Milestones

Congratulations to our grandson, Eric, who graduated from Pacific U this morning with a degree in History. He plans to teach high school and coach baseball after he gets his teaching certification from the local Concordia University. That will take one more year. The graduation ceremony was nice, if a bit early (9:30 am) complete with band and bagpipes for the processions in and out of the stadium. Pretty neat. Years ago I completed my degree requirements at the end of a summer and so didn't have a formal ceremony. I marched down to the mail box and back when my degree arrived.
 Pomp and Circumstance.

Yesterday was the step-daughters last day at her job, finally. They had asked her to extend her final day for several weeks to help with her final "Month End" closing of the books and to train her replacement. But that's all done now and she should be arriving in Boise this evening. She's already exploring job leads and is ready to look at houses. She will be staying with her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter until those details are worked out.
 The beginning of a new chapter.

In other news:
I went through nivolumab treatment 3 of 26 last week. Once again no side effects. We met with the oncology RN the day before. She wanted to know about our experience so far and assess my health to see if any adjustment were necessary. Not this time. We'll see her every couple of months. I will also get another PET scan in early July to make sure no more "hyper-metabolic" sites have sprung up. The CT Scan to check on the kidney tumor growth/no growth will be in early August.

In the mean time its "Steady As She Goes!"

Guests and Expert Opinions

These guys showed up for breakfast last week. This picture was taken before the dog noticed them...

They came up from the river to munch on some tasty leafs and buds.

In other news, we saw the Urologist last Friday. He's never treated a patient getting immunotherapy for a different type of cancer. His main concern is if it will hurt the healing process were he to do surgery. Normally he wouldn't fool around the tumor. He would  just go in and remove the offending mass, no questions asked. My Oncologist told him that it would have no effect on healing and should keep the 5.3 cm mass on my left kidney from growing.  The Urologist talked to us a lot about kidneys, renal cancer and options. That's what it comes down to, options. I am not experiencing any pain around the left kidney (much higher in the back than you would guess!) and do not have blood in my urine. These are major signs of tumor aggression. So, he is taking a wait and see position. I am scheduled for a CT Scan in August, three months. He said that if the mass hasn't shrunk at all by then, if it is the same size or has grown at all he will remove it. Depending on exactly where the tumor is on the kidney and how involved and attached it is to the kidney he will remove the mass or, if deemed too risky because of its location in relation to the major blood and lymph system connections, he may simply remove the whole kidney.

Possibilities for the future.

In the mean time I go back for my third infusion session next Wednesday.

The Other Shoe Dropping

The kidney biopsy result are in: primary renal carcinoma. Kidney cancer.
The doctor was apologetic when giving me the news. On the bright side he did say that it was very good that it was not the result of the melanoma spreading but rather a new incidence of cancer. Apparently kidney cancer is not as aggressive as melanoma. I meet with the urologist in two weeks to discuss where we go from here. I guess the options run from do nothing and watch it for changes up to removing part or all of the kidney. The oncologist said that the Opdivo treatments for the melanoma would also keep the kidney cancer from growing. Won't shrink it or kill it, just keep it from getting bigger. A step in the right direction.

My first Opdivo treatment was Tuesday morning. It went smoothly and, knock on wood, I haven't experienced any side effects yet. Of course there are some possible side effects, like liver or thyroid issues that cannot be detected without a blood test. My blood gets analyzed before each treatment. My next treatment is May 1.

In the mean time I do more research... kidney cancer, nivolumab, melanoma, cancer research results. The internet sure makes it easy to access all sorts of information - some interesting, some comforting, some scary, VERY scary. It's hard learning enough to be able to ask good questions of the doctors and nurses. I must say that everyone we've dealt with so far have been sympathetic and understanding.

Life goes on. It's a beautiful spring day here, lots of sunshine, temperature in the mid 60's. I spent several hours in the yard this morning and afternoon trimming and mowing the lawn and trimming shrubs and bushes. I also cleaned off the swings and dug out their cushions. When I was done with my chores we spent some time out back watching the birds soaring on the wind currents, listening to the river and getting some vitamin D courtesy of the Sun (but not too much...)

Clean Living Pays Off

The liver biopsy results are in: BENIGN.    Woo Hoo !!!!!!

That was certainly good news. Now we turn our attention to the mass on my left kidney. The doctor looking at my PET Scan described it as 

"[The] hypermetabolic mixed solid and cystic left renal mass is suspicious for primary renal neoplasm"

Once again the doctor postponed my first infusion treatment so as not to muddy the kidney biopsy results. Wednesday they called to make a tentative appointment for next Thursday. And again the only site they do this procedure is an hour and a half from where we live now. They start very early in the morning there but did slide my appointment to mid-morning to give us more time to make the trip. 

