I haven't posted anything for quite a while so I figured my Birthday was a good time to get back in the habit. The great thing about being born on December 31 is that I always know (or at least I can easily calculate) exactly how old I am. In the words of Mark Twain, rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. A few VOXers have checked up on my because my last post referred to surgery and then I didn't post anything. I'm happy to say that my absence is mostly attributable to laziness and not to bad health.
2007 was full of excitement and surprises for me and my family. My daughter was married 9 days before the end of 2006 so I have enjoyed being a father in law for over one year now. In the Spring I continued my studies in the MIS program at the University of Memphis. (I'll be going back on January 15.) In the summer I had lots of fun with the Youth from church including a 3 day Youth Conference and a High Adventure trip in Arkansas that featured mountain biking, rock climbing, caving, and camping.
In August I had an unexpected surgery and was diagnosed with Carcinoid Syndrome. (See previous posts for details.) On November 20 I had another surgery to deal with the metastatic tumors on my liver. The surgery went well and my recovery has been steady and encouraging. I didn't really mind being in the hospital for Thanksgiving but I did feel bad for my wife, Marcia, because she had surgery on her foot exactly two weeks before my surgery and was still on crutches during my hospital stay. The surgeon was able to resect two of the tumors but he had to use Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA) on another one because of the size and position. RFA involves a really cool device that uses microwaves to cook and kill tissue. We'll do a CT scan probably in the next two to four weeks to see if all the cancer is gone. Meanwhile, we have done a lab test that indicated that my hormone levels are normal and I have none of the symptoms that I had prior to the last surgery. So I have been able to stop the twice-a-day injections that I had been doing. So now I have a 90 day supply of very expensive medicine in my refrigerator that I hope I'll never need to use. I thought about EBay but somehow that doesn't seem ethical or even legal.
I've been back to work for a few weeks now and there have been some major changes at work. My boss was promoted and has relocated to California. He is a great guy and I really enjoyed working with him. He even left me his collection of hundreds of CD's that he didn't want to take with him so I'm enjoying lots of new music. Instead of replacing him, they decided to combine my work group with another group that was doing similar work. I like my new boss and I see lots of opportunities for creativity and innovation from this minor reorganization.
My football team, the Memphis Tigers, had a difficult and even tragic beginning to their season but somehow managed to win 5 of their last 6 regular season games and got invited to the New Orleans Bowl. My wife and I decided to celebrate our improved health (and our 26th anniversary) and make the trip to be at the bowl game. We had a great time even though our team lost. (Congratulations to Florida Atlantic University. They really were the better team, at least that night.) New Orleans is not my favorite place but it is very unique and I think everyone should go there at least once. Parking near the French Quarter is scarce so you always end up walking a lot. I just took lots of short rests and made it through the weekend with no problems.
Our basketball team is undefeated in 2007 and is still ranked #2. The down side to their success is that tickets to games are hard to get and getting more expensive every day. Don't get me wrong, I love the free market. I just have to plan a little better to be able to enjoy watching a special season for the Tigers.
We had a very enjoyable Christmas with our children and friends. We still haven't decided what we're going to do tonight for New Year's Eve (or, as I like to call it, the worldwide celebration of Tony Taylor's birthday). We thought about making tamales using my brother-in-law's special chile mix but he hasn't been able to ship it yet so I guess we'll postpone that until the weekend. We may go to a dance and we may end up just banging pots and pans in the kitchen. In any case, I'm sure there will be a smile on my face!
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