Just Summer Photos

Remember, this is not a Tom update but just me trying to post some photos of our summer.

Oh my.  Is this the third picture of
food I posted?  I never post pictures
of restaurant food. Never. I must have
been hacked. So disregard
these pictures. Don't look!

In July I left Tom home (he said he could get along without me) and went to visit my old friend Jill in Santa Fe. It was great to get away from home for a while.

Gotta have a margarita.

On the way home from the
airport we stopped at the
Range Cafe. Gotta have
some green chili.

Around the Santa Fe area.

I posted these on FaceBook so maybe you've seen these.

Jill had to work at times, so I got to drive around Santa Fe in her car (named Blue Moon, kinda like my car named Moonie.  (Yes, we are both sixty-five and have named our cars just like when we were teenagers. If your car doesn't have a name, I suggest you give it one right now. ) I discovered Iconik Coffee Roasters in my travels and that's why I had to take a photo of that delicious coffee above, which at $5.00 for 10 ounces makes Starbucks seem like a bargain.

In August, after the eclipse beach trip, Laura and I  headed to the Columbia Gorge. We had a wonderful view of the Columbia River from our hotel balcony. The Best Western Plus in Hood River offered the luxury of a pool and jacuzzi outside with views of the river.  We were delightfully surprised at the onsite Riverplace restaurant where we took meals alfresco, served by the most pleasant, friendly, adorable wait staff. After several exquisite meals there we forced ourselves to leave the hotel property go have a burger at the Deschutes Brewery, which offered good food and drink, but alas, only a partial river view.

Laura by the Oyster Shells

Tom and I have driven by the Pacific Oyster company 

for 30 years and finally last year visited their restaurant. 

Now we stop there whenever we pass by.  Yum.

Kite sailing appears to be rapidly replacing sailboarding
in Hood River. We spent hours watching people sailboard,
kite sail, and paddle board.

Laura and I visited Multnomah Falls on our way home.
Less than two weeks later some kids with fireworks started a
fire in the area which is still burning six weeks later! The falls
and the highway to Hood River were closed for weeks.

The kids met Laura and I for breakfast at Jam on Hawthorne. We had to wait
outside drinking coffee in the beautiful sunny weather for an hour. I repeat
an hour.  Poor us. Laura took this photo.  (Logan, Alli, Aaron, Amanda, me.)

After eating we visited some shops on
Hawthorne. Uh oh, I'm starting to bore
even myself.

This place had hats. Lots.

You know what this is.

So many choices.

The weather was glorious.    

Not good at selfies.

We attended quite a few Hops games this year. Here is Tom's
brother James and our nephew Patrick. 

Fireworks after the last Hops game of the season.

We were blessed to have spent time by
the ocean. Twin Rocks, Rockaway Oregon.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Alive and Kickin'

Yup, we are! Sorry it's taken me almost two months to update this, but basically things are going well.  We met with Dr. DaGraca in August and found out the chemotherapy is working at keeping the cancer stable. Tom has been tolerating the chemotherapy quite well, meaning he has not had major side effects. So he is now on a two month on, two month off chemo schedule. Yaaaay, no chemo until October.

We have been carrying on as usual, so I suppose now I can get on to my favorite part of this
blog...posting photos!

Tom with some of his treasures.

My friend Laura, came out from Massachusetts  to visit and see the eclipse. We stayed in Lincoln City and although it was hit and miss for a while, alternating between sun and fog, we did experience totality and yes it was awesome. Later in the day we wandered into town and Tom scored some treasures at the Rocking Horse Antique Mall.

We had a few days in Portland and visited the Japanese Garden which had a Kabuki display and the International Rose Test Garden. We lunched at Elephants Deli where everyone can get what they like. The girls and their guys were able to meet us for breakfast at Jam on Hawthorn and not only did we have a fun visit and excellent breakfast, but we got to wait outside for an hour before we ate, becoming part of the hip Hawthorn scene.

Attention!!! Blogger is not supported by Google anymore and I have spent hours trying to upload photos and arrange them in some order to no avail.  I will end this post and make another one of just photos and captions that you can look at if you are interested.

Laura in Rose Garden.

Logan, Alli, Aaron, Amanda and me waiting
for a table.

Of course we went to Saturday Market, which has
been going on since the 1970's.

Checking out the shops on Hawthorn

Kabuki display

Continuing Chemo

Too bad Tom can't just take Laxettes!

I have been having trouble trying to write a post lately because Google has stopped supporting their Blogger platform.  It is not available as an app anymore and I couldn't seem to get it to work on my phone or iPad. This is the platform I'm familiar with from using it in school as a classroom blog. Maybe I can use another blogging site and transfer my posts over but that will take some research.

Tom is continuing on with chemo every two weeks. He has had a few short term side effects recently but continues to feel well enough for horseshoes, trips to the beach, frisbee throwing, and caring on with his usual routine. He gets a CAT scan on July 13th and we will meet with his oncologist, Dr. DaGraca on July 19th to discuss the results and further treatment options. We are just trying to carry on and take each day as it comes.

Here are some photos of what we have been doing these last two months.

