Photo by Bill Stokes
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper is very appreciative of the many things the VA has done proactively to keep him in the game, most recently it was applying cream to his sun-abused forehead to neutralize cancer potential, which gave him the temporary appearance of a skin-shedding snake.
In the middle of this procedure was one of the regularly scheduled shots by the VA eye clinic to ward off the macular degeneration that the keeper inherited from his dear old mother; and during all of this, his VA replumbed heart arteries did their job, as did other systems regulated by VA medication.
More than a decade ago, VA staff apologized for informing the keeper that he had CLL—chronic lymphocytic leukemia, telling him that so long as he was asymptomatic, he should not worry about it as—in the VA’s words, “something else will likely kill you.”
There is no time to dwell on it now as the keeper drives Phyllis back and forth to the UW Carbone Cancer Center for a new series of treatment; and he has not been “worrying” about what is considered “old man’s leukemia” which is slow-growing and often latent. He is, of course, mildly curious about what that “something else” might be.
In the meantime, Phyllis, responding positively to treatment and coping with annoying side-effects, is not too busy planning a family Christmas dinner and working with her photo art to tell the keeper that even though the VA has him looking like a bull-snake, she loves him anyway!
What a woman!
Prayers and thoughts are with you, Bill and Phyllis.