OK. 

Then they called yesterday. The radiologist scheduled to do the procedure wanted a better look. They squeezed me in yesterday afternoon for a quick CAT Scan. Now I've had an MRI scan, a PET scan and a CT scan. One more and I get a free scan???

My first nivolumab infusion is now scheduled for the 17th barring any unforeseen developments. I can wait...

Nevermind... for now.

My medical case manager called yesterday. The oncologist said he didn't want anything like the first nivolumab (Opdivo) treatment to "taint" the liver biopsy results. So, today's first infusion was canceled. It's now scheduled for April 3rd. I sent a message to my doctor asking if he wanted the kidney biopsy done before that first infusion treatment also. If so, they'd better get it scheduled soon!

In the mean time, we wait.

Scars and next...

The dermatologist cut out the basal cell carcinoma on my shoulder and stitched it shut.

A week later one of the stitches broke. I worried about it for nearly a week putting bandages over it to keep it from snagging and unraveling even more. I called but was told to keep the original appointment the following week. I didn't have any problems with the incision opening up. I guess I heal fast. 

We were busy two weeks ago:

Monday               MRI Scan

Tuesday               PET Scan

Wednesday          Initial meeting with the Oncology Doctor re where we go from here: Opdivo (aka nivolumab) treatments every 2 weeks for a year.

Thursday             Met with the Oncology Case Manager about details – first infusion scheduled for 20^th

Friday                  Call from the Oncologist - the PET scan showed some suspicious spots: 2 on my liver and 1 on my left kidney. Hyper-metabolic activity he called it…

Only one appointment last week. We met with the financial aid officer last week to see if we could get some relief from the $5k+ per treatment drug cost. Yes, we can. That eases some of the worry. 

My surgeon called late Friday afternoon. He wanted to let me know he was referring me to a Urologist to look at the mass on my left kidney. We talked a bit about the biopsy’s, how they’re performed, a little bit of what to expect but he wouldn’t speculate regarding what exactly the spots were: melanoma related, another type of cancer, benign masses or smudges on the scan. He's also ordering an ultra-sound of the rest of my lymph nodes in my arm pit. Then they will get checked every four months for changes.

So, now I'm just waiting for the first infusion treatment Tuesday. There is a long list of side effects. I've been speculating as to what to expect and what I will experience. This is not the best topic to be dwelling on at this time...

We have to drive up to Portland for the liver biopsy on the 27th. They'll use ultrasound to exactly locate the areas in question. Once again I can't eat or drink anything before hand. I've been told to expect a several hour recovery time while my liver stops bleeding. Hopefully I will be done before the afternoon rush hour because it will be P's turn to battle traffic for the several hour drive home.

Looks like I still have a lot of doctors and appointments in my future.

Don't ever turn your back on a surgeon, this may be the result!

Life goes on

NOTE: I wrote this in mid-February meaning to get back and flush out the details. It's been a month now, and I am working on documenting my continuing adventures in the health system. I should have a new entry in several days. In the mean time, here is how it all got started.



It has been a year plus since I retired.
I think it is safe to say that I have gotten used to a more relaxed schedule for my days. The weekends are truly becoming days of rest for us. We now tend to avoid shopping on those days because of all the people who work during the week and the weekend IS their days off.

I changed health providers at the beginning of the year. I had been very lax the last several years when it came to going to the doctor. I have been blessed with a very healthy body, no real problems, not taking any prescriptions: if it wasn't a bloody stump it could be ignored. Well, first thing I got sent to a dermatologist for a rash on my shoulder that wouldn't go away. The doctor identified three spots including my shoulder to do a biopsy on. Two including my shoulder turned out to be basal cell carcinoma but the third was diagnosed as melanoma.

After the biopsy, marks by the surgeon as to where and how much he would cut out. It's about 4-5 inches top to bottom. That's my right shoulder blade next to it. 

Last Wednesday I had surgery to remove the melanoma. The doctor got his "pound of flesh." They used dye to trace body fluid movement from the melanoma site to a lymph node in my right arm pit. So, after excising the melanoma, he shaved my arm pit and cut out the sentinel lymph node (that's what they call whichever lymph node fluids go to first from the melanoma.)

