here we go again....it used to be fun

thursday, at the canyon, dry hot and quiet. sitting in lori and scott's apt, peg is having a snack and i feel decent. decent, and as well as a guy should feel when he's hygenic and hyper-vigilant and hypernoid (?) about his turncoat-traitor body. had a short, non-violent procedure yesterday, two docs put a porta-cath in my manly upper body. look out Arnold, i'm the now the cancernator. gonnna kill you cancer, who's you killer,, yah, u bet=cha.
pegandi took tourist trip wed here, went to the new yavapai musee, took the shuttle to the el tovar, drank a coooooool one and watched the canyon fade to grey. back with friends for food and laughs...a good day after 4 #*^%^&^&* days of not so fun, icky, this is my reality? moments interrpted by " i think the comode is right behind this door...quickly, quickly and then drop back to horizontal
but today and yesterday portend better days behind the grunge and garbage of treatment. next week at the gala wes/lena weddding i suspectd i'll feel happier than a pig in ____, sorry for the midwest image-we just so left the flatland. pegandi found the cooolest threads, can you spell S I L K ? for my bod and i know i'll be the best looking bald guy in maple plain.
can't believe my precious loving son is getting hooked-up, the ring-thing, about to do the I DO - WE DO's. Want you to know tanner, the there are too few words in all languages in this universe, to tell how much i have enjoyed every moment of being your dad, father, role-model (good,bad,confusing) teacher, coffee man, fishing buddy, driving instructor, carpenter guide (watch your head wes!) music critic-wes please play "3rd stone from the sun" when I'm back there, you're my co-poet, my replacement and let's go fishing wes!!! whatcha doing sunday after your wedding? too few words. member= don't be sorry, be nice.
alena, you are the third luckiest person on the planet. peg and i have known him forever as one fine son.
enuf for thursday, tomorrrow round two and the return to rapid recovery before the trip to Mpls.
again thanks to all who take time to post and share with me this odyssey. can't always respond by blog or phone, but each of you sits in a fold of my quiet, warm memory blanket.
love, infinity, marcus

Let the treatment (begin) continue!

I'm writing for Marcus who is baking in his chemo cocktail. First night went well at Kelso's house near Flagstaff - almost too good to be true! Saturday proved to be a little more rooted in reality - highlight was having the Talker family visit. Sunday has been...well...started with a beautiful morning walk to visit our friends, the Winter's, up the street followed by much rest (with side effects) for Marcus and misc. chores by Peggy.
Our little lake home's garden looks great thanks to our friend's the Talkers, and neighbors, Jim and Vicky Winters, and John and Pat. The Grand Canyon Merry Maids (aka Terry Tobin and Laura Kelso) worked their magic so we returned home to a super clean house (wonder what color the water was when you cleaned the carpet).

Figured out that we have changed lodging 20 times since we left Page on our quest for the best. Let's see....can i name then?
1. Grand Canyon, (Guy and Sheila's)
2. Flagstaff (Phillip's)
3. Sand Island on the San Juan (camping with Mandy)
4. Colorado River camping with Mandy near Moab
5. Boulder to stay with Kurt, Laura, and girls
6. Kearney, Nebraska with Wes and Alena - the hot-tub was worth it.
7. Mount Vernon, Iowa, at Dixie and Steve's (Wes and Alena at Marsha's), near Patty
8. Mary and Mike's in Webster City, IA
9. Baker Park near Alena's parent's in Maple Plain, Minnesota (Alena's sister, Tess had graduation party)
10. back to Webster City (Mary and Mike's) and a quick visit with my stepmom, Ellen
11. back to Mount Vernon (Dix, Steve, Patty)
12. Someplace in Kansas
13. Alamosa, Colorado
14. home sweet home
15. Grand Canyon (Sheila and Guy's)
16. Victorville (why not drive part way to Mandy's graduation from University of California, Santa Barbara!)
17. Ashley and Niki's with "Grandma" - graduation party.
18. Arroyo Grande to be with Julie and Paul, the bed and breakfast extrodinare, relatives, with guest Mandy.
19. Head home, wake up in Laughlin. Mandy said, when she called from Laughlin, Nevada (lost with her friends on the way to Flagstaff), "We're in Laughlin....What is this place? It's like a mini Las Vegas!"
20. Kelso's mountain-view home for Marcus to have his first, all day chemo (9 to 5:00);

21. Home and kicking cancer. This too shall pass....

Next? Another treatment in Flagstaff on Friday (port-a-cath in on Wednesday), Vegas on the 4th of July to meet Mandy, Julie and Paul to fly to Minneapolis and another big event, the wedding of Wesley and Alena. Then back home (with Mandy) for more chemo, eventual surgery in Iowa, and back to Big Water to finish up treatment.

