Halfway There!

Friday I finished up radiation session 14, which puts me both halfway through my radiation, and halfway through my entire treatment plan (since after radiation I’ll be repeating the same number and type of chemotherapy treatments I had before). I’m feeling good about being halfway through radiation and doing well so far. It’s a little discouraging to think about the rest of what’s behind the radiation, so I’m focusing on other things, like a trip back east in October on my break between radiation and resuming chemo, our Christmas plans to be in California with the family in late December, and all the other wonderful travel we’re thinking about next year.

I managed to get through last week with not much impact on my system. I had a couple of days where I took the over-the-counter Imodium after a touch of diarrhea, but in each case it resolved itself by the next day. I treated periodic episodes of gassiness with Gas-X (it works, by the way). Over the weekend, my system seemed a bit more queasy than it’s been, but I still managed to get in all my activities—rowing both Saturday and Sunday mornings, and joining our book group on Sunday evening. Plus a healthy round of yard work on Saturday. So far fatigue has not been an issue—just the somewhat unsettled bowels, and that’s still more a background than a foreground issue. I think the exercise both helps me both to focus on other things and to build reserve energy capacity for my body to deal with the impact of the radiation.

I rather expect the bowels to become more of an issue in the next couple weeks, so we’ll see how it goes. I have one of the radiation staff encouraging me to think that I might be one of the 10% of people who go through radiation without symptoms. However the same person has also encouraged me to be prepared for a sudden lurch of my system. The odds for escaping symptoms don’t seem that great to me, so I’m definitely coming down on the “be prepared” side. My hope is that the “down” time can be minimized, so I’m taking it one day at a time. At this point I am thankful for each day that I can get through without feeling miserable or being held back on what I’d like to do.

Labor Day Weekend

Guy made it up on Friday, coming by himself because Joahnna ended up needing to stay in Santa Clara. Here are a couple of pictures to prove we did it. We show the pilot pulling his Piper Commanche (which we now know was “5-2-Papa” from the way he shorthands it on the radio) out on to the field in Renton. The second shot shows the approach to the airfield at Jefferson County Airport—the airport closest to Port Townsend. Boy did that runway feel skinny as we landed, compared to the one we’d taken off from at Renton. Surprisingly, it felt much wider as we took off the next day.

As always, the flight was superb. Flying around Puget Sound is absolutely fascinating, with the many combinations of water and land. I learned that it is quite difficult to get good shots from the airplane, due to the reflection from the windows (and probably also due to lack of skill on the photographer’s part). But it was fun trying.

I also finished up my second week of radiation doing well, still. I’m experiencing the beginnings of some diarrhea tendencies, but so far am managing with a minimal amount of medication. It’s nice that I had an extra day off for my system to recover before heading into week 3. My change to a low-fiber diet seemed to help me last week, so I got through the week without any medication until Sunday, and am continuing to try to watch what I eat to minimize any symptoms.

Radiation Week One

During this last week I became acquainted with the radiation routine. This is a daily (weekdays) routine, wherein I show up at the desk, am given my admittance sheet, walk down the hall to the radiation room, and climb on to the table to lie face down with my head cradled in a spongy horseshoe open in the middle, much like a massage therapist’s table. Down come the pants to my thighs to bare my backside, then the technicians scrunch me around a bit to line up my tiny tattoo marks with the laser beams, and we’re off. The technicians disappear to the next room to get out of the path of stray beams, while the table elevates me so the radiation machine can deliver four short bursts (ranging from about 5 seconds to 9 seconds long), one each from the front and back (the two short bursts) and one from each side (the two longer bursts). Bingo – session’s over. The table lowers, I pull up my pants and hop off and I’m done for the day. This whole routine takes about 10-15 minutes. Since I live less than 15 minutes from Group Health, the whole round trip takes less than an hour, which is great.

How does that machine get all around me? By circling around me as I lie there elevated, including sending its beams from underneath through a little glass window in the table. It’s pretty amazing – I don’t get to see anything during treatment so have had them show me approximately how it works once I was through. I have now completed 5 out of 28 sessions. Radiation patients count the days, keeping focused on how much is left to go. For those in the know, I am getting 180 centigrays each day, which will add up to 5400 by the time I’m through.

