RZ/RD 350 & Misc. 2-Stroke Tech BBS

Hang Tough!

Just hours away.

No more fear.

Eye of the tiger now.

Sorry I can't report good news.
Now trying to recover from surgery.
Surgery was not successful. Post-op margins are positive for cancer.
Radiation may buy me some time, but too soon to tell.
Hoping I can recover enough to ride and finish some bikes. No idea yet how much time is left.
Still in bad shape. Won't be riding for a while.

Thanks to anyone posting any custom work, to help me pass the time while I'm down.

That's crappy news! I have a friend who's in hospital fighting cancer. Treatments are not working. He's lost about 60lbs in the last couple of months. Hospitalized the last 4 weeks.
Keep fighting. Hopefully you will be fairly comfortable for some time. My friend is not suffering, but time is also unknown.
I'm in school right now, hours from home, so I'm not much good for entertainment with my builds. Hopefully others will be good for entertainment. Thinking about you daily.

hondaror wrote:That's crappy news! I have a friend who's in hospital fighting cancer. Treatments are not working. He's lost about 60lbs in the last couple of months. Hospitalized the last 4 weeks.
Keep fighting. Hopefully you will be fairly comfortable for some time. My friend is not suffering, but time is also unknown.
I'm in school right now, hours from home, so I'm not much good for entertainment with my builds. Hopefully others will be good for entertainment. Thinking about you daily.

Thanks, I wish I had 60 lbs to lose.

Judo weight class is 156 lbs. Usually weigh about 160. Now closer to 150.

That's why I like a light bike.

As I had the bad fate to witness my fathers and brothers decay due to lung cancer I often asked myself what I'd had done in their place.

Dad's wife was so stupidly against pain treatment with morphine that he suffered for months as long as he could bear and only got it for the last week or so. In hindsight that where his best days in the last half year or so.
He got 70 years old and as he retired with 55 you can say he had a life.
I noted to myself not to fear any addiction or possible side effects as long the treatment enhaces overall quality.

My brother was different. He was diagnosed a brain tumor with 42 on Halloween 2010 and the even worse news was that it only was a metastase from the main activity in his lung.
He had a wife, two kids and a house to be paid, so he took the fight with full power.
That meant full treatment with extracting half of the lung, brain surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy. This took long.
Here in Germany you get paid when being ill. 6 weeks from your employer, up to 1 year you get 80% from the health insurance. After that you retire early at pretty high loss of income.
As he didn't want his family to live from welfare he worked every possible day (where other people would lay in bed!).
For a few years it seemed ok, but from one x-ray to the other a few months later there were dozens of small metastases in the brain and lung popping up.
A second lung surgery didn't make sense, brain surgery was not possible due to location and quantity of tumors. Radiation therapy was on the max dose the first time, so there was no second possible.
To the outside world he didn't admit that this basically was being on death row with a date short due. He made plans for years later and still worked though not being well.
The climax of "playing normality" was going on a holiday to Turkey in 2014 with the family which weakened him so much that he deceased on the way home in an Ambulance in front of the Airport.
Luckily he had a live insurance that was high enough to pay for the house. His widow now works part time and they're coming along.

Note to myself:
Do not cheat on yourself, admit when it's over and enjoy the time that is given to you.
Do not listen to doctors that regard you as a money printing machine and only accept treatment that has balanced positive/negative effects.
At the end even consider euthanasia if it weren't for that damn life insurance to pay for the house.

Hope that wasn't too open for a public conversation, but I wish you a speedy recovery to a level that you can live with and then just do what makes you happy for as long as you're given.

I think that was well said and not too open. People are afraid to talk about death but in reality we are all dying the second we are born. Some people will have better knowledge on when it is their time and will probably adjust their lives to accommodate this. That's what my Mom did. This sounds like what your brother did MK. Smoker, do what you need to do and try to find quality in your life. I have said this before, I am truly humbled by your project bikes and have learned how to do things from your posts. I am a total hack with my lathe and welder compared to you and others on these bike forums but I still press forward with a bike that hasn't seen the street since 1982. I hope to have it up and running by June. Please keep us in touch as you see fit.

Well said guys!

My wife battled for 13 years, never gave up, did everything she could and always had a smile for everyone. She taught me how to really live. Sometimes, that's all that you can do! Onward!

MK wrote:As I had the bad fate to witness my fathers and brothers decay due to lung cancer I often asked myself what I'd had done in their place.

Thanks for sharing, Martin. As always, your help and advice is excellent. I should have thought about it in advance, but I've not been very responsible for many things. I'm confused and don't know what I want to do with the time I have left.

Been physically unable to do anything yet. Also, no idea at this point, how much time is left. Ongoing physical limitations will dictate what I'm able to do.

Hopefully, modifying motorcycles will be a good way to help my body and mind heal from surgery.

whyzee79 wrote:Smoker, do what you need to do and try to find quality in your life.

Trying hard to figure it out. Don't want to leave a mess behind.

Definitely need to take more pain medicine. Trying to tough it out. I can do it, but get nothing else done.

hondaror wrote:Onward!

Yep. Need to figure out if the tail is going to work!

Hang in there dude. I spoke to a guy a few months ago that used to work at the same place as me, but he was in the same fight as you and took an early retirement. I'd never known him prior, only seen him around, but I spoke to him for all of 15 minutes and his attitude changed me forever. He basically walked away from the health care systems continuous desire to keep doing 'something' to him and chooses only that which enhances his ability to enjoy the days he has. He is at peace with whatever his future holds and spends the time he can enjoying his friends and family and things that make him happy, celebrating each day as a gift, like we all should. I raise my glass to you, all the best in putting yourself past this.

Another point came to my mind that may or may not be relevant for you.
The people you have around usually don't know how to handle you, i.e. if you wanna talk about anything or being treated a special way or whatever.
The usual outcome is that some people draw back from you and later they whished they'd spend more time or felt there were things that had be to said but weren't.
If it were me, I'd just grab 'em and start talking from my side if I feel the need.

I was totally amazed to see a thread with 139 pages so I started reading, I can say it saddened me to hear what's happened to you, I am encouraged by your attitude and your fight, I am praying for you, we desperately need you on the smoker site! Keep fighting brother. Gus

Happy holidays to all.