Month: November 2008

After kind of a down week following chemo Jack is back at it–his appetite has returned (which has him quite pleased), his energy is rebounding, side-effects have lessened and he’s feeling pretty good. (The Ginger Hemp Granola he’s been scarfing down may have something to do with this.)

I mentioned in a previous post that Jack wouldn’t be tying for a bit and in the the interim friends would fill his orders from stock. Also that correspondance would be delayed. That time is now past. We’re back to pure Gartside. 🙂

Starting on or about December first Jack begins his final round of treatment: a six week outpatient course of chemo and radiation.

Hi folks. Another update on Jack.

After an initial week-long treatment of chemo and radiation Jack has been discharged from the hospital and is back home. Chemo seriously compromises your immune system and in its immediate aftermath the greatest risk is that of an infection, virus, pneumonia, or other transmittable bug hitting you at a time when your system can’t fight it. Turns out that hospitals are actually high risk environments for communicable nasties. All those sick people, I guess.

So Jack is at home. He has responded well to the initial round of treatment. “Miraculous” is the very word his doctors used. His next round of treatment is scheduled for December 1. Until then the plan is he’ll be at home. Right now he’s just resting, glad to be back in familiar surroundings. The treatment has sapped him so he’s snoozing a lot. Generally he’s been free of many of the negative side effects of chemo. He hasn’t grown a set of horns or a tail (or, cuz it’s Jack, I should say he hasn’t grown a second set of horns and a second tail). A few local friends have been helping out with meals and running errands and they’ve been just great. Continue reading “Jack at home, where the fish are still biting”

A few of you may know (though most probably don’t) that Jack was hospitalized last week. The diagnosis is small-cell lung cancer. Not something you want to have. Right now he’s undergoing an aggressive course of chemotherapy and radiation.

When you hear a friend has cancer the ground drops from under your feet. You picture your friend diminished by disease, a whisper of his or her former self. You feel helpless, kicked in the gut (at least, that’s how I felt).

All I can say is that cancer has never butted heads with the irresistible force that is Jack Gartside before.

He’s in amazing spirits–laughing and joking. His second day in, as doctors entered the room, serious, conferring,  they burst out laughing at the site of Jack and all his visitors all wearing these goofy coke bottle eyeglasses Katie Lavelle had brought over. With an unfamiliar stretch of the Charles River flowing by his hospital window, Jack convinced Dale Linder and Dave Skok to bring their rods and fish it on their next visit so he can know what’s in there. Continue reading “Important: about Jack”