Saturday at the Hut - 5/30/09

Today at The Tobacco Hut, it was Lou, Joe K, Peter G and myself in attendance. I had good news to report from the doctor's visit yesterday: according to the PET scan I had done earlier in the week, the cancer has not spread - it's localized to just the one kidney. That's exactly what Paula and I were hoping to hear. It's now just a matter of removing the kidney and there probably shouldn't be anymore treatment necessary.

I'm scheduled for the surgery next Friday, June 5th, bright and early at 7:15 am at Mease Countryside Hospital in Safety Harbor. The doctor hopes to do the surgery robotically which calls for just several small incisions, minimizing recovery time. He said if all goes well, I could be home the next day and back to work in a week.

He did caution however that because of the injuries sustained in the car accident, it might prolong the recovery. The doctor also said that if he has to widen the incisions to get his hands in there, it would lengthen the recover period and if there's bleeding or complications and he's forced to do a full opening, front to back, the recovery would be closer to 6-8 weeks. Obviously, we're hoping for the first option, but the doctor won't know for sure until he gets started.

The doctor did spring a little surprise on me in his office - he informed me that he wanted to do a cystoscope of my bladder. It basically entails a visual check of the inside of the bladder to make sure it's clear as well. It didn't take me long to figure out exactly how he planned on doing that! If not for broken ribs, I probably would have run from the office.

After what seemed like an eternity (probably only 30-45 seconds) of searing pain, he was through and I was catching my breath on the examination table. As I was unclenching my fists, the doctor looked at me and said, "Now, we'll have to do this once a week for twelve weeks." He didn't let the shock take over my face too long before he said, "Just kidding." Funny guy, that urologist!

Peter, Lou, and Joe were all smoking some fine cigars and there I sat without my pipe. I won't smoke anything 'til I'm done with the surgery and fully recovered. It's been two weeks since I've had a pipe and I sure do miss it! Truth be told it probably didn't make any difference whether I smoked a pipe or sat there breathing in their cigar smoke, but at least I can rationalize it better that way!

I probably won't post for a couple weeks, but will update as soon as I can here.

Cheers!
- Bob

Saturday at the Hut - 5/23/09

This will be a bit of a different post than the usual ones have been, a little more personal instead of just a round up of the day's happenings. It's been a pretty crappy week starting with last Tuesday. If you were at The Tobacco Hut today, you heard the story so bear with me. If not, here goes...

Tuesday afternoon I was heading southbound on Alt. 19 out of Tarpon Springs and a van was headed northbound. The van was rear-ended by a pickup truck which sent it into my lane. I always try to leave myself an escape route, but this time there was no place to go. I hit the van pretty much head on, but my little 2000 lb. Honda did its job against the 3500 lb. van. The car is totaled, but I'm alive. I was wearing my seatbelt and the front and side airbags deployed. The Honda is shown above at the salvage yard the next day.

The firefighters had to cut the left side of the car off to get me out and I was transported to the hospital where I was x-rayed and given a CT scan to check for internal bleeding. The x-rays showed a couple of fractured ribs, but nothing else broken. My right knee is pretty bruised and my left arm was lacerated from the broken glass. I've got some nice bruising all across my chest from the seatbelt that's turning a nice eggplant color.

While the CT scan showed no internal bleeding or organ damage from the accident, it did show a 5.5 cm mass on my right kidney. The ER doctor suspected it was cancerous, but urged me to get with a urologist to confirm it. So Thursday, Paula and I visited a urologist and he confirmed our worst fears that, in fact, it was a renal cell carcinoma.

The doctor was very optimistic and confident though that based on the CT scan, it looks like it is localized to the kidney and has not spread. He scheduled me for a PET scan on Tuesday which will give him more information and determine the course of action. Most likely, he said, he will just remove the kidney which is standard practice. If it were at the top or bottom of the kidney, they might just remove part of it, but since it's in the middle, they'll take the whole thing.

The good news is that with Stage 1 tumors that haven't spread, the success rate is 97% and no additional treatment such as radiation or chemotherapy should be needed.

Paula and I were obviously pretty upset and emotional at the doctor's office, but he urged us not to "freak out" and that everything would be okay. His confidence went a long way toward easing our minds, and we've since done a lot of research (well, Paula's done most of it) on kidney cancer. While we're not without concern of course, we're doing okay with it.

I have a follow up visit with the urologist next Friday and he'll probably schedule the surgery for the following week.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to visit the Hut today as I've decided against smoking at least until I'm fully recovered from the surgery. But I wanted to go and be among friends.

Paula dropped me off around 1 o'clock and I told my tale of adventure to Lou and Joe K. Peter G and Barry C arrived a little while later and I filled them in as well. Everyone's support was a little overwhelming to me, but certainly not surprising. And what I was hoping for happened...I laughed. It hurts to laugh to be sure with the cracked ribs, but it's a good pain.

Joe offered to do anything for me he could, but stopped short of bedpan duties (although he did mention a long-handled brush, but I shut my ears at that point). Everyone offered me their prayers and wishes and while I'm certainly not religious, I appreciate it. Positive thoughts regardless of their form are quite welcome.

Joe said he would drive me home to save Paula a return trip so around 3 o'clock we got up to leave. I of course took a little longer to get up because of the sore, stiff muscles and rib pain, but I got there. While Joe went out to his truck to clear off the passenger seat, Barry made the comment that the pain was in my head and I should just walk it off (thanks Barry!).

Joe returned moments later - with a shopping cart. He opened the door and wheeled it right into the store, looked at me, and said, "Hop in!". A better alternative presented itself when an elderly woman drove by in an electric scooter. The offer was made to hijack the scooter for me, but I declined.

