Life on the lake and treatment update

Since the last post about the short but sweet visit with Nico and Wyp, Camp Beaver Lake has undergone some retooling.  Barend discovered a leak in the water main coming down the hill to the house which needed attention.  A very large hole was dug in the yard in attempts to find the bit of pipe that was leaking and in the meantime a pipe under the kitchen sink started leaking.  Fortunately, this was discovered before any real damage was done.  Not so the pipe in the toy garage which broke early enough to drench the carpets and toys.  Barend had two days of major cleaning and drying out to restore the space to it's original splendor (this too is an indication of his increased strength and stamina).  Since then, most repairs have taken place and we discovered that the pressure valve coming off the water main had broken and caused all of the above problems.

The weather continued to be warm and beautiful as we restocked and prepared for our next visitors, our good friends Anne and Martin Kybert from Pennsylvania.  They arrived late on the 30th after some flight delays and mechanical failure of the navigation system driving from the airport (thank heavens for cell phones with maps and navigation).

After a day of catching up on family news, relaxing and lunching at the Stonecliff Inn on the following  day, Thursday, we toured Portland downtown, visited the Rock Bottom Brew Pub and the Lan Su Chinese Garden.  

 

Friday Anne and Martin began their tour of Crater Lake, Bend and the Columbia Gorge returning on Monday afternoon to relax and visit before their early departure the following day.

That was yesterday and after they left for the airport we prepared to report to the hospital for chemo and the oncologist visit.  Again, the news was very positive.  The scans showed further decrease in size of the lung cancers and since Barend is doing so well with the chemo we will do one more round of the two drug therapy before we start on maintenance.  Dr. Sanborn is very pleased and, in reply to our question regarding revising the timeline, she was confident that we would be visiting her much longer than her original estimate and that new therapies would likely be available to us as we progress in time.

Today, Barend is preparing to play golf in preparation for the tournament this weekend.  I should say that that is an indication that his quality of life has greatly improved since the beginning of this journey.