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.

Physical Therapy

I have moved on to new challenge. Sometime in June I strained something on my right shoulder. I lost a lot of mobility in that arm and proceeded to use it less and less. BIG MISTAKE! Frozen shoulder set in. I was in the middle of radiation so it seemed like I had bigger fish to fry at the time. Now that I am done with the frying, I am working on my shoulder. Seeing a physical therapist who really knows what he's doing and have already made some progress. But of course there is no gain without more pain. It was a good decision to get help as I don't think I could do this on my own. Let's call him the "pain train".

On another not so good note, a dear friend recently diagnosed with melanoma just started visiting my friend's the Cancer Assassins for his radiation treatments. Some sad coincidence. He seems to like them as much as I do. I guess he knew what to expect based on my photos and descriptions of radiation.

With the magic of facebook I have been found by a few more high school friends - many whom I haven't spoken to for 10 or 20 years. From one comes words of inspiration, greatly needed by me the week following radiation...

"If I were cancer and I was seeking Victory. I would not choose you as my enemy."

DONE

I had my last radiation treatment today, Tuesday, August 18th. Although I originally reported I would be done on Monday, we had a little change in the schedule. The doctor wanted to do one more treatment... and as the techies tell me - the doctor always wins. But now I can check radiation off my list. Can you believe I got a bit teary saying good bye to everyone. I have seen them almost every day for 7 weeks. I will miss them... but am glad to move on. My skin is fried, I am a bit tired and feel like the expanders are squeezing me! Tomorrow morning at 11:10 am I will be home and not in a doctor's office. Hopefully starting to heal. YEAH!

Radiation for Dummies or Radiation 101

I took my camera to my radiation treatments this week so I could share the experience. Many have asked what the machine is like and how it feels, etc. So I have some examples with me in position. As I described before the treatment portion takes very little time. I am probably in the room for 10 minutes or so. It takes them longer to get me into the exact position than it does to do the treatments. First I lie down on the table with my head and arms in the mold.
They but a bolster under my knees and tie my feet together so that I won't accidently move during the process. Remember I got
three tiny tatoos in June during my set up session. They use these and all the instruments to get me aligned with the beams. The table moves up and down and sideways. The technicians call out numbers to line the table and me up correctly. Sometimes they manually move my torso a bit. Then they leave the room. That big, heavy door closes then the radiation comes in short 10 or 15 second intervals... I don't feel a thing - just hear a buzzing sound. A red "warning" light also flashes during this time. After about 5 shots from one side (where you see me in the picture) the machine rotates to my other side - almost level with the table and I get a few more doses. That's it.

The machine can take x-rays, shoot protons and electrons and also do a CT scan to verify exact positioning. They don't use the CT on me. (The techies told me that is mostly used for radiation on brain cancer patients.) They have been using protons thus far to treat my cancer area. During the last five days of the process I will receive what they call an external radiation boost. This targets the area directly around where my surgery was and uses electrons. I have my last protron treatment on Monday and then we switch for 5 treatments to the skin. So, its "One machine does all" kind of like the fax/printer/copier machines. And it the very latest technology. There are often visitors coming to check out the newest radiation equipment. It feels great to know that I am getting the best treatment that exists.

I get an x-ray done each week and they verify their measurements to make sure I am still getting "roasted" in the correct places. I see the Doctor every Thursday where I get to tell her how horrible I feel and she says she is sorry. I get lab work done every other week to make sure that my white blood count doesn't drop too low. It has dropped a bit - but not bad. I just have to stay away from sick people again like during chemo. My skin is tightening and thus squeezing everything - worse than ever. My skin is irritated, I am irritable, I am incredibly tired and sometimes irrational... just ask Mark. But I am almost done. Only 6 more treatments... last day is Monday, August 17th. Don't know what I will do with myself when I don't have to go to radiation every day... recover maybe. In terms of my hair... I think it is growing faster on my legs than on my head. My niece says I "look like a very cute urban woman turned Buddhist! Very hip looking." Not exactly what I was going for but not bad.

I have been told that I look "radiant" by one friend as soon I was finished ... it took me a second to get her joke. Our neighbors have also told us they can detect a certain "glow" coming from our end of the street. Enough already!

There are two photos of the technicians whom we/they have named the "Cancer Assassins". A photo that shows me "in position" ready for treatment and in the top photo you can see the mold that holds my head and arm as well as the equipment.

Disclaimer: Anything I wrote in the column may not be accurate... I have not been trained well enough to understand the entire radiation process.

Half Way Done!