For most people there are no side effects in the first week or two. I did notice an immediate impact on my bowels—not severe but noticeable and progressive over the week. On Friday I checked in with the nurse practitioner, which, after hearing about these bowel symptoms, reminded me of the low fiber diet she had recommended I go on during treatment. I had not bothered to do that, figuring I would control my symptoms with the medicine. However she got through to me when she reminded me that medications have side effects too, and I would be much kinder to my body if I did what I could to control it first with diet. Sigh.

I am now trying to convert to eating all those things we have weaned ourselves from-refined and processed foods. I am trying to avoid fresh vegetables and fruits (the latter is the one thing I’m not giving up at the height of fruit season, but I’m chewing them up really good), beans, nuts, seeds---all the things you normally want to have to help your digestive system. I regretfully drove past all the berry stands as we returned from working on the boat in Anacortes today. I also bought the first loaf of white bread I’ve had in some time—fortunately we do have some good white breads around here.

Otherwise I am feeling quite good. I have enjoyed getting back into my physical routines of rowing, yoga, workouts and walking. Collectively these have had a positive impact on my left leg, which is now nearly normal in size. My energy is good—a bit depleted by getting myself back up to speed on my exercise routines. I want to get them going as good as I can before the radiation fatigue that I’ve been advised will appear actually hits me. My hair is starting to grow longer, but is so sparse that I look like a newborn. Scarves and caps are my daily companions—it will be several weeks before I’ll want my skull to make a public appearance.

So I’m off to week two, with the radiation routine now pretty well known, anxious to see how much my diet change will help me out this week. Now pretty much caught up on things let go during the trip, I’m beginning to cast my eyes about my desk and the house for projects that I’ve been waiting to take on. And looking forward to hopefully having son Guy and his girlfriend Joahnna make another flight north next weekend to Seattle and then take us over to Port Townsend.

Home, Sweet, HOT, Home!

Passing Under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Approaching Deception Pass

Passing Under Deception Pass Bridge

We are back in Seattle, having arrived Friday afternoon to a nice hot “in the low 90’s” day. I’ve included pictures of the two notable bridges we went under this summer, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and Deception Pass Bridge, which connects Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands. Both bridges are quite high above the water, so there’s lots of clearance, but always still a moment of taking in your breath as you pass underneath.

We returned to Anacortes on Thursday about 12:30, and spent the afternoon cleaning the boat, readying it for haulout. At 11am on Friday, Tamarisk was pulled from the water to return to her winter home, high and dry, while Kae and Phil go play elsewhere. We managed to get back to Seattle in time to join our Friday night crowd for drinks and dinner in our local neighborhood. Kind of wishing we were on the boat still, taking advantage of the relative cool one achieves by sitting in a bathtub of cold seawater.

So now it’s time to sort through bills and mail, put in some groceries and get back into the swim of things. We’re just in time to catch a bit of some of the exciting Olympic competition, which we have not seen up til now.

I was able to get out rowing Saturday morning, and managed to hold my own in a double for an hour. The exercise will be good for my left leg, I think. It was talking to me a bit by the end of the row, but actually seemed to be a bit less swollen until we got into the heat of this evening. Strangely enough, I realized while driving that another piece of exercise my left foot gets around Seattle is depressing the clutch on my car. It’s been talking to me a bit while doing that too. We’ll whip it back into shape soon!

I am looking forward to spending the rest of my Sunday enjoying feeling great before starting my radiation on Monday. Except for my leg, most of my system seems to be back to normal. I recovered my taste for wine in the last week—and with it rediscovered how much wine also dehydrates me so I wake up thirsty at night. A sacrifice I will deal with. It is wonderful to know that I will recover it again after the next round of chemo. My hair is starting to fill in a bit—so it will probably recover enough during radiation that I can appear in public without a scarf (just in time to be mowed down again by the final 3 rounds of chemo). My bowels are also beginning to move normally—they’ll likely have a couple of weeks before the radiation impacts them. You can see why a full day of feeling “normal” feels like a treasure.