Your comments, well wishes, and stories are welcome reading for us. Once Mandy comes to stay with us, Marcus will have her lap top so he'll likely communicate more frequently.

OPT (Only Positive Thoughts), EDAG (Every Day is A Gift), and YOLO (You Only Live Once) - with love and appreciation for our family and friends, Peggy

college & cali

back a week ago gone, terry and dan-dah-man babysat me and me woman, sat, hot-tubbed, sold the camper, loved our gardens and plants, and went to the canyon on thursday for poker, of course i won, and then to flag to see chemo-guy, begin that therarpy this friday, gave em some blood and then on to the freeway and surprize Mandy! what a meltdown that mornng,kisses & hugs and holding my daughter and her mom made a fabo-fav father's day feeling. i kept on arm open for tanner, but he'll fill that grasp next month in mini-soda. graduation was fun, long time in chairs, sunny, ocean side, so many young people going out into the real world, good luck. typical , mandy mae party, costumes and craziness, good food and hey who made the sangria? thx to hummer who plays for love of music and family, thx to j&p for helping mandy in sooooooo many ways and times. thx to to great-grand canyon crowd who care enough to help me through the coping, grief and daily details. thx to bigwater-neightbors for keeping it green and clean. Jim you ought to open a quick-lube! sheri and russ, can still taste the flavor of s/w chicken and sausage.
so. what next?
we spend today, mon here on the coast and then off to vegas, norms's and home wed. will be in flag for thursday - friday as i accept my magic potion/poison that can start killing the bad side of marcus, hell, couldn't kill the good side with all the WMD 's that don't exist except in the small reptilillan brain of a small man from texas. prob. stay in flag, fri and then home for sun and recoup/relax/recover for a week. that is up to date, here and now, and nuff to write cuz i'm going shopping for wesley's wedding - clothes and and shoes and maybe a wig? love to all, marcus and peggy.

Gee, it's good to be back home...

monday, 6-11...drove in last nite from central colorado, big o' truck screaming past tourists and trees, hell-bent on parking in our piece of the planet. one unexpected bonus was the low price for fuel thru out the midwest so someone cut the farmers a break, and that's all right with us. Trip from Iowa to Colorado is, how do you say? boring. BORE-ING BORING. i remember now why Doro-athy was glad to see a tornado. henny ways, we ARE glad to be here with our plants, hot tub and later tonite, mad-man-maddox. terry and dano arrrived a littLE earlier than us, bearing food, drink and good vibes. this thing about friends and family is more true than any thought that has ever blinked in Dub-ya's brain. And the notes everyone is posting fill us with laughter and lightness and love. will see the chem-oh dr.s on friday and then begin draining the toxin toward my turmors next week. and i can't wait...or so i say today. i'm learning how directly expericence revises first thoughts. this is a week of catch up on sleep, gardening, and chores around the dusty homestead. will prob. put the tolly back in the lake as well, and pull the camper off the truck. keep the notes and notations coming, and thanks to all who care about us.

hey it's friday-9:00 and we're out-a-here. here being U of I hosptials and friends and family who care for us,Patty, Dix, Steve, Mary, Mike, Wes, Alena who fed us, gave shelter from storms, and made innumberable assists, phones and words of encouragement. Peg's favoirte billy-bob big-ass truck is ready to roll and we hope to sleep in nebraska tonite, (that's a hope?)
Ok, now an update on my body - saw our numero uno surgeon yesterday after a very tender bit of backside testing on wednesday, high tech magnetic coils and mri and crazy electronics, making pix of my all body parts. found some cancer is just outside the bladder, not so cool, and before he operates he wants chemo to shrink the tumor back to bladder borders. so, we/i have a series of three chemos to drink off b-4 the surgery. peg and i will drive back to beautiful downtown big water this weekend and consult with the chemo-chiefs in flagstaff and then in a week or two begin sucking up the fancy cancer-killing-cocktail.it's a three week set, repeated three times. then within a month of finishing we have the operation. Ok. we can handle that.peggy is simply an absolute best bud to have beside me. i love how we both can catch our breath and then move on to the next step available/suggested. Immortality is so complicated, think i'll have to write a book, call it the bible acccording to marcus of big water. i will fill it with platitudes and postitive attitudes and ideas on how to love a life worth living. so far,peg and i have done that. somewhere in the schedule we'll fly back to minn/landofbuzzingbitingbugs/ and enjoy and bask in the love that wes and alena are committing to with their wedding...that's about alllllllllllllll folks.
love and hugs and smiles and deep breaths...all it takes to keep on keeping...

