Hiccup!

For those of you wondering how I ended up getting admitted to Mount Nittany, here's what happened. Following my 5th day of chemo and radiation on Friday, my only side effect was a slight headache. I took Tylenol on Friday, because it hurt a little more while I was exercising. Friday evening, I was cooking a complicated recipe, and started to feel dizzy and see stars. I called for Jaci. She came in, and I collapsed into her shoulders. She started to panic. Of course I told her I was fine, and just to get me to the couch. I blacked out after that. According to her, I vomited, fell (she caught my head), fell a second time and hit the back of my head on our hutch, and fell a third time. When I came to, I vomited a second time. Jaci asked the kids to call 911, but they were too scared to, because my pupils were dilated, and they thought I was dead. I went to the ER, was admitted, and ended up in the critical care unit. Because there were a slew of admissions, I didn't get admitted until 3:00 a.m. As always, the worst part of this whole experience was getting stuck with needles for the IV and blood draw. They tried to do it in the ambulance twice, unsuccessfully. It eventually took a three-person IV team 20 minutes with a blacklight to find veins.

They did let me sleep for at least a few hours, and let me get up to use the bathroom with supervision. Also, I was on a regular diet, and the food was much better. I was discharged Saturday afternoon, with an increased dose of Kepra (anti-seizure medication) and a return to a half-dose of Dex (steroid). I am afraid of what the steroid will do, but I am glad to be home. I feel bad that the boys were so scared and missed their friends' birthday party yesterday. Otherwise, I am now home and okay.

Moore, Roger Moore

Back to non-cancer related posts. So far the chemo and radiation is going well, and aside from a slight headache, I am not feeling any significant side effects. Our next consultation at Duke is set for July 20. It's all been good news. The fact that the tumor is metholated, the ADH1 mutation, are all factors in increasing my life expectancy.

A couple of days ago, we lost one of the actors who played James Bond, when Roger Moore died at 89. Inspired by my friend Erik, I am going to attempt to rank all of the people who played James Bond.

1. Sean Connery: He set the standard, made the mold, pick your cliche. He was the first, and the best. The only drawback is that you could get away with more sexism and Beatle-bashing in the 1960s.
Best movie: Goldfinger, still the best Bond movie ever.
Worst movie: You Only Live Twice, kind of cartoonish, but still entertaining.

2. Daniel Craig: Probably has more raw acting ability than any other Bond. He brings an emotional depth to Bond never seen before. According to a 2012 interview, he is Roger Moore's favorite Bond because of his appearance and acting ability. The next movie after "Spectre" remains in a holding pattern. It is only referred to as "Bond 25" on IMDB. Craig, who performs most of his own stunts, now says he is up for another movie, even though, at 49, he is no spring chicken. Also, "Spectre" was not reviewed well, and it's kind of sad that "Kingsman: The Secret Service" was a better Bond movie than the actual Bond movie.
Best movie: "Casino Royale," I agree with Erik that the parkour scene is the best action sequence in the entire series. The other 2 hours of the movie was pretty good, too.
Worst movie: Quantum of Solace, this is what happens when you make a movie during a writers' strike. Still very watchable, but is more or less a tacked-on (and very expensive) sequel to "Casino Royale."

Update: According to Screen Rant, a release date for the still untitled "Bond 25" is November 8, 2019. It will likely be Craig's last movie as 007. Start debating about who will be the next Bond. Personally, I don't care as long as he is male, British, and a good actor. Idris Elba, the studio's choice according to a leak, would be a good choice, as would "Downton Abbey" actor Dan Stevens, and Michael Fassbender.

3. Timothy Dalton: Probably the most underrated James Bond,and a decent actor. A lot of people didn't like "Licence to Kill" because it was very dark and violent. I thought it was a refreshing departure from the series to have Bond pursue a personal vendetta instead of saving the world as usual. If you watch him in other movies, particularly "Hot Fuzz," his character is much more lighthearted.
Best movie: "Licence to Kill," see above.
Worst movie: "The Living Daylights," process of elimination, as there are only two to pick from. This was still a very good movie, particularly the car chase and escape using a cello and its case.

4. Roger Moore: His portrayal of Bond was more lighthearted than others, and I believe he was fully aware of that. Movies like "Moonraker" and "A View to a Kill" are nearly unwatchable, but other movies like "For Your Eyes Only" wanted to return Bond to its roots after "Moonraker" by killing "Blofeld," having a car chase in a Citroen 2CV instead of a gadget-laden Aston Martin, and a great sequence on a former Winter Olympics site. According to a 2012 interview, he admits he could have done it better, despite the theme song for "The Spy Who Loved Me."
Best movie: "The Spy Who Loved Me," Good action sequences, decent story, and introduces unforgettable henchman Jaws.
Worst movie: "Moonraker," The Bond franchise tried to capitalize of the success of "Star Wars," and the result is the worst movie in the franchise.

