If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it. Just over a week ago, my wife Krissy, at one time known as "The Girl with Months to Live", was dancing like a rockstar on stage in front of dozens of people. Yes, the same girl that just three months ago had massive abdominal surgery and was handed a life changing diagnosis of terminal cancer, was having a blast at the benefit auction event that our friends and family held for us at the Thirsty Parrot. How is this possible you ask? I suppose I should start at the beginning...
I'm not sure exactly when the wheels started turning on this auction idea, but by the time Kris and I came back from Oasis it was already taking shape. So many of our close friends and family were involved in the creation of this little, and soon to be quite big, shindig. With the word spreading around Facebook and email we soon had piles of donations coming in daily. Each day I was shocked to see not only who and what were donated to our cause, but also to see the bids coming in from friends, family and strangers for these items. Everything coming in was so nice I was half tempted to bid on a few things myself but I thought it would be pretty cheesy to win something from an auction being held for our benefit. Soon, the final day came and we spent an amazing evening last Friday at Thirsty Parrot (thank you very much for hosting us!) while I was continuously reminded of what incredible people we've been blessed to have in our lives.
So there we were, laughing, hugging, talking and walking about the bar and taking in the fact that this was all being done to help Krissy fight cancer. After the bidding closed and the items were cleared out, DJ Brandon Lee started pumping out the jams. Thanks to Cesa they were seriously old school too. It didn't take long for all of the girls to hit the dance floor and watched Kris dance with a big goofy grin on my face. Before I knew it, she was being coaxed on stage and introduced to the entire bar. I stepped off to the upper side of the stage and watched in wonder as my wife climbed up in front of a cheering crowd and proceeded to dance like the past three months had never happened. She looked strong, resilient, and beautiful. I hope no one looked up and saw me watching her, because I was crying like a baby. Tears of joy of course, and a host of other emotions that coursed through me too quickly to keep track of. At one point in the near past I didn't think I'd see anything like this ever happen again. I didn't know if I'd get to see Krissy sit up and enjoy a meal or hold our kids, let alone mingle at a club and dance on a stage. That girl is strength incarnate, if I can manage just a tenth of her strength and determination in this lifetime I'll count myself a lucky man.
In case you were curious, the auction was a tremendous success. So successful I think I'd have to invent new adjectives to describe just how awesome it was for Krissy and I. Perhaps "supermcfrickatastic" or "incredimazingmousness" come close to describing it. You know that scene in Spaceballs where they thought they couldn't go any faster and Darth Helmet pushes them to Ludicrous Speed? We blew way past ludicrous with this auction. With all of the generous bids and donations received we're now able to afford the next two treatments at Oasis without putting ourselves into massive debt. There are still donations coming in too, it's just amazing. I know I've said this before and I've been told we don't have to say it, but we will find a way to show just how grateful we are for all of this and say "Thank you" to everyone involved. Whether that's accomplished by Krissy coming out cancer free or us sending everyone complimentary passes to a Neil Diamond tribute concert remains to be seen. Oh, I'd never really do that second one. Probably.
Needless to say, we can now breathe a little easier. We're not out of the woods yet, and we have no idea what our costs will be in the future as Kris continues her fight, but this keeps us ahead of the game for a while. We can actually keep the few vacations we booked for our kids last year before all of this happened. We spent this weekend in Aspen at the Winter X-Games, something we'd paid for last February and were able to keep without feeling stressed. It was much needed for my family. While relaxing, it wasn't without it's adventures and mishaps, so if you're still around tomorrow I'll tell you about our weekend in the mountains.
That's it for me this evening. Now that we're home and busy as hell it's hard for me to find time for blogging, but I really enjoy writing here and will try to do it as often as I can. Kris heads back to Oasis next weekend and Cesa will be going along this time. She's been tasked as my proxy in Mexico so it'll be an interesting week of posts from Oasis while she's there. I'm also planning on taking my first art class in what seems like forever later this week. I'm sure hilarity will ensue. Until next time, g'night!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
People Are Crazy (In a Good Way)
Before I sat down to write this, I stared at a page of roughly 80 items that have been donated to the benefit auction for Krissy. I keep looking at this page in an attempt to wrap my head around the fact all these people have donated their time, effort, money and possessions for no other reason than to help my wife fight cancer. It's almost inconceivable to me. I'm a fairly proud, stubborn man that has a hard enough time asking for directions, let alone asking for help with the thousands of dollars of medical bills we're accumulating from both Western medicine and alternative treatments. Turns out I didn't have to ask. All of this came about from the goodness of your hearts and before I could blink it's snowballed into so many amazing things for our family. I hope I can say and show my thanks well enough for you all to really understand how much this means to us.
We've been home almost ten days now and I've still got Oasis on the brain. I've been dreaming about the hospital's hallways in various forms for several nights now. These dreams don't really make sense to me, and don't always resemble Oasis as I saw it, but as is the nature of dreams I just know that is where I'm walking when I sleep. I've dreamed of searching for the doctors and staff while slipping on the floor as I walked along stainless steel hallways. I've dreamed of being there with Krissy and eating at El Yogurt, then waking up hungry for chicken enchiladas. I've also dreamed of having cancer myself and arriving at Oasis as a patient only to find everyone else in my family now has cancer as well. They are all there to receive treatments and my heart breaks at seeing them in various states of the illness. I remember crying in my dream, and then elation when I realized Krissy wasn't a patient with me and that she was healed. I had taken the cancer from her and was going to have to be as strong as she was during her fight. The nurses try to give me IVs but no blood would draw until they stuck a needle roughly a foot long into my hand. Afterward I have difficulty walking because the needle is so heavy and I don't want it to break off in my vein. I never found out how this dream ended because Camryn woke me up at 3:30 in the morning wanting to be held. "I hold you Daddy" and I happily took her into my arms, still heavy with the remnants of grief from my dream. I guess I should cut back on the dried mango before bedtime.
Krissy is doing so well back at home. She has been energetic and determined as we get back to our ol' day to day lives. She is now back to work part time and doing great. I could hardly believe how wonderful is was to hear the sound of her voice over my cube wall. The office seemed empty without her presence these past few months. After ten years of working just a few feet away from her you get used to her energy always being there.
Today, Camryn followed the Lanza tradition and came home with her first pair of glasses. She's worn them for very short spurts tonight as we get her used to having them on. I have to say, she's pretty gosh damned cute in glasses. Of course as her daddy that's the only opinion I can form, so I'll let you be the judge. Behold four-eyed cuteness!
My health tip for the day comes not from Oasis doctrine, but from an article I shared with a few people several weeks back. Titled "The 7 foods experts won't eat", their #3 warning is to avoid microwave popcorn. Unfortunately this yummy, buttery snack is full of perfluorooctanoic acid and other chemicals in the lining of the bag. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer and can actually stay in your system for YEARS. Popcorn manufacturers know about this risk and will be phasing these chemicals out of their popcorn bags... by 2015. I recommend switching to stove or air popped popcorn, or even the old fashioned baskets over an open fire if you still have a real fireplace. Toss some Vege-Sal on there and it's movie night!
I only have one update from our Oasis friends and sadly it's not a good one. Sharon is still in the hospital battling the infection from her central line and will not be allowed to go home until her fevers are under control. Her doctors feel that the treatments at Oasis were not effective and have even suggested they feel there has been growth in her tumors. This may be true since she's been pumped full of Western medicine since stepping off the plane. I pray the infection is dealt with very soon so she can get home to her boys, and then return to Oasis to continue the treatments. I have complete faith she'll fight this off and get back on track.
One last note. Our hearts go out to our friend Ricki, as she lost her dog Harper last night. He was an old, sweet, and loyal friend and always a welcome sight around the office. As anyone who owns dogs knows, they are our best friends and truly family. And while this is a sad event, I'm also comforted by the thought that he's now chasing sticks like a young pup with his brother Hunter. Send your prayers out to the Stark family as they heal from this loss.
Krissy is catching up on episodes of the Hills so I might try to get to bed early. Ah, who am I kidding, if I ever got more than 5 hours of sleep I think I'd go into shock. Perhaps I'll find some Fringe or Dexter to watch before I crash. G'night!
We've been home almost ten days now and I've still got Oasis on the brain. I've been dreaming about the hospital's hallways in various forms for several nights now. These dreams don't really make sense to me, and don't always resemble Oasis as I saw it, but as is the nature of dreams I just know that is where I'm walking when I sleep. I've dreamed of searching for the doctors and staff while slipping on the floor as I walked along stainless steel hallways. I've dreamed of being there with Krissy and eating at El Yogurt, then waking up hungry for chicken enchiladas. I've also dreamed of having cancer myself and arriving at Oasis as a patient only to find everyone else in my family now has cancer as well. They are all there to receive treatments and my heart breaks at seeing them in various states of the illness. I remember crying in my dream, and then elation when I realized Krissy wasn't a patient with me and that she was healed. I had taken the cancer from her and was going to have to be as strong as she was during her fight. The nurses try to give me IVs but no blood would draw until they stuck a needle roughly a foot long into my hand. Afterward I have difficulty walking because the needle is so heavy and I don't want it to break off in my vein. I never found out how this dream ended because Camryn woke me up at 3:30 in the morning wanting to be held. "I hold you Daddy" and I happily took her into my arms, still heavy with the remnants of grief from my dream. I guess I should cut back on the dried mango before bedtime.
Krissy is doing so well back at home. She has been energetic and determined as we get back to our ol' day to day lives. She is now back to work part time and doing great. I could hardly believe how wonderful is was to hear the sound of her voice over my cube wall. The office seemed empty without her presence these past few months. After ten years of working just a few feet away from her you get used to her energy always being there.
Today, Camryn followed the Lanza tradition and came home with her first pair of glasses. She's worn them for very short spurts tonight as we get her used to having them on. I have to say, she's pretty gosh damned cute in glasses. Of course as her daddy that's the only opinion I can form, so I'll let you be the judge. Behold four-eyed cuteness!
My health tip for the day comes not from Oasis doctrine, but from an article I shared with a few people several weeks back. Titled "The 7 foods experts won't eat", their #3 warning is to avoid microwave popcorn. Unfortunately this yummy, buttery snack is full of perfluorooctanoic acid and other chemicals in the lining of the bag. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer and can actually stay in your system for YEARS. Popcorn manufacturers know about this risk and will be phasing these chemicals out of their popcorn bags... by 2015. I recommend switching to stove or air popped popcorn, or even the old fashioned baskets over an open fire if you still have a real fireplace. Toss some Vege-Sal on there and it's movie night!
I only have one update from our Oasis friends and sadly it's not a good one. Sharon is still in the hospital battling the infection from her central line and will not be allowed to go home until her fevers are under control. Her doctors feel that the treatments at Oasis were not effective and have even suggested they feel there has been growth in her tumors. This may be true since she's been pumped full of Western medicine since stepping off the plane. I pray the infection is dealt with very soon so she can get home to her boys, and then return to Oasis to continue the treatments. I have complete faith she'll fight this off and get back on track.
One last note. Our hearts go out to our friend Ricki, as she lost her dog Harper last night. He was an old, sweet, and loyal friend and always a welcome sight around the office. As anyone who owns dogs knows, they are our best friends and truly family. And while this is a sad event, I'm also comforted by the thought that he's now chasing sticks like a young pup with his brother Hunter. Send your prayers out to the Stark family as they heal from this loss.
Krissy is catching up on episodes of the Hills so I might try to get to bed early. Ah, who am I kidding, if I ever got more than 5 hours of sleep I think I'd go into shock. Perhaps I'll find some Fringe or Dexter to watch before I crash. G'night!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Darn You Eyes!
Genetics are a bitch. Just as two wrongs don't make a right, two messed up genes to not produce perfect offspring. Unfortunately for Camryn, it looks like she's inherited her parents messed up eyeballs. What does our little Bean look forward to in regards to her vision? Well let's see what's on the menu between the two of us; Krissy has nystagmus, myopia, and astigmatism while I also have really bad myopia, astigmatism, colorblindness and plugged tear ducts when I was a baby. Nearly everyone on my side of the family has very poor vision and my great grandmother's last name is actually a derivative of "blind" in Italian. Guess we had quite the reputation :) The odds on Cam ending up with 20/20 sight sure don't look very good do they? She already inherited my tear duct issues and had surgery on her left eye last August. Yesterday Krissy took Cam in for the first eye exam since the surgery and I was holding my breath as I awaited the results of her tests.
So how did she fare? Well, if the fact that my soon to be two year old will be sporting glasses very soon, I suppose not so hot! It's not really a bad thing, I had just hoped she'd be the generation that got to skip ocular issues. Thankfully it's rare for girls to inherit colorblindness. Hopefully she can avoid the embarrassment of mismatched clothing and snarky art teachers that I've had to endure. Krissy said that the glasses she fitted with are really cute and not at all the pop bottle bottoms that used to be the norm for kids when we were little. Now the real challenge is getting her to actually wear them. I'm sensing a few expensive replacement visits to the eye doctor in our future...
On the Oasis front, we're still readjusting to home life and trying to keep on their program. It's hard to consistently come up with healthy and fulfilling meals when you're cooking for yourself. I sure miss that cafeteria! But we're doing our best. I actually lost about seven pounds down there and don't plan on putting it right back with junk food. Kris is also going to get bored quickly if we don't get our menu sorted out soon.
