Back in the Chemo Saddle!

I took this picture last Monday to show what’s happened to my hair since my chemo treatment on July 22. This represents roughly 3 ½ months’ worth of growth, so once I lose it again in the next couple months, I’ll be back to here about mid-March. I must admit I’m getting a little tired of the sheared rabbit look, but it’s also true that having some hair is better than having none. In a few weeks it’s back to hats and scarves for me!

On Monday I started on the last half of my chemo journey, and am now definitely in “count-down” mode. One chemo session down, five to go. So far it looks like my ride will be a repeat of episodes from last time. I did fine for the first four days, and then yesterday had a meltdown, first with lots of tiredness (coming off the steroids that I take for one of the two chemicals I got) and then with my good old friend diarrhea. I was up most of the night, but have now stemmed the flow and am focusing on drinking lots of water and electrolyte liquids to hopefully avoid the full-fledged collapse that I got into before. I feel a bit like I’ve gotten on a bucking bronco and am just hoping to hang on til the end. I’m not looking for style points here (well, maybe not for too many), but mostly just to get to the end of the ride without falling off.

I do have some nice things to look forward to – I fly down Tuesday to Carpinteria to help celebrate my dad’s 93rd birthday. Guy & Joahnna are also flying in in his plane and Guy will take my dad and stepmom up for a birthday flight. Friday I’ll fly back through San Jose, stopping to see Guy & Joahnna for a couple days and get back home next Sunday. All I have to do is keep my system together so I can do it!

Home Again!

Just a brief note to let you all know that the Hutchisons have landed in Seattle once again. I attach a couple of pictures to document our travels—a bit of color from the back yard of the Dorset Inn in Vermont, our daughter Shana with a couple of the North Carolina State University cows from the vet school, and Shana’s two cats, who provide her (and provided us) with great company and entertainment. We had a great trip, enjoyed our visits to Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermonth and North Carolina on the east coast, and are happy to be home tucking ourselves in our own, comfy, warm bed.

I’ll be resuming the last half of my chemo treatment on Monday—two days to play!!

Back East & Loving It!

Finally, catching up! We left Seattle a week ago, catching the 4:45 Amtrak Empire Builder train heading east. The train left right on time–something which proved a novelty as the trip progressed. Our compartment was a good reminder of boat life–small, but nicely planned, so that we had comfortable seating for 3 people, upper and lower bunks to use at night, and a toilet unit that also contained a shower. Altogether very workable.

Since we left in the late afternoon, we had interesting scenery to see up until we got into the Stevens Pass area of Washington state, then it was dark. At the beginning of day 2 we were in Glacier Park, so again had wonderful scenery for about half the day. Then we got into “Big Sky” country in eastern Montana, and from then on it was mostly low hills or fairly flat. Day 3 dawned just outside of Minneapolis-St. Paul, so we had combinations of urban and rural scenery on our 3rd day. The changeover of trains in Chicago went fine, even though our train arrived an hour late. It turned out the train to D.C. also left an hour late, and ultimately arrived 3 hours late in D.C.

The least satisfactory part of the trip was the food, which we felt was just barely okay. We had the same menu to pick from for the entire trip, on two different trains. About 5 different entrees for each meal, so you could find some variation within that selection. At each meal there were 1 or 2 chef’s specials for a couple of those entrees (like a vegetarian special and a fish-of-the-day special, so that also provided some choice). The food itself was not terribly good, with breakfast being the best. And as our Empire Builder train neared Chicago, it started to run out of options, so by noon on our last day, we were down to two choices at lunch (hamburgers or chef salad) with no desserts left (on previous days there had dessert choices at both lunch and dinner). Lesson: get your desserts early.

Our late train nearly messed up our connection in D.C., but we just made the last express bus we had planned to catch, which took us to southern Maryland where our friends Art & Jeanne Myers picked us up. For the last 3 days we have been happily tucked into the generous forward cabin of their 43' trawler, enjoying the waterside activities of their marina and the surrounding areas. We’ve been treated to a festival/open house at the nearby marine museum, a parade, a potluck Canadian Thanksgiving dinner, along with explorations of some fossil cliffs and the first capitol of Maryland, a village called St. Mary’s.

Tomorrow we hit the road in a rented car, driving to Vermont over the next two days, where we will visit with two different sets of friends in Dorset and then Stowe, Vermont, before landing in Randolph, Vermont to stay with my stepbrother Gregg McCurdy. On Sunday we fly to Raleigh, NC to spend the week with daughter Shana, before returning to Seattle on Friday the 24th. We’re looking forward to some nice color in the mountains as we head north. Next posting will probably be sometime during our week in Raleigh.