends on the auspicious day of December 25, 2008. I am unsure of the cosmic significance of that date but the date rings well with me and I am striving for a good result from the efforts to cure cancer. I have received very good support from friends, family, coworkers, caregivers, and my community.
A friend wrote me a letter and I would like to share some of the thoughts with you. I don't know if you are familiar with Marianne Williamson. She is a writer and lecturer, mainly related to A Course in Miracles. One of her goals is to create a U.S. Department of Peace. Such a department could just produce some of the Earth’s finer moments.
Wow! Just think of it. How cool would it be to have a cabinet level position whose goal was to promote peace in the world? Jesus, the Budha, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, George Washington, other very smart, loving, and cool beings, and I think it is a way cool idea.
Peace and Love
Jack Burton
Look at where you want to go. Establish and use reference points. Observe the entire scene.
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