On-line again!

We're baaacckkkk!

I have no idea what they did other than on Sunday morning we plugged our kitchen Mac directly into the modem and left both of them on. Tonight, when I tried to get out on the web because the Mac is the only machine plugged into the modem, the browser was intercepted with a Comcast "sign in here" menu. Sort of like you get at hotels when they want to charge you for using their internet connection.

It asked that I download a Comcast application. I did and ran it.

And ran it.

And ran it.

And ran it.

And ran it.

And ran it and it worked! To be fair, each time I ran it it failed at a different point. Then I'd reboot the Mac, try to open the browser, and get intercepted again. It would restart the application and it did recognize that I was a returning user but it insisted on confirming my account number for each restart. You know you have done something too many times when you can recite a meaningless 16 digit number from memory.

Anyway, we are back on line as of right now for as long as it lasts.

As for Mary, she made the trip to Stanford today for the blood test. MaryR provided taxi service. We have heard nothing.

Speaking of hearing nothing, the phone lines are working because the cable is up and running.

Tomorrow is a big day! For the first time since the surgery on May 11, Mary is going to drive. She has a hair appointment with Kevin in downtown LG and she plans on driving, parking and walking all by herself! The good news is that Kevin's salon is about two miles from here and involves a left turn from Golf Links, a right turn onto Winchester, driving straight for about 2 miles and a left turn into Kevin's shop. The tricky part is finding parking in LG in the middle of the day within a comfortable walking distance for Mary. I am sure she can do it.

As for the bloated condition, that is still the case. She is feeling very uncomfortable and she reports the volume of fluid she is producing seems "a bit more than normal." That is a good sign but I will we could see the stretched abdomen really start to relax. The skin is stretched very, very tightly.

The picture was taken last Friday while we waited for the ultrasound. Mary was talking to Reenie and was absolutely enjoying herself. I got lucky and got a really nice picture of her laughing. You can click on it to see full size.

The Emergency Department Waiting Room

You all know how I see humor in all sorts of strange and marvelous ways. This is a picture of a magazine in Stanford's ED where we spent an hour or so last Thursday evening. Why do I see humor? (Scroll down)

Check out the date of publication!

The reason I became aware of its 30 year old vintage was the car advertisement for the "New Toyota Corolla" showing a 30 year old car. At first I thought the ad was a "illustrate our legacy" because the Corolla has been in production forever. Then I realized it was a 'current' ad. That's when I looked at the date on the cover. Amazing, that magazine has hung around all these years and is in good shape although in a public area.

The Station Fire in LA

The Station Fire near Los Angeles is impinging on Pasadena where Mary's daughter, husband and two granddaughters live. Fortunately, they do not live in the foothills. Their neighborhood is south of the intersection of I-210 and Hwy 134. The fire is more than a bit away from that neighborhood although it looks close on the map. When Lara et al got home from New Zealand on Saturday morning, she reported they could see and smell the smoke from the fire.

Here is a link to the LA Times with a google map and an overlay of the fire area.

Sunday Evening

You've seen pictures of Mary (below) and she is doing ok. We really have no further information and are waiting for Dr. Dougherty's office to call for an appointment. Blood test tomorrow and MaryR has agreed to take Mary to Stanford for Monday's taxi service. Oh yeah, Mary reports the diuretics are working albeit slowly.

Mary has helped me with dinner both last night and tonight. She works the cooktop and makes sure the meat (Sat) and fish (Sun) are properly cooked. I do the veggie and starch. I mean, how hard is it to pull Lunardi's potato salad out of the frig? Tonight was fresh corn, string beans and Petrale Sole--all from Los Gatos Farmers' Market this morning. Good!

Comcast has still been unsuccessful in fixing our modem. Two and one-half hours on-line yesterday and a three hour visit today (Sunday) with a technician at our house--and still no internet service. TV is working fine on HD and no channels at all on standard TV. They did a modem swap (mine for theirs) and theirs wouldn't work either (identical Motorola modems). Nice. We are in Verizon's land line territory and they cannot provide their higher speed DSL services to our home. We're stuck.

It was time for me to get my haircut today. I go to a very nice Vietnamese lady who has been cutting my hair for ten years or so. Her parents left Vietnam when the communists took over and she was a teenager. There are a million stories about her, Than Mi (Tammy). Today, however, was much simpler. She has a flood of Asian pears and yellow peaches--it is late August in the Valley of Hearts Delight (renamed Silicon Valley over the past few decades). Each customer was to eat a peach and a pear upon arrival and then take one or two away when done. Talk about your fruit festival! Reenie happened to call on my drive home and she admitted that in Minnesota this time of year, the bountiful harvest is zucchini. And, you often get a knock on the door or a ring of the bell. When you get there, there is no one present but you find a large delivery of zucchini on your front step. I prefer the peaches and Asian pears.

That is all for now.

Hanging out

In the front yard. It is much cooler today (79F or 26C) than yesterday (100 or 38C).

Amazing!

Comcast arrived at 8:30 to fix our Internet connection. It's 10:15 and
he is still working on it!

Pat Lamey
+1 408 827 8827

No news

We didn't get any phone calls from Stanford so we assume the results of the ultrasound images of the liver taken late yesterday are nominal. If they weren't nominal, I am sure they would have called Mary back in right away. Mary has to go back on Monday for a blood test so I am going to be asking her taxi team if they can help out. She will also have a visit with the hepatic specialist (Dr. Daugherty) next week and while I will likely be there, the taxi team may have to deliver her to and from LG. (By the way, I forgot that our telephone lines automatically roll to our cell phones if the house lines are not working. Such is the benefit of VoIP phone service.)

Mary corrected my memory, it wasn't the surgeon, Dr. Visser, who said the situation was weird, it was the surgeon quoting the GI hepalogist (Dr. Daugherty) after being given a rundown by the surgeon. What does this all mean? The liver was 'cooked' by the radiation therapy, properly quoting the surgeon. And, the possibility exists that the cooked liver has a malfunctioning plumbing bit: collapsed duct, vein or artery. However, the ultrasound done late Friday was negative for such a problem. Or, at least we think its negative for such a problem because they didn't call today.

