Post by drifter on Jun 6, 2012 10:44:23 GMT -5
KENTUCKY GIRLS’ BASKETBALL NETWORK
Anchor: Louis Meadows
Web-site: www.kygirlsbbnews.com
E-mail: numberonefan4890@aol.com
June 06, 2012
Trying to figure out the best way to start this message. The middle and end will be easy if I just figure out how to start.
For those of you recent to the Network, I started fighting cancer in 2004. Since then, there have been six major operations and 32 chemo treatments. The latest operation was October 6, 2009, when I had the colon and bladder removed and replaced with pouches on the abdomen.
About two months ago as I was walking the two blocks down to the local Shell to get my morning newspaper, I had this huge spasm in the upper part of my left thigh and lasted several minutes. It was really sore for a few days. Then it started getting better for a few days and then collapsed into pain and weakness again. This cycle of getting better and worse continued for about six weeks.
A couple of weeks ago, I had x-rays and ultra sounds on my left leg. The ultra sound showed there were no new blood clots (which was my first fear), but the x-rays showed I had either arthritis or bone cancer in my left pelvic area.
The doctors set me up with a MRI which I had this past Monday.
About 8:30 this morning, my family doctor told me I have a one-square inch cancer tumor on the hip joint, the ball socket where the thigh bone meets the pelvis. I won’t know any more until I meet with my oncologist this coming Monday (June 11) to figure out what comes next.
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I started this Network in August 2000. It has been a blessing to me because it gave me a focus in my fight against the cancer. But here recently, it has become somewhat of a burden at times. I wanted to keep up the Network because of that focus. And my philosophy was that if I was going to do the Network, I needed to do a good job, even if I did not physically feel like it.
Remember I am a bachelor living by myself. That means I have to do all the household chores such as fixing meals, buying groceries, laundry, and a couple dozen other chores on a daily and weekly basis. And sometimes trying to keep up with the Network adds a strain on my energy and time I need to take care of me and my household.
Keeping up with the Network address book is probably a bigger hindrance than doing the newsletters. There is always someone wanting to have their address changed, deleted, or added. It akes me about 30 minutes to deal with an address. About the time I send out a newsletter and am ready to sit back and relax a couple of days, here comes that influx of folks whom I need to deal with on the address book. And that is no exaggeration.
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Right now, at least for a few weeks, until I know where this bone cancer is going to lead me, for all practical purposes I am going to really slow down with business on the Network, maybe stop it altogether. I am going to send out something only if I am in the mood and I have the energy and time to do it without robbing me from taking care of myself and my apartment. I have to get rid of this idea of giving of myself when I don’t feel like it so say folk will say I do a good job.
I am going to keep the address book intact that I now have. On it I have contacts all over the state, in some cases personal friends that I have established over the years since I retired from teaching in 1994 and started traveling the state to follow girls’ basketball (that was before I started the Network in 2000). Keeping the address intact will allow me to reach out to folks on the Network whenever I am in the mood. But I am not going be obligated to write anything if I do not feel like it or feel rushed for time. Most of the time, NO.
I may contact some of you one-on-one every once in awhile just to say hello. Like I said, I have developed some friend ships over the years that are pretty close.
If someone wants to be put on my address book, they can contact me. This digging around on web-sites to find out new coaches and then trying to figure out an address and contact them is pretty much at an end. At least until I find out if this bone cancer can be fixed and what it will take.
Feel free to answer this if you wish. I love to read your remarks. But I am not going to guarantee if I will answer or not. If your feelings are going to get hurt if you send me a message and I don’t answer, then maybe you had better not reply.
All of you stay cool.
Until I am Back in the Saddle again, may all your Trails be Happy and all your Water be Cool.
Louis Meadows