Leaving Home at 17

This story, 21 years old now, is one that wants to be told. It’s the story of leaving home after midnight, 5 days after my 17th birthday. Why then? Because in Texas a teenager can leave home at the age of 17 without being considered a runaway. Even then I made decisions based on what makes the resulting outcome the least complicated.

Here’s the story:

First of all, why did I leave home? Let’s just keep it simple for now: My childhood was very unfortunate. I was tired of living in daily fear of my stepmother and had to improve the situation that I had been living in for 6 years. I was just barely 17 and a junior in high school. A couple of months before, my father and stepmother moved us into another house. The significance of this is that the new home was in “Rider High School” district while my mother (into whose home I was moving) lived in “Wichita Falls High School” (or more commonly known as “Old High”) district. The counselor at Old High, Mr. Miller, was aware of my home situation and for the time that I was there did what he could to help. This mostly was to listen. Anyway, when I transferred to Rider High School I got to know my counselor there as well and she also came to know of my situation. It was actually a combined conversation between her and Mr. Miller at Old High that hatched our plan, which was for me to sneak away the weekend after I turned 17 and return to Old High the next Monday morning. Explaining this has nothing to do with the high schools, really, but to illuminate how 2 counselors at 2 high schools worked together to help me out of a very bad situation. Reading back on this I think it may be interpreted that I left home to return to the previous high school. That was just coincidental – I would have left home no matter what. But escaping to my mother’s house meant returning to the high school that actually happened to be in walking distance from her home. The two counselors worked together to transfer my enrollment. Also, they gave me moral support and the courage to implement the plan.

As it was, I had to wait until I was 17 to do this, and I didn’t want to delay any more than I had to. I spent Saturday sneaking into my bedroom and bit by bit I packed my clothing, shoes, and personal items into trash bags. I put the trash bags back into the drawers and into the closet, hidden behind other things. I didn’t have much but I took everything I could, including my pillow. I went to bed that night knowing that I would need to stay awake until after midnight when everyone was sure to be asleep. My father and stepmother were in their bedroom with the door closed. My brother and the two older stepbrothers were in the bedroom next to mine. My youngest stepbrother shared my bedroom. I got up very quietly, turned on the central heater fan to help cover sounds, went into the living room and called a taxi. My mother wanted to make sure she couldn’t be accused of kidnapping so the plan was for me to use a cab and arrive on my own. After I called the cab, I very quickly and quietly pulled out my trash bags of clothing, opened the window above my bed (the front door made a noise when it opened), removed the screen, and tossed everything outside. I then climbed out the window, closed it, and waited by the curb for the taxi with all my trash bags. I didn’t have to wait long. When the driver arrived he helped me load the bags into the car and the only comment he made was, “Strange time to be moving.” I agreed that it was and that’s all that was said. We arrived at my mother’s place and she came down and paid for the cab ride. I have to imagine that it set his mind at ease to see that I was being delivered to an adult. I actually don’t remember but I may have told him I was moving in with my mother.

I wonder if the two counselors were wondering if I’d have the courage to actually do this. They set it up to have me transferred to the other school... but it was up to me to pack up and leave. A number of things could have gone wrong, including me losing my nerve or getting caught. All they could do was wait to see where I showed up for school on Monday. How did they know for sure I'd show up at which school on Monday? Anything could have happened to foil the plan. I guess some things were handled by them and administrators and it was just up to me to do my part.

Of course, there are many more stories and maybe I’ll share some of them. They will decide when it’s time for them to be told as this one did.

Mouth Pain

I am prone to canker sores from time to time and I just deal with them and let them heal when they will - usually in about a week. Well, I developed what I thought was a canker sore behind the backmost molar on the right side, on the inside (tongue side) about 4 weeks ago. I thought it was starting to heal and then I had chemo on July 6th, which set it back. It got painful again but seemed to start to heal again before my last chemo session on July 20th. This week it got so painful that it was even hard to drink water because when you drink, the tongue actually puts pressure on the jaw at that very spot. So, though I had an appointment to see the dentist on Monday, I decided to make an "emergency call" and go see him today. I did feel silly taking his time on a Saturday to deal with what I thought was a canker sore (there's not much they can do about those) but I wanted to make sure there wasn't an infection developing.

I'm glad I went today to see him instead of waiting another couple of days.

At first he thought it was a canker sore too because it was white like a canker sore. Then he touched it with his little metal tool. Then he pressed and tapped on it. Then he announced that it was a little bone fragment sticking partly out, causing all that pain, like a splinter.

