1st Followup Results

Today I had my first followup appointment subsequent to completing my chemotherapy regimen. The bottom line is that things look great at this point--no signs of cancer. I will continue to have checkups every three months for at least two years and then every six months thereafter. Reoccurrence of cancer, when it does happen, is most likely during the three years following the initial occurrence. Hence, the continuing checkups.

A few additional details, if you wish to know more. I am a part of a research study that involves a new, personalized method for detecting instances of relapse. You can read about it by clicking here if you wish. The very first use of this test for me occurred post-surgery in February and yielded very positive results. Blood was drawn this morning for another test, and I should receive those results in about three weeks. Down the road, additional instances of this test will be done.

Yesterday, a full throat to pelvis CT scan was done. My oncologist reviewed those results with me this morning. Everything was good. Known issues were all stable, and nothing new appeared. Routine blood tests were done this morning too, and again, everything looks good there--counts or measures that had been low or that were being depressed are all recovering, including the depressed platelet levels that had been a bit of a problem about midway through my chemotherapy program.

You may recall that I had a deep vein thrombosis issue (blood clot in my leg) about midway through my chemotherapy. Since then I've been on a blood thinner. That will continue until I have an ultrasound examination in December. Assuming there is no further indication of problems, I'll likely be taken off the blood thinner at that point.

My medical port will stay in place until around the six months point post-chemo. That will be sometime in March of next year. At that point, assuming all other indications continue to be positive, the port can be removed.

All good news! I'll have another detailed followup in December. So, back to the lake we go!!

While we were up there the latter part of August, Travis came for a visit along with Jessica and her family. Travis and Mike replaced some damaged roof shingles for me on our smaller garage, and we took the usual family "departure photo" of everyone before they headed back home.

One evening, we had a beautiful view off our deck looking out over the lake. This picture looks mostly to the east. The setting sun in the west was casting a strong pink hue over the clouds to the east, and with the reflection on the lake, things were very colorful.

Oh, and you will remember that pie I wanted to make from the apples on our trees at the cabin. Well here it is, and yes, I did eat my slices from the outside in and usually with cheddar cheese warmed over them. Remember: Apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze.

Thanks!

 I realized after my last posting that there is something I should have said to all of you, my faithful followers and readers. That is: THANKS! Many of you have written emails to me, texted me, sent letters and cards, and have left comments. All of these to encourage me and wish me well on this cancer journey. I don't know if it is fully over yet, but I can tell you that from the bottom of my heart, I am grateful for your kind words and affection. Thank you once more.

I know that in one of my prior posts, I shared an image of the "Get Well" balloon two dear cousins sent to me along with a bouquet when I had surgery to remove the tumor in February. That balloon stayed afloat well into June, although, like me, it grew more and more wrinkled. It held onto its helium with great tenacity. Then recently, the same cousins brought me another balloon to help celebrate my having reached the end of my chemotherapy regimen. Here are my two cheerful, smiling, mylar guys!

Soon, I'll have my first follow-up set of tests, and I'll meet with my oncologist to hear what she has to say about the results. In the meantime, we are at our Wisconsin lake home enjoying the weather, working on various projects, getting out on the water. reading, and relaxing. Some of our children and grandchildren have been able to come to spend time with us here. Yay!

Two of the more significant projects I finished were getting the hot tub back into operation and completing the disassembly of a rather large electric train layout I had created here. I had started replacing the hot tub electronics the last time we were here but discovered a bad heating unit, so I ordered one, got it installed about ten days ago, and we have been enjoying late evening dips in the tub ever since.

Since my youth, I had always wanted to build a significant railroad layout. I have a very nice collection of engines, rolling stock, and scenery items, and recent retirement years allowed me to finally tackle this idea. Involvement of computers and communications technologies have also found their way into model railroading, so that was quite fun as well. Here are a few glimpses of portions of my layout:

If these pics aren't enough, here is a video I took with my cell phone strapped to the front of one of my engines. Call me a nerd if you wish! I had a lot of fun with all of this.

Nevertheless, one soon realizes that more than half the fun is in the building. The grandkids and others always enjoyed seeing the layout, but it wasn't something one could do for hours--fifteen or twenty minutes of viewing was usually enough. I enjoyed operating the layout. I could keep four and sometimes more engines and their consists running concurrently, but even that is not something one does for hours at a time. So given all of this and realizing that it would be better for me to disassemble the layout rather than to leave it for my children or my spouse to deal with when I'm gone, I decided to tear it all down. On top of that, I decided that I'd like to have the garage back for easier boat storage and safer parking of cars when we are here. So that job is now done--most things are packed up and stored away; the tables have all been disassembled.