I am actually more than half way done with my radiation treatments. I have 12 more sessions. I actually thought it would feel so good to get to the half way mark, but now that I'm here all I keep thinking is ... I'm ONLY half way done. It's really taking a toll on me. I am beat. On Tuesday the computer than runs the machines was having some problems... of course while I was on the table. My treatment was stalled and they wanted me to stay in position while they got their physicist to come take a look at things. (The radiation rays were not going during this time.) So I had to stay with my arm in the mold over my head while they tried to figure things out. I am still sore on both sides of my body from that. I got blood work done again and saw the doctor today. Tomorrow I will have a longer appointment while they set up the final phase of the plan which treats mostly the skin and scar area. Another longer day for me. The doctor says that my skin is holding up well so that was good news.

Last weekend I rallied to go to Donner again. It's actually a great place for napping and reading. We had Calvin and his three Andrews cousins together for the first time in over a year so that was great fun. My niece is back from a year long trip to France where she was teaching conversational English at a company called Freescale. We actually saw her in France last September when we were there after our hike in the Alps. This fall her brother, Marshal and his girlfriend, Jess will be teaching English is Spain to elementary school children. And Calvin will be going to school (traveling and partying) in Barcelona. Our kids are extremely lucky! Photo of the Andrews cousins having a bad hair day at Donner. Now trying to get the Riker side of the family together before Calvin leaves.

My hair is growing. I didn't get what I ordered... so far it is dark with lots of gray around the edges. Can't tell if it is going to be curly yet. I guess my next major goal is to be at the point where I am comfortable going out in public without a hat or wig. I am totally up for the spiky look so just give me about an inch of hair and I'm there!

Radiation and Routine

I am a bit more than one third of the way done with radiation. My appointment time changed to 11:10am so that's when you should be thinking about me. In my last post I mentioned that the door that protects the rest of the office and staff from the radiation is about one foot thick, well it also weighs about 2,000 lbs. Isn't that amazing. So far my skin is looking the way it should according my doctor. And I am tired just as predicted.

All three of us have been watching the Tour de France every morning and some evenings. It's additive! It becomes part of our routine in July every year. Mark and Calvin are getting ready for work and don't always get to stick around to see the morning finish. Most of the days have been pretty exciting, with falls, attacks and wild sprints to the finish line. One of the radiation technicians is a big bike rider and Tour fan. We have discussed the Tour since my first set-up appointment in May. I am still wearing my yellow LIVESTRONG bracelet (as are Mark, Calvin and other relatives). That always makes it easy to start a conversation with other biking enthusiasts. Each day we talk about what happened the previous day. I have promised not to mention the current days race as he doesn't watch it until the evening and of course wants it to be a surprise. The Tour de France riders are now in the Swiss and French Alps and it reminds me of the area where we hiked in the Italian Dolomites last year - incredibly beautiful.

After Mark and Calvin go off to work in the morning, I do a few things around the house and then get ready to go to radiation. With driving time I am usually gone for at least an hour and a half. If I have my teenage driver, Millie (see photo), we often run some errands on the way home. We have become great friends... I text her the times I need her and always hear back immediately! The other day her mother (who is one of my dearest friends) asked her who she was texting and Millie replied "My new BFF" (Best Friends Forever) - I am honored. Often I have her drop me home and then I send her out to go to the store, etc. Saves my energy for other things. I now refer to her as my personal assistant. She will be a senior in high school next year and I will miss her when she goes back to school.

As mentioned previously I have to have some time on the couch every afternoon. It's about fatigue and also about getting my body horizontal. Laying down gives me some relief some the pain from the expanders. I watch movies, (many for the umpteenth time) but lately have been hooked on the TV series "Mad Men". It was a great gift from one of my FINS. Calvin and his girlfriend have been watching it too (at different times than me). It's set in New York City in the 1960's in an advertising agency. It is so true to that time period. Everyone smokes (even the pregnant women), they drink all day in the office and the booze in set out on the credenza just like you would put it out for a party. The women's fashions are great to see. The men do not treat the women very well - secretaries are there for office flings and all the men are having other affairs. Great character development and it is certainly keeping my attention. The second season was just released and I can hardly wait for my "rest time" to watch the next episode.

I have also read a few books, the most noteworthy is "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. It tells the story of three women living in Jackson, Mississippi and the relationships between the African American servants and their white employers. The times are starting to change but not quickly enough in the deep south. I lover her writing style and I will recommend it to my book club for our next meeting.

My baby boy turned 20... no longer a teen and hopefully he will rid himself of some of those dreadful teen habits. However no sign of that happening yet and I am not holding my breath!