So now I am “at home” for the next 5-6 weeks, pinned down by daily radiation sessions. I will find out on Monday when during the day my appointment will be. After that my weekends will be my only flexible full days. I will keep you posted on how it goes. I rather expect to make it through the first week or two without too much ado. Then who knows.

Back in the San Juans - at last

It’s Friday, August 8 – Opening Day of the Olympic Summer Games. For our own games, we have doing anchor drill, and tonight we are anchored in Hunter Bay, on the east side of Lopez Island, visiting our friend Fran McDaniel, who has a wonderful house high up on a rock promontory overlooking the west end of the bay. She also has internet access, which is why you are able to look at this blog post.

Since my last post from Seattle, we spent one night in Kingston, enjoying a wonderful dinner with our friends the Godsils, at their beachside home on the north side of Appletree point. We overnighted at Everett Yacht Club the next evening, again finding ourselves there on their Wednesday night potluck, so joined in and met some new people, including the commodore of the Tacoma Yacht Club, who was also on the dock with us. Last night we anchored off Coupeville, on Whidbey Island. A charming town with lots of Victorian homes, but not much to offer boaters right near the dock. I walked a good mile or more to get to a grocery store – good for me, but not something everyone would want to do to pick up groceries.

We came through Deception Pass with an ebb tide pushing us, uneventfully, thank goodness. We’ve dropped a couple of crab pots in Hunter Bay, which usually yields a pretty good catch. So we’ll see if I can come up with my first crab of the season. We’re cooking a paella dinner to add to Fran’s fresh local produce salad, and ready for our first trip to Holly B’s bakery in the morning.

There may not be another post before I return to Seattle—we’ll see if I connect with anything between now and then. Our tentative plans are to hang out in a couple of different bays, then meet up with our friends Mark and Lou Damborg next Wednesday, when they’re up on Lopez Island. We’ll have dinner with them Wednesday and then Thursday we head back to Anacortes to clean up the boat and offload our gear. Friday morning Tamarisk comes out of the water and the boating season is over. We’ll be back in Seattle Friday evening.

I’m feeling quite good. The best I’ve been since starting treatment. No new symptoms have popped up, and I’m off the medications I’ve been taking for the diarrhea. My system is still not functioning normally, but it’s surviving without additional support. I’ve been trying to do running in place and other exercise on the boat, and my left leg even seems to be getting a little better. So I plan to enjoy this week! It’s probably going to be the best one I’ll have for awhile.

We're off to the San Juans

I was "sized up" at Group Health today, including having tiny tattoo's placed in 3 spots on my lower back (only Phil will know) to guide the radiologist. My next appearance with Group Health is on the 18th of August, for my first radiation session. So Phil and I are cleared to take off north.

We are rendezvousing in West Seattle tonight for a drink with Phil's pals, returning by ferry to Winslow this evening. We plan to stop in Kingston tomorrow, and visit Sandy & Marty Godsil for the evening. We'll stop in Everett, then Coupeville (on Whidbey Island), then on to the San Juans. So for the next couple weeks I am free of treatment. I am also going north of all the Group Health clinics, so need to stay symptom-free (at least no new ones that I don't know how to manage).

I'm feeling pretty good, actually. Day by day I get a little more energy back, and climbing those Seattle hills gets easier. I've been getting out and walking, and my left ankle is now just a little swollen, so looking much better than it did.

Probably won't have a chance to check in until much later in the week, so you all enjoy yourselves, while we make the best of the nice weather that's predicted for this week! In the 80's today!

Poulsbo - Washington's Little Norway on the Fjord

So says the Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce! We are tucked in at the dock in Poulsbo, enjoying Phil’s favorite stop from his first week of the voyage. What can be wrong with a place that has two good bookstores, lots of coffee shops, three excellent bakeries (which I make a little less use of than I used to) and a couple good restaurants, plus loads of shops for me to explore as well? Poulsbo has successfully traded on its Norwegian heritage to create a charming village that is right by the water, with other needed services (like a good grocery store, liquor store and the library) not too far away – about a half mile walk. It’s a little difficult to understand how so many tourist-oriented shops can survive in one place, and I would guess there is a fair amount of turnover. But many survive for quite a while; I recognized a shop where Shana used to love to spend hours looking at the things they had, when she was about four. Her shopping instincts developed early.

