Getting old is better than the alternative, but....

GETTING OLD
Getting old is much better than the alternative, but it does take you down some paths that aren't so much fun.

I have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and since last Wednesday when we found out, Ellen and I have been bouncing all over the place, calling this hospital and that, doing internet activity on therapies, with their benefits and drawbacks, talking to family and friends, and wondering just what it is that we will do, and where we will go.

Thankfully, prostate cancer is a most treatable disease and one that can be taken care of...and we are hoping for the best. We are traveling to Jacksonville Florida, as at the U of Florida, there is a 'Proton Beam Therapy Institute'. This treatment, which uses a cyclotron, seems to have treatment that is not invasive, and has less negative side effects with better results. The proton is whipped through this cyclotron then sent along a path and into the treatment rooms, and stopped right where the cancer is!

We have initiated the process of acceptance as a patient, but there is some uncertainty about insurance coverage. So we also have an appointment Oct. 30 at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. They have a modified radiation therapy that is also highly rated. We shall keep our fingers crossed and our options open.

So, to put it simply, we are not going to be able to do our Arizona plans...so no reunion with our friends in that area, and no ATVing...and maybe more. But Florida does sound better than the upper midwest....climatically speaking.


RV WORK
In the meantime, we are at Smith Center Kansas, getting our 5th wheel looked at, as we had some incident with the hydraulics not working properly, plus a small list of other stuff. As it looks right now, it may just be a battery problem. That would be fine with us.

Smith Center is a small and slow farm town of 1600 that happens to have a major RV manufactureron the edge of town. Excel (Peterson Idustries) really does treat the customer well, and we hope to have everything taken care of by tomorrow.

In the meantime we are parked in the Excel parking lot, right next to a most talkative, and at times irritating customer who watches the Excel techs as they try to fix his coach. I am sure they appreciate his watching. We do, because then he is not talking to us.