The nieces visit Oregon

Our awesome nieces Wyp and Nico, as they are known for short, honored us with a short and very pleasant visit. They arrived last Thursday evening after hopping around the US on three airplanes each coming from Ithaca NY and Colorado Springs CO. Amazingly, both arrived more or less on time at PDX airport with their luggage. While the rest of the US was melting away in record heat, Oregon was blessed with cool mornings and pleasant sunny afternoons.

Nico and Wyp took full advantage of the Pacific Northwest by sampling nearly every beer available in the region, drinking the local wines, doing some sight seeing in the short time they were here, relaxing and swimming in the lake. In good family tradition plates of food were photographed and shown to the world. The reason for this tradition is unknown, but it does prove one gets fed at our house.

A cool morning at Vista House in the
 Columbia Gorge

The nieces at Multnomah Falls

Waiting 45 minutes in line to
 purchase the world famous Voodoo
Doughnuts in Portland Oregon

Amazingly, old Ithaca friend Katie and her husband
 Ryan managed to find us at the Saturday Art Fair
in Portland and we enjoyed a pleasant
 dinner at the Bridgeport Brewery in the Pearl.

Round Four Update

Yesterday Barend completed round 4 of Chemo and received the results of the brain MRI.  The brain lesions (spots, tumors) have nearly disappeared so the laser knife surgery will not be necessary at this time.  The chemo went, as it usually does, slowly. Still this is made bearable by the good news that it is working well.  Side effects have also diminished so it is also less dreaded than the earliest experiences.  It was an unusually busy day in the infusion room, so for the first time I had to vacate my cushy patient lounge chair for a visitor upright during the second half of the day.  I opted for errands and have a very clean car.

Since Barend is fairing so well on chemo, it was decided that if all went well this time that two more rounds would be completed before transitioning to the maintenance regimen of one drug every three weeks.

Our next visitors, Nico and Wyp (nieces) arrive tomorrow for a short visit which includes Alexandra's birthday party on Saturday.  So time again for fun, family and life on the lake.

Summer Camp Opa & Oma

It is the first week of July, the weather is still gorgeous and we enjoyed the company of Jacqueline and Adam and their kids, who flew in from California for an extended 4^th of July vacation. Alexandra and Emmett joined the party for the first couple of days, and we had a houseful of happy kids and adults. 

Bonnie had arranged Pony Camp for the girls, and the next morning they went to the stables at the end of the road in their brand new cowboy boots. They had riding lessons, pony grooming, arts and crafts projects and pic-nics.

The afternoons were spent on the lake. Sara had provided us with a six person floating raft which was a gigantic hit, despite the absence of the six cup holders we had expected. The biggest attraction for the grandkids was not the leisurely float in the middle of the lake, but Life Guard Adam who would suddenly appear out of the depths of the lake, and throw everyone in the lake.

While the girls were at Pony Camp, Adam and I went to the neighborhood golf course and managed to complete 18 holes. The course was in nice shape and the Oregon weather is total perfect for this game. The results were more than satisfactory because I came home with the same ball with which I started and managed to (just) break 100. Adam did a lot better at 90 while getting used to the course and this was only a prelude to what happened the next day: He scored a life time best of 79!

Jacqueline meanwhile stayed in shape in the local gym, Emmett was entertained by Bonnie or built a gnome house with only a little help from Opa.

We celebrated the 4^th of July in Molalla Oregon where we visited the Molalla Buckaroo, the annual rodeo and fair. We did all the things one would expect to do on the fourth of July, including the rides at the fair (Bonnie and I skipped that part), ate gourmet festival food such as pulled pork, fries and funnel cakes, cheered the cowboys at the rodeo, and watched the fireworks that concluded the show. It was a lot of fun and it felt like the real American 4^th of July celebration. 

Adam and Jacqueline had invited their Portland friends Bruce and Vicky to visit us the next day. They also brought their two kids and we had a capacity crowd on the 6 person float.

The parents went home on Saturday while the grand-kids stayed on for a couple more days.  We had a fantastic time and were glad everyone was able to join us.

The Cat Scan result was good.

Somehow the CAT scan got organized in the nick of time. Our Oncologist appointment was Tuesday morning early, and I had the last scan of the day on Monday. Phew! We can now confirm that the improvement in well being that was taking place was confirmed by the scan.  The results showed positively that the tumors have stopped growing and some have even shrunk. The previously collapsed lung continued to deploy and there has been no additional fluid build up in the lung. The current regimen of chemo will continue for another two to three times after which yet another scan should confirm if a lighter mix of chemo should be sufficient to keep tumor growth at bay.

Texting in the oncologist's office.
Notice the new
2013 US Open golf outfit. Who knows I may
be using it one of these days. 

The insurance company is going to have a fit with all these scans, because the oncologist is planning an MRI of my head to check if the small tumor in the brain is shrinking as well or has to be removed with a non invasive gamma knife: they zap your head and that's it.
This is all very good news and it obviously adds some more time to this beautiful life. The oncologist carefully answered "I hope so" when we suggested this should add one to two years. But what the heck, some survive 5 or more years and my permit to park on the reserved spaces for disabled people is good until January 2020.

