Cancer Adventures

The purpose of this blog is to highlight the everyday life of a family going through cancer. We're aware that every diagnosis carries a different challenge and that we can only share our perspective on what it's like to live with a slow-growing cancer that has metastasized. Our hope is that you'll come back to visit often!

Monday, February 23, 2009

It's official!

Just a quick note to say that today's mail brought us the official ruling from the IRS - Cancer Adventures has been approved as a 501(c)3. Yahoo!

I've been working on a grassroots grant hoping we'd hear from the IRS ... so it couldn't be better timing. The grant deadline is March 15.

Here's hoping the weekend coming up is cold and snowy so I can hunker down with multiple cups of tea and a fire purring in the fireplace to help me put the finishing touches on the grant submission!

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Saturday, February 21, 2009

Having fun with the medical professionals

We’re driving home from Portland as I'm writing this. We made a quick stop for Chai tea in Sandy, and straight ahead - frosted with snow and looming large on this beautiful, clear day - is Mount Hood.

A couple hours ago we presented at the 26^th Annual Seminar for Radiation Oncology Professionals. Terry Wagie and her team at Legacy Health System hosted this top-notch event at the Multnomah Athletic Club.

We had a lot of fun with the attendees. Normally our presentation takes about 20 minutes, and since we had an hour to fill we incorporated some of what we do in high school

health classes. Gary started by having the group count off from 1 to 3 (later he would ask all the 2’s to stand to illustrate the number of people in a group this size that would be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime).

Because the conference attendees were all sitting at round tables of eight, the count-off was a bit challenging. One table would end with 2 and someone at the next table would start off by calling out “One.” (Even high schoolers know that 3 almost always comes after 2!)

For the Q&A session, we brought Hershey’s kisses with the idea of bribing the participants for intelligent questions: “OK ... high schoolers can count to three better than you guys, so here’s a chance to redeem yourselves!” as we poked fun at them. And they took it so well.

The conference attendees were radiation therapists, oncology nurses, social workers, dosimetrists and physicists. I work with a terrific blend of these professionals in the Cancer Treatment Center in Bend, so we were in good company.

They let us make fun of them. They laughed in all the right places in our presentation. They were an attentive audience even though we were on the schedule right after lunch – right around the time when people would rather be taking afternoon siestas.

What more could you ask for from a group of medical professionals!

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Saturday, February 14, 2009

To my valentine

We fell asleep to the muted roar of the ocean last night. We’re on a make-a-date-out-of-a-cancer-appointment weekend at the Oregon coast.

So, the good news from the doctor yesterday was that Gary’s CT and bone scans were clean. The bad news is his PSA count continues to rise. Ketoconazole was prescribed, along with Avodart to counter the side effects of Ketoconazole. If the count is elevated again by our next appointment in April, the doctor will recommend chemotherapy.

I asked about chemo: “I thought it wasn’t effective because it attacks only fast-splitting cells and prostate cancer is slow-growing.”

You’re right, he said, but the rate at which the PSA is climbing indicates it’s not slow-growing at this point.

Not words we wanted to hear, but meanwhile, we plan to enjoy this respite at the ocean. We took a long walk on the beach this morning. We brought books and a couple of DVDs and I threw in my latest knitting project.

We’ll have dinner at Mo’s, home of the best clam chowder in the world. The story is that a customer put her car in forward gear instead of reverse while leaving one day and crashed through the front wall. Mo consoled the woman and installed a garage door so she could drive in anytime she wanted! On warm sunny days the garage door is opened for a sidewalk café feel.

Tomorrow we’ll head back over the snowy mountains to our life in Central Oregon. It is a good life and I plan on having many more years with my valentine (that would be Gary!).

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Saturday, February 7, 2009

Memorable moments in Jersey

I’m sitting in the Seattle airport waiting to catch the puddle jumper to Redmond on the last leg home. I’ve spent the past week in New Jersey with our daughter Summer, son-in-law Josh, and the three grands.

Last Tuesday, Summer and I took Lilly, age 8, and Titus, age 6, to see Little Mermaid on Broadway. We caught a mid-afternoon train into the city and had a leisurely dinner at Max Brenner (for those who think Max Brenner is only a chocolate café, try the smoked turkey and mushroom crepe smothered in Swiss).

Little Mermaid was amazing – the costumes, the set, the actors/singers. Just amazing. After the show, we emerged onto a brightly lit Times Square covered in a

light layer of snow – the city that never sleeps – and caught the subway back to Penn Station, dragging sleepy children behind us (Summer loves it when tourists stop and ask her for directions, which happened twice that evening).

Obviously the Broadway play was a highlight of my trip, but not as memorable as bonding with 9-month-old Lydia with her Bugs Bunny drooling grin … and not as special as conversations with Lilly and Titus (one afternoon we walked over to Starbucks for hot chocolate and they talked non-stop – I love it!).

Watching karate practice, baking cupcakes, reading bedtime stories, building towers for Lydia to knock down, tucking warm bodies into bed, late night conversations with Josh & Summer, sleeping in – the almost perfect week (perfect would have been if Gary could have gone).

It will probably take me a full day to catch up on v-mail and e-mail at work

on Monday ... the price one pays for taking a full week off. But so worth it to spend time with the little people!

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