Today was also part two of the nutritional class with Dr. McCarty. He was supposed to talk about menu options and go into more detail on the nutraceuticals that they utilize, so I'm bummed we missed out. I've emailed a few of our Oasis friends to see if they can send me the notes since I'm not sure if Krissy will see this same lecture on her next trip out.
One thing that is still screwt up is our sleeping cycles. We were only an hour behind Colorado there but combine that small adustment with the fact our kids were sleeping in two completely different enviroments for two weeks and you've got a slightly rough readjustment to being back home. Cori is trying hard to get back into school, dance and home routines and is doing a great job. For a 5th grader she sure gets piled on with the homework! Cam is having the hardest time, since she was able to sleep with her sister and grandparents during our time away. Now she's back in her own crib and not liking it at all. I've been up about every two hours the past few nights getting her back to sleep in her own room. It'd be easier to toss her in bed with us for a solid night's sleep, but that's just not healthy for any of us in the long run. She'll get back into the swing of things but until then she's keeping daddy on his toes.
I've received a lot of questions regarding my post about the nutritional class and treatments from Oasis, so I'll be putting up another one to help clarify some of the things I wrote about. Most especially nutrition and how it relates to the work they do at Oasis. I've got a ton of notes to sift through and will hopefully have something up in the next few nights.
We're just over a week away from the charity auction for Krissy down at Thirsty Parrot and I'm already astounded by the level of support she's receiving. Dana, Cess and the gang are doing an incredible job organizing and gathering donations for this thing. Some of the stuff I've seen is simply mind blowing, makes me tear up a bit just thinking about it. I expect to have a webpage listing all of items available for the silent auction in the next few days and Dana will email everyone on our contact lists. If you know anyone who might be interested please forward the info to them. As always, we're incredibly blessed and thankful for all of our friends, family and even the strangers that have reached out to help us during this time. I have no idea how we'll ever properly thank you all!
I suppose I should get to bed before the Camryn alarm goes off again. I'm a tad hungry and trying to avoid naughty food before bedtime. I think I'll snack on some dried mangoes, which are not nearly as tender as what we had down at Oasis. These are more like mango jerky. I guess that's the price we pay for living next to these beautiful mountains!
G'night!
So how did she fare? Well, if the fact that my soon to be two year old will be sporting glasses very soon, I suppose not so hot! It's not really a bad thing, I had just hoped she'd be the generation that got to skip ocular issues. Thankfully it's rare for girls to inherit colorblindness. Hopefully she can avoid the embarrassment of mismatched clothing and snarky art teachers that I've had to endure. Krissy said that the glasses she fitted with are really cute and not at all the pop bottle bottoms that used to be the norm for kids when we were little. Now the real challenge is getting her to actually wear them. I'm sensing a few expensive replacement visits to the eye doctor in our future...
On the Oasis front, we're still readjusting to home life and trying to keep on their program. It's hard to consistently come up with healthy and fulfilling meals when you're cooking for yourself. I sure miss that cafeteria! But we're doing our best. I actually lost about seven pounds down there and don't plan on putting it right back with junk food. Kris is also going to get bored quickly if we don't get our menu sorted out soon.
Today was also part two of the nutritional class with Dr. McCarty. He was supposed to talk about menu options and go into more detail on the nutraceuticals that they utilize, so I'm bummed we missed out. I've emailed a few of our Oasis friends to see if they can send me the notes since I'm not sure if Krissy will see this same lecture on her next trip out.
One thing that is still screwt up is our sleeping cycles. We were only an hour behind Colorado there but combine that small adustment with the fact our kids were sleeping in two completely different enviroments for two weeks and you've got a slightly rough readjustment to being back home. Cori is trying hard to get back into school, dance and home routines and is doing a great job. For a 5th grader she sure gets piled on with the homework! Cam is having the hardest time, since she was able to sleep with her sister and grandparents during our time away. Now she's back in her own crib and not liking it at all. I've been up about every two hours the past few nights getting her back to sleep in her own room. It'd be easier to toss her in bed with us for a solid night's sleep, but that's just not healthy for any of us in the long run. She'll get back into the swing of things but until then she's keeping daddy on his toes.
I've received a lot of questions regarding my post about the nutritional class and treatments from Oasis, so I'll be putting up another one to help clarify some of the things I wrote about. Most especially nutrition and how it relates to the work they do at Oasis. I've got a ton of notes to sift through and will hopefully have something up in the next few nights.
We're just over a week away from the charity auction for Krissy down at Thirsty Parrot and I'm already astounded by the level of support she's receiving. Dana, Cess and the gang are doing an incredible job organizing and gathering donations for this thing. Some of the stuff I've seen is simply mind blowing, makes me tear up a bit just thinking about it. I expect to have a webpage listing all of items available for the silent auction in the next few days and Dana will email everyone on our contact lists. If you know anyone who might be interested please forward the info to them. As always, we're incredibly blessed and thankful for all of our friends, family and even the strangers that have reached out to help us during this time. I have no idea how we'll ever properly thank you all!
I suppose I should get to bed before the Camryn alarm goes off again. I'm a tad hungry and trying to avoid naughty food before bedtime. I think I'll snack on some dried mangoes, which are not nearly as tender as what we had down at Oasis. These are more like mango jerky. I guess that's the price we pay for living next to these beautiful mountains!
G'night!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Thinking Thoughts
Have you ever sat back and wondered what you were doing with your life? Maybe wonder if there was a way to enjoy yourself more or find more time to spend with the kids. Yeah, I have plenty of times before too. Today ended up being a surprise opportunity to take stock of my life and the choices Krissy and I may make as she recovers from cancer.
Today I had a good talk with our friend Ricki on this very subject. She's taking a bold step and making a huge change in her life to pursue the things that will make her happy. I know that even before we learned of Krissy's cancer, I felt we spent too much time focused on the daily rat race and not enough time thinking and planning the things that are actually important to us. Now, every day is precious, and even when Krissy is cancer free I don't want to feel like we wasted a single moment.
The problem, and I'm sure you can all relate, is finding the means to break out of the daily grind and do something fulfilling. I'm not talking monetary means either. So many of the things I'd like to do for myself and my family wouldn't cost a penny, but they'd require effort, time and innovation to pull off. I'd love to start drawing again. I could probably be drawing right now instead of writing on this blog :) But sometimes the effort involved in finding the right frame of mind and the inspiration to put pencil to paper is missing. I've had this problem more often as I've gotten older and decided it's simply because I've let my right brain get lazy. Use it or lose it, and I guess I lost it. Or maybe it's sleeping and I need to wake it up. Is there a Creativity Dog for me out there somewhere?
I also can't see Krissy going to back to the same lifestyle now that she's feeling better. We both have to work of course, but I think we'll focus much less on the day to day stress that any job can cause and more on the big picture of improving our lives and spending as much quality time with our kids as possible. We haven't had the luxury of looking too far ahead lately, but I'd love for her to be able to take some classes or work on some of the business ideas she's had for so long now. She's expressed a desire to council others that are living with cancer and need an experienced ear to talk to. And just today she was offered a part time job at Dr. Jen's office. Krissy has become an inspiration to so many so quickly. I've always known she has too much fire to let it go untapped.
So, what the heck are we going to do about it? Good question. Personally, I've already begun the process of letting go of my hangups that prevent me from being proactive. Krissy is miles from where she started at the end of October and has made so many positive changes in her life already. I feel that this year will be bring many extraordinary changes and experiences to our lives. After all, I don't plan on letting a single moment go to waste.
And now to be completely hypocritical, I'm going to sit on my ass and play some Guitar Hero. Trying to finish Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups on hard is an accomplishment too, isn't it?
G'night!
Today I had a good talk with our friend Ricki on this very subject. She's taking a bold step and making a huge change in her life to pursue the things that will make her happy. I know that even before we learned of Krissy's cancer, I felt we spent too much time focused on the daily rat race and not enough time thinking and planning the things that are actually important to us. Now, every day is precious, and even when Krissy is cancer free I don't want to feel like we wasted a single moment.
The problem, and I'm sure you can all relate, is finding the means to break out of the daily grind and do something fulfilling. I'm not talking monetary means either. So many of the things I'd like to do for myself and my family wouldn't cost a penny, but they'd require effort, time and innovation to pull off. I'd love to start drawing again. I could probably be drawing right now instead of writing on this blog :) But sometimes the effort involved in finding the right frame of mind and the inspiration to put pencil to paper is missing. I've had this problem more often as I've gotten older and decided it's simply because I've let my right brain get lazy. Use it or lose it, and I guess I lost it. Or maybe it's sleeping and I need to wake it up. Is there a Creativity Dog for me out there somewhere?
I also can't see Krissy going to back to the same lifestyle now that she's feeling better. We both have to work of course, but I think we'll focus much less on the day to day stress that any job can cause and more on the big picture of improving our lives and spending as much quality time with our kids as possible. We haven't had the luxury of looking too far ahead lately, but I'd love for her to be able to take some classes or work on some of the business ideas she's had for so long now. She's expressed a desire to council others that are living with cancer and need an experienced ear to talk to. And just today she was offered a part time job at Dr. Jen's office. Krissy has become an inspiration to so many so quickly. I've always known she has too much fire to let it go untapped.
So, what the heck are we going to do about it? Good question. Personally, I've already begun the process of letting go of my hangups that prevent me from being proactive. Krissy is miles from where she started at the end of October and has made so many positive changes in her life already. I feel that this year will be bring many extraordinary changes and experiences to our lives. After all, I don't plan on letting a single moment go to waste.
And now to be completely hypocritical, I'm going to sit on my ass and play some Guitar Hero. Trying to finish Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups on hard is an accomplishment too, isn't it?
G'night!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Decompression
Day Two at Home! I'd start another suspense filled tally of our days in Colorado but I'm sure you'd all sign off when you realized the count never changes. But there will still be stories to tell, news to share and brain dumps galore to post here on BoF. If I'm sticking around, I'm taking you all with me (even kicking and screaming).
So, yes, we've been home two days already. After staying a second night at mom's house we decided to come back to our own home this morning. It's amazing how quickly you fall back into the same routines with barely a step missed. Cori is thrilled to have her room and bed back. I think I might have seen a tear of joy slip from her eyes, or maybe it was a tear of anguish now that she realized I'll be waking her up at the asscrack of dawn again. Camryn has resumed her usual post as Daddy's Girl. I missed my little shadow. Kris had another strong day that I fully expect it to continue indefinitely. She bucked up and sorted out her enormous regimen of pills and powders and broke everything down into breakfast/lunch/dinner/bedtime slots. If any of you don't know, Krissy hates taking pills, as she has the world's worst gag reflex. Watching her gulp down the fifteen or so pills this morning made me proud of my girl. She's gonna do alright!
We did receive a few tidbits of Oasis news today. Nicole emailed me with some news on her attempts to get back to Oasis. She had some lymph nodes in her neck biopsied but doesn't expect to find anything related to her brain cancer there. Tomorrow she goes in for another PET scan and hopefully she can return to Oasis in the near future. She's a sweet kid and way too young to be going through this crap. I'm praying she can start treatments asap.
We also heard from Jenny today. She and Sharon had a rough flight back to Australia but they were fortunate enough to get bumped up to business class so the ride was a little more comfortable. Sharon ended up being admitted to the hospital a few hours after they touched down. She's developed septicemia from the central line they installed in her artery. This is a bacterial infection in the blood and a pretty serious issue for someone that is already fighting cancer. More prayers to our Aussie girls that she's able to kick the infection quickly and get back to her home and family. Cancer dog is itching to wake up and start fighting!
Another surprise awaited us as we pulled into our driveway this morning. Our good neighbors James and Sherry were getting ready to walk the dog and we stopped to say hi. We haven't seen much of them lately and weren't able to get word of Krissy's cancer to them before we left for Oasis. It wasn't the most ideal of circumstances, but we got them caught up on the situation. We also found out why we haven't seen them much over the past few months. Sherry was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis last April and had been out of town receiving her own treatments during the summer. And as is common for the majority of our conversations these days, she and Krissy compared notes on doctors, diets and what paths they sought outside of Western medicine. Krissy passed on the information for her naturopath Dr. Jen and the girls are going to start having coffee together when they are home during the days. It was another of those uncanny connections we've been making with people, and more evidence that God is always working in mysterious ways.
Even though we've slipped back into the comforts of home with relative ease, I noticed some changes hitched a ride back to Colorado with us. For instance, I can't eat as much at a sitting as I could just two weeks ago. I feel full much faster and don't have the desire to eat many of my old favorites. I even lost four pounds! Krissy gained one or two. These are good changes of course, and a promising start for our new way of life. There was also another shocking change. Krissy ordered black coffee from Starbucks and there was a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in California. Coincidence? I think not!
Well, my arms are tired from rocking a 22 month old to sleep after having two weeks off. Man that kid fights sleep like no other person I've known. Well, maybe except for me. There was a slight stomach bug going around Deb's this weekend and Krissy isn't feeling so swell tonight. I'm hoping she's able to get some rest. She'll also attempt to drive tomorrow after almost three months away from the wheel. If you have any time off tomorrow might be a good day to stay home. Kidding honey! :) Ok, that's all I got, thanks for sticking around. G'night!