5. Pierce Brosnan: He looked the part and got the whole swave and debonair thing down pat, but was hurt by lousy scripts and movies that relied too much on huge explosions and special effects. However, they brought Judi Dench on board as the new M, and she is unforgettable.
Best movie: "Goldeneye," Some fun action sequences, and introduces Judi Dench as M. Also, it spawned a totally awesome video game.
Worst movie: "Die Another Day," A CGI-laden mess, and Halle Berry is terrible. At least its reviews sent a message to the Broccolis that Bond needed to go in a new direction (see Daniel Craig, above).

Incomplete: George Lazenby: This Australian model was only in one movie, but it happened to be based on Ian Fleming's best novel, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" The movie could have been paced better, but it has decent action sequences and great performances by Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas, and provides an emotional gut punch at the end of the movie. It is hard to tell how good Lazenby would have been in future movies. I can't blame them for bringing back Connery for "Diamonds Are Forever."

Positives

I figured I started with the negative, so I would end with the positive. There have been good things happening, especially the past few days.

Hat tip to Dave, who suggested that the kids participate in the cooking process. Make-your-own omelette was a big hit last night, and we are doing make-your-own taco night tonight.

First of all, I lost 40 pounds, partially because of bad hospital food. I don't recommend getting a brain tumor as a method of weight loss, but 40 pounds is 40 pounds. I am wearing smaller clothes and had to have my wedding ring re-sized.

Also, my caffeine addiction has somehow disappeared. I still like the taste of coffee, but I no longer need 2 cups of coffee to start the day.

Thanks to reduced steroid use, I can now actually sleep at night. That makes a big difference.

Thanks to sleeping and hotter weather, I am able to get up and walk around. I can cook again, and I can do things around the house. I am still weaker than the average bear, because it is hard to get up off the couch, and stairs don't like me.

I was able to speak with an old friend yesterday and hopefully make amends after a few years. Again, I am looking forward to seeing people come in from out of town.

Sorry if we seem distracted or busy when you are here, but we have to at least see who is calling because we are waiting for many important phone calls from doctors and nurses.

Restaurant Food, Carbs and Where to go

87 degrees today and a nice breeze. Aaahhh.

Since we have several gift cards from friends for many restaurants, for which I am very grateful, I am going to give my opinion about each of them, what to order, and the value for the money. I am a fan of French Onion Soup so I have rated the soup at each restaurant.

McDonald's, Burger King: Still the bottom of the barrel. The new chicken sandwiches from McD's with guac and other stuff look good but really aren't. Their salad was essentially a pile of wilting brown lettuce. They said they improved the salad. I will have to see it to believe it. Just watch "Super Size Me" again, and think about the possibility that Burger King uses horse meat.

TGI Friday's: You may be ordering from a table, but you are still being served fast food. The endless apps might be a death sentence for someone like me.

Perkins: Overpriced, processed food. Look at the nutrition facts (or lack thereof).

IHOP, Denny's: Not as overpriced, but still nothing but carb bombs.

Wendy's, Chick-Fil-A: A significant step up from other fast food joints, because they use more natural ingredients, and who doesn't like a Chick-Fil-A sandwich? The price goes up too. We can spend close to $30 at Chick-Fil-A for the four of us.

Panera: They famously claim to have clean food. Having worked there part-time, this claim is true. A lot of their bread, like honey wheat, is full of fiber, and many of their salads are zero- or low-carb. You can modify recipes as well. They definitely follow all the rules when it comes to food safety, and I feel safe feeding my kids there, but you pay for what you get. We can spend $50 for the 4 of us.

Red Robin: The tavern burgers start at $6.99 which is somewhat reasonable. No burger is a good burger for a diabetic, but you can eat it with a fork and knife and avoid the bun. Many of their burgers are way overpriced, their onion soup is the saltiest I have ever had, and you need a megaphone if you want to refill the "bottomless" fries.

Five Guys: Again, no burger is a good burger, but these guys use fresh beef and potatoes, and homemade food does make a difference.

Ruby Tuesday: Their garden bar has a lot of ingredients to make a carb-free or low-carb salad, just watch the type and amount of dressing. I use oil and red wine vinegar. Some of their burgers aren't too expensive, just see above.

"Fast" Mexican: These places seem to have exploded. I prefer Chipotle and Moe's which allow you to get bowls and avoid the carb-loaded tortilla. Chipotle's slow-cooked Barbacoa is great, and Moe's offers several different fresh salsas. I am told to limit the tortilla chips to about 10 or so. Priced about right.

Applebee's: Some of their lunch combos and 2 for $20 menu items are reasonably priced and the calorie count isn't outrageous, but their onion soup and food overall tastes processed and salty.

