Author Archives: dmtgat

Friday, October 8, 2021 It is 10 a.m. and I am sitting here wondering what today will bring.  Diane worked her usual magic and got my appointment moved from October 14th to today at 6 p.m., so we will be heading out to Iowa City in an hour or so.  It is amazing how, inContinue reading “Tick Tock, Tick Tock”

September 27, 2021 I guess you could say progress is being made, just at a snail’s pace. After the needle biopsy cancellation due to “too risky” on September 10th, we had a meeting with an ear, nose, throat (ENT) specialist at the University of Iowa Hospital System on September 27th to determine the next stepContinue reading “The Roller Coaster”

When the focus of “the blog” changed from observations on life in the 4th quarter to my serious health odyssey, I told myself that it was important that I be honest and straight forward and not sugar coat what the Taylors were experiencing. The goal is not only to inform our friends of our journeyContinue reading ““Come on Up””

Let me get right to the chase.  The PET-scan was administered on September 1st; the process took roughly two hours most of which found me either sitting quietly in a chair while the radioactive fluid travelled through my body or in the PET tube.  The actual scan took about 30 minutes.  September 2nd:   Back toContinue reading “Hopeful”

It seemed like months from July 23 until August 4 when we arrived back in Macomb. Upon our return, we pretty much just collapsed–no unpacking or anything else for that matter, we were just glad to get home. Doctors encouraged me to take short walks so for the first week that is precisely what IContinue reading “Table Setting for One”

As my eyes reluctantly view the keyboard, maybe I will wake up from this nightmare before I actually begin to type. Nope, that didn’t work. Every time I tell myself this can’t be happening, I realize it has. What is a person to do? Yes, others have worse stories, much worse, but for right now, atContinue reading ““It’s Been an Unusual Month””

I wrote the following on July 21, 2021 before taking Amtrak to Chicago and Metra to Grayslake.  It was intended to be a bit of closure on recent happenings in my life, but you will soon find out, it was nothing more than light showers before a health hurricane became a part of our newContinue reading “Before the Storm”

She has been “gone” for 52 years but remains vivid in my memory as one of the most extraordinary people to be part of the framework of my life.  I feel so sad that she missed the best part of my life:  marriage to Diane, our kids, rewarding career, and all the rest that comesContinue reading “MOM”

On February 20, 2021, I celebrated my 75th birthday. Goodness, I’m now in the 8th decade of my life in spite of a nasty bout of base of tongue cancer in 2010, a complete shoulder replacement in 2015, and a serious three-week case of Covid-19 in November 2020. I’m the lucky one in my birthContinue reading “I Made It!”