I am recovering. Next week I get to go back to the dermatologist so she can cut out the basal cell carcinoma sites. This will only require a local anesthetic. Not nearly as traumatic. I should come out of it with some bandages and a clear head, not like trying to recover from the general anesthetic the gas passer used for the melanoma surgery. I'd met the surgeon earlier but I met the rest of the surgical team just before surgery. The anesthesiologist seemed to be in a very good mood, explaining how he was going to make me feel VERY good and put me to sleep. He questioned my susceptibility to nausea. It doesn't take much to make me seasick, so he added some anti-nausea drugs too. I did feel very good...until I woke up in post-op. I wasn't in any pain but was on the verge of vomiting until we drove the 45 minutes back home and I was able to crawl into bed. Having a memory foam mattress helped a lot in that it conformed to the new contours of my back without undue pressure. I could certainly feel the pain and tugging on the incision every time I tried to move, especially when I rolled over.

Falls City Namesake

Up Stream

The Falls

Down Stream

Went for a drive yesterday. Lots of sunshine after the rain last week. The rivers are still up a bit. We ended up in Falls City to see what the falls on the Little Luckiamute River looked like. Fairly tranquil up and down stream but at the falls it is very loud and fast. You can see the rainbow caused by the mist and sunshine right in the middle of the picture. The white dot in the middle of the Down Stream photo is a No Trespassing sign. You'd have to be a mountain goat to get down there, though last time we visited there were a few fishermen trying their luck from that side of the river.

Just one of the little gems in our corner of the world.

Retirement

It’s official: I’m retired.

I started the new year not having to worry about getting up on-time. Not having to drive for over an hour to my place of work. Not having to worry about what sort of problems and issues need to be solved and addressed before lunch. It’s nice. Especially since we’ve seen some of the worst driving conditions - snow and ice in several years. Had I still been working I would have telecommuted from home.

Now I have a whole new set of things to worry about: should I get dressed or is it a PJ worthy day? When should I take the dog for a walk? And is there time for a nap in my busy day? Decisions, decisions…

There is a long list of tasks on my To-Do List. Most are things that have been put off for later because of the chunk of time the commute to and from work took out of the day. It’s been a little over a year since we moved into this brand-new house. There is a lot of stuff in the garage that hasn’t moved since the weekend we moved in. P has grand ideas about putting a car in there. Everyone has to have goals, right? We put in a fence to keep the dog from falling into the river and then had a small patio and path to the gate. The house is built on old pasture land so enough green stuff grows that I have to mow it, but we still need to do landscaping and put in a real yard. We have to wait a couple months to start on that.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying not getting up before the crack of dawn every day. Every so often it hits me that I don’t have to worry about work anymore. Ahhhh… 

Just for those two things, what’s not to like about retirement?

Merry Christmas!

It's been a long time. Years...
Circumstances have changed some. Over the summer we got serious about downsizing. After almost 30 years in the same home we packed up, tossed out, donated to Goodwill, threw out some more, gave more to Goodwill and finished packing up the rest. Most of it went into a large storage space on one of the hottest weekends of the summer. The house went on the market the next weekend. Several couples looked at the house while we were finishing cleaning and hauling away the remaining stuff. Apparently we timed it right because the house was on the market for only three days and we got our asking price. An old friend offered us use of a bedroom in her mobile home while we worked on selling our home and buying another. The inspections and repairs and paperwork involved took a month and a half. My work commute went from 10 minutes over half an hour. We went from the two of us plus the dog in 2200+ sq ft into a master bedroom and sharing a 1100+ double wide with S. and her four cats. Quite an adjustment.

The requirements for our next home were: 1) smaller, 2) single story, 3) high speed internet and 4) not in the same area we've lived for the past 30 + years. Some place different. Also, I'm starting to get on in years, eligible for Social Security in early 2017 so we didn't want where I work to be an overriding factor in location. Once we knew how much we had to work with we started looking in earnest. We had to expand our search area to further and further away from the old neighborhood to find suitable possibilities while waiting for our old house to close. Cornelius, Forest Grove, Gaston, Yamhill, Colton, Salem, Gales Creek, Dallas and finally Sheridan. Shortly after closing on our old house we looked at a brand new house in a small subdivision that looked promising except there was an HOA. Our realtor contacted the builder and learned he had another home in the area about to go on the market. On a cul-de-sac, backed up onto the South Yamhill River, single story, in our price range and the property line extends to the middle of the river. And it wasn't finished yet so we could choose the appliances, fixtures and the like. It didn't take too long before we decided this was the one we were looking for.

The river looking down from the edge of our backyard

We picked out hardware, light fixtures, and appliances and checked on got the contents of both storage units into it for one trip to the new house. Stepson Scott is a whiz at loading a truck! I took the week before Thanksgiving off to work on unpacking and settling in. We downsized when we moved out of the old house but we're finding that that wasn't nearly enough. There has been and will be many more trips to the Goodwill in our future. Naturally the week after we moved in we started experiencing some of the heaviest rain the area has had in years.

