Calvin on the International Scene

Calvin has been in Barcelona for about 7 weeks. I must say he is embracing the Spanish culture. Late dinners, late nights, festivals, etc. He has called a few times. Once at 4:30am and then another time at 5:00am - Spanish time - just getting in from the clubs! He lives with a single woman and her 9 year old son - he refers to them as his "mother" and "brother". Calvin has always liked little kids so I think he is enjoying his role as big brother. He takes two meals with his family and speaks with them exclusively in Spanish. Most of his business classes are in English with American, Spanish, Russian and other European students. Then he takes one Spanish language class. He has been to see Roman Ruins, the Barcelona Festival of Fountains (fountains, music, color - see time lapse photo), the Octoberfest and soon to Copenhagen. Sounds pretty happy and looks good. The other photo is during the Festival of the Saint of Barcelona. Calvin and friends are standing in front of a rather large pot of paella.

Lessons Learned...

Can't believe I haven't posted for over a month! I have been busy. Getting out a bit more which is good but also tiring. I went for a check up with both my radiologist and oncologist last week. I am fine. Cancer free! Had one small issue with drug interactions. In spite of our modern and electronic pharmacy checks and health care systems I feel like I really should take responsibility for making sure that everything I do is okay with all my doctors. Turns out that the medication prescribed by my primary care physician for pain makes the Tamoxifen (cancer/anti-estrogen) drug less effective. Of course the Tamoxifen is more important so I will change the meds for pain. Although this is a fairly new discovery (in the past year or two) you would think that the pharmacy or health care provider would be aware or check for conflicts. The interaction with the Tamoxifen was only for about 6 weeks. I will be on it for 5 years at least so I am not going to loose sleep about it. But I have learned a lesson.

I also learned that it's not crazy to just ask... you never know what the answer will be. With this continued expander pain I was trying everything I could think of to get rid of some of it. I came up with the idea of having the right expander (remember - tupperware) swapped out for the much softer silicone implant right away. We can't do the radiated side for 6 months. I really thought that the doctor would say no. But I have cleared it will all doctors and have gotten approval from the insurance company. Not so crazy after all. Both the plastic surgeon and the radiologist thought it was a good idea for me considering my experience thus far. Also, it is my right shoulder that is frozen. So I can hopefully work harder on rehab with the softer implant in place. I am looking forward to this surgery. It is only about 1 hour, out patient surgery with a week's recovery. So not a major surgery and might make major changes to how I feel. At least that is what I am hoping.

Hair... I have more hair than Obama. I have just enough hair that I have been out in public a number of times and no weird stares or anything. My family and friends say its looks fine, actually very hip! I actually had a bit trimmed off as it was hanging over my ears (barely). It is still very dark and gray. Not sure what I am going to do about that.