Thanks to Lou, Joe, Barry and Peter for their support today at the shop and for making me laugh. I'll keep everyone posted on my progress and should be able stop in to the Hut at least for one or two more weeks.

Cheers!
- Bob

Saturday at the Hut - 5/9/09

The big day had finally arrived...James K's party at The Tobacco Hut. I arrived shortly after 11am and he started whining right away about the absence of the promised Hawaiian Tropic Girls. He did point out the potato salad that he brought as his contribution to the party (since it was past the expiration date, I didn't eat any).

Tom L was already there and it was good to see him after a long absence. Tom must have a bit of a man-crush on James since he hasn't showed up in months, but only after repeated announcements of James' arrival does he make an appearance. I'm just saying...

Joe was there, of course, and he enjoyed telling stories about James' past abuses of his credit card privileges and other transgressions. James feigned ignorance but his sputterings and shoutings were weak defenses. We knew the truth, for every week Joe would come in when James was at college with a new story. And since James wasn't there to tell his side of the story at the time, we always fully believed his father. Sorry James.



In the absence of proper entertainment, Tom borrowed Joe's iPod Touch and surfed over to a very, um, interesting website. In the interests of decorum I won't describe the "theme" of the website, but suffice to say that what was depicted is illegal in several states.



Peter G and Ed B arrived and shortly thereafter Joe's wife Val came in with the food. Joe had sprung for wings for the guys and I must say, he set a nice buffet for us. I was kind of hoping he would serve us too, but he drew the line there so we had to settle for self-serve. The wings were very tasty and we tore through them pretty quickly. We were hoping to just throw the bones on the floor, but Lou would have none of that. He produced a special trash can for the bones and he said he would take it home with him that night. Must be some sort of Santeria ritual or something he was planning...



Steve B arrived a little late and must have been afraid there would be no food left as he brought veritable food pantry with him. He hit the mother lode of wings, scoring quite a few of the leftovers.



In addition to the food, Val also brought The Picture. Apparently James was in Hawaii several weeks ago and lost a bet or something and donned a coconut bra. His girlfriend snapped a picture and forwarded it to Joe and Val. They had it blown up and mounted and we presented it to James today. We all knew James was a little, well, funny and this just confirmed it. Before they left, we all signed it with fond parting comments and James promised to treasure it the entire time he took it to the trash.



James and Joe departed around 1pm - Joe did a nice job of cleaning up and putting everything back to its original state (in addition to computer work, Joe hires himself out as a topless maid) - and a little while later Barry C arrived. It didn't take long for Peter and Barry to talk about Manny Ramirez, suspended earlier this week for 50 games for the presence of a banned substance. Peter was actually the first to bring up the former Red Sox player, trying to beat Barry to the punch. I'm sure Barry had no intention of bringing up Manny's indiscretions and we might have made it through the afternoon without any baseball banter.

Everyone had a great time and it was good to share some laughs and insults with the guys. By the way...FU James! :-)

Cheers!
- Bob

Saturday at the Hut - 5/2/09

Sorry for my missing blog post last Saturday. I was at The Tobacco Hut, but just didn't have a chance to get the blog written. I can't think of anything too memorable happening that day...there were no heated sports or political debates and Lou didn't fall off any ladders.

This Saturday saw myself planted in my usual chair, Joe K in his, Peter G arriving mid-afternoon and Barry C bringing up the rear (sorry, poor choice of words, but he did ask to look at my can later in the day - more on that later). Peter was itching for Barry to show up so he could dog him about poor attendance at Yankee Stadium and A-Rod taking steroids in high school (allegedly). Barry fired back with some jabs about a Celtics player not getting suspended when a Knicks player was for the same offense, or something or other. By that time the banter was so rapid fire that nobody else could keep up.

With one more week to go before James K arrives for his gala party, final preparations were being discussed. Deposits were put down on caterers and entertainment, limos were reserved for the dignitaries, and valet service hired for the commoners. We're hoping it's not so hot next Saturday that the ice sculpture melts. Because of Swine Flu we had to abandon our search of Mexican straw markets for the monkey that stole James' cigar a few years back. The bash kicks off next Saturday, May 9th at 11am and goes 'til 1pm. We might end it sooner though if we get bored with James' stories of teenage highjinks like pouring vodka in his ear to ward off infection after swimming across a retention pond.

We almost made it through the day without hearing a customer gripe about the higher taxes on tobacco until a conspiracy nut came in. He somehow managed to connect the recent federal tobacco tax increase with how the Nazis carried out the Holocaust. Joe's howls of laughter drowned out the rest of the guy's theories, but that was probably for the best.

Lou announced that he would like to go to the upcoming tobacco dealer's trade show in July, but that he didn't want to. It took us all awhile to figure that statement out, and I think the jury's still out. We just weren't sure which phrase had the most weight: "would like to" or "didn't want to". I guess we'll find out if we show up some Saturday in July and the store's closed.

Peter entertained us with stories from his years of working in radio. Well, he entertained me at least. I think Barry and Lou were talking golf. Joe had left at that point, probably to go rent the 3 foot high chocolate fountain for next Saturday's party.

Today I enjoyed my Cavicchi pipe with a bowlful of Tinder Box Reserve 1928, easily one of my favorite pipe/tobacco combinations. When I was finished cleaning the pipe, Lou asked to take a look at it and Barry asked if he could look at my can. I was prepared to bolt out the door, but then I realized he was talking about the can of Reserve 1928 tobacco. Phew!

Remember, next Saturday gets started at 11am!

Cheers!
- Bob