My daughter saw what follows and says I am weird. This is a piece of watermelon I was eating recently. I told her I like to save the best part until last. I also use a spoon rather than a fork. The spoon works better for carving out the area  below the good part. By the way, I also eat pizza and pie from the outside crust into the center. These methods may not be considered proper etiquette for polite company, but I'm usually not eating these kinds of things in formal settings. Come to think of it, I'm rarely in formal settings anymore! That's just fine.

One of the next projects is to harvest all of the apples from the two small trees I planted here at the lake several years ago. They did really well this year. The variety is call Frostbite, and the apples are small and tart but nice for applesauce and other baking. Kathie is going to guide me through making a Dutch apple pie in the next couple days. I'll eat it from the outside crust edge in towards the luscious middle. 😋

100% Done! (Well, except for some follow-up from time to time.)

 Last Wednesday, I was connected to the last of my infusion treatments. Today, I disconnected from it and the pump and am now completely finished with the prescribed twelve chemotherapy infusions which began in February. It seemed like a long road at the start, but like everything related to time in my life these days, that road has been traversed and one wonders how the time passed by so quickly. We can return to the lake for longer periods now, although both Kathie and I each have one thing for which to be back home. She has a sorority reunion in October, and I have a post-chemotherapy followup/surveillance appointment in September. At that time, I'll have a complete upper body CT scan, some blood tests, and a consultation with my oncologist. Given earlier good indications and the plan to repeat some of the tests which led to those positive indications, I have no reason to believe that I'll hear anything concerning. However, cancer is one of those things that I suppose everyone wonders if or when it might return. I've been little bothered by such thoughts, am optimistic and living as I wish, and plan on just headin' on down the road of life.

Now turning to other news... (By the way, if you like, you can click on pictures in these postings to see larger versions. A separate window will open to display them.)

Granddaughter Penny recently celebrated her 11th birthday. I made a book for her of photographs collected over the years since her birth. The title is "11 Years of Penny." Here she is with that book and also with the ruby necklace she picked out when we went jewelry shopping together the morning of her birthday.

I have a second cousin, John, in Hawaii who makes beautiful guitars by hand. Each one is made from exotic woods and has interesting inlays, usually made with abalone shell. You can look at some of his work by clicking here if you wish.  I have been thinking for some time about buying one of them to keep in the family. My grandson Anders is the likely candidate to eventually have it, since he already plays guitar and string bass. So, recently I bought the guitar that John is holding and playing in these pictures. I have it now and am beginning to learn a little. The instrument is gorgeous, as is the sound. I had a guitar many years ago and managed to learn to play a bit. I think I'll enjoy trying again until it is time to pass the guitar along. John and I have also been exchanging some family history and photographs, which has been great fun. I'll be updating my genealogical records with some of this and will also include these photographs and information about John's work.

 Kathie and I were back at the lake July 30 to August 8. Flowers at our shore line were on display, and the sunset over the lake was especially beautiful (Kathie's photo).

We have been wanting to use our hot tub at the cabin, but it has needed new electronics. I replaced the circulation pump and the main control boards but discovered that the heating pump was not working. I ordered one, have it now, and will install it as soon as I get back up there this next week.

Daughter Betsy and her family came to the lake for a few days while we were there, this year without Henry, who is working at Camp Wapsie. Kathie took the kids out for a boat ride and a little fishing one evening. That is when she got the sunset photo shown above. Here she is with Frederick and more of that sunset in the background.

We rented a pontoon boat for a full day, and it turned out to be the perfect outing. The temperatures were very pleasant, there was little wind, and we enjoyed just cruising around the lake (which is very large at nearly 17,000 acres). There was also some time spent swimming off a sandy shore, and we tried a little fishing, though that was met with little success. (Pete and Clara did catch quite a few bass on other outings, though.) Here are the female and male passengers on the pontoon boat.

We stopped for lunch at one of the resorts on the lake, and I got this picture of the grandkids at the resort's "photo opportunity site."

We may or may not have concluded the outing with ice cream at another lake resort.

Every vist to our lake home concludes with a record of our being together.

My sister has a knack for finding strange gifts that she thinks I need (bless her heart). Here is an example--a fish below a bobber that is actually a bird house. See what I mean!

Speaking of my sister, Paula's grandchildren live in Sweden, so she has not been able to see them for a number of years due to the pandemic and related travel problems. However, she and Ron were able to go this summer, and the smiles below are a good indication of an increase in Paula's level of happiness. They are still there, and I'm looking forward to hear a full report on the visit when she gets home.

More later! But it won't be about infusions!

Light at the End of the Tunnel -- 91.666...% Done!