So, yes, we've been home two days already. After staying a second night at mom's house we decided to come back to our own home this morning. It's amazing how quickly you fall back into the same routines with barely a step missed. Cori is thrilled to have her room and bed back. I think I might have seen a tear of joy slip from her eyes, or maybe it was a tear of anguish now that she realized I'll be waking her up at the asscrack of dawn again. Camryn has resumed her usual post as Daddy's Girl. I missed my little shadow. Kris had another strong day that I fully expect it to continue indefinitely. She bucked up and sorted out her enormous regimen of pills and powders and broke everything down into breakfast/lunch/dinner/bedtime slots. If any of you don't know, Krissy hates taking pills, as she has the world's worst gag reflex. Watching her gulp down the fifteen or so pills this morning made me proud of my girl. She's gonna do alright!
We did receive a few tidbits of Oasis news today. Nicole emailed me with some news on her attempts to get back to Oasis. She had some lymph nodes in her neck biopsied but doesn't expect to find anything related to her brain cancer there. Tomorrow she goes in for another PET scan and hopefully she can return to Oasis in the near future. She's a sweet kid and way too young to be going through this crap. I'm praying she can start treatments asap.
We also heard from Jenny today. She and Sharon had a rough flight back to Australia but they were fortunate enough to get bumped up to business class so the ride was a little more comfortable. Sharon ended up being admitted to the hospital a few hours after they touched down. She's developed septicemia from the central line they installed in her artery. This is a bacterial infection in the blood and a pretty serious issue for someone that is already fighting cancer. More prayers to our Aussie girls that she's able to kick the infection quickly and get back to her home and family. Cancer dog is itching to wake up and start fighting!
Another surprise awaited us as we pulled into our driveway this morning. Our good neighbors James and Sherry were getting ready to walk the dog and we stopped to say hi. We haven't seen much of them lately and weren't able to get word of Krissy's cancer to them before we left for Oasis. It wasn't the most ideal of circumstances, but we got them caught up on the situation. We also found out why we haven't seen them much over the past few months. Sherry was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis last April and had been out of town receiving her own treatments during the summer. And as is common for the majority of our conversations these days, she and Krissy compared notes on doctors, diets and what paths they sought outside of Western medicine. Krissy passed on the information for her naturopath Dr. Jen and the girls are going to start having coffee together when they are home during the days. It was another of those uncanny connections we've been making with people, and more evidence that God is always working in mysterious ways.
Even though we've slipped back into the comforts of home with relative ease, I noticed some changes hitched a ride back to Colorado with us. For instance, I can't eat as much at a sitting as I could just two weeks ago. I feel full much faster and don't have the desire to eat many of my old favorites. I even lost four pounds! Krissy gained one or two. These are good changes of course, and a promising start for our new way of life. There was also another shocking change. Krissy ordered black coffee from Starbucks and there was a 6.5 magnitude earthquake in California. Coincidence? I think not!
Well, my arms are tired from rocking a 22 month old to sleep after having two weeks off. Man that kid fights sleep like no other person I've known. Well, maybe except for me. There was a slight stomach bug going around Deb's this weekend and Krissy isn't feeling so swell tonight. I'm hoping she's able to get some rest. She'll also attempt to drive tomorrow after almost three months away from the wheel. If you have any time off tomorrow might be a good day to stay home. Kidding honey! :) Ok, that's all I got, thanks for sticking around. G'night!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Day Twelve: Home
Home. Rarely does such a simple word conjure up a wider range of emotions. I can only think of a few others myself: love, daddy, pie. But, we are home now and I can barely describe the kaleidoscope of feelings I had during the day. It was great to step off the plane and take a deep breath of that cold crisp mountain air. It was exciting to see my brother Josh when he picked us up from the airport. And it was overwhelmingly joyous to open the door and finally hug our girls after so many days away. It was fantastic to look at Krissy today and really appreciate how healthy she looks. I'd even be so bold as to say she was radiant today. If her treatments were to end today, it would be the best $18,000 I've ever spent.
However, just because we are home doesn't mean that there aren't stories to tell from Oasis. Oh ho, far from it! I wrote a song about it, want to hear it? Here it goes. (No clue how that popped into my head just now after so many years)
If we flashback to seventeen hours ago then you would have seen our day start much too early with the nurses hooking Krissy up for the first of her four IV drips for the morning. She went through her two vitamin K and vitamin C treatments before 10:00 and we were able to clean up, pack and try to make our rounds of goodbyes before leaving at 11:00. I think we got to everyone except for Lee, seems he had a rough night and was still resting. We also didn't get to personally say goodbye to Sharon. She had a fever last night and they think the port she had placed in her artery a few days ago may be infected. She was feeling awful this morning and wasn't up for seeing anyone. We left our well wishes with Jenny and were rushed off to a waiting van and then taken to the airport.
We were accompanied on our journey across the border by Kelly and her mom Cara. I haven't written much about these two simply because we didn't see them outside of meals and they weren't overly sociable. After the van ride, I understand why. To put it simply, they are annoying. Well, at least Kelly is, Cara is much older and has a right to be crotchety. The entire ride back Kelly was asking such idiotic questions of our driver such as "Do you think if our car got smashed at the border insurance would cover it?" Or "Does anyone really buy the food these street vendors are selling?" I'm not sure, perhaps you should take a survey. The kicker came after sitting in line at the border for about thirty minutes. There were many street vendors selling religious items, most featuring Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is Mexico after all. After watching them walk by our window a few times she asks "So who is this religious lady I keep seeing? This Rosarita lady on all of the blankets, I'm seeing her a lot" I thought our driver was going to have an embolism, he turned around and gasped "THE VIRGIN!" Krissy helped him out and identified the mysterious religious lady to our clueless Kelly. The icing on the cake was when she turned to us and asked "So do you guys know who Esperanza was? I kept seeing notes about the Amigos de Esperanza at the hospital but I never saw her." As politely as she was capable, Krissy told her this means hope in Spanish and this was the ministry Bruce and Vicky belonged to. I said a silent prayer to God for strength to keep my mouth shut before I got into trouble. Thankfully we crossed the border ten minutes later and she kept busy with her cell phone.
Once we arrived at the airport we were greeted by our cousins Voni and Leisse. It was so nice for them to meet us before we headed home and we sat down for lunch at Chili's. We retold most of our tales over the first "normal" meal since we left. I ate the chicken with fries and found it's just not as tasty as it used to be and I can't eat as much anymore. This is a good thing, hopefully Oasis has helped us to make a life change in diet and both Krissy and I can continue down the right path. After we ate the girls saw us off to the security checkpoint and we made our way towards the flight home. I hope someday we can come back and stay with them in San Diego, it's an awesome town. And their company is pretty great too.
The flight home was uneventful and actually took less time than we expected. We were back in Denver by 6:20 and Josh hurried over to pick us up. We talked it up on the way home and before I knew it I had both Cori and Camryn in my arms and we were surrounded by our family again. Within minutes we fell back into the routine and Cam had me chasing her all over the house, while Cori excitedly showed me the book she's reading. Debi made us an awesome dinner of beans, chili and potatoes and I enjoyed a plate while we all talked and caught up. I don't even know how to thank Cesa, Josh, Debi and Bennie for taking care of our girls these past two weeks. It means so much to know they were in the best hands possible and had everything they needed while we were gone. Someday I'll figure out how to repay them. Maybe with a nice Rosarita blanket.
I also want to say thank you to everyone who has kept up with us through this blog over the past twelve days. I've been writing here on and off for almost two years but never felt I had anything to say that would matter to anyone but me and Krissy. I love Krissy and can't imagine a life without her, so this was one way I hoped to capture the experience for both of us no matter where the road leads. It's rewarding to know so many people came here and shared our journey over these past few weeks and posted such wonderful thoughts and prayers. I hope some of you came away with something unique from these little updates, whether it be knowledge you wouldn't have had otherwise, inspiration gained through the amazing strength and will Krissy possesses, or maybe just a few laughs. Either way, thank you for coming with us to Oasis and I hope you stick around to see what other adventures we stumble upon or what other randomness may fall out of my brain now that we're back to thinner air.
So, I'm off to cuddle with Krissy and Camryn, she had to sleep with us tonight. Tomorrow's a new day, thank you God. G'night!
However, just because we are home doesn't mean that there aren't stories to tell from Oasis. Oh ho, far from it! I wrote a song about it, want to hear it? Here it goes. (No clue how that popped into my head just now after so many years)
If we flashback to seventeen hours ago then you would have seen our day start much too early with the nurses hooking Krissy up for the first of her four IV drips for the morning. She went through her two vitamin K and vitamin C treatments before 10:00 and we were able to clean up, pack and try to make our rounds of goodbyes before leaving at 11:00. I think we got to everyone except for Lee, seems he had a rough night and was still resting. We also didn't get to personally say goodbye to Sharon. She had a fever last night and they think the port she had placed in her artery a few days ago may be infected. She was feeling awful this morning and wasn't up for seeing anyone. We left our well wishes with Jenny and were rushed off to a waiting van and then taken to the airport.
We were accompanied on our journey across the border by Kelly and her mom Cara. I haven't written much about these two simply because we didn't see them outside of meals and they weren't overly sociable. After the van ride, I understand why. To put it simply, they are annoying. Well, at least Kelly is, Cara is much older and has a right to be crotchety. The entire ride back Kelly was asking such idiotic questions of our driver such as "Do you think if our car got smashed at the border insurance would cover it?" Or "Does anyone really buy the food these street vendors are selling?" I'm not sure, perhaps you should take a survey. The kicker came after sitting in line at the border for about thirty minutes. There were many street vendors selling religious items, most featuring Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is Mexico after all. After watching them walk by our window a few times she asks "So who is this religious lady I keep seeing? This Rosarita lady on all of the blankets, I'm seeing her a lot" I thought our driver was going to have an embolism, he turned around and gasped "THE VIRGIN!" Krissy helped him out and identified the mysterious religious lady to our clueless Kelly. The icing on the cake was when she turned to us and asked "So do you guys know who Esperanza was? I kept seeing notes about the Amigos de Esperanza at the hospital but I never saw her." As politely as she was capable, Krissy told her this means hope in Spanish and this was the ministry Bruce and Vicky belonged to. I said a silent prayer to God for strength to keep my mouth shut before I got into trouble. Thankfully we crossed the border ten minutes later and she kept busy with her cell phone.
Once we arrived at the airport we were greeted by our cousins Voni and Leisse. It was so nice for them to meet us before we headed home and we sat down for lunch at Chili's. We retold most of our tales over the first "normal" meal since we left. I ate the chicken with fries and found it's just not as tasty as it used to be and I can't eat as much anymore. This is a good thing, hopefully Oasis has helped us to make a life change in diet and both Krissy and I can continue down the right path. After we ate the girls saw us off to the security checkpoint and we made our way towards the flight home. I hope someday we can come back and stay with them in San Diego, it's an awesome town. And their company is pretty great too.
The flight home was uneventful and actually took less time than we expected. We were back in Denver by 6:20 and Josh hurried over to pick us up. We talked it up on the way home and before I knew it I had both Cori and Camryn in my arms and we were surrounded by our family again. Within minutes we fell back into the routine and Cam had me chasing her all over the house, while Cori excitedly showed me the book she's reading. Debi made us an awesome dinner of beans, chili and potatoes and I enjoyed a plate while we all talked and caught up. I don't even know how to thank Cesa, Josh, Debi and Bennie for taking care of our girls these past two weeks. It means so much to know they were in the best hands possible and had everything they needed while we were gone. Someday I'll figure out how to repay them. Maybe with a nice Rosarita blanket.
I also want to say thank you to everyone who has kept up with us through this blog over the past twelve days. I've been writing here on and off for almost two years but never felt I had anything to say that would matter to anyone but me and Krissy. I love Krissy and can't imagine a life without her, so this was one way I hoped to capture the experience for both of us no matter where the road leads. It's rewarding to know so many people came here and shared our journey over these past few weeks and posted such wonderful thoughts and prayers. I hope some of you came away with something unique from these little updates, whether it be knowledge you wouldn't have had otherwise, inspiration gained through the amazing strength and will Krissy possesses, or maybe just a few laughs. Either way, thank you for coming with us to Oasis and I hope you stick around to see what other adventures we stumble upon or what other randomness may fall out of my brain now that we're back to thinner air.
So, I'm off to cuddle with Krissy and Camryn, she had to sleep with us tonight. Tomorrow's a new day, thank you God. G'night!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Day Eleven: One More Sunset
Holy crap it's already our last night here at Oasis. We are so ready to come home! I miss our kids, our bed, our house, our mountains and mashed potatoes. I can't wait to get back to all of these things and return to the routine of home. We're not done yet though, Krissy still has a very busy morning of treatments before we can leave. She'll be up at six a.m. tomorrow for two cycles of vitamin C and vitamin K. After she completes these we pack up and leave for the airport at 11:00. Yay!
Despite a busy day of therapies, we really didn't do a whole lot today. Kris was able to do her ozone therapy normally and her veins held up (thank you God) and then we holed up in the room while she sat through the last round of Perftec and more vitamin C. I caught up on episodes of Dexter during my downtime and Krissy watched Big Bang Theory with Spanish subtitles. I know, it was the pinnacle of excitement.
Due to the fact that I rambled at such great lengths about nutrition yesterday, I didn't get a chance to introduce two more acquaintances we made this week. First up is Omar and his mother Eva. He's here cleaning up the ravages of stage four colon cancer and is tired of putting up with chemo. Omar has actually done very well with chemo treatments but has had several lymph nodes turn up as suspicious and he's no longer responding to the drugs. His doctors want to step him up to the next level of toxicity to kill it off but he's made the decision to end chemo treatment and has come here to Oasis instead. He's a great guy, a lot of fun to talk with, and if you saw him on the street you'd never know what he's been through. He also owns an apparel company in California that produces athletic wear for city, high school and college teams.