Me, Andrea, Jocelyn, Amanda

My niece Jocelyn graduated high school with honors and is off to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Her dad, Tom's brother John, died about eight years ago. Her mom, Salve, saved John's collection of tee shirts from concerts and sports games and had this quilt made for Jocelyn to take to college with her. Tom immediately cried when he saw it, remembering and missing his brother and his love of music.

Amidst a Philippine feast cooked by
Salve, was this little guy. He came
from a Chinese restaurant.

We visited Tom's sister Kathleen at the beach and
had a visitor as we watched the sun set.

We met friends on my birthday and saw a
free performance of The
Tempest: A Magical Steampunk
Adventure.
That's Tom in the red chair on the right.

Two of the numerous characters
in The Tempest. It was well done.

Same class taken on the playground last year when
they were 5th graders. <3

I went to the 6th grade graduation at Free  Orchards. I had this class last year in 5th when I retired and also in 2nd grade. I loved this class so much. One of their mom's took this photo on my phone.

At the opening Hillsboro Hops baseball game, these little "Pinkies"
as Tom and I called them, ran and jumped nonstop through
at least nine innings. The game lasted 12. Hops won!

For Tom's birthday on May 23rd we had a poker party with
the kids. Tom loves him some poker. He is really into George Herriman's Crazy Cat
right now, hense the coupon I made. On the right is my first
try at Starbucks Oatmeal Cherry bars, one of Tom's favorite treats.
Oh, and his relatives are Dutch.

This is the only photo I took
at Tom's Birthday Poker
Party.  Alli and Logan
with a noodle!

We went to Allison's and Logan's new apartment on
Mother's Day. That's Amanda on the sofa. Alli and Logan
cooked us a delicious lunch.

I have dozens of pictures, 

but I'll quite here at an even twelve ;-)

Go Figure

A few days ago when Tom was getting his two day Folfiri injection, I didn't feel well. I went back to bed with a headache and body aches, while Tom went out by himself to get a latte and some Chinese food. He didn't get nauseous, he didn't get tired, and he didn't get diarrhea like 89% of people do when on those drugs!

On Friday we went back to the injection center and a nurse watched me and gave me verbal instructions while I disconnected him.  That consisted of opening and clamping some lines attached to his port, giving one syringe of saline and one syringe of heparin.  The hardest part was getting the adhesive loose on all the bandages holding the apparatus on to the port inplanted in his chest. I asked if he might shave that small part of his chest to keep the bandage from pulling on his chest hairs but was told no because of infection concerns.

After all the bandages are loosened, a small clamp is released with one hand while the other pulls the needle out until a click is heard to insure no point is exposed.  Then everything is put into a hazard bag until we return it at the next appointment. While all this was going on, Tom concentrated on a magazine the best he could.  He does not like looking at, talking about, reading, researching, or discussing any of this.

Since then we have moved fallen branches, thrown a Frisbee, and Tom has dug some holes to put spikes in on our driveway where he can practice throwing horseshoes. He did check with me first because I just paid close to $4000 to have our whole driveway refinished, but that boy loves his horseshoes and if those holes will make him happy and give him some exercise, what the heck.

On our way to the beach a few weeks ago, we were caught between a slow moving car which pulled in front of us from a reststop, and a tailgating camper. I suggested we pull over at the next available place and let the crazies all go. We discovered this view of the Wilson River whle we chilled for a while.  

Chemotherapy

Tom will be starting a new chemo treatment this week. It's called Folfiri, but every time I hear it pronounced it sounds like Full Fury. Sounds appropriate.  The first chemo was call Folfox or 5FU which also sounds appropriate. FU

We have learned that they never repeat a chemo treatment.  Once you finish one treatment they will not repeat it but may change one of the ingredients.  I haven't figured out why yet. We met with Dr. DaGraca and looked at Tom's PET scan together, which showed that the inoperable tumor on his sacrum, which was dormant for a while, is showing molecular activity again.  The Folfiri is supposed to stop that cancer from growing and spreading.

Folfiri is made up of Fluorouracil, an antimetabolite,  which interferes with cells DNA and RNA.  It targets rapidly dividing cells, which cancer cells are, but so are hair follicles, the lining of the gastrointestinal tract and bone marrow cells. Leucovorin a "reduced folic acid" enhances the effectiveness of the Fluorouracil.   So the chemo kills the cancer cells and keeps them from reproducing but also kills many healthy fast dividing cells.  The cancer cells affected can't repair themselves, but the healthy cells can.   That's why they wait around two weeks before the next treatment.  It gives the healthy cells time to repair and rebuild. Tom had these two drugs last summer and they did get rid of the rectal tumor he had, but this time the third drug will be Irinotecan.

Irinotecan is called an antineoplastic or cytotoxic. It belongs to a class of chemotherapy drugs called plant alkaloids. Irinotecan specifically interferes with the action of topoisomerase enzymes which control the manipulation of the structure of DNA necessary for replication.  With this drug there is more of a chance that Tom will loose his hair and maybe have some digestive issues. We won't know for sure until he starts the treatment.

