Month: August 2024

First Chemo

On By Fred KingIn 2024, cancer, cancer clinic, Health, iPhone12, personal, Personal History, Seattle, themes, Thoughts, wandering photographer1 Comment

While in the chair a Social Worker stopped by to check on me. Pleasant conversation about fears and frustrations regarding cancer and my five year journey. She left me a ‘Bags of Hope, with lots of useful goodies. The bags are put together by volunteers that have been doing this since 2016. The support and assistance of the clinic staff is unsurpassed!

It takes a handful of meds to get through chemo- to help manage nausea and other side effects. Hopefully, I won’t be needing some of this collection, but better to have on hand.

“Don’t sweat the small stuff “.

All good.

🙏🏻💪🏻

Health Update:

On By Fred KingIn 2024, cancer, Health, Human, iPhone12, personal, Personal History, Thoughts, wandering photographerLeave a comment

The port was implanted yesterday afternoon. It’s under the skin, where you see the two horizontal incisions. The catheter is attached to the port, near the top incision and travels up and to the right connecting to the jugular vein. A large vein is needed to deal with the chemo drugs. It finally hit me, on the operating table ( I chose local anesthesia over total, so I was fully awake and aware throughout the procedure) things are getting serious. 99% of patients choose to be totally out.

The club no one aspires to. Because I have a port I have to carry a card identifying as such, complete with serial number on the back, etc. I also have to wear a wristband identifying the port brand as well as something for my keychain. Mostly, this is for the benefit of healthcare workers, but it serves as a reminder for me as well

It seems odd, but in order to fight cancer with drugs- in my case two in tandem- I need a handful of drugs to help me cope with the two chemo drugs, pemetrexed and carboplatin. In the past 5 years I have been through surgery ( I didn’t recover well and still dealing with collateral damage today) and radiation ( SBRT), 15 sessions, twice. This is the last option available to help me.

Always positive and strong! Hug your loved ones! 🙏🏻💪🏻🤗

Keystone Korner, 1970

On By Fred KingIn 1970, Architecture, B&W, black & white, musicians, San Francisco, Travels, wandering photographerLeave a comment

Located in San Francisco, Keystone Korner was a great venue for live music, especially jazz and blues. Apparently the venue moved to Baltimore. Also, there is some incorrect info on the web regarding the year the venue opened. One site listed it as opening in 1972. I believe the opening was in the late 60’s and operated until 1983. I was only 18 when this photo was taken so I wasn’t able to legally go inside. During this same trip I visited a club in Berkeley on Telegraph Ave. On that evening I stood outside of the service entrance and listened to Mose Allison for a couple of hours.

This image was scanned from a 110 50 year old print. Anyway, Boz Scaggs and Benny Cecil and the Snakes’ were on the bill.

Water Colors

On By Fred KingIn 2016, cancer, Oregon, personal, Personal History, Portland, Thoughts, wandering photographer2 Comments

Health Update:

Met with my primary oncologist this morning. It’s been nearly two weeks since I finished the latest 15 SBRT sessions. Next up is chemotherapy over 12 weeks followed by one year of immunotherapy. In the next two weeks I’ll be scheduled to have a port installed on my upper, right chest, getting a variety of anti nausea drugs and other chemo related drugs plus attend a chemo class to help me understand what I’m about to face in this process. I have surgery scheduled for late August to deal with a pre cancerous issue with my right vocal cord. My August calendar is starting to fill up.

Staying positive, but a little overwhelmed at the moment.

🙏🏻💪🏻