Mary is still bloated even though she started the diuretic drugs this morning. Mary's sister, Reenie, said those drugs take a day or two until they really kick in and start to work. Once they do, I think we'll be revisiting that old favorite, "Yellow River" by I.P. Freely.

The docs are concerned about her electrolytes, hence the blood test on Monday just to be sure. This is after taking a total of six or seven blood vials in the emergency room on Thursday evening. They like her blood. And, all the blood test results are nominal.

Again, remember, that cholangiocarcinoma is a rare cancer and the lack of experience/protocols makes almost everything a journey into the unknown. In some recent reading I have learned that there are about 2,500 cases a year in the USA and only 10% are eligible for surgery. That puts Mary in a very select group of 250 people. And, she is select of the select because she not only has had the surgery, she has survived: 1) the surgery itself, 2) the regenerating the liver and 3) the subsequent radiation.

All we can do is one day at a time.

On other matters, I spend 2 hours and 15 minutes with Comcast today trying to get the internet service up and running. The TV signal is fine. I'd love to post the transcript because it is so ridiculous. (I have a phone data card so I can text chat with them even though my service is down.)

Things like,

Me: "Comcast had me buy a new modem about six weeks ago because they claimed it was the problem--the same problem we have right now. I thought they were wrong, but I spent my money anyway and bought a new modem BUT that didn't fix the problem. Instead, Comcast service people came to the house to fix it and they did. And, now, after six weeks, it stopped working."

Comcast: "Do you have the old modem? Maybe we can hook it up and it will work."

followed by

Comcast: "Are you aware you can rent the modem from Comcast for a small fee per month? And, if it stops working you can simply drop by any Comcast office and exchange it."

Me: "There is nothing wrong with the modem. The problem is at your end, its the 2nd time in less than 8 weeks we see this problem. Besides, I once rented a modem and after a few years I realized I could have purchased one and saved a bunch of money."

Or, Comcast says, "We are showing you have two modems on the system, one numbered 009945432345 is up and running and the other 0044556783458 is offline. Which one is not working?"

Me: "Ummm, your people got the new modem working by coming to my house. You mean they didn't delete the old modem? Oh, and the one ending in 3458 is the new and only modem I now own. And the one that has worked for the past six weeks without any problem."

Comcast: "Have you done the proper install procedure for the new modem?"

Me: "Yes, about seven weeks ago and I couldn't get it to work. Comcast came to the house about six weeks ago and it has worked ever since until yesterday."

Me: "Given that Comcast came to the house to get the modem working, could you look up the history file on what they did and we can simply do it again?"

Comcast: "What is the serial number, make and model and the mac address of the new modem?

Me: "Scroll back up this text dialogue (which at that time had been going on for almost an hour) and copy the info you gave me at the beginning of this session. It was correct then, and I am sure it hasn't changed in 50 minutes."

The nut of it is, somehow my old modem data was not purged from their system and on Friday their system put my old modem on line and disconnected the new modem. Nice eh? And now, they have to send someone here to get it working again.

We are in the Verizon land line area. I wonder how their DSL works.

Grandma, Layla talking to Charlize

We normally do this on a video chat. Because our internet is down I took this picture and sent it to Charli so she could see her dog.

Still no internet service

For phone service, we use VoIP and it is programmed for call forwarding to our cell phones if our internet connection is down. Phone calls are reaching us without a problem.

Entries to the this blog and email are handled either by our iPhones or by my phone data card on my laptop. We are not cut off, just inconvenienced.

Pat

The end of a long day

To add insult to injury, our home internet connection went belly up today. I've done all the routine things powering up modems, routers, switches, phone adapters, wifi units, etc., and we still don't have service. It could be connected to the 104F temps today in Los Gatos stressing Comcast's hardware. Myb hardware is comfortably sitting in air conditioning so no problem on this end.

We had dinner courtesy of Willow Street and Mary then fell asleep. I am tired too, so its bedtime for me also.

On the way home

Ultrasound done. Mary hungry. Going home.

Pat Lamey
+1 408 827 8827

Mary talking to Reenie while waiting at Stanford

Click on the picture for a full size view.

This is weird!

Not exactly comforting words from Mary's surgeon. All the things they can measure are just fine yet she is bloated, clearly.

The surgeon (Dr. Visser) and the radiation oncologist (Dr. Chang) studied Mary's CT scan from last night before the Visser saw Mary this morning. His assessment is pretty much the same as last night--the liver is working. New information is that the radiation treatment has pretty aggressively beat up the liver. As expected, its capacity is significantly lessened and the unprocessed fluids are collecting in the abdomen.

While that all sounds good, he admits the symptomology is weird.

As a result, he ordered an ultrasound of the liver for the purpose of finding out if all the fluid flows are working correctly. The possibility (albeit remote) is that the radiation has created some some of blockage (perhaps collapsed duct, vein or artery) and that blockage might be the cause of the fluid in her abdomen. We have been waiting since we saw the surgeon at noon and we just arrived in radiology for her 3:30PM appointment--and we were told we were a 'squeeze in' which is hospitalize for 'prepare to grow very, very old in our waiting area.' You see, we were a 'squeeze in' this morning when we arrived at the requested 9AM. We saw the surgeon at noontime. This is a long day and they are not allowing Mary to eat until they finish the ultrasound.

Mary's surgeon is off on vacation for two weeks so Mary will be monitored by a GI specialist in liver aka hepatologist. And, she is now booked to have more blood work done on Monday as well as a pending appointment with the GI hepatologist. They are worried about her electrolyte balance, given her history, hence the blood test--again.

