Bon Voyage

Well later today Holly and I take off for our grand tour of Europe. We are taking this trip to celebrate her upcoming 50th birthday. In my family, birthdays are a big deal, and a fantastic trip for turning 50 yrs old seemed in order. She has been to Europe, and we've even been to Italy/London together. So I wanted to plan a trip somewhere that she had not been previously. Scandinavia seemed just perfect. We fly out of RDU later tonight, straight through to London. Then we shuttle down to the coast to board our cruiseship. The actual cruise leaves Saturday afternoon and heads on to Brugge,Belgium, then Copenhagen,Denmark then to Helsingbor, Sweden, then to Oslo, Norway and back again to London-all in one short week. We've never been on a cruise together but this seemed an easy way to sample some ports, unpack only once and require less time/planning than most Europe trips. I know that we will have fun, but I've been pretty nervous and excited about everything working out well. I know that we'll have a spendid time.
Hopefully you'll have a splendid time during the next week too and enjoy your Labor Day!

Bon voyage!

Summer Fading Fast

Holly and I have been enjoying the w-e in Asheville. It's been mild and breezy-that kind of late summer weather that is so gorgeous in the mtns. Friday evening we had dinner with friends, enjoying their house which is nestled among the hardwoods, rhododendrons and mtn laurels. What a beautiful spot to enjoy a delicious dinner with such terrific hosts.

Saturday morning we did another section of that challenging half-marathon course which we will run Sept 12th in Asheville. The course begins downtown near the historic Grove Arcade and winds its way through town to a beautiful neighborhood near the Grove Park Inn (i.e. it's some up), the Kimberly area, over to the golf course (again, it's up), around Beaver Lake, then down to the River (what goes down must come up), turning on to a winding road that passes our house (that one is really up, up, up), around the university and down a long street heading back toward town to complete the 13.1 mile route. This Saturday we ran a little over an hour and a half. We have been reading in the local newspaper about all the people training for the half-marathon who have already completed the course for their training. I like a little more excitement and mystery in my life. If I'd already completed the whole thing, I wouldn't feel the need to do it on Sept 12th. I mean, the purpose of the thing is to see if you can do it. It's a kind of health celebration for me-to prove that I can run that far after all of that horrible chemo last year. I need and want the mystery of wondering how I will feel running that far. As far as I am concerned, all of those other people can train by doing the entire course if it makes them feel better. Me, I'll stick with a little uncertainty on this one.

Saturday afternoon we attended the Beer & Baseball event held downtown at the stadium. It was a showcase for about 30 microbreweries with several bands playing on the actual field (there wasn't a bit of baseball, go figure). Anyway, we got turned on to a new artist named Kellin Watson, a bluesy rock singer who did a terrific hourlong set. Really cool to catch some new live music and enjoy some great fresh beer. My two favorites were the ESB from Sweetwater Brewing Co and the new offering from the Hebrew brewery. However, there were lots of other great styles to try. Water was a very popular beverage too as it was fairly sunny and warm early in the day.

Sunday we ate brunch with our friends Susan and Donna before they had to head off to work. Great to catch up with them over eggs and bacon. I got to show off Bella, my new mtn bike. Susan tried it out briefly. I think she liked it, especially having that extra shock in the back. Afterwards, Holly and I rode the mtn bikes in Bent Creek, and we did one of those routes with the big hill climb (59 mins of continuous up but who's counting...) followed by the big whirlygig down, down, down (Green Lick, it's called). Wow what a blast on my new bike. I love that Bella girl. It really does make a difference in the amount of jostling and jerking when you ride over rocks or roots. And there were just a few of those.

We saw the "Julie & Julia" movie Sunday evening. What a treat! I love seeing Meryl Streep in anything, and getting to see her play Julia Child is incredible. She does such a good job laughing in that sing song way that Julia did, lumbering around in all of those old outfits, and wrestling with all that poultry. She made the movie so fun to watch. Just don't go hungry, or you'll be starving by the end. Even I am tempted to cook beef bourgandy after seeing it in the film, and I don't even eat beef.

Next Friday, Holly and I leave for a trip to Scandinavia to celebrate her 50th birthday (which is actually in October). In her honor, I wrote a message in stone (well sort of...) The pink bit is an orchid bloom.

