The AM Forum

Hello fellow AMers
Received some bad news the last couple of days. Possibility some mutant spec from my lymphoma stayed in my bone marrow and developed in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. My oncologist was called in time by my PCP to trace something very different going on in my blood stream.
I'll be in UPMS Shadyside in Pittsburgh for about a month and the process continues for more treatments with a little break; watching for any need of transfusions.
I'm in the best hospital I could possible be in. The entire floor is blood cancers and leukemia.
I hope there is light at the end of this dark tunnel
Thanks
Fred

Fred,

I'm sorry to hear that you have to go through this again.  I've already said a prayer for you and I'm rooting for you further down the coax.

I know you've been down this road before Fred, so you know that attitude is a big part of the treatment. It can't be easy to stay positive in such a situation, but I wish for you the strength to do so. We will keep you in our prayers here.

"I Need Prayers"
You got 'em. Fred. Hang in there.

Bill KA8WTK

Prayers coming your way.....

Hi Fred,

I spent 6 months in treatment for NHL Large B cell Lymphoma.

I know the road you are on, best of luck and I'm sure you'll come out of it OK, I did.

73DG

Really sorry to hear this.
You will be in my thoughts.

Prayers, Fred!

Aw Fred,
Don't worry about a thing.  We'll hang the lights and put up the Xmas tree here for you! 

Give 'em hell,  bill

Prayers sent for Fred!

F,
 
They're on the way.

Get well.

klc

God bless you Fred and may the healing power of Jesus touch you and wisdom increase in your doctors.

Fred just saw your post.  You are now on my prayer list.  Praying for healing for you.
 

Sorry to hear this bad news Fred. You're on the prayer list.

73 Kevin KD1NW

All the very best to you Fred.
God's Cathedral of the Aether will surely hear our prayers.

Good luck.   Gonna keep you in my thoughts and prayers Fred.


--Shane
KD6VXI

may the good Lord bless you and keep you ... prayers for clarity and mental acuity for your medical care group ...John

Fred,

you are in the thoughts and prayers of my wife and I. Think positive and know many are praying for you.

wd9ive
dan

You are added to my prayer list, Fred. 

You got it Fred! Praying for your health.

Fred,

You beat it before so I am sure it will happen again.  Our thoughts and prayers will be with you. 

73,
Joe-GMS & Martha-QBE

You are in my thoughts and prayers Fred.

Rob W1AEX

Here's to a full recovery, Fred!

Spend a lot of time meditating on a positive outcome. The body knows how to mend itself when it has direction. The mind and body are hard-wired together.

T

Complete recovery!


Only good things, good results.


                          _-_-bear

God bless you Fred. You hang in there! Tell the nurses to give you plenty of ice cream. You have plenty of friends out here. A lot of prayers and good wishes coming your way. Like a bad Mexican food dinner, this too shall pass.

Mike

Thoughts are with you Fred.. and I'm from New Jersey and will send someone to kick that stuff right out of your body..

If a Doctor named "Rocko" shows up, just smile and keep the faith..

Best to you and your recovery!

Jeff W2NBC

Hi Fred,
You are dealing with the best medical people around. Our neighbor lady is about 5 years past treatments and doing great. My sister is in her third off period between treatments also with UPMC Shadyside. Every day there is the possibility of them finding something new for treatments thru research. Keep the mental part together and eat well, the body will follow. My best to you.

Bob

All the best Fred and you will be in our prayers.

Fight it as if it were adjacent frequency interference!  :D

Phil - AC0OB

Best of thoughts and prayers Fred.
My sister has been through that same cancer 7 years ago and came out the other side!

Carl
/KPD

Great thoughts of encouragement. Thanks dear radio friends. Me and my wife were praying my oncologist would get involved and send me here to UPMC Shadyside. They have a high record of success with blood cancers and leukemia. The stories of your loved ones pulling through is helping me out. My wife was patient enough to go to Wallyworld and buy a new $350 HP laptop for me to use online instead of dumb phone trying to do online stuff. I can surf the web easier. And keep the technical matter in my brain working by reading posts in amfone
Thanks again guys. The chemo bags are all lined up.

Fred my thoughts and prayers are with you.  Wishing you the best possible outcome.   Speedy and complete recovery.

you got prayers from here Fred.  Get plenty of rest, eat well and exercise. As JJ said, the mind and body are key to healing.

