The Kind of Day That Makes You Forget That You Have Cancer

I love days like this.

After a lazy morning, my folks, Eddie, my nephew Connor, and I went berry picking at local farms. We picked 16 lbs. of raspberries and about 16-7 lbs. of marionberries.

After working up an appetite, we went to China Buffet for lunch. The boys enjoyed it as did we.

Then, my folks took Eddie and Connor to their house to babysit while I went into my office for awhile. I finally finally filed away this pile of files. Answered a couple of emails. Printed off some documents. My mom, in the meantime, cleaned all the berries and packaged some up. We plan to take some of our haul to Alaska for various people (Toni, Gemma, Toni's mom, and Charlene). We hope to carry some in our take-on baggage for Becky. I have never made freezer jam (or any other kind of jam for that matter) and hope to do so this week? (Remember, I'm not really the domestic type.)

I picked up Eddie and Connor and went home. Eddie's dad picked him up; Scott and I took Connor back to his house along with some berries for their consumption.

Scott and I then came back home, picked up some work, and headed to Big River, to eat dinner on their patio, have a beer or two, and do some work. I did a final read-through of an article that's been accepted for publication; Scott worked on his SOAP chart for massage school.

Our waiter (another Scott) happened to be married to Annalisa, who is an incoming master's student in Anthropology, who will work with my colleague Missy. Missy and her husband Andy named their baby girl Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of beer and the name of a brewery in Eugene. Scott (my boyfriend) and I drank Ninsaki Radient with our meal.

Funny coincidence, huh? To have a waiter whose wife was going to study with Missy, whose daughter is named Ninkasi, which was the name of the beer we drank with dinner. A full circle kind-of-thing.

Forgot all about the lung spots and the cancer today. I mean, I took my meds and herbs this morning and had the Xeloda after lunch. I didn't feel any real side effects today - perhaps a bit of light-headedness but it didn't last. But it was a perfect evening - hanging out with Scott, having some casual conversation with both Scotts, a good beer, a beautiful evening (sunny, blue skies, in the high 70s), good dinner, AND got some work done.

A girl can't ask for anything more, right?

Love it! No mention of cancer. Just living life. Enjoying the weather, picking berries, spending time with family, eating good food, getting some work done.

Why can't all days be like this? Love ya all!

CT Scan Results .. . OR My six-month "vacation" is over

As you all know, I had a CT scan last week. My doctor, Dr. K, called me with the results this afternoon. After getting the tumor markers yesterday, I wasn't too surprised to hear that the three spots on my left lung are bigger. He did say, however, that after three months time, they could've gotten a lot bigger. But they grew by about half a cm. The good news is that there aren't any other spots.

So, as I said yesterday, I'm going back on a full dose of Tykerb and I even started taking a smaller dose of Xeloda today. I haven't had Xeloda since December and my last full dose of Tykerb was in mid-January, before my surgery. Since April, I've taken about a half-dose of Tykerb (not consistently). So, that little bit of Tykerb probably helped to keep things from growing too much.

It was my little experiment to see if I could go off the meds. My dad called it "Russian Roulette". I found out that I can't. Things aren't really bad. It could be worse. So, I go back on the two meds and see how things go in three months with a new CT scan and I will also have my tumor markers monitored monthly. I probably won't take that chance again. I've got my son to raise, a life to build with Scott, my house to finish, and the Center for Indigenous Sciences to work on!

I was a little depressed yesterday - both from the tumor marker news and from some other things going on - and one of my friends told me that rather than fighting the depression and the envy, I needed to embrace those emotions since they are part of me - my shadow self. By embracing them, they lose their power. She also told me that I should love my cancer to death - not to my death but to the cancer's death. I need to laugh it to death. That requires a reorientation of my thinking but doable, I believe.

In other news, Scott's wallet was taken today - we think perhaps where he goes to massage school as the charges on his debit came from that same neighborhood. They stole about $200 before he discovered it. The bank will give him his money back - insurance covers that - but it might take a couple of days.

My acupuncturist told me that my challenge will be to retreat - start saying no - and make sure to balance all of my do-er/yang energy with yin/relaxing energy. My parent has been telling me to slow down. Scott wanted us to "chill" this week-end. I guess I best do that, huh? : )

So, not great news. Got a plan, though.

Take care, people! Love ya! Thank you all for your support!

CT scan today

I had a CT scan today - not sure when I'll get the results. If I don't hear from Dr. K by Friday, I'll give him a call. I see him July 10, though, so he may just wait until I see him.

Tomorrow is my zometa treatment day - will have blood drawn for tumor markers. I may get one of the results later on Thursday, but probably not until Friday.

As for Eddie's lice, there are less and less signs of the little buggers. I only found a handful of nits last night and this morning. I used this gel/shampoo treatment on him tonight and then I had to comb out the gel ... I think I combed out three lice - I think. It's hard to tell. They were little dark specks, anyway.

Scott's poison oak reaction was really bad the last day or two, so he finally went to the doctor today and got a prescription for prednisone. The rash was really weeping but today, they are finally drying up.

Not getting much writing done. Too much administration - reports, financial stuff, travel planning, meeting with students and others who are doing work for me so I need to keep up with what they've done and get them all started on something else. Phone calls to clarify a potential writing project. Gak!

What I need is about two full 8-hours of uninterrupted days to work. That's a luxury I haven't had in a long time. Whew.