On a lighter note, Devil Dawg is still up to new tricks. As I noted before, Ingrid brought her home made chicken noodle soup over this week which we had for dinner one night. And, Mary used the leftovers for her lunch the next day. Mary takes a long time to eat and on this particular day, was planning to eat in the master bedroom sitting in her lounge chair eating and watching TV. As she started to eat her lunch, she noticed that Devil Dawg had some light colored matter clinging to her outer lip. Well, Devil Dawg is a living vacuum cleaner and will slop up anything that hits the ground, edible or not, so Mary didn't pay any attention to it. After Mary finished her soup, she removed the item from Devil Dawg's lip--a noodle that could only have come from Mary's soup bowl--before Mary ate lunch. That dawg is quick.

Answering questions (below) from Mary's daughter Lara who is flying back from New Zealand this weekend.

Your first two questions. No need to keep her because all the tests showed she was ok.

They called the surgeon at 2am and after giving him all the data, he asked we come in this am.

We don't know if they will do a drain.

This app't was unplanned.

Travel safe!

Pat Lamey

+1 408 827 8827

On Aug 28, 2009, at 3:14, Lara asked

Why not keep her over night to monitor her? Do they not think it is necessary? Why is she seeing the surgeon? Do they think they are going to need to go in to drain fluids? Or was this apt already scheduled?

At least an understanding

Mary's liver function is ok. Because of the radiation, it's capacity is reduced. The result is an "overlow" of fluids into the abdominal cavity. This is the exact same behavior we saw after the surgery when she had 20% of her liver. At that time she had a clostomy bag to drain the excess.

The ED head doc just stopped by (2:00 am) and we are going home. And we see the surgeon in clinic at 9:00am tomorrow Friday.

Pat Lamey

More details

Mary started showing weight gain about two weeks ago. She had an extensive discussion with the radiation oncologists on Mon and Tues last week and the result was a blood draw added to her procedure on Tuesday with the results on Wednesday being nominal. The radiologists are worried that they cooked her liver and it is failing. However, the blood tests from last week and the battery of tests she had today are all showing the liver is working just fine.

Over the weekend, Mary complained that she had gained so much weight even her 'fat girl' clothes were not fitting. Yesterday morning, our home scale showed she had gained about 10 pounds in about two weeks. This morning, it was clear something was not right so we called Stanford and talked to the resident radiologist (same doc as last week). That caused the trip at 11AM today for a blood test. Ingrid met us there and took Mary home while I went to work.

When I got home, I found Mary suffering discomfort from the bloat and also a headache. That caused another call to Stanford and the same resident asked she come in to ED. We packed a bag and arrived at 7:30PM.

Mary is back from her CT Scan and we are now waiting for the results. As Mary just said, one part of her hopes they found nothing so she can go home. But that is problematic because she is still bloated. The other part of her wants something to be found so they can fix it.

ATT suffers a bit of a dead zone here in ED so our cell phones are not working. Fortunately, Stanford runs a guest wifi so email is easy.

Hanging out in the ED is no fun...there are a bunch of sick and hurt people here.

ED Again!

We're back in Stanford's ED (Emergency Room) because Mary's abdomen is very bloated (distended). This is accompanied with about a 10 pound weight gain over the past two weeks. That is not appropriate given her amount of food intake which is multiple grazing events per day with all of them being "meal lite" in content.

The doc just stopped by to tell us that all the tests are nominal! Yeah!! Blood tests are all good, liver function is good, urine tests are good, no fever, no nausea, no other outward signs of difficulty. The next step is a CT Scan to see if they can see something amiss in her innards and they just rolled her to the radiology department (10:50PM) for her CT scan.

The doc said that if the CT scan is negative, they'll likely just release her. If it is positive (anything detected as not nominal), they'll admit her into the hospital. And given she is bloated, its likely she will be admitted because something is wrong.

Mary is alert, aware, fully functional and in good spirits other than she is trying to look like the Pillsbury doughboy or, perhaps, the Michelin man. This, of course, makes us very nervous because of what happened after surgery when she was admitted to ICU. To save you the looking it up part, it was an imbalance of her electrolytes caused by or from the retention of too much fluid--i.e., bloated. Once the renal doc's were brought in, things got better faster. It was this history that caused the resident oncologist to ask us to come in to ED for further work up.

We arrived here about 7:30PM and they have done a battery of tests and the CT scan is in progress as I finish this posting. We knew this would happen so we brought energy bars which have kept me going but Mary has not eaten because Dr. Mary decided she could not eat if she is having a CT scan. She didn't actually ask any of the staff about this, she just knows...

I'll keep you posted.

A pretty good couple of days

Mary isn't 100% but she is a long way towards it! Mornings up through early afternoon are her best time. Yesterday was great until late afternoon. Today was better in the morning but not as good as yesterday. Last night was not very good at all while tonight she seems to be doing quite well. I'd love to see her get back to the level we saw Sunday and Monday morning. Perhaps tomorrow.

I read someplace that the after effects of radiation to the abdomen will linger for 1-2 weeks. Mary said that after she woke up from her afternoon nap today, it felt like she had been blasted by radiation. So, 1-2 weeks appears to be realistic.

Monday morning was an outing to have a coffee shop latte with MaryR and then Ingrid arrived with fresh made, home made chicken noodle soup for lunch. Mary then hosted some workmen who were doing the maintenance on the house security system. After they left is when it hit and knocked her down and it stayed with her until bedtime.

Today was much quieter and Mary spent most of the day alone although I left for work at 10AM so it wasn't too long a day.

Today's snail mail included a very nice postcard from the granddaughters currently visiting in New Zealand. Its fun to get mail from the wrong side of the equator!

Mary reports that granddaughter Charlize has lost yet another tooth! And, the tooth fairy is still delivering five-spots. Lucky girl!

And, I should report that Mary is really enjoying her new iPhone 3GS. And, I am enjoying the hand-me-down iPhone it replaced. Man, that apps store is something special!

That's all for tonight!

A Great Sunday!