Olive Garden: Most entrees, especially the non-pasta ones, are overpriced. Still most good servers will let you eat all of the soup, salad and breadsticks you want, so that may be part of the price. I prefer the Zuppa Toscana.

Outback: The bloomin' onion is one of the most awful things anyone, diabetic or otherwise, can eat, but you still have to get it. The combo of the app, steak and dessert for $14.99 isn't bad, but I save the dessert for later or give it to my wife. The Outback makes the best French Onion Soup of any chain restaurant. The local Outback in State College has screwed up our orders lately, and made us wait 25 minutes for a messed up kids' order, so we may not visit them again for a little while.

Chili's: The 2 for $20 menu is reasonable, and the lunch menu can be pretty cheap. The southwest Chicken Soup is very good for 230 calories. Their chips and salsa are really, really, good, and, at dinner you can combine the pork and chicken fajitas for tons of flavor. Use just one tortilla to save carbs and cut out the optional rice and beans. They say to limit the tortilla chips to 10, but it is really hard. Their 1,500-2,000 calorie chicken crispers now claim to use natural white meat, begging Jim Gaffigan to ask the question, "What were they using before? Iguana meat?"

Cracker Barrel: I am OK here because everything on their menu is made from scratch, as long as you avoid blatantly high-carb foods like fried food and lumberjack breakfasts. Look for daily specials, which are priced well.

Pizza: Homemade pizza with organic dough and freshly shredded cheese is preferable, but sometimes you just have to indulge and visit the local pizzeria.

As I mentioned, home-cooked, non-processed food makes a difference. Most small-town places that make their own food are better, like the famous Original Waffle Shop in State College, Their home fries are amazing, but usually don't harm me too much. Local diners can be hit-and-miss.

What to eat... Cracking the carb code

Finally, shorts weather! 76 today, 89 tomorrow.

With my condition, I do have to be careful about what I eat as a diabetic keeping my blood sugar level. Aside from the standard 2000-calorie nutritional guidelines, I wasn't given any specific rules or diet, nor I was not told I could not eat red meat.

My wife wanted to try a probiotic diet, which basically is a bunch of dairy-type foods like kefir and kombucha that essentially taste like different kinds of puke. Not happening. I am told there are pills for this, so I will take them instead.

Next is the ketogenic diet. I am incorporating some foods from this diet, like guacamole and nuts. Sadly, most of us are not seafood and fish eaters here, and a lot of seafood is full of polluted ocean water.

First of all, it's important to stay hydrated. I was told 64 oz. per day minimum. I have my water bottle by my side at all times. I am told caffienated drinks don't hydrate. An added benefit is that many restaurants don't charge you for ice water.

Soda, pop, Coke depending where you are located: I miss it, but avoid it like the plague. It is full of sugar and chemicals, and no one, diabetic or not, should drink it. Diet soda takes away the sugar, but is still full of artificial sweetener and other chemicals, and just doesn't taste that good.

What I am thinking the secret is to get foods with zero carbs, and foods with moderate carbs and high fiber. Fiber slows down the digestion process, delaying the delivery of blood sugar. Organic and natural ingredients make a huge difference. Target has a decent selection of organic items, but the best place to shop is Trader Joe's. Any product with the Trader Joe's name on it has all-natural ingredients. Their salsas, bean dips, guilt-reduced guacamole made with Greek yogurt are all delicious and reasonably priced. I am trying to avoid processed foods altogether. If the ingredient list reads like a chemistry set, I don't buy it. Also, any homemade food is preferable to a processed or frozen food, but even Trader Joe's frozen foods have no preservatives or crap in them.

Wegmans has some good stuff, but too many rude, entitled people crowd the store, cut you off and give you dirty looks.

What still kills me the most is limiting my pasta consumption, although Liam doesn't like pasta much either. At least a reasonable amount of whole wheat pasta is edible for me.

At Weis, I literally did what health coaches told me to do and walk around the outside of the store. I got a lot of healthy food. Also, we sampled a lot of local businesses' foods at our local grocery store, and ended up buying them, specifically nitrite- and nitrate-free uncured sausage and bacon.

Also, as much as I loved everyone's food, it is nice to have control of my kitchen again.

Losing and Finding my Religion

First of all, thanks to everyone for reading. I only expected a few readers, but it's nice to hear feedback from people I know and don't know.

Also, with things finally calming down (slightly), we will start getting visitors from out of town. I am looking forward to seeing all of you.