Between Olympia, when I last reported in, and here, we stopped for two days at Mayo Cove, which is one of two coves next to lovely Penrose State Park, which we’ve never been to by land. The marina store reported to be operating in the cove was deserted, but the park itself had great showers with really hot water that practically blasted you out of the shower enclosure.

I’ve been trying to get off the boat and walk a bit more, because I continue to have swelling in my left leg. Finally, my leg decided to give me the opportunity to explore yet another of Group Health’s facilities – the one in Poulsbo. On Thursday evening, after walking around town for a bit, my left ankle puffed up to about twice the size it had been maintaining. My right leg, which several weeks ago had joined in the swelling game, has been normal for a week or so. This sudden increase was somewhat alarming, so again I checked in with the consulting nurse, who connected me with the Group Health clinic in Poulsbo, where they set up an appointment for me to see a Dr. Fabert on Friday morning.

Of course on Friday morning, my ankle had returned to its usual swollen status, rather than the way it had been on Thursday, so I considered cancelling, but decided to go ahead. I had a great visit with the doctor, who turns out to be a sailor, with a 35’ boat that he currently has in Canada, waiting for vacation in a couple of weeks to go exploring in it with his 10-year old daughter, who actually enjoys being on it at the moment. After comparing notes on boats and sailing for about 10 minutes, we got to the leg. He confirmed the swelling and agreed that I should be concerned, and wanted me to get an ultrasound of it so we could eliminate a blood clot as the cause, which is the concern my doctors had indicated I should watch for if the swelling continued only in one leg. He sent me off to another clinic where another very nice doctor, himself a 20-year cancer survivor, did a very thorough examination of the leg from groin to ankle. And declared at the end “No clot!” What a relief that’s been to me. I’m cleared for walking as much as I can and will just continue to monitor it. Dr. Fabert indicated it’s quite likely that between the surgery and the rest of what I’ve been through, there’s something pressing a little on one of my blood vessels that’s restricting the flow somewhat. Hopefully not permanent—we’ll just have to see.

I feel like a hypochondriac, with a new symptom appearing every few days to replace the one that just resolved itself (the mouthsore finally began to resolve itself enough that I could get off medication about a week after it began). At a time when I’m supposed to be getting better because the chemo ought to be clearing itself out of my system bit by bit, it’s frustrating to continue to have things hit you. It was reassuring to be told that I was right to be concerned about the swelling, and to get that particular worry off my short list.

Our other adventure in Poulsbo was the wind. We anchored out the first night, intended to stay at anchor for the three nights we were here. But the wind, predicted to be 10-15, piped up to about 20, accompanied by generous amounts of rain, giving us quite a wet and bouncy row as we went in to and back from an excellent restaurant dinner on Thursday. We went to bed for an uneasy sleep, with Phil getting up periodically to check our position – because it continued to blow all night long. Then it gusted up even more, to around 25 knots, about 6 am, at which point we discovered we were dragging anchor. So up we got, pulled the anchor and motored ourselves in to the dock, where we decided to stay for the rest of the time. The wind was predicted to come down Friday morning, but instead blew all day, dying only at sunset. Which left us with the downside of being at the dock – a loud (and not very good) band that plays in a nearby restaurant until about 1:40 am, and no wind to cover up the noise. Today’s shopping will include getting the best ear plugs I can find – which may help a little.

Tonight we’re going back to the restaurant we ate at Thursday, Mor Mor’s Bistro. Cozy place with very good food. We had drinks there last night. Laundry is done. Garbage dumped. We’re ready to move on tomorrow. We’re not going far – to Eagle Harbor, on Bainbridge Island, so I can catch the ferry into town on Monday for another appointment at Group Health (this one is the set up the fields and dosage for my radiation). Our plan after that, assuming I don’t have to return to town soon, is to head north, going inside Whidbey Island, then through Desolation Pass, to kick around the San Juans for a few days before we return to Anacortes on the 14th.