We had a great Sunday today. Market, brunch with Ingrid and MaryR. Then, Michele and Glenn visited in the early afternoon and brought for Mary a fantastic carrot cake from the Woodside Bakery. A little before sunset, we visited with neighbors Lillian, Jane and Gina + John--short visits all, but certainly uplifting and very positive. The pictures include one of the flower bouquet Mary received on graduation day!

Mary ate well today without the serious difficulty that happened yesterday afternoon. Yesterday, she took her normal three Zofran during the day. But, after our long outing, she had to supplement that with Compazine because of nausea in the late afternoon and evening. That didn't happen today, and in fact, she only took 2/3rds of her daily Zofran and no Compazine. We baked the halibut purchased at the Market along with the fresh corn on the cob and matched up with a romaine gorgonzola salad. As Mary noted, we are approaching a normal menu--although she ate very small portions.

As I've noted before, these four weeks are intended to be time for Mary to heal. And, based on these first few days, its is going to be a success. Her attitude is much better, she is talking in terms of future actions and clearly has a positive outlook. Its so much improved from her outlook during the six weeks of radiation and chemo.

A shopping trip too long

Mary had a good time with MaryR yesterday. They did go to a coffee shop by name of Fleur de Cocoa in Los Gatos. Mary and I will go there from time to time because they make great sandwiches. They are much better known for the incredible selection of sweets and desserts made fresh on the premises. Last year, MaryR had a 4th cancer since her college days, and she has made it clear that "Life is short, eat dessert first" is a perfectly fine motto for someone living with the cloud of a really nasty cancer. I gather our two cancer survivors really enjoyed Fleur de Cocoa.

Mary wanted to join me on the run to Costco today, which surprised me. We have been collecting a list of Costco items ranging from San Pellegrino sparking water to dishwasher soap and many items in between. We didn't do our usual meander to check things out like we usually do--except the jewelry case, Mary really wanted to take a look. We moved smartly from section to section of interest and didn't waste any time. Mary took the walker, not because she needs it for stability because a shopping cart can do that. Rather, it has a built in chair so a couple of times she sat while I chased down a remote item.

On the way home she asked to stop again at a clothing store. She was looking for some items configured differently than normal to avoid irritating the incision area. We were successful, including really cheap prices because she sees this as temporary.

I fixed her lunch and then she took a nap. Unfortunately, it seems we over did it with the two shopping excursions. When she got up, she was not feeling well and her tummy was very upset. That lastest for a couple of hours until well after dinner and taking some additional nausea medication.

We just have to wait and see about tomorrow and our Farmers' Market and breakfast with MaryR and Ingrid.

The bottom line is that she is doing fantastic. I see it in her physical activities but more than that, I see it in her attitude, interest levels and topics of conversation. She is clearly on the mend that that is really good news.

What a difference!

Mary is clearly feeling better although not anywhere near 100%. Just to see her in the kitchen helping or fixing food for herself is great. She made herself a chicken quesadilla for lunch yesterday which is more than she has been able to do on any Saturday for the past six weeks. And she was very active preparing dinner with me last night. Clearly, having only 3 treatments this week did not knock her down as far as a 5 treatment week.

This morning I ran over to the lab to have a blood test draw for me. When I got home, Mary was sitting at her computer reading email and, more importantly, drafting a response here and there. That has not happened since this all started back in April! Her sister, Reenie, has been prodding her to get on Facebook and she has done that too.

The plan today is a coffee klatch with MaryR at our favorite place, I assume. The two Marys will work it out and I'll hear about it later. I also assume MaryR is driving because Mary says she isn't ready for driving yet.

Mary has stopped some meds (like the chemo pills) and is tapering off on others per the doctors' instructions like the nausea drugs. Her digestive system seems to be just fine and she has avoided the typical side effects when under treatment of radiation and chemo to the abdomen.

The signs are very good for her to regain a whole bunch of her strength and interests. For example, she was really lusting after the iPhone 3GS. Many of you know she has a first generation iPhone so she is very familiar with the iPhone and its Apps store. However, the first generation doesn't have the GPS chip for best location finding functionality and that is something she really wants and frequently needs. Wednesday night, after dinner, we went down to the Los Gatos Apple Store and acquired her new phone.

Yesterday, I am leading a meeting with about 20 people in the room. My phone vibrates while sitting on the table and I see its Mary calling. I said, "Excuse me, its my spouse, I'll be right back."

I left the conference room and Mary says, "The voice dialing on the iPhone works great--in fact, that is how I called you."

Expecting more news, I ask "Is anything else?"

"No, I was just testing iPhone voice dialing--it works and its cool," she replies.

I come back to the meeting and expect to keep going. My coworkers know what is going on with Mary's health so the question arrives, "Is Mary ok?"

Now what does one say? I decide the truth is probably the best.

"Well, I gave her a gift for completing radiation and chemo yesterday. It was a new iPhone she really wanted. Mary was just testing the voice dialing function and letting me know it works--and its cool."

Among the sounds of laughter I heard, "That's so cute!"

Done! The End! Fini!

28 Down, 0 to go! Radiation and Chemo are over!

Mary said at dinner she feels 'lighter' just knowing she doesn't have the radiation trip tomorrow. I do too. Given all the possible side effects, each trip to good ol'e Number 9 raised the specter that a different bad thing might start happening.

I brought flowers home tonight to commemorate the graduation. Stanford issued a certificate! And, we went to downtown Los Gatos to buy Mary's new iPhone 3GS which she has been lusting after for a while now.

We are definitely both looking forward to four weeks of just having time to get healthy and feel better!

26 Down, 2 to go!

Marge will be taking Mary to Stanford today for the second to last radiation blast. Thank you Marge! Tomorrow (Wednesday), Terry is the driver for the last, the end, the final, the "its over" visit! That is a major milestone!

Mary talked to Dr. Chang yesterday about how long it will be to get back to normal after all this radiation. His opinion is a six to eight week cycle to get to "full on" again. That is probably true but I bet she'll be feeling a whole bunch better by Wednesday next week because no one has stuffed her into a machine and nuked her with xrays for a whole seven days!