I also didn't get a chance to talk about Lee, who is directly across the hall from us. Out of everyone we've met here, he probably has the most challenges to deal with and has had a long hard battle with his cancer. He has had melanoma for ten years and has been in and out of treatments for nearly that entire time. His last attempt to fight the cancer proved to be the most difficult and draining so far, and has left him in a very debilitated state. The therapy was experimental and from what he could tell me, entailed reducing his immune system to a near zero response then cloning his killer T cells and infusing them back to help kickstart the cancer fighting in his body. The risk was that he had nearly no immune system remaining to protect his body and his cancer actually became much worse after the treatment ended. It has now metastasized to his brain, stomach, lymph nodes and several external skin lesions. He is retaining massive amounts of fluid and had to have it drained, and is now too weak and nauseated to get around on his own. As such, he's been limited to spending all of his time in bed and is starving for some human interaction. We managed to pop into his room yesterday for a quick chat, and tonight we arranged to bring him downstairs for the sing-a-long with Bruce and Vicky. It was tough for him but he was able to enjoy some time out of the room with the rest of us. Afterward I spent about an hour and a half talking in his room and trying to wrap my head around everything he's gone through. I've come away with even more appreciation for the healing process here at Oasis and call for prayer to progress his recovery even faster. If anyone in this hospital needs the extra faith and support, it's Lee. God bless you brother.
On a lighter note, I was informed at lunch that since Krissy will have a new companion for her next trip Sharon would be voting her sister off the island and bringing me as her companion instead. Apparently I've done an adequate job helping Krissy during her stay and Sharon wishes to contract my services for her next visit to Mexico. I have no idea if I'll be getting a day rate or just room and board for this. I'm also not sure if Jenny is hurt or relieved by this turn of events. Of course, this was all just a big joke and another example of how our lunchtime conversations quickly spiral into the ridiculous. I'm going to miss laughing and hanging out with our Aussie friends.
Since this is probably my last night at Oasis, I joined Sharon, Jenny, Omar, Marilyn and Joy on a trip down to a little coffee shop on the beach to watch the sunset. Krissy's vitamin C treatments left her feeling pretty icky so she decided to rest in the room. The girls have found a nice place called Lat 32 for coffee and great views of the ocean. I ordered a hot chocolate and we all talked and watched another gorgeous sunset. It's amazing how fast the sun sinks below the horizon, almost like it's being swallowed by the ocean right before our eyes. Whether I come back or not, I'm grateful to have experienced as much as I have here at Oasis with our new friends.
I mentioned the sing-a-long earlier, and this was the final highlight of the evening. I think nearly everyone who was able joined Bruce and Vicky for some lighthearted singing in the cafeteria. Bruce even donned a bandanna and ponytails for a fantastic Willy Nelson impression. Let me tell you, that guy can belt out the tunes. Vicky is no slouch on the guitar either!
It's pretty late and I think this is the end of a fulfilling final day for me. While we will be going home tomorrow, this is far from the end of road for Krissy's healing and in some respects is really just the beginning of her journey. She'll be back on February 7th for her next six day stint. She has four weeks of dietary and nutraceutical support between now and then to continue her healing and we're praying for drastic reductions in her cancer by then. We've been told to expect very positive results from these therapies and I believe they are right. Krissy is an ass kicker and I fully expect her to kick the ass of this cancer until it's ass is completely gone. Until then we'll keep praying and healing, day by day. Now we just cross our fingers we don't get held up at the border before our flight! G'night!
Despite a busy day of therapies, we really didn't do a whole lot today. Kris was able to do her ozone therapy normally and her veins held up (thank you God) and then we holed up in the room while she sat through the last round of Perftec and more vitamin C. I caught up on episodes of Dexter during my downtime and Krissy watched Big Bang Theory with Spanish subtitles. I know, it was the pinnacle of excitement.
Due to the fact that I rambled at such great lengths about nutrition yesterday, I didn't get a chance to introduce two more acquaintances we made this week. First up is Omar and his mother Eva. He's here cleaning up the ravages of stage four colon cancer and is tired of putting up with chemo. Omar has actually done very well with chemo treatments but has had several lymph nodes turn up as suspicious and he's no longer responding to the drugs. His doctors want to step him up to the next level of toxicity to kill it off but he's made the decision to end chemo treatment and has come here to Oasis instead. He's a great guy, a lot of fun to talk with, and if you saw him on the street you'd never know what he's been through. He also owns an apparel company in California that produces athletic wear for city, high school and college teams.
I also didn't get a chance to talk about Lee, who is directly across the hall from us. Out of everyone we've met here, he probably has the most challenges to deal with and has had a long hard battle with his cancer. He has had melanoma for ten years and has been in and out of treatments for nearly that entire time. His last attempt to fight the cancer proved to be the most difficult and draining so far, and has left him in a very debilitated state. The therapy was experimental and from what he could tell me, entailed reducing his immune system to a near zero response then cloning his killer T cells and infusing them back to help kickstart the cancer fighting in his body. The risk was that he had nearly no immune system remaining to protect his body and his cancer actually became much worse after the treatment ended. It has now metastasized to his brain, stomach, lymph nodes and several external skin lesions. He is retaining massive amounts of fluid and had to have it drained, and is now too weak and nauseated to get around on his own. As such, he's been limited to spending all of his time in bed and is starving for some human interaction. We managed to pop into his room yesterday for a quick chat, and tonight we arranged to bring him downstairs for the sing-a-long with Bruce and Vicky. It was tough for him but he was able to enjoy some time out of the room with the rest of us. Afterward I spent about an hour and a half talking in his room and trying to wrap my head around everything he's gone through. I've come away with even more appreciation for the healing process here at Oasis and call for prayer to progress his recovery even faster. If anyone in this hospital needs the extra faith and support, it's Lee. God bless you brother.
On a lighter note, I was informed at lunch that since Krissy will have a new companion for her next trip Sharon would be voting her sister off the island and bringing me as her companion instead. Apparently I've done an adequate job helping Krissy during her stay and Sharon wishes to contract my services for her next visit to Mexico. I have no idea if I'll be getting a day rate or just room and board for this. I'm also not sure if Jenny is hurt or relieved by this turn of events. Of course, this was all just a big joke and another example of how our lunchtime conversations quickly spiral into the ridiculous. I'm going to miss laughing and hanging out with our Aussie friends.
Since this is probably my last night at Oasis, I joined Sharon, Jenny, Omar, Marilyn and Joy on a trip down to a little coffee shop on the beach to watch the sunset. Krissy's vitamin C treatments left her feeling pretty icky so she decided to rest in the room. The girls have found a nice place called Lat 32 for coffee and great views of the ocean. I ordered a hot chocolate and we all talked and watched another gorgeous sunset. It's amazing how fast the sun sinks below the horizon, almost like it's being swallowed by the ocean right before our eyes. Whether I come back or not, I'm grateful to have experienced as much as I have here at Oasis with our new friends.
I mentioned the sing-a-long earlier, and this was the final highlight of the evening. I think nearly everyone who was able joined Bruce and Vicky for some lighthearted singing in the cafeteria. Bruce even donned a bandanna and ponytails for a fantastic Willy Nelson impression. Let me tell you, that guy can belt out the tunes. Vicky is no slouch on the guitar either!
It's pretty late and I think this is the end of a fulfilling final day for me. While we will be going home tomorrow, this is far from the end of road for Krissy's healing and in some respects is really just the beginning of her journey. She'll be back on February 7th for her next six day stint. She has four weeks of dietary and nutraceutical support between now and then to continue her healing and we're praying for drastic reductions in her cancer by then. We've been told to expect very positive results from these therapies and I believe they are right. Krissy is an ass kicker and I fully expect her to kick the ass of this cancer until it's ass is completely gone. Until then we'll keep praying and healing, day by day. Now we just cross our fingers we don't get held up at the border before our flight! G'night!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Day Ten: I Made a Chart
I feel dirty. I love Dr. Pepper and that makes me feel like a naughty boy. At least, now it does after today's nutritional lecture. Many of you have so nicely commented that I should write a book someday. I think I could write a couple dozen with the H-Bomb of knowledge that was dropped on my head this morning and the events that occurred afterward. And while I'm sure 3.7 of you would find it simply fascinating, I'm only going to ask the rest of you to suffer through the Cliff's Notes version today. Deal? Ok great.
To begin, I'd like you get familiar with this handy chart I created. Go ahead, take a look, I'll wait.
Ok, so this graph represents couple of different things that we learned today. The vertical value can represent any number of things: animal protein consumed, money spent on healthcare, amount of fat in the diet, etc. The basic gist is that in America, our lifestyle and diet is very unhealthy and we develop and die from cancers of the colon, breast, prostate, ovary and pancreas much more than any other country on the planet. Other countries, whether it be due to cultural preference or poor economic status, have diets low in meat and enriched grains while high in vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Makes sense, but what does this have to do with cancer? Well let me tell you!
Animal protein has a growth effect on the human body. This is why we need it from milk when we're babies and why you don't see any vegan bodybuilders. However, we don't really need it so frequently, or even at all as adults. Eating any animal protein causes the body to produce IGF-1 which is our natural growth hormone. It tells your body to start cranking out new cells and inhibits the natural functions that allow old cells to die off and be replaced. This is bad, because as adults we don't really need to grow any more and as a cell gets older it has a much greater chance at mutating when it divides. Mutated cells that replicate and don't die are called cancer. Keep the process going long enough, add in some other factors like a suppressed immune system from a crappy lifestyle and soon enough you've developed a tumor. It's just that easy!
So why don't we all have cancer? Well, we kinda do. According to research, every single one of us will develop cancer 8-10 times during our lifetime. The main difference is that for most of us our immune system will destroy the cancer before it becomes a problem.
During today's lecture, Dr. McCarty showed us what the absolutely ideal diet should consist of. Whole fruits and veggies, beans, whole grains and pasta. Foods that have not been enriched, like white bread or rice. These should be enjoyed with a few cups of coffee each day and rounded out with 1-2 glasses of wine or beer. That's pretty much it, and seems pretty inline with what common sense tells you after taking a hard look at our over indulgent American diet. So why is coffee good for you? Caffeine inhibits adenosine, a molecule that cancer cells use to turn your immune system off. Pretty cool huh? Also, and these are rough, but you should avoid milk, even non-fat, protein powders, hamburgers and any foods high on the glycemic index that will cause your insulin to spike. Insulin multiplies the effects of hormones in your system and insulin spikes cause a blood sugar crash, making you hungry more quickly. And lastly, cooking any kind of meat causes the creatine inside it become a powerful carcinogen called heterocyclic amines that are capable of causing all kinds of cancer.
Pretty grim stuff, yes? Sounds like our only hope is to become vegans and let the cows and chickens have their own island nation so they can live happily ever after. Of course back here in Realityville, we like to eat cows and chickens and have a bowl of Cap'n Crunch in the morning. Those of us that need to make a change are going to cut some of these things out completely and eat the rest in moderation. This is what Krissy will do. Some changes will hurt. I'm gonna miss my puffy Cheetos and Spaghetti-O's and my kids will eat more oatmeal and drink less pop, but otherwise you can eat pretty well and not have to wolf down meat at every meal.
There are a ton of other details I'm glossing over from today but you can see the exact same presentation we received today at Oasis's research page. Minus Dr. McCarty talking of course. I think it's important for everyone to step back and think about how they eat and live, and decide what is most important to their happiness and well being.
Wow, that was a lot of words, and I haven't even told you about the rest of our day. If you're up for an extra long post tonight then I'll keep going. Ok, here goes. After the lecture we joined a large group of this week's new arrivals and headed down to El Yogurt for lunch. Afterward we had a quick and encouraging meeting with Dr. Cecenas, followed by the bill for three month's worth of Krissy's nutraceuticals totaling just over $2200. These include laetrile injections that I'll have to give to her three times a week. Then our phone rang and it was Bruce, asking if we'd like a ride down to the beach and if he could take our picture for a DVD they are putting together. We haven't had a chance to see the sun set over the ocean yet, so we agreed. We were greeted downstairs by their friend Carlos, who is also a minister and provides literacy classes for the underprivileged children in a poorer neighborhood not far from here. He raises money for these projects by taking folks from the hospital down to the beach by pedi taxi, basically a cart he pulls on his bicycle. It was a lot of fun, we rode down to an overlook by a small lighthouse on the beach and watched a stunning sun set into the horizon, casting hues that even my colorblind eyes could appreciate. Bruce snapped a few pictures of us and we were carted back to the hospital for dinner. I tipped Carlos with everything I had in my wallet and wished him well, and Krissy has plans to visit the children he helps on her next trip down here.
During dinner I helped Brian bring trays of food up to their room since Michelle was still receiving her treatments and couldn't get out of bed. While there I noticed he was reading George R.R. Martin and is a fellow fantasy/sci-fi and comic book fan. I divulged my geeky passions for such things and left them to enjoy their meal. Funny the things you learn about people by accident! We wrapped up the evening at a healing session with Bruce and Vicky in the chapel. We attended this last week and only Krissy and I showed up. Tonight there were about twelve of us. It was probably the most beautiful and enriching hour I've spent here at Oasis. Everyone here for treatment was anointed and then prayed over by Bruce, Vicky and their companion. I think we spent the entire time in tears of joy and thanks. By the end, each person in the room had a bond with one another that didn't exist before, and I'm once again so thankful to have had Bruce and Vicky in our lives. Some people are good people, but these two radiate goodness and spread it to everyone they touch.