Family Visits

Summer Picnics

In the past two weeks we enjoyed family visits. Tammo and Aafke arrived on Saturday, after visiting their daughters in Colorado. Sara and Josh and the grand-kids joined us on Sunday. We had a stretch of unusually good summer weather and everyone was playing outside, pic-nicking or looking for gold coins the gnomes had left for us. No-one has, as yet, swum in the lake though  Alexandra has had both legs dunked in to test the temperature of the lake. 

In Lake Oswego and in front of the Dutch Brothers' Coffee House.  

Hendrik Jan and Tine arrived the following Monday on the direct flight from Amsterdam. They had some delay at customs and an off airport car rental, but managed to make it to the house for beer time. 

It does not happen very often that all three brothers end up in the same place at the same time, so we were determined to get a photo record of this event in front of the Dutch Brothers’ Coffee House. The chance of getting all three brothers to flash a smile at the same time is about as good as winning the Mega Millions jackpot. Even the “Group Photo” app couldn't fix this. With or without the smiles, we had a fun time and were glad that we had the chance to be together

Stone Cliff Inn

Tammo and Hendrik Jan provided some free labor in the yard and with the help of my new Easter Chainsaw (it is yellow and I thought it was customary in rural Oregon to give each other chainsaws for Easter, so I bought one), fallen trees and dead bushes were cleared away, even though some of them were underneath a hornets nest. Hendrik Jan got stung, but the work continued. Thank you, the view of the lake has greatly improved.

Tammo and Aafke left on Thursday while Hendrik Jan and Tine explored the Oregon Cascades together. Fortunately the nice summer weather continued after a bit of rain and they experienced Crater Lake in full sunshine.

Gardening Outfit?

Jacqueline honored us by arriving Friday for a Father’s day visit. I asked her if that included a Father-Daughter activity in the yard and she responded that she had indeed brought her gardening outfit. I never knew Lululemon made gardening outfits.

On Sunday, we drove to Hillsboro for a Father's Day lunch with Sara and the opening of Peter Rabbit, a musical in which our granddaughter Alexandra had an important role. She was of course spectacular, and we enjoyed the play very much. This was followed by Alice in Wonderland for older kids, in which our granddaughter did not star. It was very well done but one and a half hours of sitting was bit of a challenge for our behinds considering a 55 minute drive home. 

When no news really is good news.

After Barend's post on Wednesday relating tales of theater, meals and a day of chemotherapy everything has fallen quiet.  This is due, not to a lack of energy or feeling bad, in fact, the opposite is true.  Barend is driving his "sissy wagon" again, with no difficulty, thus regaining his freedom from me and the family vehicle.  

The struggle with nausea after chemo was greatly diminished this time due to precautionary medicating and the addition of a new drug minimizing stomach acid.

The result is fairly miraculous, the garden gnomes have had someone to look after them and the rabbit down the hole at the top of the road has new visiting bears.  Lots of preparation has gone into setting up the yard to take advantage of our miraculous week of summer weather.  We have family coming to stay, so we want to make the most of our beautiful surroundings.  Barend hung the hammock we received from Santa

We have been taking our afternoon rest time on the lawn and then adding drinks to make it cocktail time.  All the hours are 'Happy Hour' and the consumption of alcohol is severely limited for one member of this family and I take longer than one hour with my wine consumption.  This is also the chosen location for after dinner coffee 

So folks, if you don't see us on this blog, you know the no news really is good news!

 

Chemo Date Night

On Monday afternoon, June 3rd, Bonnie and I went to Portland for an evening with Khaled Houseini, the author of "The Kite Runner", in the Newmark Theater downtown Portland. It turned out to be delightful, as evenings with Bonnie usually are, but the nice weather and the witty and inspiring interview with Houseini made this a particularly good one. We checked in at the Hilton across the street from the theater (Thank you SCA for providing all those HHonors points), and then had an excellent dinner on the side walk terrace of The Heathman hotel. The dinner was exquisite. Since my objective is to eat 3000 calories a day, Nouvelle Cuisine was perhaps not the most sensible choice, but it was a fantastic meal in the open air. The next morning I ate a big breakfast that must have added at least 1000 calories and also scored 3 extra muffins from the buffet for lunch (the waitress got a good tip). That put me back on schedule.

We checked in at the Cancer Clinic at 10:30, the Nurse Practitioner checked all my vital signs, and they were all perfect : blood pressure 120/70, 97% oxygen, right temperature, no infections. If it weren't for the cancer (which you cannot see on the outside) I would be the picture of perfect health. I walk with a bit of a limp but do not need a walking stick and the limp will, hopefully, disappear soon.
The chemo infusion process takes about 6 to 7 hours in all, and by 5:30 we headed home. The next session is scheduled in three weeks, but prior to that I should have a CT scan  to check the results of the radiation and chemo treatments on the progress of the cancer.  To check who is winning, go team!

We spent the evening on our terrace enjoying the warm summer evening and had some local Pinot Noir with our nice neighbors. The wine was excellent but we better get some pillows for the teak dining chairs or no one will ever visit us again.