Dee, from Mary's bookclub, dropped by yesterday with the planned chicken dinner. Very, very nice! Thank you, Dee. She fixed two kinds of chicken so that I had a bit more flavor than Mary's--and pesto chicken sure does. She also fixed a wonderful pasta dish for me! Thank you! Rice, broccoli and the two wonderful kinds of chicken were a wonderful dinner! Thank you, thank you!

Mary did pretty good yesterday compared to other Mondays. I perceive her spirits are definitely up as she realizes this phase of the therapy is coming to an end. We are both looking forward to no medical intervention for four weeks and hoping her system recovers and grows healthy quickly during that time.

I have been doing some more reading about Cholangiocarcinoma, specifically on chemotherapy treatment and its efficacy. The problem, of course, is that as a non-professional I do not have access to the latest and greatest information from around the world. What I have learned is that Mary has a whole string of positives for her long-term outlook. The cancer was found early, the surgery was successful, her liver regenerated successfully and she had minimal impact from the combined radiation + chemo therapy of the past six weeks (basically nausea and that was handled with meds.) And, of course, she is Young, Active, Healthy and Thin (YAHT was the opinion of the surgeon going into this and Mary really liked this statement.

The only negative in this string (other than the damned cancer being there in the first place) is that the margins on the removed liver and other organs were not adequate leaving the likelihood the cancer remained in the body. And, this cancer does not produce markers that can be detected outside the body. CT Scans, MRIs, PET Scans, Ultrasounds and an alphabet soup of blood tests are all unable to confirm the presence of this cancer--until it gets big enough to be detected and by then its generally too late.

The decision for further chemo will be made in a month. At that time, we'll be much better informed on the type of chemo, the efficacy in stopping this cancer and the length of the therapy. I'll keep you posted!

The final stretch!

We got home from Farmers' Market and lunch with Ingrid and Mary when Mary's son Tim called and asked for a video conference. Granddaughter Charli lost her first tooth yesterday and the Tooth Fairy delivered $5.00 under her pillow last night. Talk about inflation!

From Tucson, grand daughter Charlize getting ready to show the missing tooth!

My Tooth Fairy was never that generous ($5.00). Of course, I was Charli's age in 1952 so perhaps that is the reason.

Mary is feeling very strong this weekend which is amazing to us. Strong, of course, being a relative term. As Dr. Taniguchi said last week, they are really blasting her with radiation. And, she is taking a handful of chemo pills every day too. In his words, she is "Doing great--fantastic even." You go girl!

Yesterday, Mary and I went grocery shopping at Lunardi's, then she stayed in the car when I ran into Walgreens and the dry cleaners. We've been using EZ Cleaners for 15 years at least and we love the two brothers who run the place.

Today, Mary went to market and a little different that previous experience, I parked at the far end of the market place, Mary walked through one time with no 'doubling back' like we normally do. She sat on a bench after we were done and I fetched the car and then picked her up for the short ride to the Purple Onion. Mary R arrived when we did so the two Mary's found a table while I parked the car. Worked great. That means that Mary was out and about from about 10 AM to about 1:00PM. And, this is after 25 blasts of radiation and chemo in five weeks! "Fantastic-even" is understatement!

Mary's book club friend, Dee, is planning a chicken dinner for us for Monday. Thank you Dee!

We have three drivers this week ready for the final push to finish up. Thanks to Ingrid, Marge and Terry for this last push!

We are both so looking forward to the four week break from therapy. We are hoping Mary has a good chance to build up her strength again before the next round--if there is a next round--chemo. We won't know until the end of September what the docs are recommending and how Mary will feel.

For now, "Fantastic--even" is good enough!

End of radiation, time for X-powers

OK, Mary! Time to develop your nascent psychic abilities, or cause rainstorms with a single whim, or pull the Golden Gate Bridge off its pins and re-route it to Alcatraz. None of that happening? Then how's about eating gourmet food outside on a pleasant afternoon……... It's all in what you want.

I'd personally choose the rain-creation route myself, but I am soooooo sensitive to my sprinkler costs. But it won't be a problem starting on the 24th here in Austin. They are making us go down to once-a-week sprinkling on a designated day or face a $400 fine. My green yard will crisp. I do like the sun though.

Andy the accountant did graduate yesterday, magna honors at all. I was given the privilege of waiting up for him until 2:30am to make sure he returned alive to reap advantage from his new academic position. Parents never die, they just nag away!

Love,
Milt

Three to go!

Mary finished up the radiation without severe difficulty this week. By Friday, however, she couldn't decide what she wanted for meals so I just fixed lunchtime sandwiches. Ingrid's chicken noodle soup was a big hit on Thursday. On Friday, I picked up dinner at Willow Street Pizza. Mary is doing great eating the artichoke, chicken and fusilli pasta and a romaine-gorgonzola salad. In fact, she ate the pasta leftovers for lunch today (Saturday). We have done the Willow Street takeout once or twice a month now for years so its kind of a reminder of 'normalcy' around here.

The Los Gatos restaurant has valet parking and the valet and I have struck up a conversational relationship over the past few years. This started when someone had given him some fancy HID headlights and he was trying to figure out how to put them on his car. The fact that the headlights were for a totally different car than his Honda didn't bother him at all. Wrong shape, wrong size, and wrong connector were not an issue for him.

Now, when I pull into the lot, I give him the keys, have a short chat, go get the food ordered by phone and when I return, he has reversed the car so I can make a fast getaway. He is clearly happiest when I show up in either the Jag or the Mercedes. The Humette does not light his fire in the same way.

The term HUMETTE comes from the custom plates on this magnificent vehicle. HUMETTE is supposed French for petite Hummer.

We took the dogs to the vet today for various check up items and a nice visit with Dr. Wiese. She has been looking after our dogs for a long time now and helped us with Wolfie last Valentine's Day and with Beau and his heart problems 13 years ago. She and the entire staff are great.