Well I think I'm about spent for the evening, that was much more than I had originally planned to type. For those of you still reading, you will receive a commemorative Lanza Star of Spiffyness for your efforts. You will only need to send in three proofs of purchase along with $2.74 for shipping & handling and this fine badge of honor can be yours! G'night!
To begin, I'd like you get familiar with this handy chart I created. Go ahead, take a look, I'll wait.
Ok, so this graph represents couple of different things that we learned today. The vertical value can represent any number of things: animal protein consumed, money spent on healthcare, amount of fat in the diet, etc. The basic gist is that in America, our lifestyle and diet is very unhealthy and we develop and die from cancers of the colon, breast, prostate, ovary and pancreas much more than any other country on the planet. Other countries, whether it be due to cultural preference or poor economic status, have diets low in meat and enriched grains while high in vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Makes sense, but what does this have to do with cancer? Well let me tell you!Animal protein has a growth effect on the human body. This is why we need it from milk when we're babies and why you don't see any vegan bodybuilders. However, we don't really need it so frequently, or even at all as adults. Eating any animal protein causes the body to produce IGF-1 which is our natural growth hormone. It tells your body to start cranking out new cells and inhibits the natural functions that allow old cells to die off and be replaced. This is bad, because as adults we don't really need to grow any more and as a cell gets older it has a much greater chance at mutating when it divides. Mutated cells that replicate and don't die are called cancer. Keep the process going long enough, add in some other factors like a suppressed immune system from a crappy lifestyle and soon enough you've developed a tumor. It's just that easy!
So why don't we all have cancer? Well, we kinda do. According to research, every single one of us will develop cancer 8-10 times during our lifetime. The main difference is that for most of us our immune system will destroy the cancer before it becomes a problem.
During today's lecture, Dr. McCarty showed us what the absolutely ideal diet should consist of. Whole fruits and veggies, beans, whole grains and pasta. Foods that have not been enriched, like white bread or rice. These should be enjoyed with a few cups of coffee each day and rounded out with 1-2 glasses of wine or beer. That's pretty much it, and seems pretty inline with what common sense tells you after taking a hard look at our over indulgent American diet. So why is coffee good for you? Caffeine inhibits adenosine, a molecule that cancer cells use to turn your immune system off. Pretty cool huh? Also, and these are rough, but you should avoid milk, even non-fat, protein powders, hamburgers and any foods high on the glycemic index that will cause your insulin to spike. Insulin multiplies the effects of hormones in your system and insulin spikes cause a blood sugar crash, making you hungry more quickly. And lastly, cooking any kind of meat causes the creatine inside it become a powerful carcinogen called heterocyclic amines that are capable of causing all kinds of cancer.
Pretty grim stuff, yes? Sounds like our only hope is to become vegans and let the cows and chickens have their own island nation so they can live happily ever after. Of course back here in Realityville, we like to eat cows and chickens and have a bowl of Cap'n Crunch in the morning. Those of us that need to make a change are going to cut some of these things out completely and eat the rest in moderation. This is what Krissy will do. Some changes will hurt. I'm gonna miss my puffy Cheetos and Spaghetti-O's and my kids will eat more oatmeal and drink less pop, but otherwise you can eat pretty well and not have to wolf down meat at every meal.
There are a ton of other details I'm glossing over from today but you can see the exact same presentation we received today at Oasis's research page. Minus Dr. McCarty talking of course. I think it's important for everyone to step back and think about how they eat and live, and decide what is most important to their happiness and well being.
Wow, that was a lot of words, and I haven't even told you about the rest of our day. If you're up for an extra long post tonight then I'll keep going. Ok, here goes. After the lecture we joined a large group of this week's new arrivals and headed down to El Yogurt for lunch. Afterward we had a quick and encouraging meeting with Dr. Cecenas, followed by the bill for three month's worth of Krissy's nutraceuticals totaling just over $2200. These include laetrile injections that I'll have to give to her three times a week. Then our phone rang and it was Bruce, asking if we'd like a ride down to the beach and if he could take our picture for a DVD they are putting together. We haven't had a chance to see the sun set over the ocean yet, so we agreed. We were greeted downstairs by their friend Carlos, who is also a minister and provides literacy classes for the underprivileged children in a poorer neighborhood not far from here. He raises money for these projects by taking folks from the hospital down to the beach by pedi taxi, basically a cart he pulls on his bicycle. It was a lot of fun, we rode down to an overlook by a small lighthouse on the beach and watched a stunning sun set into the horizon, casting hues that even my colorblind eyes could appreciate. Bruce snapped a few pictures of us and we were carted back to the hospital for dinner. I tipped Carlos with everything I had in my wallet and wished him well, and Krissy has plans to visit the children he helps on her next trip down here.
During dinner I helped Brian bring trays of food up to their room since Michelle was still receiving her treatments and couldn't get out of bed. While there I noticed he was reading George R.R. Martin and is a fellow fantasy/sci-fi and comic book fan. I divulged my geeky passions for such things and left them to enjoy their meal. Funny the things you learn about people by accident! We wrapped up the evening at a healing session with Bruce and Vicky in the chapel. We attended this last week and only Krissy and I showed up. Tonight there were about twelve of us. It was probably the most beautiful and enriching hour I've spent here at Oasis. Everyone here for treatment was anointed and then prayed over by Bruce, Vicky and their companion. I think we spent the entire time in tears of joy and thanks. By the end, each person in the room had a bond with one another that didn't exist before, and I'm once again so thankful to have had Bruce and Vicky in our lives. Some people are good people, but these two radiate goodness and spread it to everyone they touch.
Well I think I'm about spent for the evening, that was much more than I had originally planned to type. For those of you still reading, you will receive a commemorative Lanza Star of Spiffyness for your efforts. You will only need to send in three proofs of purchase along with $2.74 for shipping & handling and this fine badge of honor can be yours! G'night!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Day Nine: One Tired Chicken
Wow, Day Nine already. We're on the homestretch now! Today was a relatively quiet day even considering the heightened activity of all the new arrivals. Somehow we both overslept and missed morning service, much to my dismay. I've really enjoyed sitting with Bruce and Vicky each day and praying with them. The services are held in the beautiful chapel down the hall from us, with Bruce singing and then holding a brief sermon while Vicky plays guitar. Afterward we just chat for a few minutes about whatever is on our minds and then begin our day. It's a refreshing start for both Krissy and I and seems to set our day out on a positive course. I felt bad about missing service today and Bruce only gave me a little grief about it, all in good natured fun of course. We also sat down to a breakfast of oatmeal and potatoes stewed in tomato and chili sauce and caught up on the conversations we missed at service. We were just like peas and carrots again.
Treatments were a bit rough on Krissy today. She was due to receive her laetrile, vitamin D and double dose of vitamin C today to round out the therapy before she gets a day off tomorrow. Unfortunately the vein in her left arm blew out during her first drip of vitamin D. This drip is painful to begin with as it hits her veins cold, but once it blew she was in agonizing pain. We weren't sure if this was just a more severe reaction to the treatment or something else until her hand and wrist started puffing up. We got the nurse to look at it and they pulled the catheter right away. Krissy's veins are still pretty constricted and it took them a while to find another good vein on her right arm to restart things with. Luckily they got a good one and she was able to complete all her treatments today with no further issues. They also removed the catheter and will let her heal up and rehydrate all day tomorrow before completing her therapies on Thursday and Friday morning. Until then she'll have to deal with a swollen and bruised left hand.
While we had some downtime with the several hours of IV drips I took a break and walked down to the local supermarket just down the street. We forgot to bring nail clippers and I was starting to look like I was in the early stages of lycanthropy. That's becoming a werewolf for all you non-Harry Potter folks. After I found what I needed I decided to browse around just to see what our Mexican friends are buying at the grocery store. It's pretty much the same stuff we have in the states, obviously with more beans and chilis, and some notable differences in familiar products. For instance, they sell Coke products but here you can get it in a THREE liter bottle. The thing looks like a submarine torpedo. You can also get eggs in a 36 pack. I kept trying to find the poor overworked chickens who have to fill up those gargantuan cartons. They also have a full blown liquor section, with hard stuff like tequila and whiskey, wines and 40oz bottles of beer. Must be popular on Sunday! In the end I passed on the junk food and pop and bought a bag of sunflower seeds with my nail clippers and walked a few laps around the block before heading back to our room.
When I returned Krissy was watching the American Network channel with just seems to play reruns of all kinds of shows over and over. Usually it's either Dr. Phil, Friends, Big Bang Theory or some random selection. Today we happened to catch an episode of the Paula Dean cooking show. And let me tell you, knowing what we do now and eating fairly well for over a week, this show totally grossed me out. Even before, I was baffled how this old lady could cook and eat the stuff she does without having cardiac arrest right there on camera. Today she made gigantic steaks topped with about three ounces of butter (yes, she buttered her steak), deep fried potato wedges, creamed spinach and chocolate covered cheesecake for dessert. I guess you could say the spinach was the healthy part of this dish except for the fact she made with about two pounds of butter and milk. The cheesecake wasn't totally decadent until she covered the plain fruit topping with another huge dollop of fudge. The sad thing is this is pretty much how we used to eat "before" but I can tell you, we'll never do it again even when Krissy is cancer free. Our country is #1 in the world for breast, ovarian and colon cancer specifically because we stuff our faces with too much red meat and sugar. Our bodies need protein and sugar but only in moderation. You don't even really need animal protein. Oh, and you shouldn't deep fry your sugar, that's probably not good for you either.
Krissy had her last dose of vitamin C so late that it pretty much killed her appetite once dinnertime had rolled around. We went down anyway to see who was there and so I could grab a plate. Tonight it was Oasis-style stirfry, mostly sprouts, broccoli and peas lightly cooked in olive oil with yellow rice. It was really good. Kris was only up for fruit so we joined the other members of our regular mealtime crew and started chatting. And, as is typical for this group, the conversation quickly ventured into loony territory and we were cracking ourselves up again. This time Jenny regaled us with a story about the gay flight attendant, who after hearing about Sharon's destination and her reason for traveling, had to take a personal moment to collect himself because he was so overcome with emotion. The girls enjoyed his company and hoped that he was also on their flight home. Then Krissy and Jenny were discussing how much they loved their gay friends which somehow led Jenny issuing this comment: "And we love our American friends too, they're almost as friendly as the homosexuals back home!" Boy, you give these Aussies an inch and they take a kilometer. I'm not sure what our trip would have been like without them, but it's sure been a lot more humorous with them here.
We had one pleasant surprise last night. Nicole, the young gal from a week ago who had to return home for a biopsy, emailed me last night and said they were doing well and almost ready to have the procedure done. She'll be getting the biopsy soon and then have to deal with some insurance issues, but can hopefully come back for treatment in the near future. This was great news, Nicole and her family are such great people and we've been praying for positive news for her.
Krissy is now winding down with Dirty Dancing on the tube, so I guess that's my queue to put on the headphones and either watch a movie on the laptop or read a book. I think she puts that movie on just to punish me sometimes. Tomorrow is the nutritional class we've been looking forward to for a week now, so I hope to blow your minds with stats, diagrams and daily nutritional values. Stay frosty my friends. G'night!
Treatments were a bit rough on Krissy today. She was due to receive her laetrile, vitamin D and double dose of vitamin C today to round out the therapy before she gets a day off tomorrow. Unfortunately the vein in her left arm blew out during her first drip of vitamin D. This drip is painful to begin with as it hits her veins cold, but once it blew she was in agonizing pain. We weren't sure if this was just a more severe reaction to the treatment or something else until her hand and wrist started puffing up. We got the nurse to look at it and they pulled the catheter right away. Krissy's veins are still pretty constricted and it took them a while to find another good vein on her right arm to restart things with. Luckily they got a good one and she was able to complete all her treatments today with no further issues. They also removed the catheter and will let her heal up and rehydrate all day tomorrow before completing her therapies on Thursday and Friday morning. Until then she'll have to deal with a swollen and bruised left hand.
While we had some downtime with the several hours of IV drips I took a break and walked down to the local supermarket just down the street. We forgot to bring nail clippers and I was starting to look like I was in the early stages of lycanthropy. That's becoming a werewolf for all you non-Harry Potter folks. After I found what I needed I decided to browse around just to see what our Mexican friends are buying at the grocery store. It's pretty much the same stuff we have in the states, obviously with more beans and chilis, and some notable differences in familiar products. For instance, they sell Coke products but here you can get it in a THREE liter bottle. The thing looks like a submarine torpedo. You can also get eggs in a 36 pack. I kept trying to find the poor overworked chickens who have to fill up those gargantuan cartons. They also have a full blown liquor section, with hard stuff like tequila and whiskey, wines and 40oz bottles of beer. Must be popular on Sunday! In the end I passed on the junk food and pop and bought a bag of sunflower seeds with my nail clippers and walked a few laps around the block before heading back to our room.