Meet Bella

Things have been more than a little hectic the past few weeks. I am extremely busy at work with more than my share of patients, their phone calls, refill requests, and the mounds of paperwork every primary care doctor has to wade through. Actually, work has been pretty stressful lately with more than a few patients now homeless and unable to afford their medicines due to the economy, another few with new diagnoses of cancer, and many more with complaints of depression and/or anxiety due to work or family issues. Some of the time, it is all I can do to keep from drowning myself in the 20-30 stories I hear each day, but then I remember to breathe, relax my shoulders, take a walk at lunch, and enjoy some delightful patient or co-worker.

Though we schedule our w-e's in Asheville to the max, I finally found time to buy that full suspension mtn bike I have been talking about for over a year. I named it "Bella" which means beauty- so attached is the photo of Bella AsBike. Tee-hee as Susan would say. For those of you who care, it's a Trek Fuel EX 8 Woman's Specific Design, and the technology with that rear shock certainly does make a difference. Now I can bound up the hills faster, higher, easier and all that. I am very happy with my purchase as is Holly who was already way past my long wait to (finally) buy something so nice for myself.

Our Buddy Jo's birthday is coming up Sat Aug 22th. Happy Birthday Georgia Girl.

No Needle Until November

I was scheduled to have my next bone marrow biopsy and general check up yesterday at Duke. My blood counts looked so good that Dr Long gave me a reprieve from the bone marrow biopsy they had planned. I have been getting them every 3 mos since I finished my chemotherapy last November. My white cells are behaving themselves as are my other blood components.

My only problem has been soreness in my right hip near the spot of my past biopsies. We think that I have a little scar tissue aggravating the nerves in that area. I took an X ray to make sure everything is okay, but I haven't heard back yet. I was certainly relieved to get away yesterday without another big needle stick in my rump. Thank you Dr Long.

Holly and I were on vacation in SC last week with my family. My Mom rents a large beach house right on the front beach at Folly near the park area (i.e. fewer homes and lots more wildlife). We had a great time enjoying the sun, the relatively mild temps (upper 80's mostly), and hanging out with family. I got to see both of my sisters, their kids, both of my parents and their spouses as well as my Mama. I think I'm the only one who looks older. Everyone else has managed to age in reverse except for the kids.

Our first day there was my birthday (July 25th), and Mom cooked my favorite - fried shrimp. For dessert, we had a 4 layer chocolate cake that she adorned with 47 candles. We ate famously well during the week-what with Mom cooking all the time, one night out at my Dad's, a dinner downtown at a ritzy restaurant, and plenty of Bessinger's barbeque to fill in the gaps.

Emma and Ethan sure earned their water wings. Emma jumped at least a million breaking waves until she learned to go with them and bodysurf. Ethan may still be submerged peering through his scuba mask. He collected a veritable treasure trove of ocean goodies including starfish, all manner of shells, eggcases, and seaweed. I suspect he'll announce the opening of his ocean exhibit later this month. Next year we'll be lucky if we see him at all. He'll probably have a boat or surfboard by then and merely playing in the surf won't do.

Here is a photo from the birthday-a gorgeous cake not yet decorated with all 47 candles.

What You Can Learn from a 12 yr old

Last weekend Holly's nephews Christopher and Thomas visited us from Kansas City. They flew into Charlotte, where Holly met them and drove up to Asheville for the long w-e. I feel pretty confident in saying that I haven't spent that much time with 2 adolescent boys since, well, I was an adolescent myself. And suffice to say that much has changed in that time period (cellphones, computers, and technology in general) while other things are still the same (girls, braces, and pizza). I don't think we were as fun for the boys as they were to us. For example, Thomas taught us how to send and receive text messages (I swear I am not making this up). Amazingly, he displayed a comfort and ease with everything we threw at him while managing to straddle the boy's world of computer games and 1 # jaw breakers. He was completely comfortable kayaking in the river, paddling on the French Broad rapids in a ducky, and hiking with 2 middle aged women. Apparently we have a black widow spider that lives on our hillside which he found while playing outside (who knew?). Christopher treated Holly to a flute concert (both boys brought their instruments to practice dutifully as their mother requested) and was more talkative than when he visited 2 yrs ago. I am not sure we were very helpful regarding his question about how to attract the interest of girls. Still I was a bit amazed by their knowledge-the weed overtaking my garden is called carpetweed, black widow spiders have one of the strongest webs of any spiders, and origami cranes make good thank you notes. They were really a delight to have visit.

