"Tony" Thought Journal 3.0

Tony Page

Tony Page

Well-known member
It's good to see a lot of familiar names and I'm sure more will come.

I received some tomato seeds on Friday from Esty and I am expecting some more tomato as well as cuke seeds.

This past summer I did very little to none vegetable gardening and I miss it. Except for weekends I spent the other five days getting 26 doses of radiation treatment for prostate cancer. I was extremely glad when it was over because the side effects we're starting to get under my skin.😚 Now I'm in a recuperating stage and it's difficult to tell whether any pain or off feeling I have is from radiation side effects, the fact that I've gained a little weight, my age, or the cancer is back. I guess by now I thought I would be in some state of normalcy, maybe this is the new normalcy.

This morning when I got up my right knee was swollen and hurting. I don't see any black and blue and I don't remember banging it, seems like it was okay when I went to bed last night. Maybe I twisted it in my sleep.

It is so good to see everybody back together it's something I hope for for a long time.
 
Glad to see you starting your journal here , @Tony Page ! I have started mine again, too. It is always good to be able to look back and see what was happening in our lives over time.

I also got my tomato seeds and started a few in the aerogarden, along with some oregano, thyme, and cilantro. My gardening is all either in containers or something perennial now, and I also miss being able to have more of a garden. I usually find my seeds on eBay, and I imagine Etsy would probably be about the same thing, as far as having a huge variety and excellent prices.

It is weird how we can be fine when we go to bed and hurt when we wake up and not have any idea what happened, but I have had that happen to me also. Hoping it goes away soon, and you are able to walk safely.
 
Yvonne Smith said:
Glad to see you starting your journal here , @Tony Page ! I have started mine again, too. It is always good to be able to look back and see what was happening in our lives over time.

I also got my tomato seeds and started a few in the aerogarden, along with some oregano, thyme, and cilantro. My gardening is all either in containers or something perennial now, and I also miss being able to have more of a garden. I usually find my seeds on eBay, and I imagine Etsy would probably be about the same thing, as far as having a huge variety and excellent prices.

It is weird how we can be fine when we go to bed and hurt when we wake up and not have any idea what happened, but I have had that happen to me also. Hoping it goes away soon, and you are able to walk safely.
Click to expand...
I will be planting my seeds in pots in January. I also have purchased seeds from eBay, last year I bought a variety of Hosta seeds, I haven't planted them yet.

I'm hoping this year will be a more productive year gardening for me.
 
Tony Page said:
Except for weekends I spent the other five days getting 26 doses of radiation treatment for prostate cancer. I was extremely glad when it was over because the side effects we're starting to get under my skin.😚 Now I'm in a recuperating stage and it's difficult to tell whether any pain or off feeling I have is from radiation side effects, the fact that I've gained a little weight, my age, or the cancer is back. I guess by now I thought I would be in some state of normalcy, maybe this is the new normalcy.

This morning when I got up my right knee was swollen and hurting. I don't see any black and blue and I don't remember banging it, seems like it was okay when I went to bed last night. Maybe I twisted it in my sleep.
Click to expand...
Tony--I'm glad you made it through treatment; that is rough to deal with. I remember thinking that once treatment was over life would return to "normal," but I didn't realize that the old normal was gone for good. Cancer treatment is so harsh and leaves a lot of damage in its wake. My oncologist told me that treatment can age the body by 10 years, and often exacerbates arthritis. I am grateful for the extra years I was given by MD Anderson, but knowing what I know now, I won't go through that again.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
Tony--I'm glad you made it through treatment; that is rough to deal with. I remember thinking that once treatment was over life would return to "normal," but I didn't realize that the old normal was gone for good. Cancer treatment is so harsh and leaves a lot of damage in its wake. My oncologist told me that treatment can age the body by 10 years, and often exacerbates arthritis. I am grateful for the extra years I was given by MD Anderson, but knowing what I know now, I won't go through that again.
Click to expand...
I agree.
Truthfully I would not do this again either. When you factor in my age, it probably wasn't a smart move to do radiation treatment. Finding the cancer was by accident, it wasn't bothering me, was all the treatment necessary I'm not sure.
 