When I returned Krissy was watching the American Network channel with just seems to play reruns of all kinds of shows over and over. Usually it's either Dr. Phil, Friends, Big Bang Theory or some random selection. Today we happened to catch an episode of the Paula Dean cooking show. And let me tell you, knowing what we do now and eating fairly well for over a week, this show totally grossed me out. Even before, I was baffled how this old lady could cook and eat the stuff she does without having cardiac arrest right there on camera. Today she made gigantic steaks topped with about three ounces of butter (yes, she buttered her steak), deep fried potato wedges, creamed spinach and chocolate covered cheesecake for dessert. I guess you could say the spinach was the healthy part of this dish except for the fact she made with about two pounds of butter and milk. The cheesecake wasn't totally decadent until she covered the plain fruit topping with another huge dollop of fudge. The sad thing is this is pretty much how we used to eat "before" but I can tell you, we'll never do it again even when Krissy is cancer free. Our country is #1 in the world for breast, ovarian and colon cancer specifically because we stuff our faces with too much red meat and sugar. Our bodies need protein and sugar but only in moderation. You don't even really need animal protein. Oh, and you shouldn't deep fry your sugar, that's probably not good for you either.
Krissy had her last dose of vitamin C so late that it pretty much killed her appetite once dinnertime had rolled around. We went down anyway to see who was there and so I could grab a plate. Tonight it was Oasis-style stirfry, mostly sprouts, broccoli and peas lightly cooked in olive oil with yellow rice. It was really good. Kris was only up for fruit so we joined the other members of our regular mealtime crew and started chatting. And, as is typical for this group, the conversation quickly ventured into loony territory and we were cracking ourselves up again. This time Jenny regaled us with a story about the gay flight attendant, who after hearing about Sharon's destination and her reason for traveling, had to take a personal moment to collect himself because he was so overcome with emotion. The girls enjoyed his company and hoped that he was also on their flight home. Then Krissy and Jenny were discussing how much they loved their gay friends which somehow led Jenny issuing this comment: "And we love our American friends too, they're almost as friendly as the homosexuals back home!" Boy, you give these Aussies an inch and they take a kilometer. I'm not sure what our trip would have been like without them, but it's sure been a lot more humorous with them here.
We had one pleasant surprise last night. Nicole, the young gal from a week ago who had to return home for a biopsy, emailed me last night and said they were doing well and almost ready to have the procedure done. She'll be getting the biopsy soon and then have to deal with some insurance issues, but can hopefully come back for treatment in the near future. This was great news, Nicole and her family are such great people and we've been praying for positive news for her.
Krissy is now winding down with Dirty Dancing on the tube, so I guess that's my queue to put on the headphones and either watch a movie on the laptop or read a book. I think she puts that movie on just to punish me sometimes. Tomorrow is the nutritional class we've been looking forward to for a week now, so I hope to blow your minds with stats, diagrams and daily nutritional values. Stay frosty my friends. G'night!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Day Eight: Wake Up Dog!
Ah Monday. A day of new beginnings, fresh opportunities and renewed purpose. It's also the harbinger of alarm clocks and that classic "case of the Mondays" state of mind. However, at Oasis, it's just Day Eight and also when you see the majority of the new arrivals for the first time. As we descended to the cafeteria this morning (after sleeping in until 8:15 no less!) we found the house to be packed. Where we had once been the first two people to breakfast every day for a week, we walked into a room of about ten folks breakfasting and started making with the introductions. We were only able to chat with Dwayne and his sister Mary Kay, unfortunately not the makeup mogul, and learned a bit about them.
Dwayne has brain cancer and is in the third and final cycle of his three month treatment. He hails from Minnesota and immediately started up on football talk with Bruce and myself. Sadly, I didn't have much to talk about since my Broncos laid down and let KC kick their sorry asses yesterday, so I humored the fellas with Brett Favre and Green Bay discussions. Bruce is a Wisconsinonian (or is it Wisconsinite?) so there was some good jibing going on. Dwayne revealed that his brain tumor has shrunk almost 50% since his treatments here started and he may consider surgery if it continues to decrease. He had a seizure last week which caused some concern about whether he could come for treatment this week, but he wanted to be here and so it was done. He looks great, his only noticable symptom is some limited mobility in his left arm, but otherwise he appears to be a man on the mend.
Krissy's treatments kicked off right after breakfast so I left her to the ozone therapy and came upstairs to read. Last time she received this treatment it took around forty minutes, but today I went through half of my book before she came back to the room. Apparently she's a tad dehydrated from the past few days of treatments and her veins are very stressed. They managed to get a good catheter in but the vein was so weak no blood would draw. Thankfully they have a Plan B for this treatment and were able to deliver the ozone to her blood with a saline solution. It just takes longer this way. After this she had a second round of the Perftec, followed by two doses of vitamin C and laetrile. Most of these medications are stored cold and really cause some sharp pain when it hits her veins. Kris is a tough little cookie but that last dose of vitamin C was really pushing her pain tolerance. Thankfully it's a quick treatment and she was able to relax a bit before dinner. I just hope she's able to hydrate enough to make it through the end of the week without being stuck too many more times.
I'll make just a quick note about the food today before moving on. Lunch was great. Epic in fact. We were treated to pinto beans, spanish rice and some delicious green chili stew with chicken. I ate two huge plates and Krissy ate very well also. If this is what happens when the house is full well I sure hope attendance stays high. Dinner was nice too, a hearty cornbread with rice and steamed cauliflower. Good stuff Maynard.
At dinner we met another new pair, Yo and her daughter Joy. Yes, you read that right, her name is Yo. She's even American! From California in fact, so that probably explains it. Joy is from Oakland but she seemed safe enough. Yo is here on her second cycle for stage 4 ovarian cancer and is doing very well. She also received conventional chemo here and was sporting a shiny bald pate upstairs. Finally, someone here with even less hair than I have! These gals are right next door to us and brought a guitar and a huge iMac computer. Wild I tell you!
The true highlight of this evening wasn't the food but the dinner conversation. We were shortly joined by Sharon, Jenny and Marylin; our Aussie Posse. As is usual, when introductions are made over and over again you eventually hear stories that were probably told many days ago but were fogotten. Tonight, Sharon recounted the tale of her visit to an old Chinese acupuncturist back in Australia and his words of encouragement. In order to instill her with confidence he held her wrist and stated "Your condition not so bad!" Thank you Confucius! The best part is how he explained what his particular treatment was intended to illicit from Sharon's body. "Ok, now we gonna wake up the dog! Wake up the dog, and dog gonna fight cancer! We gotta wake him up!" Something about how she tells this story, with her Australian imitation of a Chinese accent, just had us in tears tonight. As such, we now have a new mascot in our fight against cancer. I now present to you, Cancer Dog!
I'll probably have Sharon tell this story at least two more times before we leave, just so I can have good laugh.
We wrapped up the evening with Prayer and Share with Bruce and Vicky. This was attended by Marilyn, Michelle and Brian from yesterday, and Krissy and I. It was mostly about sharing our experiences thus far, how faith has helped us through and eventually to Oasis, and then a short blessing before we returned to our rooms. One thing that is painfully evident throughout all of our discussions with the good people here is just how insensitive the doctors and oncologists are back home. Nearly everyone here has a "We were told I had X months to live and to go home and plan for my death" story. It varies by person, Sharon was told she'd be dead by Christmas, Michelle was told she would die from breast cancer and nothing else in six months, even Bruce was told with chemo he might get a few years if he was lucky. And of course our Krissy was told "some months" no matter what we did. Now I'm no doctor (I don't even play one on TV) but I wasn't aware they all received a course in Precognition. What a handy ability that would be, to predict the outcome of another's life with such precision! Except that they forget no one can predict the future and only God knows what is in store for us tomorrow. I hope that someday our healthcare system will come to realize that it's not all about statistics, double blind studies and chemical interactions but instead about caring for human beings and accepting that love, determination and faith can conquer anything thrown at it.
As the wise Forrest Gump once said, that's all I have to say about that. I think I'll wind down with some Strangers in Paradise (such an amazing comic, thanks Terry Moore!) while Krissy watches Charlie's Angels. Tomorrow we will once again wake up the Cancer Dog. Fight dog, fight! G'night!
Dwayne has brain cancer and is in the third and final cycle of his three month treatment. He hails from Minnesota and immediately started up on football talk with Bruce and myself. Sadly, I didn't have much to talk about since my Broncos laid down and let KC kick their sorry asses yesterday, so I humored the fellas with Brett Favre and Green Bay discussions. Bruce is a Wisconsinonian (or is it Wisconsinite?) so there was some good jibing going on. Dwayne revealed that his brain tumor has shrunk almost 50% since his treatments here started and he may consider surgery if it continues to decrease. He had a seizure last week which caused some concern about whether he could come for treatment this week, but he wanted to be here and so it was done. He looks great, his only noticable symptom is some limited mobility in his left arm, but otherwise he appears to be a man on the mend.
Krissy's treatments kicked off right after breakfast so I left her to the ozone therapy and came upstairs to read. Last time she received this treatment it took around forty minutes, but today I went through half of my book before she came back to the room. Apparently she's a tad dehydrated from the past few days of treatments and her veins are very stressed. They managed to get a good catheter in but the vein was so weak no blood would draw. Thankfully they have a Plan B for this treatment and were able to deliver the ozone to her blood with a saline solution. It just takes longer this way. After this she had a second round of the Perftec, followed by two doses of vitamin C and laetrile. Most of these medications are stored cold and really cause some sharp pain when it hits her veins. Kris is a tough little cookie but that last dose of vitamin C was really pushing her pain tolerance. Thankfully it's a quick treatment and she was able to relax a bit before dinner. I just hope she's able to hydrate enough to make it through the end of the week without being stuck too many more times.
I'll make just a quick note about the food today before moving on. Lunch was great. Epic in fact. We were treated to pinto beans, spanish rice and some delicious green chili stew with chicken. I ate two huge plates and Krissy ate very well also. If this is what happens when the house is full well I sure hope attendance stays high. Dinner was nice too, a hearty cornbread with rice and steamed cauliflower. Good stuff Maynard.
At dinner we met another new pair, Yo and her daughter Joy. Yes, you read that right, her name is Yo. She's even American! From California in fact, so that probably explains it. Joy is from Oakland but she seemed safe enough. Yo is here on her second cycle for stage 4 ovarian cancer and is doing very well. She also received conventional chemo here and was sporting a shiny bald pate upstairs. Finally, someone here with even less hair than I have! These gals are right next door to us and brought a guitar and a huge iMac computer. Wild I tell you!
The true highlight of this evening wasn't the food but the dinner conversation. We were shortly joined by Sharon, Jenny and Marylin; our Aussie Posse. As is usual, when introductions are made over and over again you eventually hear stories that were probably told many days ago but were fogotten. Tonight, Sharon recounted the tale of her visit to an old Chinese acupuncturist back in Australia and his words of encouragement. In order to instill her with confidence he held her wrist and stated "Your condition not so bad!" Thank you Confucius! The best part is how he explained what his particular treatment was intended to illicit from Sharon's body. "Ok, now we gonna wake up the dog! Wake up the dog, and dog gonna fight cancer! We gotta wake him up!" Something about how she tells this story, with her Australian imitation of a Chinese accent, just had us in tears tonight. As such, we now have a new mascot in our fight against cancer. I now present to you, Cancer Dog!
I'll probably have Sharon tell this story at least two more times before we leave, just so I can have good laugh.
We wrapped up the evening with Prayer and Share with Bruce and Vicky. This was attended by Marilyn, Michelle and Brian from yesterday, and Krissy and I. It was mostly about sharing our experiences thus far, how faith has helped us through and eventually to Oasis, and then a short blessing before we returned to our rooms. One thing that is painfully evident throughout all of our discussions with the good people here is just how insensitive the doctors and oncologists are back home. Nearly everyone here has a "We were told I had X months to live and to go home and plan for my death" story. It varies by person, Sharon was told she'd be dead by Christmas, Michelle was told she would die from breast cancer and nothing else in six months, even Bruce was told with chemo he might get a few years if he was lucky. And of course our Krissy was told "some months" no matter what we did. Now I'm no doctor (I don't even play one on TV) but I wasn't aware they all received a course in Precognition. What a handy ability that would be, to predict the outcome of another's life with such precision! Except that they forget no one can predict the future and only God knows what is in store for us tomorrow. I hope that someday our healthcare system will come to realize that it's not all about statistics, double blind studies and chemical interactions but instead about caring for human beings and accepting that love, determination and faith can conquer anything thrown at it.
As the wise Forrest Gump once said, that's all I have to say about that. I think I'll wind down with some Strangers in Paradise (such an amazing comic, thanks Terry Moore!) while Krissy watches Charlie's Angels. Tomorrow we will once again wake up the Cancer Dog. Fight dog, fight! G'night!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Day Seven: Please You Buy My Stuff?
I almost forgot what day we were on today! Without the regular day to day routine from home you lose track of time pretty quickly. We're over the hump now, moving towards our last five days of treatment. Today was the second round of vitamin C for Krissy along with a new addition: activated vitamin D. This vitamin makes tumors even more vulnerable to the vitamin C and oxygenation process so more cancer killin' can take place. Today the therapy only made Krissy tired, she slept through lunch and some of the early afternoon. Tomorrow she'll be back on the oxidative blood infusions and Perftec/vitamin C combo. We're really in the heart of the effective part of the treatment and Kris will need to keep her energy up for the next three days until things taper off. Of course, the effects of this treatment are much less icky than what she'd experience from just one round of chemo, so I'm thankful for that. Nasty western medicine! :)
Sunday is typically new arrival day here at Oasis and true to form we met a few new folks. First up is Marilyn. Another Aussie from Brisbane like our good friend Sharon, she's back on the first of her follow-up treatments after already having completed her initial three month cycle. She had stage four ovarian cancer and after undergoing the Oasis program her tumors have shrunk nearly 80%, down to the point where she could now have surgery to remove it if she wished. However, she's keeping her faith in the program here and will continue the regimen until it's completely healed. She's the first person we've talked to that's currently in follow-up maintenance and to hear she's responded so well is very encouraging. It just strengthens our confidence in the decision we made for Krissy's treatment. We also met Michelle and Brian this evening at dinner and I'll get to their story in a bit.
