NW USA Trip: June 2010

Where does the time go? Life is good and we are back on the road in our RV Lupita.
We spent a month in June traveling in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, with the intention of visiting the Olympic mountains. It was cool, rainy and suffice to say we are still waiting to see the Olympic Mountains.
We visited the scenic Snake River canyon area and Boise, Idaho's historic capital. We did find some nice wine areas in Lake Chelan, where we spent my birthday and found a Karma champagne to celebrate with! Then to Yakima valley, a beautiful scenic area in southern Washington, which has expanded to many more and better wineries than when we first visited a few years back.
After waiting two weeks for the weather to improve, we bit the bullet and traveled to the coast via the Oregon Willamette wine area, where we found many old and new good wines. We headed inland to Washington's capital Olympia, a neat small town with excellent oysters and crabs. We had one glorious day on the Oregon coast then rain set in again. Heading back through Widbey Island in the Puget Sound, we came back to N. Washington, crossed the Cascade Mountains in, yes, cascdes of rain, and snow at the summit! This in June no less.
It was nice to see some different parts of the NW States but good to be back to Calgary for some serious sun, although summer was a bit disappointing there too.

Wine Country and Basque food...

Southern California has a very successful wine industry. AS we found in Oregon and Washington in July, many of the wineries survive now on wine clubs. The drop in rate for many of the wines is ridiculous so we have to be mighty impressed to consider $30 a bottle. Some of the Bordeaux look-alikes sell for $50 but they don't seem to be getting many takers. Some previously good wineries have hit hard times, e.g. Rabbit Ridge from Healdsburg in N. Sonoma, which moved down here with a $1.5 million debt for selling out of bond, apparently. They ahve a huge inventory so you can go to the winery and buy really good reds for $8 a bottle. Of course, at the supermarkets, you can get really good wines for that or less too. Even at Trader Joe's famous for its "two buck Chuck" wines a few years back. They are now $5-6! Talking of Trader Joe's we finally found one in Sacramento and stocked up on all manner of chocolate goodies, the best choc madeleine cookies imaginable!
Last night we went to the local Basque Cafe. You eat at long tables with people you've never met. The chef comes out, bangs a pot lid and tells you what she cooked this evening, that's the menu!
Last night we met a great extended family of Jean and Warren. They had invited guests who just moved back from 25 years in Alaska. These people had had lunch with a guy from Calgary yesterday. When they told me his name, I know him! It's John Katz, the cello teacher on the faculty at Mount Royal University Conservatory of Music! Small world.
Dinner was a 9 course affair with 5 tapas, pumpkin soup to die for, a wonderful fresh salad of local greens and things, and a paella, then dessert. Chef insisted we all take leftover paella home for breakfast or to stuff in peppers. We are not hungry yet - it's 11:30am! Maybe avocado stuffed with shrimp for lunch?
It is the big wine harvest time this weekend so we visited a number of wineries and had some really interesting chats with winemakers, etc. yesterday. Today we will tour some more. Then head to the coast to find fresh seafood again. We've had some good steaks, lamb and pork on the way down, it's time for fish and seafood now.
The little birds are chirping outside my window in our tree so I think I should go see what today brings. It's great to have email connection again but it sure uses up your time!

On the road again, October 2010

It's been a while since I blogged. So here is an update.
WE are on the road again our RV in southern California. Still searching for sun and heat that lasts more than an afternoon. WE wended down through Idaho, visited capital Boise for the first time, through Nevada, into California, around scenic Lake Tahoe (not visited for about 20 years) and into S. California. WE are half way between LA and San Francisco, a notable wine area. Down through the central valley, a vast agricultural area, is flat and dry, but everywhere irrigation hits, crops and fruits grow. Important for peaches, apricots, nuts and also ground crops like strawberries, replaced the wheat and potatoes of S.Idaho.
Staying at RV parks, we notice a lot of people living here now, going to work, kids going to school, obviously they don't have homes any more. In S.Idaho the rate for people who have lost their homes is 10%, a huge number. I don't think Us citizens recognize a way of life has gone for many of them and is not coming back, certainly while unemployment is so high, also 10% in places.
But there are a lot of retired folks on the move, in fancy big million-dollar motor homes, pulling Cadillacs behind them. One place quoted us $47 for the night for a parking spot. Mostly they are around $30 with very good facilities, power, TV and wifi.
Meantime, since I blogged in May, I went in August for more follow-up surgery from my reconstruction. I now have a cute nipple and it will be tattooed in December to look like one. Very simple and painless procedure.