Tomorrow Holly and I leave for Folly Beach to spend a week in SC with my family. It is also my birthday-I'll be 47. What a treat to see another birthday even healthy again. I purposely put off my next bone marrow biopsy until AFTER this trip just in case I get bad news. I didn't want anything to interfere with our vacation week. This way, we can behave like anyone else on vacation-carefree and easy.

Our Buddy Jo

Though it's been almost 2 w-e's now, I wanted to post one of the photos from our trip over to see "our buddy Jo." I cannot take credit for the moniker there, however, as that is often the subject line that Susan uses when she sends out email updates on Jo. The photo here is from our visit to see Jo shortly after Susan baked her a big pound cake that we accompanied to her condo. As always, Jo looked happy and at peace, like the remarkable woman she is.

Last weekend, Dennis and John, our friends from DC, were visiting us. They both retired from government service in October and just moved to a new home in Fort Lauderdale. I hadn't seen them in about 4 yrs, so it was good to catch up and reconnect. We were the last stop on a grand one month tour of friends and acquaintances all up and down the Eastern seaboard from Savannah to Maine and back again. They pulled up Friday in their big Texas truck, as I like to call it, loaded with a month's worth of clothes stuffed behind the seats and bikes in the truckbed. One of the highlights while they were here was our trip out to Saxapahaw, a small rural community, really a crossroads, located on the Haw River to hear music. The area has a community park just across from the river where they have free music every Sat night as well as a farmer's market, Hula hoops for sale and use during the music, and of course, bbq (this is NC afterall). My boss had told me about the fun as she went with her husband and 2 young kids some weeks ago. We took our blankets and picnic to find a place among the families with kids and babies and all of the tie dye. There was a lawn facing the stage for enjoying the music (a great bluegrass band) as well as a slip and slide for the kids and a whole hill of people doing the hula hoop thing. I mean women, children and even guys not too scared to look silly, using a wide variety of hula hoops, which if you haven't looked lately have become more upscale with different sizes, bright colors and even come adorned with fancy ribbons. We had a great time just hanging out for a few hours doing the small town thing with music on the lawn. Very fun.

It's getting to be vacation time. Our friends Miriam and Alex are off in the Pacific Northwest visiting a montage of sights from Vancouver to Seattle and the Olympic peninsula. Laurie is off on a big Alaska hiking adventure, and soon we will be off to Folly Beach for a week. I have been busy at work and weighed down a bit by the serious health problems of my patients. Many of them are stressed to the max (and won't have anything like a vacation) since they have lost their jobs in this economy and are barely making it both financially and emotionally. I can help with some with their medical problems, but I don't see any easy solutions for the rest until the job situation gets better for everyone. It makes me feel mighty fortunate to have a good job and even better to have good job skills and a good career that will always reward me, both emotionally and financially. If all you know how to do is to make Gold Toe socks, like so many of my patients, then you are in big trouble.

I don't want to end on a sour note. I feel really fortunate for all that I have, and most especially, for all of the people who add meaning and love to my life.

July 8, 2008

I have promised myself not to dwell on the past, especially all the difficult or bad things that happened last year. Usually I am so busy enjoying my life now that I rarely even take the time to write here anymore. Sometimes it feels silly to broadcast my comings and goings, especially as my weekdays have become dominated by work while my weekends consist of the commuting flow to and from Asheville.

I don't ever forget all of the love and support I received during difficult circumstances. So let me take this opportunity to thank my partner for helping me through the roughest day last yr which was July 8th, 2008. I had finished my 7 days of continuous chemo in June only to develop one infection and then another. My fever hit 104.2F as I was diagnosed with pneumonia. I felt horrible that night and begged Holly to stay with me in the hospital that night. I truly felt it could be my last day as awful as I felt. I barely had a cough or shortness of breath but my body hurt and wrenched from the high fever and chills. But my doctors found a good combination of antibiotics and anti-fungal medicines which cured everything.

And the most amazing thing is that today, a year later, I am cured, feeling wonderful. I did a 4 mile run this morning, enjoying the gorgeous roses blooming all over Hillsborough, followed by push ups, sit ups, and stretches. Before work, I sipped coffee with chocolate sauce and whipped cream (I call that my dessert cup) while I watched the birds at the feeders outside my bedroom window. If you need more than that to be happy, you've never faced serious illness or death. Several times a week I give thanks for all I have, grateful to be here now. Just call me lucky...