Anyway, enjoy the nice summer weather we're having!

A Great End to the Week-end

First, some updates:

Eddie - no live lice yesterday, although I found a handful of nits that I picked out of his hair. (An all new meaning to the term "nit-picky"!). I think we're beating this infestation, although I don't think we're out of the woods yet.

Scott - the area that he thinks was the first to contact the poison oak has started to weep. Poor guy is walking around with calamine lotion all over him.

Scott - today is his birthday (48th). Yesterday evening, I planned a little surprise birthday thing after our softball team's game - we always go to a local pizza place. My folks and my sister and her family also joined us. Luckily, we all showed up a the pizza place first and then 15 min later, Scott showed up - and we yelled "Surprise!" He was surprised, although he thought that I was acting a bit strange earlier when I kept pressing him for his ETA. We had pizza and cake and joked around with folks. I fed my friend's almost-year-old little bites of cake. I said I was "contributing to the delinquency of a baby".

Deanna - we won our softball game 23-10. I was 3-for-4 batting. Whatever hesitation I felt earlier this season due to my reconstruction surgery (with my tight abdomen and tight shoulder and test) has gone. Although I still don't quite have the distance on my throw, it is getting better and I'm able to get that ol' snap to the throw that I used to have. My personal chef was on the other team and then one of Eddie's classmates mothers was on a team that played just after ours. Anyway, it was great fun, topped off by a good visit.

Deanna and Scott - the reorganization of the house is coming along nicely.

I have great friends!

I had a productive day - worked on that article, repotted plants, worked on the mosaic, then played softball. We won 16-14! Not through any singular effort on my part - I walked once and got out another time and didn't have any defensive plays. But it was still fun and nice to get out there!

I wondered if I would get short of breath when I ran and I didn't, so that's a good thing. I can't throw as far as I used to, though, because of the radiation and surgery to my right side. My right shoulder is tight, but my partner is going to help loosen that up.

Scott and I made a goof on the mosaic last week - after putting the grout on it, we (or I) didn't take the time to wipe the damp grout off the tiles. So, the grout dried on the tiles and now we've just spent 5 or 6 hours this week-end trying to scrap the damn stuff off the tiles so that you can see the design. It's hard, painstaking work. Scott's doing the bulk of the work - my arthritic fingers get sore faster and I don't quite have the strength that he does. We were encouraged, though, by seeing the tiles pop out again. As long as we can see the results of our labor, we can keep going. We should only have another hour or two left - you can see the tiles with grout still on them on the bottom of this picture. (Actually, the picture is kinda cool - the light was shining through some trees and highlighted one of the two "galaxies" in the design - see it on the right side?) Then, I need to regrout a few areas. Then seal it. Chalk this one up to "live and learn". I've never done a mosaic before . . .



A couple of lurkers read my post today and sent me emails . . . saying that they are visualizing, too. Thanks to all of you, too!

I enjoyed chatting with my friends at the ball game and last night, we played cards and had fun. One of my good friend's daughter's husband said last night, "At our last game, something seemed to be missing and I realized, you weren't there!" He missed me, apparently, and said something like, "it's just not softball without Dee!".

Scott also did some massage work on me today - he was getting ready for his practicum test. Did I say he was in massage school? Anyway, I thought I should only take an hour, but it felt really good, so we went another 30 minutes and he worked on my calves and feet.

I have great friends, you know? Thank you everyone!

Norway Pics - Finally!

Here are some pictures from Bergen.

The first one is a shot of the Rosenkrantz, which was built in the 13th century and was a prison, I believe. Our hotel was located right next to it.



The second shot is of the Bryggen, or wharf. These are very old buildings which have settled catty-wampus. We were located about 5 minutes away.



The third shot was taken the day before my conference started. I took the shot for Carver - she's been photographing the spring blooms lately and I thought of her when I saw these blooming crocuses near a "kirken" or church.



This next shot was taken as we took the "funicular" or cable car up to the top of Mt. Floien. You can see this fjord, which was the one we could see from our hotel.



This is a picture taken at a reception held at Hakonshallen (sp?) located near the Rosenkrantz in the first picture. Yes, I'm holding a glass of wine, before the dais. I guess the only person who ever sits in the middle chair is the King. This hall was built by the King for his son in 1261, on the occasion of the son's wedding. Also, note the "orb" located around my belt-line.



Here is a shot of Scott on the dais. Note the orb on the chair and also a more faded one located to the right of the letters on his sweatshirt.



Here is a shot of the hall - just to give you perspective. During WWII, a bomb destroyed the wood roof, but the stone survived and they rebuilt it. Also, note the "orbs" floating around the ceiling. We took a lot of pictures in Norway, but the only orbs were located in this old hall - and one time, it showed up near Scott in our hotel room, located near this hall. Some believe that these are spirits hanging around . . .



This picture was taken by Beth as we walked around near the center of town - this was a street a few blocks long where there were a lot of cute shops, including the Asian market where I bought the calling card. Note the cobblestone street.



Scott took this shot to give a view of part of the city of Bergen.



Someone we sat near at another reception took this picture of me and Scott. This was at the hotel were the conference was located.



This was a picture Scott took of me and Beth, a grad student from UAF. Beth will work for me this summer and she and I cowrote an article together. This was located near the "bryggen".



Well, hope you enjoy the pics! We certainly enjoyed our time there!