This afternoon was the second of the scheduled shopping trips into downtown Tijuana. We missed yesterday's trip due to treatments and today Krissy just wasn't up for going out. I decided to give it a shot and waited downstairs with Jenny, Sharon and Marilyn. After sitting around for 20 minutes we asked if the trip was still on only to be told it was canceled due to one of their drivers calling in sick. Marilyn, being the feisty Australian that she is, said "Well why don't hire a taxi and take our bloody selves!" If that wasn't the best bloody idea I'd heard all day, I don't know what was. So we hopped in a cab, said "Artisan district downtown por favor" and started off on our adventure.
For those of you who have been to Mexico you know that most of the tourist towns have a nice part of town to draw vacationers and their money in and just outside of that is what the town is really like. Well, Tijuana has about four blocks of semi-touristy stuff to do and right around the corner is ol' dirty Tijuana. Make a wrong turn and you're bumping elbows with the roasted corn guy and the police. We found the "artisan district" was really just a few blocks of storefronts hawking the same silver jewelry, beads, handbags, sombreros, mini guitars and Spider-Man wrestling masks at every stop. They're all identical too, right down to the Spider-Man wrestling masks. Each one has a guy trying to persuade you to check out his wares and after three blocks it just kinda stops and the rest of the town starts. One hawker tried luring us by stating "Hey mister, I have the same crap all these other guys have but mine is cheaper!" I gave him props for honesty but had to keep walking. The funniest guy was outside an open patio bar & grill type place. As we approached he was clutching a rolled up rug, and once we were about ten feet away he dramatically unrolled it red carpet style and shouted "Welcome, we have been awaiting your arrival!" It was definitely good for a laugh, and if I were hungry I'd probably have gone for his pitch. We ended up settling down for a quick coffee in an off the strip cafe, I found Cori a cute trinket and then we caught a cab back. Unfortunately he got a flat tire about two blocks from the hospital. He dropped us off and I offered the help him change it, but he just drove off out of sight. Flat tires must not be as big a deal down here.
I arrived back just in time for dinner and Kris was up and ready to eat. After a pretty tasty lunch of pinto beans, baked potatoes (double yay!) and some crazy tasty breaded cauliflower thing in red chili, dinner was a bit of a bummer. Broccoli soup, rice and boiled mushrooms. I nearly said "meh" out loud, but that would have been rude. The rice wasn't half bad with the shrooms mixed in, and we had a chance to chat with our other new arrivals Michelle and Brian.
These good folks are from Pittsburgh and have three boys. Michelle has had breast cancer for two years that has metastasized to her bones and spine. She's in nearly the same situation as Sharon, but the condition of her bone cancer is such that she can't walk without excruciating pain so she's in a wheelchair for now. They're both very friendly folks and I'm looking forward to talking more with them this week. Since they arrived late on a Sunday, most of the staff was gone and they missed out on their introductory tour of the hospital and info packet. So we gave them the rundown of the place, now that we're seven day veterans and all. We also warned them of the hot water situation. Wait, I haven't told you about this yet have I? Well well, let's just fix that right now!
So, we have no hot water on our floor. We haven't had hot water since Friday. No, we didn't shower yesterday cause it was fricking freezing. This morning I bit the bullet and took an ice cold shower because I couldn't stand myself anymore. Yes, there was significant shrinkage. Thankfully the sister clinic on the fifth floor did have hot water and Krissy was able to go upstairs and shower like a civilized human being. I gave our patient rep Dorian some shit about it after breakfast and he's trying to get it resolved. I guess plumbers are hard to find on Sunday in Mexico. All I know is they better get it figured out by tomorrow or I'm washing up with hot water from the Deep Rock dispenser in the hallway.
Well I think I've had enough excitement for one day and will call it a night. We just finished watching Blades of Glory and now it's time to put visions of Will Farrell in a leotard out of my mind. Let's hope he's not replaced by short mexican men chasing me with red carpets. G'night!
Sunday is typically new arrival day here at Oasis and true to form we met a few new folks. First up is Marilyn. Another Aussie from Brisbane like our good friend Sharon, she's back on the first of her follow-up treatments after already having completed her initial three month cycle. She had stage four ovarian cancer and after undergoing the Oasis program her tumors have shrunk nearly 80%, down to the point where she could now have surgery to remove it if she wished. However, she's keeping her faith in the program here and will continue the regimen until it's completely healed. She's the first person we've talked to that's currently in follow-up maintenance and to hear she's responded so well is very encouraging. It just strengthens our confidence in the decision we made for Krissy's treatment. We also met Michelle and Brian this evening at dinner and I'll get to their story in a bit.
This afternoon was the second of the scheduled shopping trips into downtown Tijuana. We missed yesterday's trip due to treatments and today Krissy just wasn't up for going out. I decided to give it a shot and waited downstairs with Jenny, Sharon and Marilyn. After sitting around for 20 minutes we asked if the trip was still on only to be told it was canceled due to one of their drivers calling in sick. Marilyn, being the feisty Australian that she is, said "Well why don't hire a taxi and take our bloody selves!" If that wasn't the best bloody idea I'd heard all day, I don't know what was. So we hopped in a cab, said "Artisan district downtown por favor" and started off on our adventure.
For those of you who have been to Mexico you know that most of the tourist towns have a nice part of town to draw vacationers and their money in and just outside of that is what the town is really like. Well, Tijuana has about four blocks of semi-touristy stuff to do and right around the corner is ol' dirty Tijuana. Make a wrong turn and you're bumping elbows with the roasted corn guy and the police. We found the "artisan district" was really just a few blocks of storefronts hawking the same silver jewelry, beads, handbags, sombreros, mini guitars and Spider-Man wrestling masks at every stop. They're all identical too, right down to the Spider-Man wrestling masks. Each one has a guy trying to persuade you to check out his wares and after three blocks it just kinda stops and the rest of the town starts. One hawker tried luring us by stating "Hey mister, I have the same crap all these other guys have but mine is cheaper!" I gave him props for honesty but had to keep walking. The funniest guy was outside an open patio bar & grill type place. As we approached he was clutching a rolled up rug, and once we were about ten feet away he dramatically unrolled it red carpet style and shouted "Welcome, we have been awaiting your arrival!" It was definitely good for a laugh, and if I were hungry I'd probably have gone for his pitch. We ended up settling down for a quick coffee in an off the strip cafe, I found Cori a cute trinket and then we caught a cab back. Unfortunately he got a flat tire about two blocks from the hospital. He dropped us off and I offered the help him change it, but he just drove off out of sight. Flat tires must not be as big a deal down here.
I arrived back just in time for dinner and Kris was up and ready to eat. After a pretty tasty lunch of pinto beans, baked potatoes (double yay!) and some crazy tasty breaded cauliflower thing in red chili, dinner was a bit of a bummer. Broccoli soup, rice and boiled mushrooms. I nearly said "meh" out loud, but that would have been rude. The rice wasn't half bad with the shrooms mixed in, and we had a chance to chat with our other new arrivals Michelle and Brian.
These good folks are from Pittsburgh and have three boys. Michelle has had breast cancer for two years that has metastasized to her bones and spine. She's in nearly the same situation as Sharon, but the condition of her bone cancer is such that she can't walk without excruciating pain so she's in a wheelchair for now. They're both very friendly folks and I'm looking forward to talking more with them this week. Since they arrived late on a Sunday, most of the staff was gone and they missed out on their introductory tour of the hospital and info packet. So we gave them the rundown of the place, now that we're seven day veterans and all. We also warned them of the hot water situation. Wait, I haven't told you about this yet have I? Well well, let's just fix that right now!
So, we have no hot water on our floor. We haven't had hot water since Friday. No, we didn't shower yesterday cause it was fricking freezing. This morning I bit the bullet and took an ice cold shower because I couldn't stand myself anymore. Yes, there was significant shrinkage. Thankfully the sister clinic on the fifth floor did have hot water and Krissy was able to go upstairs and shower like a civilized human being. I gave our patient rep Dorian some shit about it after breakfast and he's trying to get it resolved. I guess plumbers are hard to find on Sunday in Mexico. All I know is they better get it figured out by tomorrow or I'm washing up with hot water from the Deep Rock dispenser in the hallway.
Well I think I've had enough excitement for one day and will call it a night. We just finished watching Blades of Glory and now it's time to put visions of Will Farrell in a leotard out of my mind. Let's hope he's not replaced by short mexican men chasing me with red carpets. G'night!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Day Six: Momma Always Said
Wow, we've been here at Oasis for six days now. This is the halfway point and from here on out the treatments will be consistently more intense until we go home. Today was a big question mark for us: how would Kris respond to the full cycles of cancer killing treatments after having such an easy go of it thus far? The answer ended up being "pretty well."
We started off the morning undecided about what to do for breakfast. We popped our heads into the cafeteria, saw our selections of oatmeal, scrambled eggs and dried bananas with almonds and decided we'd take a walk instead. And as luck would have it, Jenny and Sharon were of the same mind and joined us for breakfast at the yogurt place. I guess we're aiming to be regulars of this eatery before we come home. I ordered whole wheat waffles with strawberries and Kris ordered the french toast on whole wheat bread with fruit. When the meals arrived I took a big bite of my waffle to discover a fat almond resting within. Dammit, guess I'm skipping breakfast, or risk my throat closing up. Stupid allergies. But my awesome wife saved me and we traded meals. This is a big deal because I know how much she loves french toast. She must love me! But we both ate and both meals were very good (again), we chatted and then remembered it was time to head back to the hospital to begin treatments.
Krissy's treatments started about 10:30 with the oxidative therapy. This lasted about 45 minutes. Kris went into a room where a substantial amount of blood was drawn and was then infused with ozone to greatly increase the oxygen levels and then it's transfused back into her body. The theory here is that cancerous tumors are very low in oxygen and this makes it difficult for blood to flow through them, which is why your immune system didn't break them down like it should have in the first place. This therapy cranks up the oxygen levels in the blood and gets red blood cells moving again, allowing the lymphocytes she received yesterday to really get in there and start going to town on the cancer cells. After this transfusion, she then receives two high doses of vitamin C intravenously along with a synthetic blood substitute called Perftec. The Perftec "cells" are much smaller than our red blood cells and can carry more oxygen to tumor sites, while the vitamin C produces a toxic environment to the tumor while normal tissue is unaffected. All combined, this is like a dropping a couple of nuclear bombs onto the tumors and over time they just start to shrink and hopefully one day completely disappear. This is obviously what we're praying for!
But, as we all were told when we were little, if medicine was easy to take then it probably wouldn't work. Or, if it tastes like crap it must be good for us. The same applied today. The biggest concern was if Kris would have any kind of reation to the Perftec, as it can produce a wide range of side effects. Thankfully she handled this without any issues. The vitamin C was up next and after her second dose she became very nauseous and had to throw up. Sharon came by to check on her and said she'd been on vitamin C therapy for two months and got sick almost every time, so it's normal. After Krissy's therapies she was very tired and fell asleep for several hours. This was probably a good thing, since the doctors stated her healing would begin right away and she'd some some inflammation at the tumor sites. The best way for your body to heal is to sleep so I let her crash until she was ready to wake up.
One interesting thing about her diagnosis have been the CT scans. When Krissy was diagnosed with cancer back in October, we were told this was a very aggressive cancer, would grow quickly, and she's probably had it about a year. Always contradicting this were her ultrasound and previous CT scans that showed absolutely no change in her stomach from April through October. It always left me scratching my head. Well, here we are 2.5 months later and the CT scans still show no change, and no additional tumor sites. In fact, according to how the doctors read the scans here she's probably technically in stage 3 instead of stage 4, as they don't see anything on he pancreas as they did back home. Of course things change and perhaps it's a bad angle to tell for sure, but I'm still encouraged that nothing has worsened for her. In the world of cancer this is a very good thing. So all that is left is for her to get better. Let the healing begin!
A final note for any of the ladies reading about Krissy. If you have any intentions of having a baby, please get thorough screening before hand to rule out any possible cancers you may have a family history with. I say this because our friend here Sharon, was told she was cancer free from a previous bout with melanoma and then was told it was safe to get pregnant. Unfortunately, she still had cancer in her body and the hormonal change in her body caused the cancer to accelerate tremendously. Apparently estrogen can have this affect on many cancers. I don't want to scare anyone, but please, be diligent when it comes to your body. I sometimes wonder now if having Camryn was the catalyst for what Krissy is going through today.
On a happy note, they had POTATOES for dinner tonight! Yay! I feasted on delicious mashed potato cakes lightly fried in olive oil. Just in time too, I could almost see my potato reserves getting lower each day. And God bless her heart, Sharon brought me the last two potato cakes in the kitchen after they ate dinner. She is a saint among mortals I tell ya.