marcus

ps-we have rejoined the electronic age: cell phones me-319-899-2474....peg- 319-899-1637
give ring we'll try to answer...i have mine set to vibrate and may, for reasons of pleasure, allow it to ring a bit longer..........HA

A competition...

Yo Dad!
Hacking in with the password, leaving no fingerprints... Someone has to update this thing! My parents are in Iowa City right now, we'll get some test results back within the next few days and if all goes well, the operation will go on as scheduled in a week and a half. Wes and Alena are back home in the land of 10000000000000 lakes. My parents cruised briefly through the WC and Uncle Mike won the lottery. YEAHHHHHH BABY! Our luck is turning back around. Also, for all interested who can't quite make it to my graduation (so that means basically everyone) I just found out that you can watch it LIVE online. I'll find out more about it and post it on here. Unfortunately the party will not be broadcast live. Also I think we should have a competition... whoever comes up with the funniest line, phrase, etc wins and I will write/draw/paint it on my graduation cap as a shout out to my dad. I know there are a lot of funny people checking in on this blog, so I am setting my expectations high!
Goodnight from Santa Barbara...
Mandy

odyessey-stop one Iowa city

We spent Memorial day at KJ's and reLAXed. good food/friends/family fun. mon nite was memorial-must have been up 22 times to pee...can you spell tired in all caps? tuesday noon, took mandy to aeroporto, and left her(kisses, hugs, sighs) to deal with the storm of the century. of course she handled it. Continued to nebrasKa and chasesd a storm for the next three hundred drizzle miles. Overnite in generic motel, but the hot tub was hot and the chicken was delcious, KFC, 10 years since i've had such fingerlickingfatfood. and best news: I slept like a baby, waking only every two hours for a sip of H2O and back to dreamland.
tues repeat, drive, drizzle and dine out. in Iowa city by 6pm. stayed with most good natured/warm welcoming friends dix and steve.
wed. dah-dun...finally at UofI hosp. met with #1 doc for this body malfunction and went through options, plans and schedules. I am scheduled for table time with the surgeons June 18, its a full day, 8 hours on the table...but he wants another final diagnostic test next wednesday, an MRI with special probe (yikes), to make absolutely sure he can be successful when they open my belly. if any ick or bad stuff shows on the MRI, I have to do chemo first, then surgery, so still in lala land of waiting and waiting for the real show to begin. One thing cancer and the army teach you is to hurry up and wait, aka:patience. Today (friday) we go to Webster city with wes and alena, then tomorrow up to twin cities to get them home in time for leana's sister's grad party. then back to w/c and iowa city by tuesday and pop into the hospital for that mri and then as paul harvey never says: you'll know '"the rest of the stoma' good day". loathe to leave, but leave with lot of love and thanks for all who read our journey notes, and all who leave notes and well wishes...love marcus, somewhere in the heartland

ps: special shout outs to: mandy mae, my loving funnest daughter of laughter, bright eyes and blogging; to wes and aleana for changing their lives/schedules/and sleep patterns to join us on the caravan to carver hosptial; to peggy for whom i would undergo any operation/procedure no matter how uncomfortable to any degree, so i can spend more,more,more days with you...we both know how the night time goes...love to all of you and see you in my wandering day dreams...marcus

dad's blog... HACKED!

We've stuffed Marcus with cheeseburgers, eggs, bacon, and Newcastle.

Don't worry, he's fine, things are completely under our control (wes- PUT DOWN THAT HAMMER AND GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF MAN!!!).

Good posts will be back soon. We swear it. But for now you'll just have to trust us.

Love and kisses from Mt. Vernon IOWA,
Alena and Wes

Between the days

ok, if you've read these posts too many times and are really not enjoying them, go to the web site below, join the chorus, and find relief.HA. with love, from marcus via mary

http://beverlys.net/LJ/BuggingYou.swf