Thank you folks, for your very kind thoughts and words. We have a lot of fun with the horses, and are, indeed, pretty proud to be accepted into the Ranching Heritage Breeders Program.
Katrina, I really like the bottom side of RF Consortium's pedigree; The Continental was a heck of a horse, and the Tee Jay Horses from Duane Walker's program are the kind I like -- big, stout, gentle, athletic, and pretty. Good studs have good mommas, and though I don't know the stallion's dam, she's certainly bred to be the right kind. I've never seen RF Consortium and couldn't find a picture of him online or in the Quarter Horse Journal; if you have one, I'd love to see if he looks the way I think he does.
Regarding the health issues: I ended up needing to undergo surgery last October to remove a big hump that developed and grew on my back over the course of two days. I went into the ER thinking I would get muscle relaxants and some pain medications to make it to a scheduled doctor's appointment the following day, and ended up hearing something like "this has to come out NOW." And then, after a few more pre-operative tests, my wife and I heard "when you come out of the surgery and recovery, you'll be diagnosed with either lymphoma or leukemia." Which explained fairly quickly why -- of the 65 lbs I'd lost in the previous 18 months or so, 40 of them had come off within about four months.
Anyway, the doctors ended up removing two and a half liters (about three quarts) of infected material from my back, through a fairly large entry point below my left shoulder blade. This, of course, left a pretty large hole where the hematoma had previously been, which is still healing today. The recovery immediately following the surgery ended up being fun: six and a half days in an induced coma and four more spent in the ICU, with part of that period spent in what the doctors call "ICU psychosis" (when all the poking, prodding, measuring, and attention that comes from being in ICU leads to not sleeping... I went over 48 hours without sleeping when they brought me out of the coma... and that put me into an interesting state of delirium all its own...). Then another week in a regular hospital room while I recovered further from the surgery and underwent a 1-week round of oral chemotherapy. All told, about two and a half weeks, from initial hospitalization on the 24th of October, to my relase on Nov. 9. About three weeks after being released, the evening of Nov. 28 found me back in the hospital for another week because the surgical wound had developed an infection below the bed of the wound. By the time I left the hospital the second time (on December 6), I'd lost another 30 pounds (in addition to the 65 I'd already lost due to the unchecked leukemia) to the surgery, muscle atrophy from bed and house rest required by the surgical recuperation, and just being sick overall.
The surgical wound has made great progress in the last month and a half, and, at this point, all that remains is for my skin to finish growing back over the area. These things heal from the inside out, so the surgical recovery is hopefully in its final stages. At this rate and if all goes well, the surgical wound should be completely scarred over within the next month or so. And, I've put back just about all the weight I lost due to the hospitalizations and recuperation. I have about another 10 pounds or so to put back before I'm at the weight I should be, and have a long way to go in building muscle mass back up after essentially not being able to use my upper body for any activity more strenuous than pouring from a half gallon of milk in order to keep the surgical wound from tearing back open.
None of the doctors have been able to tell me for sure what the cause of the hematoma really was. They know it was a bacterial infection, and suppose that it grew as large and unchecked as it did because my immune system was, by that time, severely compromised by the leukemia. As to how the bacteria got inside my body, well... there's bacteria on our skin and in our environment all the time; the bacteria travel into our bodies (via aspiration, food, skin lesions, etc.) frequently, but are usually managed successfully by our bodies' healthy immune systems. In this case, my body couldn't fight off the bacteria that made its way inside last October.
Anyway, the diagnosis regarding the leukemia is that, sometime prior to when all this started, I developed a condition called Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), which when all is said and done is probably about the most manageable type of cancer a person can have. If left unchecked for an extended period of time (how many months are needed to qualify for the 'extended period of time' moniker varies from person to person), chronic leukemia will behave much like acute leukemia (acute leukemia is what came to mind for me every time I heard the word 'leukemia' prior to this). That means that the condition will usually kill a person within a couple years, at most, of the onset of this more serious stage. But my doctors and a lot of the literature I've read indicate that if it's caught early enough (which in my case appears to be what has happened), the condition can be managed in a way that a person lives a relatively normal life for decades, and recent medical advances in the field have made the management far less intrusive than in the past. And now, after the initial round of chemo and some adjustments to my medications (made a little more complicated by the fact that my body is not behaving normally yet as it continues to heal from the surgery), the doctors seem to be on their way to getting the condition under control. Hopefully, it will remain in check for a while yet -- I have three young kids and a beautiful wife beside whom I intend to grow very old.
And, the entire thing has been one great big blessing; the amount of prayer and support that has come about because of this has been overwhelming and awe inspiring. Friends that I haven't seen for, in some cases, up to 20 years have gotten back in touch and rallied around me from the start. My family members (immediate and extended) and friends have been around me continually, and they and their friends (many of whom I've never even met) have been praying individually, in groups, in their faith communities, in such numbers that I can't help but choke up when I talk about it. Last August I took a payroll job after having been through a layoff in late 2010, awfully slow work on the self-employment side during the first half of 2011, and having to give our house back to the bank last summer. The payroll job in August came with the health insurance that's paid the bills for all the recent medical treatment. My family and I have always had a very strong faith, and God is the only reason that I've not only made it this far with the medical issues (or life in general, really...), but that the results have been so positive and so rapid.
Without a doubt, this experience has been a much more difficult ordeal for my family than it has been for me. So, this past holiday season was particularly poignant for my family and for me; we had some serious 'thanks' to give for Thanksgiving, a real celebration was merited for my birthday (the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, and the day that I went back to the hospital the second time), had a different type of appreciation for being home as a family for Christmas, and have a lot to look forward to as we bring in the New Year.
As I grow physically stronger during my surgical recovery (we make a little bit of progress every day) and slowly start to get back to normal life, I trust God to keep holding us close as we move forward. We still have a ways to go with my physical recovery, and then it'll be back to re-building professionally (I was laid off from the payroll job since I haven't been able to work) and continuing to work at my most important responsibility: being a dad. So, all prayers are greatly appreciated and very much needed.
In the meantime, I take my life one day at a time and enjoy every blessing He sends us. One of which is the opportunity to be part of a family that ranches; between the work and the health issues of the past couple of years, I've spent precious little time on the ranch (or even horseback with our in-town horses). So, keeping abreast of the goings-on at the ranch through my family, and with the rest of the cattle and horse industry through outlets like these forums, is very much therapeutic, and I thank God -- and you folks -- for the opportunity to remain a small part of your world.
Cheers.