Well that's it from Oasisland for tonight. We're over the hump now, only six days left! We can't wait to get home and squeeze our kiddos and see the rest of the family. Hope everyone out there is having a great weekend! G'night!
We started off the morning undecided about what to do for breakfast. We popped our heads into the cafeteria, saw our selections of oatmeal, scrambled eggs and dried bananas with almonds and decided we'd take a walk instead. And as luck would have it, Jenny and Sharon were of the same mind and joined us for breakfast at the yogurt place. I guess we're aiming to be regulars of this eatery before we come home. I ordered whole wheat waffles with strawberries and Kris ordered the french toast on whole wheat bread with fruit. When the meals arrived I took a big bite of my waffle to discover a fat almond resting within. Dammit, guess I'm skipping breakfast, or risk my throat closing up. Stupid allergies. But my awesome wife saved me and we traded meals. This is a big deal because I know how much she loves french toast. She must love me! But we both ate and both meals were very good (again), we chatted and then remembered it was time to head back to the hospital to begin treatments.
Krissy's treatments started about 10:30 with the oxidative therapy. This lasted about 45 minutes. Kris went into a room where a substantial amount of blood was drawn and was then infused with ozone to greatly increase the oxygen levels and then it's transfused back into her body. The theory here is that cancerous tumors are very low in oxygen and this makes it difficult for blood to flow through them, which is why your immune system didn't break them down like it should have in the first place. This therapy cranks up the oxygen levels in the blood and gets red blood cells moving again, allowing the lymphocytes she received yesterday to really get in there and start going to town on the cancer cells. After this transfusion, she then receives two high doses of vitamin C intravenously along with a synthetic blood substitute called Perftec. The Perftec "cells" are much smaller than our red blood cells and can carry more oxygen to tumor sites, while the vitamin C produces a toxic environment to the tumor while normal tissue is unaffected. All combined, this is like a dropping a couple of nuclear bombs onto the tumors and over time they just start to shrink and hopefully one day completely disappear. This is obviously what we're praying for!
But, as we all were told when we were little, if medicine was easy to take then it probably wouldn't work. Or, if it tastes like crap it must be good for us. The same applied today. The biggest concern was if Kris would have any kind of reation to the Perftec, as it can produce a wide range of side effects. Thankfully she handled this without any issues. The vitamin C was up next and after her second dose she became very nauseous and had to throw up. Sharon came by to check on her and said she'd been on vitamin C therapy for two months and got sick almost every time, so it's normal. After Krissy's therapies she was very tired and fell asleep for several hours. This was probably a good thing, since the doctors stated her healing would begin right away and she'd some some inflammation at the tumor sites. The best way for your body to heal is to sleep so I let her crash until she was ready to wake up.
One interesting thing about her diagnosis have been the CT scans. When Krissy was diagnosed with cancer back in October, we were told this was a very aggressive cancer, would grow quickly, and she's probably had it about a year. Always contradicting this were her ultrasound and previous CT scans that showed absolutely no change in her stomach from April through October. It always left me scratching my head. Well, here we are 2.5 months later and the CT scans still show no change, and no additional tumor sites. In fact, according to how the doctors read the scans here she's probably technically in stage 3 instead of stage 4, as they don't see anything on he pancreas as they did back home. Of course things change and perhaps it's a bad angle to tell for sure, but I'm still encouraged that nothing has worsened for her. In the world of cancer this is a very good thing. So all that is left is for her to get better. Let the healing begin!
A final note for any of the ladies reading about Krissy. If you have any intentions of having a baby, please get thorough screening before hand to rule out any possible cancers you may have a family history with. I say this because our friend here Sharon, was told she was cancer free from a previous bout with melanoma and then was told it was safe to get pregnant. Unfortunately, she still had cancer in her body and the hormonal change in her body caused the cancer to accelerate tremendously. Apparently estrogen can have this affect on many cancers. I don't want to scare anyone, but please, be diligent when it comes to your body. I sometimes wonder now if having Camryn was the catalyst for what Krissy is going through today.
On a happy note, they had POTATOES for dinner tonight! Yay! I feasted on delicious mashed potato cakes lightly fried in olive oil. Just in time too, I could almost see my potato reserves getting lower each day. And God bless her heart, Sharon brought me the last two potato cakes in the kitchen after they ate dinner. She is a saint among mortals I tell ya.
Well that's it from Oasisland for tonight. We're over the hump now, only six days left! We can't wait to get home and squeeze our kiddos and see the rest of the family. Hope everyone out there is having a great weekend! G'night!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Day Five: Coffee and Corn
I'm writing this a bit later tonight than usual. We just returned from Movie Night with the volunteers here, Bruce and Vicky, and a few of our fellow Oasis friends. We watched "The Terminal" with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones. It was a fun little comedy, and Vicky brought homemade popcorn seasoned with Vege Sal, a vegetable based salt. It was pretty tasty stuff. The movie room was a bit cold but but everyone seemed to enjoy the show.
It's worth noting that we both started and ended our day in the presence of the incomparable Bruce and Vicky. You know the end, so I'll tell the beginning. This morning we headed down for breakfast, ate plain omelets with oatmeal and started back to our rooms. On the way we met up with Jenny and Sharon who were interested in getting outside and finding some coffee at Starbucks. Well, you all know that's the magic word for Krissy, so off we went. Unfortunately, the Starbucks in Mexico is not as dedicated its counterparts back in the States and after a short walk we found them to be closed. So we headed off to the yogurt place. Alas, they were closed also. We had one last option available, a small cafe down on the beach that Jenny had heard might be open this morning. We walked the three or four blocks down to the beach and tried the cafe but they were closed also. Slightly dejected we started back to the hospital. As we walked a bit we heard a familiar voice behind us and found none other than ol' Bruce on his morning walk. We explained the purpose for our morning sojourn and he smiled and said "Hold on, let me make a call, I can get you coffee." He informed Vicky of our dilemma and invited us back to their apartment for a coffee.
It was just a few minutes to their apartment, which was also right there on the shore front. He and Vicky live in an absolutely adorable two bedroom apartment with a grand patio that overlooks the ocean. Vicki brewed some organic coffee and green tea for the six of us and we sat and talked for about an hour over our drinks. I've always been fascinated with the ocean and was mesmerized by the waves and sound of the water as we talked. I could tell Kris was relaxed and enjoying herself also. What started out as a trip to the familiar Starbucks ended up being a happily unexpected morning among friends. Saying that Bruce and Vicky are good people is much more than an understatement. They packed up their lives, moved to Mexico and volunteer at the hospital full time, for the simple purpose of providing friendship and faith to people that are a long way from home. I'm truly grateful for them and they've given Krissy and I much needed support and prayer every day.
After our surprise coffee detour, we watched the tide roll in for a few more minutes and then headed back to the hospital to start treatments for the day. Today was the start of Krissy's immune therapy, where she received an IV drip of donor lymphocytes to supercharge her immune system. The process was very fast this morning and only gave her some minor discomfort. The lymphocyte solution must be kept cold at all times and stung a bit when it hit her veins. And in one of strangest side effects I've ever witnessed, it caused her to experience the taste of creamed corn or "old beer" as she described it, and made her breath smell like corn also. The nurse said they can smell the immune therapy patients for a few days after receiving this treatment. Totally weird! Other than bearing the aroma of a human corn cob, she's felt pretty decent with just some diminished appetite at lunch and dinner. Hopefully the oxygen/vitamin C therapy tomorrow goes well. I've heard the synthetic blood they use to carry ozone to her system can cause some discomfort and possible allergic reactions. It's called Perftec and is very safe, but they'll watch her carefully during the two and a half hour process. I'm sure she'll come through it fine, she's a trooper.
Outside of breakfast and movie night, this was a pretty slow boring day. The treatment only took 10 minutes and we had nothing else to do for the day. Kris wasn't up for going into town and there were no classes planned with most of the staff out for the holiday. So we sat in the room and surfed the web, read, watched movies on the laptops and basically vegged out. It wasn't bad but I have a feeling boredom is going to set in soon, with seven more days of this exact routine ahead of us. We have plenty to do but this room gets old. I'm hoping Kris feels good enough for one of the shopping trips that are planned for this weekend so we can get some air.
There were two new arrivals last night but we haven't had a chance to meet them yet. Two gentlemen were checked in across the hall from us. They popped their heads into the movie but didn't stay. I'm hoping to introduce ourselves tomorrow just so I can say hi if we bump into each other at lunch or dinner. The fellow that is obviously the patient, on account of wearing his jammies and carting around an IV, looks like he may have skin cancer or a condition that's metastasized to his skin. Hopefully his treatments start soon so he can get to healing.
I'm looking over at Krissy and it looks like she's just crashed for the night. I'm still kinda wired from popcorn and water. Crazy party animals right? I know, I should slow down. Anyway, I'll be signing off now and reading until I fall asleep. I hope you all back home had a great New Year's Day and are kicking off 2010 with resolutions to stay happy and healthy. I haven't decided on my resolutions for this year but I'm pretty sure #1 will be to love my wife the best that I possibly can. Number two might be to do something fitnessy now that I've lost a few more pounds here. Eh, maybe that'll be #3 or 4, Camryn is enough exercise for me. G'night!
It's worth noting that we both started and ended our day in the presence of the incomparable Bruce and Vicky. You know the end, so I'll tell the beginning. This morning we headed down for breakfast, ate plain omelets with oatmeal and started back to our rooms. On the way we met up with Jenny and Sharon who were interested in getting outside and finding some coffee at Starbucks. Well, you all know that's the magic word for Krissy, so off we went. Unfortunately, the Starbucks in Mexico is not as dedicated its counterparts back in the States and after a short walk we found them to be closed. So we headed off to the yogurt place. Alas, they were closed also. We had one last option available, a small cafe down on the beach that Jenny had heard might be open this morning. We walked the three or four blocks down to the beach and tried the cafe but they were closed also. Slightly dejected we started back to the hospital. As we walked a bit we heard a familiar voice behind us and found none other than ol' Bruce on his morning walk. We explained the purpose for our morning sojourn and he smiled and said "Hold on, let me make a call, I can get you coffee." He informed Vicky of our dilemma and invited us back to their apartment for a coffee.
It was just a few minutes to their apartment, which was also right there on the shore front. He and Vicky live in an absolutely adorable two bedroom apartment with a grand patio that overlooks the ocean. Vicki brewed some organic coffee and green tea for the six of us and we sat and talked for about an hour over our drinks. I've always been fascinated with the ocean and was mesmerized by the waves and sound of the water as we talked. I could tell Kris was relaxed and enjoying herself also. What started out as a trip to the familiar Starbucks ended up being a happily unexpected morning among friends. Saying that Bruce and Vicky are good people is much more than an understatement. They packed up their lives, moved to Mexico and volunteer at the hospital full time, for the simple purpose of providing friendship and faith to people that are a long way from home. I'm truly grateful for them and they've given Krissy and I much needed support and prayer every day.
After our surprise coffee detour, we watched the tide roll in for a few more minutes and then headed back to the hospital to start treatments for the day. Today was the start of Krissy's immune therapy, where she received an IV drip of donor lymphocytes to supercharge her immune system. The process was very fast this morning and only gave her some minor discomfort. The lymphocyte solution must be kept cold at all times and stung a bit when it hit her veins. And in one of strangest side effects I've ever witnessed, it caused her to experience the taste of creamed corn or "old beer" as she described it, and made her breath smell like corn also. The nurse said they can smell the immune therapy patients for a few days after receiving this treatment. Totally weird! Other than bearing the aroma of a human corn cob, she's felt pretty decent with just some diminished appetite at lunch and dinner. Hopefully the oxygen/vitamin C therapy tomorrow goes well. I've heard the synthetic blood they use to carry ozone to her system can cause some discomfort and possible allergic reactions. It's called Perftec and is very safe, but they'll watch her carefully during the two and a half hour process. I'm sure she'll come through it fine, she's a trooper.
Outside of breakfast and movie night, this was a pretty slow boring day. The treatment only took 10 minutes and we had nothing else to do for the day. Kris wasn't up for going into town and there were no classes planned with most of the staff out for the holiday. So we sat in the room and surfed the web, read, watched movies on the laptops and basically vegged out. It wasn't bad but I have a feeling boredom is going to set in soon, with seven more days of this exact routine ahead of us. We have plenty to do but this room gets old. I'm hoping Kris feels good enough for one of the shopping trips that are planned for this weekend so we can get some air.
There were two new arrivals last night but we haven't had a chance to meet them yet. Two gentlemen were checked in across the hall from us. They popped their heads into the movie but didn't stay. I'm hoping to introduce ourselves tomorrow just so I can say hi if we bump into each other at lunch or dinner. The fellow that is obviously the patient, on account of wearing his jammies and carting around an IV, looks like he may have skin cancer or a condition that's metastasized to his skin. Hopefully his treatments start soon so he can get to healing.
I'm looking over at Krissy and it looks like she's just crashed for the night. I'm still kinda wired from popcorn and water. Crazy party animals right? I know, I should slow down. Anyway, I'll be signing off now and reading until I fall asleep. I hope you all back home had a great New Year's Day and are kicking off 2010 with resolutions to stay happy and healthy. I haven't decided on my resolutions for this year but I'm pretty sure #1 will be to love my wife the best that I possibly can. Number two might be to do something fitnessy now that I've lost a few more pounds here. Eh, maybe that'll be #3 or 4, Camryn is enough exercise for me. G'night!
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