Tony Page said:
I agree.
Truthfully I would not do this again either. When you factor in my age, it probably wasn't a smart move to do radiation treatment. Finding the cancer was by accident, it wasn't bothering me, was all the treatment necessary I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
Did the radiation cause you problems @Tony Page? Up here, the guys don't complain too much about the targeted radiation using the Cyberknife. Many old guys forego the hormone stuff though.
 
Tony Page said:
I agree.
Truthfully I would not do this again either. When you factor in my age, it probably wasn't a smart move to do radiation treatment. Finding the cancer was by accident, it wasn't bothering me, was all the treatment necessary I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
Same here. I had no clue that I had cancer and I felt great. I wasn't sick until they started treatment. I think at our age, it's sometimes better to let nature take its course.
 
Tony Page said:
It's good to see a lot of familiar names and I'm sure more will come.

I received some tomato seeds on Friday from Esty and I am expecting some more tomato as well as cuke seeds.

This past summer I did very little to none vegetable gardening and I miss it. Except for weekends I spent the other five days getting 26 doses of radiation treatment for prostate cancer. I was extremely glad when it was over because the side effects we're starting to get under my skin.😚 Now I'm in a recuperating stage and it's difficult to tell whether any pain or off feeling I have is from radiation side effects, the fact that I've gained a little weight, my age, or the cancer is back. I guess by now I thought I would be in some state of normalcy, maybe this is the new normalcy.

This morning when I got up my right knee was swollen and hurting. I don't see any black and blue and I don't remember banging it, seems like it was okay when I went to bed last night. Maybe I twisted it in my sleep.

It is so good to see everybody back together it's something I hope for for a long time.
Click to expand...

No gardening this winter for us since Jake rebuilt truck.
I' still hoping for you to be done with this cancer and getting well soon completely.
 
Don Alaska said:
Did the radiation cause you problems @Tony Page? Up here, the guys don't complain too much about the targeted radiation using the Cyberknife. Many old guys forego the hormone stuff though.
Click to expand...
I had urinary issues which they thought might be from the radiation they prescribed phenazopyridine, the oncologist said it was like cranberry on steroids. There was some days I had flu-like symptoms aches all over my body also probably from the radiation.
For me because of the spinal stenosis getting on and off the steel table and laying there for 15 minutes at least gave me major back pains. By the end of the week I was taking ibuprofen.
I'm sure some of the side effects were related to the hormone pills.
There were times I felt like my insides had a sunburn.
I had to take 4 gas-x pills a day, and laxatives and drink 32oz of water before each treatment. Timing the water was a challenge. Your bladder had to full.
Your bowels had to be empty and no gas pockets.

All the patients I met found this process differcult and couldn't wait for it to be done.
 
We have 2 flower beds along the front of the house that got trampled during the fire and the refurbishment construction afterward. By the time we got back into the house, the shrubs and perennial flowers were destroyed. We tried to bring it back to some respect by planting annuals, but we never achieved the beauty it had in the past. Because of our age and health, We just couldn't do the work to bring it back.

I could tell my wife was bothered by this. A few months ago, something really special happened. A high school friend of my daughter contacted her through Facebook, he's a landscape designer. He offered to design the front beds, get the plants for us at his cost, and have his crew plant everything. The cost was very affordable, so we took advantage of his offer.

His crew of 3 men came about 4 weeks ago with a truck load of plants and mulch. It took them a full day to work the soil, plant, and mulch the beds. One of the plants is asked about by everyone that visit, we were told it will flower all year. It's called a pink fairy rose, and it still has flowers on it, even with the cold weather we are having.

My wife is very happy, the eyesore we had has been fixed.

Now it's onto the next problem.
 
