Huh? Whazzat?

Posted by Roie R. Black on Wed 05 November 2014

It has been a while since I posted anything, and it is time for an update. The good news is that Cheryl and I went over to M. D. Anderson last night for a morning appointment with my Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Yu. We barely had time to say hello to Cheryl's fisheys before they called us in exactly on time. Boy that never happens!

Cheryl's Fisheys

The meeting went well. My "bulk" which is the chunk of my leg they used to fill in the void left when they took out the bone below my left eye and whatever else they had to remove to get rid of the last tumor, looks pretty good, and Dr. Yu is sure he can tune things up to make it all look much better. He is also going to do a bit of work on pulling up the side of my mouth, which now sags enough that I drool any time I try to drink fluids. (The bad part of that is he will have to "borrow" a bit more tissue from my leg.)

I bet you thought those legs were for walking. Wrong-o, they are a farm that grows tissue that can be used when they need some for another place on your body. I never knew that! Fortunately, both of my legs are still good for walking, and I am giving some thought to seeing if they can still run. I miss that!

Everything looks good for the surgery, we just need to get it scheduled, which should happen in a couple of weeks. We are planning on a Thursday surgery, and will stay over in Houston on Friday just to make sure there are no problems.

New Eye

Once Dr. Yu gets done, and after two weeks of recovery, I get to start work on that paste-on eye they plan on putting into the depression where my old eye used to live. Hopefully, that will happen during my semester break which ends around Jan 20. With any luck I will look much more normal then.

If not, I still have my silly putty and cat's eye marble idea to work with, so when I go back to school for Spring Semester, I should have 1.5 eyes. No matter what, the new one will not move, it will just look better than my pirate's eye patch now. (By the way, since my Computer Studies Department meeting was on Halloween, I wore my pirate's hat and eye patch to the meeting. Sadly, no one else thought to dress up at all. Sad when folks forget to celebrate our season's best days.)

F4 Update

While waiting around in M. D. Anderson, I gave the folks at the Collings Foundation a call to get an update on my favorite airplane, their F4D. The engine that has been being rebuilt out in California is running well now in a test stand, but they want a few more runs to make sure nothing is leaking before they ship it back to Houston. Those old J-79 engines are rock solid jets, with an incredible history powering our fighter force for many years. But they are complex beasts and the folks who know how to keep them running are getting harder to find. So, waiting until everything is just right is a wise move.

What that all means is that the bird will not be flying until probably before the first of the year. Phooey!

Recording the flight

I am starting to line up the logistics for the ride anyway. I will have a Go-Pro camera mounted on my helmet, and there will be another one in the cockpit over the pilot's shoulder filming the view out the front of the wind-screen. I am also planning on taking a GPS recorder that will track where we go in detail. Believe it or not, you can show a flight track on Google-Earth using GPS data, and may pilots use these gadgets to look over where they flew. I first saw one being used by a glider pilot who managed to fly for over six hours hooking into thermals and winding his way up high enough to go find another one before he finally decided to land. All with no motor! That is real flying!

These Go-Pro cameras do a great job of filming the entire flight, including the "tear-holes-in-the-sky" part where the bird will be doing a bit of playing a real fighter jet (which, of course, it is). The F4 was the top fighter jet in the world for many years, and they built over 5000 of them while I was working at the plant. I have taken lessons in doing all the basic aerobatic maneuvers, so I expect to get a few in with the F4 under my control. At least a roll or two, and maybe a split-S (roll the airplane upside down, then do a half loop downward until you are level. Anything else, I will leave to the pilot to explain, or just do while I hang on. We will pull more than a few "G"s doing this, which can make some folks a bit queasy! I was ine with all of that when I did my aerobatics training.

Actually, hanging on while gyrating through the sky is not an issue, You are strapped in so tight, you can hardly move, and you are sitting on a ejection seat capable of blasting you out of the ship (through the canopy if necessary) and parachuting you back to earth. We do not plan on needing that, but I have to be trained on "exit procedures" just in case. I did the same thing when I took my own aerobatics lessons many years ago.

To me, this is what flying is all about. None of that boring point A to point B stuff. Enjoy the freedom of the sky! (Just do not fly into clouds unless someone looking at radar tells you it is OK. Every cloud has an aluminum lining, probably built by Boeing, and you do not want to run into one of those!) We will pray for a clear sunny day for this adventure!

Whazzat?

My hearing is getting worse, and we do not know why. I have hearing aides now, and it seems like I need then to hear things very well at all now. In my last visit to my ENT, Dr. Scholl, we did a hearing test and basically found out my left ear has shut down. If I crank up the volume on the hearing aide on that side I barely hear anything, but others tell me they hear some kind of feedback. Me, I cannot hear a thing which is really annoying. My right ear is losing hearing as well, and I seem to need the hearing aide most of the time now. All of this is kind of depressing, since losing hearing is not something I want to see happen. Hopefully removing the bulk on my left side will help.

I did discover that when I yawn, I can occasionally hear things on my left side. We are all convinced that the mechanics of my ears are fine, but there is probably fluid building up behind my ear drum preventing it from moving. Dr. Scholl does not want to do the standard fix, which involves poking a small hole in the ear drum and putting in a tube to drain the extra fluid. I have had so much radiation in that area, he is afraid the hole will not heal, and I could get a fungus build up in my inner ear that would be worse than the problems I am having now!

What a mess. The longer all this goes, the more interesting things I have to contend with. Oh well, I am still upright, and that is what counts most!

More Prayers

Cheryl and I are in a small group from our Church who meet every couple of weeks for study and just to visit. It seems all of us are going through problems of one kind or another, but know what? All of us pray for each other, and God seems to be listening. We all seem to be getting through the trauma of life's adventures. We help each other, and we all know that the prayers we get from other folks, including those reading this blog are helping as well. Thank you again for all of your support. It surely helps me, and more important to me, it helps my care-giver, Cheryl, who puts an incredible amount of energy and love into my care through all of this! I doubt I would be doing anywhere as well as I am without her support.

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tags: Cancer