Thanks man. Sucked not trapping coyotes this year. Been doing that since 80s and it’s a tough habit to break. But couldn’t give a good dog away this year if it came from south of I80 and in our SE corner. And man we had some good ones this year. Nice puffy sides and long manes. No mange either. Bet that won’t last long.
Update for all:
I’ve been taking chemo regimen 2x daily for past 3.5 years straight.
That’s 5:00AM and 5:00PM, can’t eat two hours before each and one after afterward either. I literally mark my days by alarms on my phone. Family has had to dance around my schedule when we plan meals and so forth. They always feel guilty eating something around me too but I tell them don’t worry about me I’m good.
Well, I’ve had a nice long run of quarterly blood draws coming back with “undetectable” measurements. When I was first diagnosed with a rare form of CML blood cancer. I have a third chromosome not playing nicely as well as the two standard chromosomes that switch places and cause issues. my BCR/abl measures were around 48%. Yes about half my blood was that crap. I found out something was wrong purely by accident. I had gone in for bloodwork for annual checkup at beginning of November and everything was normal even white blood cell count was normal.
Then when I started trapping coyotes that December the first big Wolfy old male I caught…when skinning it out I tore my right pec tendon right off my arm bone and needed surgery to pin and stitch that sucker back together. When I went in for pre-op surgery physical and bloodwork my white blood cell count was elevated over normal levels. Doc wasn’t too concerned thought it could be related to the injury and cleared me for surgery.
The culprit (which actually sort of saved my life too, injury was my early detection) : this big old Wolfy looking male.
After surgery:
At follow up blood work my white blood cell count had doubled. I had one of this not so fun bone marrow biopsies and that ID’d my diagnosis. So it’s been chemo 2x daily ever since.
Was a long surgery recovery and therapy but got back on my feet and back to fishing, trapping, and living again despite my sinister cancer going on.
Anyway, I’ve had almost three straight years of “undetectable” quarterly blood measurements since I started. Got a great initial response it’s held there since. There is no cure for CML, but there is some research studies showing if you can make it at least three years with undetectable measure, you got about a 50/50 chance of going off chemo and staying off holding numbers on your own. Undetectable means their test only goes out to 0.0003% and one measuring somewhere below that number. A complete molecular response.
Folks, I’ve got a measurement coming end of March, another in June, and if both come back zero I get to wean off daily chemo. And see if u can hold me own. I can’t wait.
Thank you TMan community for all the prayers and support. I’ve got a wife and sons to be there for and (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) it feels good to be out and about living again!
Oh and I have a cool 4” scar on my right shoulder I show everyone and tell them that’s where a coyote got me.!
Jim