Lymphedema - chronic result of BC

One of the insidious results of lymph node removal in BC treatment is lymphedema. It can be managed but not cured. It results (not well understood) from overload of the system when axillary lymph nodes are removed. In my case 12 nodes, all riddled with cancer. Fortunately I was early diagnosed and had treatment at the free standing private clinic, with 10 (can be extended) treatment costs covered by Alberta Cancer Board. Later Alberta established its own clinic, devoted to secondary lymphedema as a result of breast cancer. We have two very accomplished therapists (mine is Hahn) who can evaluate, prescribe pressure garments and perform lymphatic massage. It's still expensive, each 30-40lb pressure armband is about $90, half paid for by Alberta Aids to Daily Living (AADL). Night sleeve cost about $300 but wasn't covered then. I get a prescription for two years, three sleeves a year, which is more than adequate. One-stop shopping eliminates the need to get AADL sign off. We have achieved a reduction from 16% down to 5% differential between the left (normal) and right arm in one year. I should wear the sleeve for a few hours each day, and especially when exercising. I also have a pressure bra to work on the lymph system during exercise - $100 with no funding.
Alberta does not currrently fund all lymphedema treatment, which is ridiculous. A prominent Mayo Clininc doc was in Calgary this Monday to present a seminar on lymphedema. Some really interesting data. Sufferers have a 37% higher risk of cellulitis, an inflammation and often infection of soft tissue, which can lead in extreme to amputation of arm or leg. So we have to be vigilant, no blood pressure taken, no pinpricks, no injuries, cuts or fungi on the affected limb.

May 14/2010 - Oncology update

My six-month checkup was reduced to two, as my oncologist checked out her hunch about my left eye. Apparently malfunction of neck lymph nodes can affect the eye, with swelling around the eyelid, dilated pupils. Being super-cautious, Dr. Lisa Pickering took another look. I had the eye checked by my eye doc two months ago and my vision is really good for somebody with eyeballs shaped like eggs instead of spheres! Dr. P confirms all my blood(y) tests indicate my bone marrow has fuly recovered from the onslaughts of chemo, my VitD good (deficiency being something being associated with many cancers) and generally I am in really good shape. Yeah. I am now back on a 6 month recall.
Some good news. The Johns Hopkins hospital, a leader in health care and esp. breast cancer treatment, confirms that women who received Herceptin combined with chemo have a 25% better survival than those who had it sequentially. Good to know my docs ae on the leading edge of treatment for this horrible disease.

March 20 - Steve & Taryn Big Day

Somehow I didn't get any really good photos of the two of them together! Luckily the photographer did! We all had a wonderful time at their Deer Lodge wedding in Lake Louise. About 30 of the 120 were old farts like us and the rest the beautiful young bucks and does, all done out in their finery. A great occasion. Very romantic as the wedding party took off on a sleigh ridge around Lake Louise, bathed in sunlight and warm for the day! Who cares about a day's skiing.
Taryn's dad George put together a great AV of the two of them, their lives, their travels.
On return from their month honeymooning in Tokyo, Phillipines and Beijing, we all had dinner at a great little tapas restaurant. This May long weekend we will stay in town to attend their whole lamb roast at the Kananaskis cabin.

May 2010 Reconstruction continues..

After 6 months, ready for new nipple - or so I thought. Instead April 26th I had another 1.5 hours of surgery with micro plastic surgeon Dr. Wim DeHaas assisted by orthopedic surgeon! He removed hard fatty tissue from side of new breast. Used same incision so hardly notice it at all, except lump is gone. Biopsied, it was simply fatty tissue. He cleaned up port removal incision and lump on upper chest (easy) then moved right nipple up 2cm (not so easy.) It was an interesting surgery, he cut around nipple and removed a disk of skin, then sewed circle back smaller. Like two concentric circles, hard to describe. Very uninvasive but painful for about two days. All stitches dissolved within 3 weeks.
Now we wait 3 months for left breast to stabilize then he will decorate right breast with new nipple, exactly matched to left one. What a perfectionist!