The 11th of my chemo infusions is now complete. Only one more to go on August 10th! I'll have some follow-up appointments the second week of September, which will include a full CT scan and blood tests. Given the indications up to this point, I anticipate that those results will continue to show a positive outlook. Back in February, when the chemotherapy plan was presented, the expected 24 weeks seemed like a long haul (will have actually turned out to be 27 weeks due to a couple of midterm setbacks). Now, as with so many things in my life when I wonder where the time went, I am nearly finished with the treatment. Thank goodness for modern medicine and the excellent care I have available here at The University of Iowa.

We are looking forward to spending more time at our cabin in Wisconsin. We'll be there this next week, and after the last infusion on the 10th, we intend to spend even more and longer periods of time there.

I haven't had any major woodworking projects underway recently, but I did complete making a small box which incorporates a 4" tile in its lid. I have made some of these before as gifts and have had three extra tiles around, so decided to make the last three of these before turning to other things. I'm going to use different wood for each one. This one is quarter-sawn white oak and presents a frog in its lid. The others will incorporate a butterfly and a lady bug. The boxes are nice for keepsakes or other ideas.

For my next project, I want to make one of these Civil War era folding chairs. Kathie has agreed to make the fabric seat for me. I don't have any particular plans for using the chair or for using it as a gift, but it is a project that will give me some new challenges and techniques to explore.

These chairs were popular prior to the Civil War, since they fold up nearly flat and were thus probably useful in homes for gatherings of various kinds. When the war began, officers started taking them along for use in camps, and this resulted in thousands more of them being made for such use.

That's it for now.

83.333...% of the Way!

This past Wednesday I received the 10th chemotherapy infusion of the planned twelve. This means I am 83.33% of the way to the end of this phase of my cancer treatment. Although my platelet level was down once again, no delays in the plan were introduced. This time, I did not have the Oxaliplatin infusion at the hospital. My oncologist has determined that the eight prior infusions of this drug will be enough. I did complete the 10th infusion via pump at home of the companion drug, Fluorouracil, and will have the planned remaining two of those at two and four weeks from now. Oxaliplatin is the drug that hit me with the most uncomfortable side effects and also was the probable cause of the platelet problems, so I'm really pleased to put that behind me. No more dealing with the strange sensitivity to cold and cold things, and the neuropathy that has caused some discomfort in my feet can now start to diminish, I hope. Some fatigue and sleepiness still hits me at about three and four days after each infusion, but as at least one of my grandkids has said, "Grandpa is the king of naps."

We talked with my oncologist about next steps this time as well. Following the twelfth and final infusion, I'll be free of those every other week appointments. At about one month out, a CT scan and some other tests will be done for reassessment. Assuming that this examination yields the same type of results as the tests and scans done back in February and March, the expectation is for a low probability of reoccurrence of the cancer. At that point, the medical port I currently have may also be removed. Furthermore, we will be able to return to our usual pattern of longer stays at our cabin in Wisconsin, something we have been looking forward to for quite some time.

On to other news! When we moved to our new home, we naturally wanted to personalize it and attend to a few things that needed repair or updating. We learned that furniture which worked perfectly well in one home may not work quite as well in another. Just yesterday (7/15), we reached closure on most of the changes we have been wanting to make. A new ensemble of furniture was ordered back in February for our living room. And though we did not expect to get it until this fall, it arrived just yesterday! Consisting of a sectional, new tables, and a swivel chair, the living room now looks like this:

The living room furniture we brought from our prior home was then relocated to our home theater area:

We hired a local painter to clean our back deck and screened-in porch, including some sanding and repair work, and then had him stain all of it as well as replacing the screens, which were damaged and showing age. The new color looks much nicer, we think, and the two Adirondack chairs I built for the deck now have a home. Kathie picked the "Real Teal" color for the chairs. I love the bright contrast they bring to the space.

The porch furniture we were temporarily using in the home theater now properly occupies the screened-in porch area of our back deck:

Finally, I finished a bench I made for the foot of our bed using some cherry harvested from a friend's woods.

That's all for now!

75.000...% Complete (Plus Activity Updates)

Today (7/1) at about 10:30, I'll disconnect myself from the pump and bag of Fluorouracil, and that will represent my completion of round nine (of twelve) chemotherapy treatments. The good news from this visit was that my platelet count had improved considerably, so this time I also had the Oxaliplatin at the Infusion Center. That one carries more side effect issues for me, those being the reaction to ingested cold items and some continued neuropathy. However, this may have been the last of the infusions of that drug (seven in all), leaving only three more rounds of the take-home drug. Then I'll shift into a surveillance mode with far fewer regular trips to the hospital and no more chemotherapy. Instead I'll have periodic CT scans, blood tests, and annual colonoscopies. I continue to lead a nearly normal life, enjoying my personal interests, our new home, and the occasional week at our cabin. As usual after each infusion round, I go through a couple of days of fatigue, leading me to nap quite a bit, but overall things are good and the prognosis continues to be very positive. On to more interesting things...

