Round 15

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written. It’s been busy. I have now completed Round 15 (7 months of chemo) and I’m starting to get the hang of it (I guess I’m a slow learner). Side effects are always a problem but they have settled into a groove so I know what to expect and how to deal with it.

Last week my father came up from Florida for a week. It was a nice visit. Here's a picture including my brother and neices. It was also fortunate that we have two couches so there was plenty of room for the mid-day nap for both of Dad and me!

Picture from my Garden

Hey All - just a quick blog before my next treatment. I go for Round 14 on Thursday. Side effects this week have been "as usual". So, when I have energy, I'm still puttering in the garden. I've been growing a special hybrid daisy - see picture. It's an odd variety but very photogenic!

I've also been doodling a bit with photography and am going to try to teach myself some photoshop. I've also been editting some film from Evans photography (the family biz). When I get it sorted out, maybe I'll share some. In the meantime, the weather's warm and I hope you are all enjoying it! Best, BB

Round 13

Just a quick note since it's been a while. I had chemo (Round 13) last Thursday. More importantly, I got the results of my scan. It shows no change. While I will admit I was hoping for more, Dr S pointed out that cancer's goal is to grow. So, showing no growth means that the chemo is working.

Round 13 marks my six month anniversary of being on chemo. It's still a grind but I suppose I'm getting used to it. In a couple of months, I may be given a "chemo holiday" to rest my liver (evidently chemo is hard on your liver but my levels have been stable from the start). Anyway, I thought I'd let you all know that no change is good and I'm still here. In the meantime, I am switching from short term disability to long term disability and social security disability. This means a lot of forms to fill out but I don't expect any issues. It's a little odd being out of work for so long - and I'm not sure how long it will really be. But, when I have energy, I have been doing a little gardening - see pic above from the garden. Be well! BB

Prom Night

Vicki is going to the junior prom tonight! See pic with doting father. She looks great and is very excited to go. I kidded her that her date would need to pass a test on Yankee and Giants trivia in order to take her but she said it would only serve to embarass her -so I have to trust the guy (yikes!)

As for me, I had a scan on Thursday to check on progress but I won't hear the results until next week. Perhaps even not until I go in for juicing on Thursday. In the meantime, I'm filling out forms with the insurance company and social security, applying for long term disability. I'm having the usual side effects - most annoying as usual is the fatigue and neuropathy. I had to bail on going to a bar mitzvah today because it was a long drive and I just wasn't up to it.

For those of you interested in birds - I set up our hummingbird feeder this week and instantly got a ruby-throated visiter. We've named him Arnold after Arnold Swartzenegger since he looks like a tough little hombre (and hummingbirds are notorious for vigorously defending their turf!) I also need to print a retraction for my earlier blog about the beavers in Burnham Pond. I got a close up look at them a couple of weeks ago and they are not beaver - they are muskrats. But I haven't seen them in a couple of weeks and I'm wondering if the park service trapped them. In the meantime, three swans have settled in the pond much to the consternation of the canada geese! They were fighting a lot the last couple of days but seem to have settled into a truce. In addition to them, the population seems to have gotten into a rhythm - the red-wing backbirds, barn swallows, boattail grackles and cormorants are all co-existing peacefuly!

Wishing you a great week and good weather...BB

Round 12

Went to the city yesterday for Round 12. It was a pretty routine visit other than my meds came up from the pharmacy quickly so we got to take an early train home. I also have an appointment now for my next scan (on May 7th). I’m hoping for more tumor stability which would be an indication of what we used to call “remission” when I was a kid. Now they call it a “progression-free interval”. I have come to despise chemo but when in a long fight, you gotta keep on swinging. My next treatment will mark six months of the stuff - at least the weather is warm so I'm not always freezing!

Also, here’s a link to an interesting article from the NY Times today – it quotes my oncologist extensively towards the end.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/health/policy/24cancer.html?ref=todayspaper

Puerto Rico and Round 11

After the fun of Richmond, I went for Round 11 on April 9th. This time I insisted on coming off Avastin because the fissure wasn’t getting better. So I’m now off of it. Again, it was a pretty routine treatment – just a long day in the city with a lot of waiting for an open chemo chair.

Vicki joined us since it was her birthday and she wanted an “independent day in NYC”. So, we gave her some geographic limits (from the Central Park Zoo down to 42nd between 2nd and 9th Aves and no riding the subway) and away she went. She met us back at Sloan Kettering after wearing herself out being a girl about town. And, she brought us some chocolate from the M&M store on 7th Ave!

On the off weekend, I went to Puerto Rico for 6 days. My guy friends in Morristown and I (5 of us) borrowed a beach house of another friend and had an awesome time. Rob referred to it as a frat brother vacation. Puerto Rico is a beautiful island and we had a great section of beach almost to ourselves (see photo above). We did a bunch of research on places to sightsee but the call of the ocean got the best of us! Each day, the prediction for the following day would be rain so we’d beach it and plan to sightsee the next day. But then the next day would turn out to be just as beautiful so we’d beach it again.

For you beach lovers, the temperature every day was about 85 and we had a nice ocean breeze! So, we'd swim and nap under the coconut trees pretty much all day. And, our house was just across the street from the beach so it was a short walk. In the evening, we’d go out to dinner in Dorado (the town where we stayed – about ½ hour from San Juan) or we’d go into Old San Juan for dinner and drinks. One evening, we hit a casino in one of the San Juan hotels and I even won $120 playing blackjack. It was a great getaway with the fellas!

Richmond and Round 10

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve written so I will make several entries today starting with Round 10 which was back on March 24. The chemo was pretty much routine. I didn’t see my regular onc but got a substitute. I asked him to take me off Avastin to let my fissure heal (Avastin suppresses healing) but he didn’t want to change the protocol of another doctor. So I agreed to take another dose.

On my off weekend (which is at the end of the two week cycle), our family went to Richmond to see some friends. It was the kids’ spring break so they were up for a long weekend. The kids got to see their old school chums (in fact, David had a sleepover just about every night we were there). We got together with a couple of families for dinner and I saw my former colleagues from Genworth. It was a great weekend and we even snuck in some good southern barbeque!

We got home in time to host both Passover and Easter at our house. I enjoy the holidays because they always involve good food and family time. I made a new gefilter fish recipe which my 6 year old nephews actually liked! They thought it was chicken! So that was a culinary success for us. In all, it was a very good week.