As for Mary, she does not have as much energy as last week but then again she has just completed five weeks of daily blasting her liver with radiation while on oral chemo. Three more treatments (Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday) and she is free of therapy and trips to Stanford until the 3rd week of September! Hooray!

Smoke from Lockheed fire in Silicon Valley

As I came home from Ingrid's studio, I saw this smoke formation from the Lockheed fire. The sky was absolutely cloud free and a perfect blue--sort of a normal day for us. When I saw the 'clouds' I thought they looked strange and then I realized it was smoke from the fire.

So here is a google map in terrain view. It shows the route from Los Gatos to the Lockheed facility. Click here. The distance, as the crow flies, is about 20 miles. And, as you can see from this terrain map, its rugged mountainous country. Here are a couple more pictures.

How did I take this picture? Well, the top was down on the convertible so I reached up above the windshield with a phone camera and took a snapshot. I was amazed to find I got a couple of pretty good ones.

24 down, 4 to go!

We arrived at Stanford on time, Mary was called in a few minutes early and popped out before I could boot up and finish my first email. Mary has four radiation sessions remaining and we are really looking forward to completing the sequence! This round of chemo stops on the same day as the last radiation treatment. Wednesday is going to be a big day!

We came home, I made sandwiches for lunch and then headed to http://www.massagerescue.com for a nice afternoon massage while Mary took her afternoon nap. Massage Rescue is Ingrid's business and if you are local and want a great massage, you can reach her through the website.

Dinner tonight was going to be our regular Thursday takeout from Willow Street Pizza. However, Ingrid gave me fresh, homemade chicken noodle soup as I left her studio so we are changing the plan. We love Ingrid's chicken noodle soup.

We've had some lovely offers. Our neighbor Riva offered to take Mary to the movies and Glenn and Michele offered a dinner out. We've taken rain checks for now and we hope Mary to be able to exercise the invitations during the 4.5 week vacation from therapy. Frankly, she cannot predict how she is going to feel four hours from now and does not want to commit to something she cannot fulfill.

Monday, Monday

Yes, its an old Mama's and Papa's song. And Mondays are the bane of this radiation and chemo process. With apologies to the Mama's and Papa's:

Monday, monday (ba-da ba-da-da-da)

So bad to me (ba-da ba-da-da-da)

Monday mornin, it was all I hoped it would be

Oh monday mornin, monday mornin couldnt guarantee (ba-da ba-da-da-da)

That monday evenin you wouldn't horribly nauseate me

Monday, monday, can't trust that day

Monday, monday, it always just turns out that way

Oh monday mornin you gave me no warnin of what was to be

Oh monday, monday, how could you create such nausea in me.

Every other day (every other day), every other day

Every other day of the week is fine, yeah

But whenever monday comes, but whenever monday comes

A-you can find me nauseous all of the time

Mary was doing fine on Sunday, enjoyed Monday morning and then we went to Stanford. First was the blood draw and that went off with no problems. Then, to the radiation department where Mary was again loaded into ol' number 9 and blasted with x-rays. She has explained to me that the machine is targeted directly on the right side, it raises up a bit and blasts again, raises some more and blasts. Again directly over her bellybutton with the fourth shot. Then one between her belly button and her left side followed by directly on her left side and finally one targeted at her back. Seven shots in all. If you use clock face locations and put noon directly over her belly button and 6 directly underneath her spine, the blasts are done at 3 (right side), 2, 1, Noon, 10:30, 9 and 6. The techies among you will get it.

From there, we met with Dr. Chang. He is looking for signs of radiation sickness and Mary's nausea is the prime symptom. However, the three nausea meds tend to keep it under control (Zofran, Compazine and Phenergan). Mary uses Zofran as prescribed while using compazine a bit more often but much less than prescribed and phenergan only as need dictates which means almost not at all. Otherwise, Mary is showing no other signs of being zapped with x-rays. Her weight is stable and her blood tests are nominal. You go girl!

Hospitals! When Mary comes in on Monday, they weigh her. She apparently gained two pounds last week. Mary then noticed that the mechanical scale used in that department was not correctly set to zero and was probably weighing 2-3 pounds heavy. The attendant said, "Oh, no problem, it really doesn't matter."

So, Dr. Chang starts with, "I see you've gained a couple of pounds." Ah, no, the scale was not zeroed correctly, the staff said it didn't matter, blah, blah, blah

After Dr. Chang on Monday was the visit with the nurse who primarily is concerned with diet. She starts with, "I see you've gained two pounds since last Monday." Ah no, blah, blah, blah.

Tuesdays are Dr. Taniguchi, the chief radiation resident. How does he start the conversation, "Oh, its impressive, you have gained a couple of pounds since last week." We explain to him including the fact that Dr. Chang, Nurse Lois and himself all commented on the weight gain although it was really an improperly set scale. I would guess by his response that the staff will now find it important to make sure the scale is properly zeroed. Why they don't have a digital scale in radiation like they do in the patient examination area upstairs is beyond me.

As for the rest of Monday, it was a really downer. Mary felt poorly, nauseous and very tired and sleepy. She did wake up about 5 PM, took compazine on top of the zofran and then we cooked our tuna from Sunday's Farmers' Market outing. We also cooked another ear of corn which we divide 2/3rds, 1/3rd and normally Mary comfortably finishes the 1/3rd portion with the rest of her meal. And we microwaved some fresh string beans--for some reason, string bean (and broccoli) are the veggies easiest to eat and digest for Mary. On Monday, she ate the corn and stopped. She then asked me to run to the store to get fresh ginger so she could make ginger tea which has been recommended by the dietary staff to assist with nausea. A few hours later she ate a bit of fruit and cheese and that was it.

Compare that to Sunday when Mary ate everything on her plate which was fresh Alaskan salmon grilled on the BBQ, corn on the cob, green beans and roasted red potatoes. Even more telling is that Mary was in the kitchen with me on Sunday helping to prepare the meal for us. On Monday, she dragged herself to her chair only after everything was prepared and in place on the table.