We traveled up to our cabin in Wisconsin to spend a week relaxing there. Not having been there for nearly a month to mow, the half of our lawn nearest the woods had turned to a meadow. Covered with hawk weed, a bit of purple clover, and white or yellow daisies, the lawn was quite pretty and we didn't have the heart to mow it right away. However, one of the easiest ways to pick up ticks is to walk in tall grass, something Tighe, our dog, is most likely to do. So after a couple days admiring the view, I did mow it all down. Got a picture or two first, though.

I spent some time trimming and weeding around the base of some of our trees too. While working there, a doe came walking by and seemed to care little that I was there. She stood still while I stood and reached in my pocket for a camera, and a few moments later, when I walked to my right to put some things away, she just slowly walked parallel to me. Only when Tighe spotted her and began to bark did she high tail it (literally) down the driveway and into the woods.

Right at the shore line with our lake, pretty purple iris grow and bloom this time of year.

Our good friends Richard and Rina came to spend about three days with us as well. I had decided late last year to disassemble the large electric train layout I had built in our garage up there. Everyone chipped in one day to help unscrew all the sections of track that made up the layout. Later, I spent time removing the electronics and wiring and began to disassemble the tables. The train items will go into storage, but I'll reuse lots of the table structure to make a couple of work benches in the garage, and then I can reclaim the space for easier storage of our boats, vehicles (when staying up there), and other equipment.

 

We all did a little fishing too, but the weather had been so hot up there (first two days we arrived in the middle 90s), that the surface temperature of the lake was at 76º. Fish were deeper and in unusual places, and so we worked pretty hard to find them. We did finally catch a few bass, though, and their tenacious fighting always makes that fun. Strictly catch and release with us! The last night we were there before returning to our home in Iowa, Kathie and I enjoyed one last cruise on the pretty lake.

Grandson Anders was participating in five days of cycling in the Milwaukee area while we were at our cabin. This was the Kwik Trip Tour of America's Dairyland event. He succeeded in winning first place overall in his age group, finishing 1st, 2nd, 1st, 4th, and 1st in the five days of racing. The 4th finish on the 4th day was called "traumatic" by his father, who said that one of Anders' teammates was ahead of him and attempting to help Anders get positioned for a sprint to the finish line when the teammate crashed. Anders had to slow considerably to avoid crashing himself and couldn't get back up to speed to overtake the others. His teammate got a pretty bad scrape, I guess. We couldn't attend any of these events, but at the rate Anders is progressing in his many races this summer, we're going to have to plan ahead so that we can watch him in person sometime.

 

Meanwhile, being back home again finds me in the shop working on various projects. I have those two Adirondack chairs to paint in the next few days (Kathie chose a color called Real Teal). I also finished up making a game called Kubb. This is a Swedish lawn game about which you can read more here. My son, Rob, first brought the game to my attention and asked me to make a set for him, which I did. He has played that one quite a bit and recently asked if I'd make another set for a friend of his. This one is fancier, and he may wish to keep it and give the first set to the friend?? This one comes with a carrying box, is made of hardwoods (oak and cherry), has a hammer for pounding in the boundary markers, and has a more ornate king and fancier playing pieces (batons and Kubbs).

That's it for now. I'll refrain from commenting (or maybe I won't) on the distressing news coming from our Supreme Court and our various elected officials, all of whom seem bent on creating public policy intended to endanger us, restrict our personal choices and rights, further harm minority groups and diverse interests, ignore the destruction of our planet and environment, and who govern by saying no instead of collaborating on solutions. I worked in information technology areas for much of my professional life, and I can't help but be disturbed by all of the unintended consequences of the use of that technology, especially for the wild and hateful spreading of disinformation.

I said I was going to refrain from commenting, but now I guess I have commented to some extent. Let me just conclude by saying that I wish the political parties, and mostly the Republican party, could return to being the kinds of parties I believe them to have been during my parents' lifetime--parties that meant to be deliberative, constructive, and collaborative. Some in the Republican party, including a certain Senator in my state, once represented that kind of thinking. Today, as he grows too old, in my opinion, to run yet again, he has become one of those who generally just says no to anything important and who seems to do just what he is told by other party leadership. Among other things, I hope you are paying attention to the hearings on the January 6th events! Be well. Do what you can to protect our failing planet Earth. Love each other and help each other. Embrace diversity. Elect individuals who want to make a true and positive difference and who are not corrupt, autocratic and interested in theocratic government.