One difference this time is that they will train me to disconnect him at home and put everything into a hazard bag until the return for the next treatment.  He will get the Irinotecan first for a couple hours and then come home with the Fluorouracil pumping for two days until I disconnect him.

So that's what's coming up.  We will just have to wait and see how Tom responds.

I just spent too long looking for chemotherapy clip art, photos and cartoons to liven up this post. I could not find anything that I deemed appropriate at this time, so you get to see the rabbit in my yard and a flower  I saw on a recent walk.

The Long and Winding Road

Right after Tom had his PET scan we discussed whether or not he wanted to hear the results before or after Amanda's wedding on April 8. Being it was only a few days, he decided to tell the doctor to wait until after the wedding to discuss the results. I was supposed to email his oncologist with this request, but before I got around to it the phone rang and Tom picked it up. Tom went out on the deck while he spoke with doctor DaGraca. He came in and told me that the scan showed some active cancer again in the same area (it had not spread) and that we would meet with the doctor to plan more treatment.

We will meet with the doctor later this week. I'm pretty sure more chemo is on the agenda. Today Tom took that day long road trip with his long time friend, Tom B. They are headed to the coast to visit old friends and relatives. So the answer to "how is Tom feeling?" that I get often, is pretty well, from my point of view. He responds that he feels fine if I inquire but he is obviously feeling fatigued on some days and he has some neuropathy in his feet. We have been out hitting tennis balls a couple more times, had a fun wedding weekend, and he's out on a road trip today.  I just took a springtime walk through Hillsboro and am now at Insomnia Coffee doing what every single other person in this place is doing: using the free internet. Every, single, person.  Spooky, but I'm one of them.


Last Spring, when Amanda started planning the wedding and Tom was diagnosed,  she was concerned about having the wedding quickly to assure her dad's presence. We told her not to rush because we really didn't know what the future held.   A couple weeks ago she came by and practiced dancing for a few minutes with her dad. She wanted to have a father daughter dance and feel relaxed about it. BRAG ALERT: I helped choose the couples first dance song (In My Life by the Beatles) and father/daughter song (Wildflowers by Tom Petty).  Well, I gave her lists with suggestions and had Facebook friends give their suggestions also. I kind of know Amanda's taste at least as far as what she would not like.

(If you are reading this just to check on Tom, STOP right now. I'm talking about the wedding from now on. You should have stopped a paragraph ago.)


So....It really was a beautiful, happy wedding. Amanda was a nervous wreck the month before but she was serenely calm and happy on the day. The Albertina Kerr center was a beautiful setting and the volunteer servers did a great job of serving dinner, wine and cake. Albertina Kerr provides programs and services to children and adults with developmental and mental disabilities. Aaron has volunteered there and all the people there seem to know and love him.  I took photos until my battery started dying. Allison discovered I still had my GPS on and about 50 pages open. My last photo was of Amanda feeding Aaron cake.

Blogger is not letting me move the photos individually or write captions. That colorful mailbox and street number photo was originally near the top but shomehow popped down here to attach itself to the other photos.     Allison did her sister's hair and make-up in the third floor boudoir area. I helped her into her dress and put on her veil. Many other people took photos and of course the professional photographer snapped thousands. It will be fun to see other photos of the celebration. The kids did good!

A New Pet

Ibby, Tom's sister Kathleen's cat.

Not a new cute little cat or dog for us, but a new PET scan was ordered for Tom. I just wanted to get your attention with something cute, if you are still following this blog.

Tom's CEA numbers have been slowly rising. A few months back they were in the normal range <5 but blood tests have show the number to be rising. This could be a sign of the cancer getting active again and a PET scan can help pinpoint an area where this might be happening.

A carcineoembryonic antigen (CEA) test is a blood test that measures the amount of this protein in the blood. It appears mostly in the blood of people with colon and rectal cancer and sometimes pancreas, breast, lung, or ovary cancer.  Smoking, an infection, bowel disease, pancreatitis, and liver cirrhosis can also cause the CEA level to rise. It can also be refered to as a tumor marker. Tom's oncologist, Dr. DeGraca, uses it to tract the cancer. After blasting the sacrum tumor with SBRT back in the fall, his levels were low which indicated no active cancer. He felt well and had normal energy.

The PET scan (positron emission tomography will be done next week on March 29th. A PET scan uses radiation to produce 3-D, color images of the inside of the human body. Rather than just showing what the organ looks like, it can show how well it is working. The machine detects radiation that is emitted by a radiotracer which is injected into the body. A computer reconstructs the images.  CT and MRI scans can assess the size and shape of organs and tissue but they cannot assess function.

PET scans can reveal the stage of cancer, show whether the cancer has spread, indicate the effectiveness of treatment, and help doctors decide on appropriate treatment.

Tom has had low energy lately. It is sporadic though because last week we hit some tennis balls around on a court. Even though I was got tired, I waited for Tom to finally say he was getting tired before we stopped. The dark cloud of waiting to hear the results of the test is hanging over us, but right this minute Tom is making plans with his old friend, Tom, for an upcoming road trip. He sounds pretty pumped.

Looking foward to blue sky, warmer weather,
and seeing more of this beautiful country.