Fred,

Since you've got a laptop proper,  don't forget the websdr,  stickam and other sdr sites....   You can at least keep up on the lies on the radio as well.....

Or,  I wouldn't know who,  but I'm sure there are some ip based radios owned by forum members who could hook ya up,  as well.

Fight the good fight.   We're all counting on you!

--Shane
KD6VXI

sdr radio (the program) has the ability to pick radios to use all over the world.
There is a good one in Cape Cod, picked me up on 40 meters nicely.
A lap top, web access and a pair of headphones and you can listen all over the place.
The new version of sdr-radio (free download) is more complicated but you can figure out the basics.
It helps to keep your mind off what is going on local.

Stickam died a long time ago... :'(

73DG

You have mine Fred! Hang in there buddy.........


Terry

Fred, Sorry to hear u going through that, best wishes,
Get well soon.

Chuck

Prayer said for you, Fred. Hang in there!  :)

Brad

Fred:

Prayers sent. Glad you are part of our gang!

Keep us posted on your progress as you can.

73,
Dan

Fred:  Ya beat it once, you will beat it again.  We hope to see you at NEAR-Fest on April 29th and 30th.  You will be our guest.  Just let me know you are coming and it will be taken care of.

73,

MrMike, W1RC

You guys are the greatest. Thanks for your thoughts.
I have mozilla firefox and that makes browsing online SDRs very easy with some built in HTML control.
It's a little bumpy with all of the chemo the last 5 days...thankfully no side effects. They got this thing down to science now.
Thanks fro your responses and prayers. Sitting by the window in the recliner with the laptop and the warm sun coming in with that added warmth.
I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving
Fred

 Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving, get well soon, you are in my thoughts.

                     
                                              Tom, W6TOM

Prayers your way....

John K5MO

Thanks guys...the journey ahead will be full of bumps.

Hey
I'm getting outta here on Sun Dec 13!!!
Phase 1 of possibly several phases of more chemo down the road. I was glad to hear that what I just went through was the worst part....Thank God
I'll be going home for about 2 weeks and then back here for another 5 day stint and more chemo. The immune system will be down a lot more and being at home will become more about germs and our 10 yr old and the usual kid thing, until my immune system returns.
I'll be visited by a health care provider when I am at home to take care of the "PICC"??? line. The "port" where they draw blood or infuse the poisons. And if I need a transfusions they make arrangements with the local hospital at the ER.
There's a long road ahead to get rid of this type of leukemia.
It will be nice to be home and be with my family again. I have only seen my son on facebook video the last 5 weeks. Children under 12 are not allowed in the hospital, they are petri dishes.
Those GOOD ole Christmas songs from the 50's and 60's sure ring true to me now. "There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays"
Thanks for your replies and prayers

Fred

Great news Fred. Maybe play some radio.

Good luck Fred I will keep you  in my Prayers

Awesome!

Merry Christmas.

Great news Fred! Enjoy the home cooking!

Rob W1AEX

Great news. Have a Merry Christmas at home.

Hospitals are no place to get well!  Enjoy your Xmas gift with the family and friends.   Best, bill

It's so good you're be home around family for Christmas !

I wish the best for you in your treatments going forward, and final recovery.

Regards,  Steve

Good that your'e out of the hospital and home. My brother had something like that.. and chemo for a while, he's cured now.

ahhhh ya...so nice to have piece and quiet and my family close by. I thought I stepped into heaven ... 3 weeks is a long time.
They have made a lot of progress in this blood cancer thing. More talk about success.

F,

Now all we have to do is get you on the air a bit.....  7290 Is FB during the day......

klc

Thanks for the heads up!!! I will be trekking to the shack more, now that my strength is back for climbing stairs. Amazing how the body forgets to do something as simple as steps in 3 weeks.
It's nice not to have to worry about shaving........been 5 days.....I think I'd like to have my hair back, though

Fred

My hair all came out and when it came back, it was curly as heck (kinky) for about the first 3 haircuts and then went back to the natural straight.
The middle finger nail on both hands split during chemo and one is still split 15 years later.  That is some poisonous stuff, but it worked along with a lot of prayers.
I try to remember each day to say a prayer of thanks.  Good luck!