WOW ! !
That is totally awesome , @Tony Page . It is such a wonderful thing for your daughter’s friend to offer to do for you, and some thing that you will appreciate forever.
I looked up the pink Fairy Rose, and it looks beautiful. Since it is an older type of rose, I bet it also has a delightful fragrance, too ? The newer roses, like the Knockout Roses, are really pretty, and hardy roses, but they have barely any fragrance.

I bought some rose starts last year, too, and they were older, shrub varieties, so they have fragrance when they bloom. Once they get larger, I hope to start some cuttings from them and plant more roses around the front of the yard where it is hard for Bobby to mow.

The puppy in your avatar is adorable ! What kind is he ?
 
Yvonne Smith said:
She looks really similar to the Shorkies that I used to raise. They are a Shih-Tzu and Poodle/Yorkie cross. Very cute and smart little dogs, who are loyal to their people.

View attachment 37
Click to expand...
She's extremely smart and a little thief. She likes to hide shoes, slippers, kids toys whatever she can carry. She really loves my grandkids they play with her a lot, and she loves every minute.
 
Maybe she needs more toys of her own ? When Chipper was a puppy, I got him a stuffed toy squirrel. He was too small to make the squeaker work, but he loved his squirrel and slept with it all the time.
It was almost the same size as Chipper was at first.
Each week, Chipper and I went to the thrift store in Bonners Ferry, and I would look through the donated kids toys to see if there was anything I thought Chipper would like.
He especially liked toys that talked or made some kind of noise, so I always got those when I found one.

When I went back out to the truck, he would be bouncing like a little kid, waiting to see what I had gotten him to play with.
If I didn’t find anything, he would curl up on the seat sadly and hide his nose under his tail.
He always know which toys were his.
At first, when he would try to take a shoe, I would take it away, tell him “not your toy”, and then give him one of his toys. He was so smart, and soon learned only to play with his own toys, and he never ever chewed them up and ruined them.

View attachment 41
 
Yvonne Smith said:
Maybe she needs more toys of her own ? When Chipper was a puppy, I got him a stuffed toy squirrel. He was too small to make the squeaker work, but he loved his squirrel and slept with it all the time.
It was almost the same size as Chipper was at first.
Each week, Chipper and I went to the thrift store in Bonners Ferry, and I would look through the donated kids toys to see if there was anything I thought Chipper would like.
He especially liked toys that talked or made some kind of noise, so I always got those when I found one.

When I went back out to the truck, he would be bouncing like a little kid, waiting to see what I had gotten him to play with.
If I didn’t find anything, he would curl up on the seat sadly and hide his nose under his tail.
He always know which toys were his.
At first, when he would try to take a shoe, I would take it away, tell him “not your toy”, and then give him one of his toys. He was so smart, and soon learned only to play with his own toys, and he never ever chewed them up and ruined them.

View attachment 41
Click to expand...
We have a tub full of toys from squeakers to hard chew toys, we have one that sound like plastic crinkling. All 3 dogs play with them. My daughter brought them three new toys this past week. I got them a Santa stocking with toys in it for Christmas morning.
I get them different treats depending where I shop. As soon as I put the bags down they're sniffing inside them to see if I got them treats.
Tia is my girl, I feel like she's my soul mate. She stays next to me about 70% of the day. She understands me.
She's a rescue dog I am so glad we got her.
 
Chapter 2 of my front flower beds story.

About 2 weeks after the plant was planted in the front beds, my wife said to me we had such nice tulips and daffodils that welcomed the spring in those beds. You don't have to ask me twice to add to the garden, so what did I do? I ordered 212 bulbs, plus 3 peony tubers. I'm not thinking that neither I nor her can plant these. We did team up for an attempt. I purchased a bulb planter that's 30" long to make the job easier. We planted about 20 bulbs and couldn't continue. Fortunately, my brother planted most of the remainder this past Sunday. The few that we have left to plant will be done this coming weekend.

I'm anxious to see the peony come up and flower, also a tulip called apricot Foxx. Hopefully, spring will have a nice display, and I'm here to see it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top