Religion has played an interesting role in my life. Obviously, right now, it is stronger than ever. Let's start from the beginning. I grew up in Suburban Philadelphia and was raised Catholic. Weekly mass was the same silly ritual every week. You celebrated your first communion and confirmation and had a huge party. My parents put me in a pricey private Catholic school, and it was an absolute nightmare that I am still to unsuccessfully repress. Advice for parents: No matter how well your child is doing academically, never, ever skip them a grade. Supposedly schools don't do this anymore. Since I ended up in public school, we had to attend some godawful boring class called CCD every week. Everyone just did it because we are Catholics, and it's what Catholics do. Some people enjoy this, and that's all well and good. I got absolutely nothing from it, other than the fact that organized religion does nothing but pit people against each other and is a waste of time.

It was hard to find a pastor for our wedding because we weren't members of a church. Thanks to Terri Housel and their family pastor, we were married at Trinity Lutheran in Lansdale.

Jaci grew up in rural Pennsylvania, which is where we are now. It's safe to say there isn't quite as much to do up here. Going to church is an important part of life for many rural communities. She frequently brought up going to church, and taking the kids. I was very hesitant, but she made a good point when she insisted the kids have at least a starting point.

Our first church was a large church near Lancaster. We stopped attending. The pastor e-mailed to see what was going on. I responded my father had died and I needed some time to reflect. I received no response from the pastor, even though they continued to autodraft our donation every week. Bye.

Church number two. A smaller church, also in the Lancaster area. The pastor was a nice guy but kind of a ham. The church holds a picnic which we signed up for on a paper. We showed up and, despite sunny weather, there was no one there. Apparently, the picnic was cancelled and no one bothered to tell us. Strike two.

We then move to Centre County. At first, Jaci looked into churches that had a good kids' program. This brought us to Grace United Methodist in Centre Hall. I guess it is safe to say I was finally home. The congregation was younger on average than other churches we have been to, and many people came up to us and introduced themselves to us right away. Pastor Mark seemed really nice and down to earth. The only thing I don't like is the contemporary service because there is too much singing. But, if you go to the post on helpers, you will see how important the church and Pastor Mark have been on this journey.

Following this illness, I have discovered the healing power of faith and prayer. In addition to God, I have communicated with my father, who said he was proud of me, and my grandparents, who said they will protect me, because I need to be with my own grandchildren and watch them grow.

We have been to church once since the surgery. It was honestly one of the most emotional days of my life. I was so happy to see everyone, and the feeling seemed mutual. Also, God did communicate with me that day, and said I needed to live and pay it forward. That is the reason I am typing this right now.

What steroids do to your body

This post uses information from Duke University Hospital's Patient Binder.

Sorry, back to the negative. I had to take the steroid Decadron to keep my brain from swelling. I hope I never have to take it again. The worst was that, as a diabetic, it jacked up my blood sugar, and made me dependent on insulin. In other words, I can't eat a bite of food at a meal until I check my sugar, and get an insulin injection. Few things annoy me more than having food withheld from me, so I will be glad to go back to managing diabetes with just the Metformin pill.

Next was roid rage! Although I wasn't violent, I was constantly irritated, especially at the boys. Jaci thought I was demanding but not loving, and I walked away from a lot of arguments saying things like, "I don't care what you do, I am going to bed." Also, it's probably a good thing I wasn't driving, because drivers around here are either hot rodding jerks with a death wish or oldheads who go 10 mph below the speed limit. Also, to make a right turn, they begin to slow down 1/2 mile before the intersection and turn the corner at about 5 miles per hour. If you pass them while you are turning, you are guaranteed to get a dirty look. Getting the real brunt are the telemarketers selling credit cards and security systems. I would cut them off and say something like "I just had a major surgery, and I am waiting for important calls from doctors and nurses. DO NOT CLOG UP MY PHONE LINES WITH YOUR F-------- B-----S----! Do not call me again and take me off your list!" Finally, I am obsessive-compulsive about wasting food, so I completely freaked out when Jaci, who honestly didn't know any better, left a plastic lid on a tray of food and we lost the whole dish.

Sleeplessness: Spent many nights staring at my feet or at the clock. The fact that the oxygen concentrator is a bit loud doesn't help. I am sleeping better with the CPAP, but still get up in the middle of the night.

Insiatable appetite: When I first got home, I had nearly constant snack cravings. I still crave tomato and vegetable juice with Sriracha Sauce. I constantly crave salt, spicy stuff, and now I have even developed Sandy's sweet tooth.

Blurred vision: Check. I had to use reading glasses to see my phone and some books. That's also improving. I despise opthamologist appointments, and hate getting liquid dropped into my eyes.

Muscle weakness: Steroids weaken your thighs, so it was very hard to get up and move. Since the weaning began, I have had more energy to get up and move, wash dishes, do laundry, and panic during power outages.

My wife insisted to the medical team that I wean off the steroid as soon as possible.

Supposedly, the weaning is going well, because some people coming down off steroids get violent and angry, and I am taking it at least in stride.