Dr. Taniguchi said that Mary's overall condition is "amazing, fantastic even". He said that she is getting heavy duty irradiation and she is taking it very well. And, given her only symptom is nausea and the meds tend to handle it most of the time, she is doing great.

This morning, I had a conference call at 7AM. Mary got up, fixed her own breakfast (cottage cheese, cantaloup, toast and tea) and then took her shower. However, at that point she sat down and fell asleep for over an hour until it was time to go to Stanford. Clearly, the Monday blasts had an effect into Tuesday. For dinner tonight, I picked up a chicken at Lunardi's with a baked potato. We warmed up some broccoli to go with it and Mary ate pretty reasonably. I expect tomorrow will be much better overall.

Monday's dose is the same as every other day. There is no change from day to day. Basically, its a reaction to being off of radiation and chemo for two days so Monday is a restart and it hits her pretty hard. Bummer.

Mary has six radiation and chemo days remaining. Wednesday the 19th of August is the last day. Hooray! Then she is off radiation, chemo et al for 4.5 weeks and we are hoping she can recover nicely during this time. She is hoping both Harry Potter and Julie and Julia are still in the theaters.

On Sept 21, Monday, she again meets the Oncologist, Dr. Fisher, and we then learn if Mary will do heavy duty chemo (hair falling out kind of chemo), chemo light (oral pills, no hair loss) or no chemo at all. If she does do chemo, it could be for four or six months, ending in either January or March.

A quiet Sunday evening

We had a very quiet Sunday. Mary started on the rough side but by late morning she was feeling fine so we joined Ingrid and MaryR for late breakfast, early lunch. Mary had a strawberry-banana yogurt smoothie and it went down nicely for her. Mary napped this afternoon while I delivered Ingrid's new six foot tall cat tree along with Ingrid to her place in Mountain View. Turns out she had locked herself out of her car as she joined us for lunch and fortunately, she was in the same parking lot as Mary R who then dropped her at our place. We had stopped at Williams Sonoma so Ingrid had to wait until we showed up. As for the cat tree, Ingrid bought it yesterday morning in Los Gatos on her way to work so I swung by and we stuffed it into Humette (our Honda Element) where it sat until this afternoon. We wrestled the tree up a flight of stairs, Ingrid found her spare keys, we noted the cat was now able to jump to the top of the book cases. Ingrid's afternoon project became securing her bookcases to the wall--which every Californian should do anyway for earthquake protection.

Saturday was also a quiet day. We are both just so looking forward to the end of the radiation therapy in 10 days. Given Mary is off the radiation and chemo for a month, we hope she gets back some strength, appetite and can drop the nausea medications. Mary has not lost any weight during these first four weeks of radiation which is great. She did lose weight during April, May and June but its been stable for the month of July. We are hoping that is a sign that she can recovery substantially during the month break after radiation.

Thanks to Milt for his posting on the blog. Everyone is welcome to do the same. Simply type this address into your email without the spaces lamey . pat . california @ blogger . com

Pat

Back at home in Austin

Mary and Pat,

I have followed the temperature gradients back to Austin. Too cool and wet in Albany, too hot and dry in Austin. I'll be here for about a month. Andy graduates with an accounting degree and magna cum laude this Friday. He has required graduate school for CPA coming in September. I believe he will be staying home during this period, so Nancy may avoid the empty nest. Daniel arrives as a transfer student at Texas A&M at the end of the month. U-Haul and I will be close business associates.

Our Samsung assignee at ISMI in Austin is returning home at the end of this week and his replacement arrives in Albany today. She will be working detection of non-visual defects (NVDs) and I will be completing the departing assignee's unpatterned defect-detection work at KLA. So I may stop by again when I am in the area. Yield Council and an NVD Workshop will round out the month, followed by Advisory meetings in Albany at the beginning of September.

A break from the chemo-rad appears to be coming for y'all. Good. Enjoy. Recover. Breathe.

Love,
Milt

Eight treatments to go!

Mary has five treatments next week and the final three the week after that! That feels like the light at the end of the tunnel--and we know its not a train! Mary is feeling very tired of the effect of the radiation but fortunately, the other typical side effects have not materialized and for that we are thankful.

We are both looking forward to Mary's four week break between radiation+chemo and the start of chemo the sequel. We are hoping Mary can gain a bunch of strength during that interlude. Without the radiation and chemo knocking her down daily, we hope she'll be in great shape.

With my employer shutdown this coming week, we'll have a lot of time together and we hope to get a lot of errands done. Vet visits for the dogs, service on some of the gear in the house--plumbing and what not. In other words, a pretty thorough "honeydo" kind of week!

Feeling much better

Mary woke up this AM and made breakfast for the two of us! Wow!

Now, don't get too excited, breakfast consisted of sliced cantaloupe, a piece of buttered toast, a portion of cottage cheese and hot tea. The simple fact is that most mornings it is a challenge for her to even get out of bed and come to the table to eat. So finding her at the kitchen counter cutting the cantaloupe was rather a nice surprise.

I left you hanging about Mary's difficulty in swallowing. For the moment, the doctors think she has a salivary gland stone. The facts can be found at this NIH site. Who knew we could get stones in those glands too? They are, as always, "watching it."

Ingrid is the driver today, and Pat L (not me) is the driver tomorrow. Thank you, thank you! Next week is a company shutdown week so I am the driver for all five days.

A Gating Linear Accelerator

We know Mary is assigned to good ol' LA9. We now know why. It is a "gating" linear accelerator.

What, you ask, is that? Apparently, they put a small targeting box on Mary's sternum as part of the setup each time. It magically coordinates the xrays with Mary's breathing pattern to make sure they are hitting the very specific spot they want to hit.

Mary explained that the actual radiation treatment takes only a few minutes. The xray source is mounted on a robotic arm that moves to seven positions around her abdomen. It exposes for about 30 seconds in each position. Add a few seconds to move to each position plus the 'gating' to trigger the exposure with Mary's breathing and the whole thing takes about 5 minutes or so.