It's time to get serious about getting your "stuff" on a floor where you don't have to do stairs.  Very important.  Think about it now (plans) and do it when you get your strength back.   Ask for local help

Al

Thanks Al
I have been walking the halls of the hospital as my little regimen of keeping it together. It had been three weeks since I climbed steps. I got my little circuit in the house for walking and climbing a little set of stairs about 30 minutes a day . The steps are getting much easier. There's is no way for local help and my limited energy to be wrestling moving just a transceiver to higher ground and the RF cables. For now, I still need my 2Pm nap
Thanks
Fred

I'm sure that once you get back on the air, a strong dose of 75mAM will get the machine back in working order. Things could be much worse. Hang in there, you have many people sending good energy your way.

OK Fred.  Understood.  Consider it a project for further down the road and only if you feel up to it.

It's not something we wish to look forward to but at some time we probably need to make plans to accommodate mobility limitations .  Another possibility would be to put in one of those mobile stairs that allow you to go between stairs by taking a ride.

I don't consider this sort of thing anything more than part of the "human experience"  There are plenty of folks - young folks - who need assistance with their mobility.^[1]  I just want you to continue to enjoy the part of your life that is fun - being on the air.

GL es Keep Truckin, Al

-----------------------------------------------
^[1] An example with one of my ham friends is Matt KB1JXU who is a young guy who is wheelchair bound but has an infectious love of life.  He's fun to be around with and doesn't allow his mobility limitation to slow him down

Well a strong dose of some 160M AM will be better for the mind and soul. The dipole is down from some wind storm that blew through here, while I was in the hospital. So, some back tracking is needed. It is just one end of the antenna that is down. I hope that the I didn't lose the dacron rope up in the tree. The last time it failed the rope was laying on the ground.  I'll have to wait for my wife to go out for me to trekk back there and look over what is left and secure the loose end for another attempt to reconnect.
My thought would be to shorten it to 195 feet to lessen the amount of wire out there and reduce the failures until I feel better to put a pulley and bucket to absorb the movement of the tree end of the dipole. 195 feet is a 3/8 wave at the lowest operating freq of a dipole fed by OWL for multiple band use. Right now it is a full length 160M dipole, 240 feet. When I was in Maryland, the dipole was 3/8 wave and worked very well on many bands.

Al,
thanks for your thoughts. The strength is back in my legs to climb steps now. I have a regimen using the space between our living room and kitchen as a circuit for my walking in circles and climbing the steps for my legs. I can now get back on my elliptical and do one lap on the track. I use to do 15 minutes of laps or whatever was on the screen for a per-programmed workout. One of those wise purchases I made two years ago to buy a nice Nordick Track Elliptical with 7 inch LCD screen and wifi to get exercise online workouts. It was on sale for $1200 and free shipping........LOVE it!!!
It's all part of an exercise time to keep this body functioning and the chemo road ahead. Trying to keep it moving about 40 minutes a day, without stressing too much.

God Bless you guys in this forum....I hope you guys and gals have a special blessed Holiday and The New Year is a little better than the this last year.

Fred

That's wonderful news, Fred.  Keep up the good fight.  Still,,,, plan ahead.  Wish we could work each other.  Maybe a band opening on  75.  40 has been pretty much useless with its unpredictability

Enjoy the holidays

Al

OK Al
Maybe an early evening event on 75 before the chaos takes place.
I thought 40 was booming or maybe daytime /  afternoon has been better

Fred

Fred,

A special Merry Christmas to you and your family. I know that extra prayers and blessings are headed your way this year. Stay strong and fight the good fight. May God bless you.

Mike / KE5YTV

Jesus is the reason for the season!

Thanks for your comments...
It's a calculated poisoning and they are getting pretty good at it.

Thanks Mike.....Last sentence is VERY true

Fred,
  All prayers to you old friend.

 You are absolutely in the best place. I did a great deal of work there in 2005, as well as at the University of Pittsburgh with Dr. John Kansius developing an R.F. based tumor ablation system.
 Brilliant, compassionate people who in addition to providing great medical care,...also provide the spiritual support so crucial to this difficult battle.

 Blessings to you and keep up the fight.

                                               Jamie

I remember reading about Dr Kansius in QST, I think...quite a break through using RF.
Thanks for your thoughts.
fred

Fred,

I'm so sorry to hear what you are going through, but I know you will be OK!  Our prayers are certainly with you.

73,  Jack, W9GT