Why did I have a bone fragment sticking out of my gum line? It's a mystery. I suppose it could be a remnant from when my wisdom teeth were taken out when I was in high school. It would be unusual for a fragment to sit still for 20 years, though. He said usually they become a problem within a year or two. I am returning to the office on Monday so he can take X-rays to see what else is going on in there. According to him this is highly unusual and it would be good to see if there are any more fragments floating around.

Bummer I didn't think to get a photo of it before I left.

Garden Progression

I have uploaded some new pics of the garden progress, taken 7/23/09, along with notes in the captions. This link will take you directly to the album.

Enjoy the pics!

Mistake Made This Week

I was feeling so good last week after my ginger experiment that I forgot to take my anti-nausea drug, Emend, this time. I'm supposed to take the first pill 1 hour before chemo starts. I was halfway through the infusion before I remembered it. So, I asked Dave to bring it to me and I took it as soon as I could. Soon after, I went to the bathroom and while there did a "cough-burp" thing which brought up the pill. I saw it slither down the sink into the drain. Then, I was in full vomit mode, into the toilet.

Unfortunately, I was tossing up bile a few more times through the evening. It's not that I was nauseated. All of a sudden my stomach would start rolling and I'd better move fast. I couple of times I was carrying a trash can. Luckily.

Today I've felt week but no vomiting. I've tried to stay calm, still, and mostly sleep as much as I can. Another contributing factor is that my oncologist increased the 5-FU drug (the 46-hour take-home infusion) 10%. SO, the lack of the Emend coupled with more chemo was not a good combination.

Next time I'll remember the Emend. I only have 2 more of these to go.

Props To Canon

I've gotta give the Canon Camera corporation props. I had a Canon Power Shot S230, purchased probably 6 years ago. It started having problems with distortion on the LCD a year or so ago, which manifested on the final recorded image. The distortions got worse and worse until it got so annoying that I couldn't use the camera. Since Dave bought a new camera a year ago (which I'm not fond of) I was strongly discouraged from buying myself a new camera. I guess we already had a "family" camera. So, one way around this was to see about getting mine fixed. Granted, it was only 3.2 mega pixels, but it was good enough for me for so many years, so why not keep using it?

So, when I called Canon to see about repairing it, I was told that there was an "advisory" about a faulty chip that was a known issue with my camera model. This defective chip caused distortions such as the ones I was describing. I was advised to send it in and if it was determined to be the problem then they would fix it at no charge.

Well, it wasn't really as easy as that. They sent it back to me after replacing the "optical sensor" but the problem was still there.

Here are where the props come in: I called them again and after explaining that the problem had not been resolved they told me to send it back to them again. Since the camera is a few years old, however, they were not able to get the replacement chip anymore. So, their solution was to send me a replacement: A Power Shot SD790 IS. 10 mega pixels. Image stabilizers. Great camera!

Also, I now know that Canon has a loyalty upgrade program. If you call them and tell them what model you have, they will offer you a choice of several cameras to purchase at a discounted price.
After being treated so well, you bet I'll remain a loyal Canon customer!

A Few Garden Pics

Hi All!

I wanted to share a few pics of my garden.
These are my cherry tomatoes:
This is looking to be a very large tomato when it's done. The variety is "Copia":

Baby pumpkins are getting bigger!

Jalapeno peppers:

These heart-shaped tomatoes are "Cour di Bue":

What a beautiful rose! I don't know what kind this one is but I love it:

My giant sunflower. This one is probably 7-8 feet tall.

Its head seems too heavy for it. It has plenty of water.

As for me, I'm doing well this week. I finally got smart and decided to take ginger capsules before and during my chemo week this last time. And it really made a difference. No nausea at all, and I seemed to recover a couple of days sooner than usual.

PET Scan last week

A short note - last week I had a PET scan, and it was completely clear. In summary: "No abnormal metabolic activity… No demonstration metastasis." There is an MRI planned in 2 months. And every 2 months afterwards until who knows when?

By the way, the garden's doing fabulously. I'll take new pics soon. You should see the giant sunflower!

Garden - Photos Taken 6/30/09

I have uploaded some new pics of the garden progress, taken 6/30/09, along with notes in the captions. This link will take you directly to the album. My favorite pic is of the little baby pumpkin! Actually, here it is:

This week I'm doing pretty good. My stomach was upset until Tuesday. My sinuses were full of crud. That may be an allergy issue - maybe I'm more prone to developing allergic sensitivities while on chemo. Up to now, all my life I've escaped the allergy woes that I hear other people talking about.

There's really nothing new to report. I can keep repeating the other things I've said because this week was basically a repeat of two weeks ago. However, that would be boring. Mostly I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm alive and hanging in there. I know that prolonged silence can start a person to wonder.