The long part of the set up is getting Mary into the exact position to assure the correct part of her abdomen is being zapped. Plus, any problems with the control computer and any other problems and the whole day runs late.

As for Mary's overall condition, she is still very tired and the nausea medicine seems to be doing its job. Her mornings tend to be good, radiation is noontime and she sleeps in the afternoon after the treatment. Tonight, for example, she helped me in the kitchen making dinner. However, she was in no condition to do that on Monday or Tuesday.

Mary has 10 sessions left! Two this week, five next and three the week after. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

The video conferences march on

For Monday evening, we had a nice long video conference session with my two grandkiddies in Denver. We saw superheros, princesses and all manner of toys interesting to an almost five year old boy and a not quite three year old girl. My son has a great wireless system (he should, he is a computer programming ace) so we got a walking tour of the property, including the new swing set in the back yard and the tree swing in the front yard. We also saw Danny running as fast as he could around part of the front yard. Hey, its great TV and a lot better than what is actually on TV this time of year.

Mary had her radiation therapy a bit late on Monday. It turns out good ol' LA-9 is an X-ray linear accelerator with gating. Its the only gating LA unit they have, so Mary is chained to that particular hardware. Other patients are allowed to move to the next available machine but Mary is limited to good ol' LA-9 and hence the frequent delays.

Mary developed an irritation in her throat at dinner Sunday night. It was so uncomfortable, it interfered with her ability to eat. She mentioned it on Monday to the attending nurse. I expect the doctors will want to chase that one a bit when they see her today. Normally, she sees the attending physician on Monday and the chief radiation resident on Tuesday. The attending physician moved his appointment to Tuesday today so I don't know how long Mary will be there. I warned Marge (today's driver) so she took a book and headed to the Stanford Shopping Center--credit cards in hand, I would expect!

The weekend, overall, was really good. Monday was not. Mary went to take her 90 minute nap at 3PM and I woke her after 6pm on my way home--three hours plus because of how hard the radiation hits her. Her stomach was screaming for food so I fixed some quick dishes just to stop her empty feelings. She was tenuous the whole evening until she took the heavy duty nausea drug. It finally kicked in and settled her down but it was well after 10PM by the time that happened. I cleaned the incision area where the suture knot is causing some discomfort and drainage, used the recommended lotions and potions on her back and legs, Mary does her tummy herself, and then I dispensed her regular eye drops for glaucoma. All of that meant we were ready for sleep about 11:30PM. I thought about email and blogging but I knew I was too tired.

When Mary isn't feeling well, she cannot move easily on her own so I provide whatever she needs or asks for. It isn't hard work, but it doesn't allow me to relax because when or if she needs something, she needs it now.

Mary's sister, Reenie, sent this humor bit yesterday. We laughed until it hurt and in Mary's case, it apparently hurt quite a bit. Enjoy!

Chapstick

We had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died.

Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on the mat in our bathroom. We have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loved chapstick. LOVED it. He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. Finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and explained he could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the drawer after he finished.

That year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I am trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up. Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood.

We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally go into the bathroom. There was Eli. He was applying my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . . rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped." Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right -their little bottoms do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind. And the only question to ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth!?!

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.

Author Unknown

Sunday the 2nd

After Farmers' Market today, Mary conducted a video conference to New Zealand with her granddaughters, Madelyn and Emma. This is a picture over Mary's shoulder while Maddy is on the screen. There are different services that do this, iChat on Mac, Google has a video chat and so too, Skype. It certainly helps keep in touch when the granddaughters can show the treasures they collected while visiting a zoo in New Zealand on Sunday! There were some strange animals you don't necessarily find in our zoos!

Saturday was the funeral event for our neighbor Wendell. His wife of 57 years, Janie, and his son, George, arranged a very nice funeral service at our local funeral home and then held a catered party at Wendell and Janie's home. Wendell was 94 years old, had lived a long and happy life, and retired from the Santa Clara School district in 1972. As the minister relayed Wendell's long history, I loved the quote, "I am always ready for a party, even if its a party for just Janie and me."

His recessional was that great song by Frank Sinatra, "New York, New York" and from there we went to their home to continue the party!

Mary attended both the service and the party and I was amazed by how well she did. We came home from the service, she had a little snack because she wasn't sure about the food that would be served, took one of her nausea pills and we walked over to Wendell and Janie's. The nausea pill she took has a signature behavior for her: She is perfectly normal the first hour, acts "loopy" or "tipsy" the 2nd hour and then falls sound asleep the third through 6th, 7th or 8th hours. We spent a full two hours at the party, Mary tasted lots of the food that was served and as we walked home held onto me for dear life because the tipsy part was in full bloom. She got out of her dress up clothes, put on casual duds and crawled into bed. I didn't hear from her for a long time after that!

Today we got up a bit late because someone wasn't sleepy last night for some reason. We watched movies until 1:30AM because of her long afternoon nap. Anyway, we did make it to Farmers' Market, bought our fresh wild caught salmon but we were too late for the fresh corn because it was sold out. We picked up fruits and veggies for the week, walked to the bakery for some lemon cake--someone likes strawberry shortcake desserts, and then made it home in time for the video conference to New Zealand with Mary's two granddaughters and daughter.

We are all set for this week's driving team: Ingrid (x2), Marge, Terry and Pat L#2. Again, I wish to thank all of our drivers for their incredible contribution to the cause! Thank you, thank you.

Mary's son Daniel called today. He is on maneuvers in the desert west of Fort Bliss, El Paso Texas. That area is called New Mexico. And, for some reason, he had phone coverage today. Daniel grew up in Phoenix so he plays desert ace with the rest of the crew. Although he admits 115F in full army gear isn't quite as easy as 115F in t-shirts and shorts. When I was on the phone with him, he was interrupted by someone and responded, "Its a scorpion, no big deal as long as no one was bitten." Desert ace calms the troops again!