The river close to the peak from the safety of  our living room 

Later that night it got up to the edge of the back yard before going down. We have been watching it go up and down ever since.

The river level yesterday from the edge of the backyard

My commute to work has gone from 10 minutes to half an hour to now over an hour in the morning and at least 1.5 hours coming home. Some days it seems like all I do is drive, work and sleep. We hired a new Quality Manager last month to take some of the load off and prepare for anticipated new business. We are preparing for an important customer audit in mid January. Doing well will mean more opportunities and require higher levels of support. It will all be worth it in the long run.
I was thinking seriously about early retirement until the boss surprised me with a promotion and a hefty raise. Not so much now. We'll see how long the extra money makes the commute worth it. We have plans for the back yard that the extra $'s will help pay for - a fence to keep the dog from falling into the river, a lawn, a path to the river bank, a spot for a covered swing and maybe a spot to wet a fishing line from. I have to double check, I think the state stocks the river with trout in the spring. Imagine, catching dinner from your backyard. Not so far fetched for us now...

In other news, the oldest stepson, Troy fell two weeks ago and broke (fractured) his left shoulder (he's left handed).  Instead of surgery they want to immobilize it for up to six weeks. No cast but his wrist and upper arm are velcro'ed to his torso to keep the shoulder from moving. He went through two weeks of physical and occupational therapy in the hospital and will be getting daily visits from the therapists now that they've let him go home. He worked from home 4 days a week and his boss has let him know that he can up that to everyday until he gets the all clear from the doctor.

Compared to that everyone else is doing just hunky-dory.

Springtime for ...

A very nice weekend. Temps in the 70's, lots of sunshine. We took a drive in the country to see the new spring growth. A lot of green out there. Very refreshing after the drab gray of winter. The big maple tree out back has all it's leafs now too. Lots of shade for warmer weather - temps in the 80's possible next weekend if the weathermen are to be believed.
There were a number of milestones this week: a birthday for P, granddaughter Tyf graduating and becoming a Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH) and our dog Ty becoming the end of his line, genetically speaking. Yesterday we attended the ceremony where Tyf took the oath and received her RDH pin, the symbol of her accomplishment. She has a couple more state boards before shes fully certified and can practice on the public. No problem!

Ty, a rare moment when he was standing still. Obviously he thinks someone has a treat...

Highly Volatile

Wait 5 minutes and it will change. How true for the weather this spring. It was very nice for once at lunch time, the sun so warm that it made me drowsy, almost put me to sleep. And then, not long after the sky darkened, the wind picked up. It started to rain sideways and then it hailed. Small compared to the stuff the Midwest gets but lots of hail for us.

Ten minutes later it had all stopped. I ran to the store and at places along the way the ground was white, there was so much hail it looked like it had snowed. A couple hours later it was all gone and the sun was trying to peak through the clouds again. Bailey slept through it all. He's getting pretty old, nothing seems to phase him much any more.

We're going to see if we can get in to see Titanic in 3D this afternoon. With limited showings nothing is guaranteed. We have a Groupon for the local Cinetopia. We'll watch in style! We've seen the 3D demos in the stores. I hope we can stand 3 1/2 hours with 3D glasses on.

Still Here

School has started again. And with Ma Natures usual sense of humor we are finally experiencing the summer we missed in June, July and August. On the weekends we take our walks early, in the cool of the day. Having this heat wave in September isn't so bad, at least it cools down at night, gives the house a chance to cool off. Much easier to sleep at night. We close the house up mid morning to keep the cool in. It works for the most part. Very busy at work. Lots of projects going on and lots of demands from customers. As the quality guy I get to be right in the middle of most of them, especially the problems. Some of the sights on our walks

This guy was very industrious Labor Day morning.

Sunny days

We visited with T and her boyfriend last Sunday. They were finishing up brewing 5 gallons of beer when we arrived. I helped cap the last of the bottles. We sat out side for a while. I sat in the sun too long, over 20 minutes before P had me move into the shade. I paid for it later. My nose is starting to peel. And I discovered another problem with being a red-head besides fair skin: thinning hair. I'm working on a nice male pattern bald spot, just like the new Duke of Cambridge, but the hair on top is thinning to the point that I burned the scalp on the top of my head too. Very tender! I discovered that Monday morning in the shower. Now, that will be fun when it starts to peel...

We're suppose to get our 2nd 70+ degree day today. Smack dab in the middle of the work week. Figures.

Happy Easter

Boy, what a difference a day makes. It was dry with lots of sunshine yesterday, temp just over 70 (for the first time this year). The sound of lawnmowers was everywhere during the day and the smell of bbqs wafted over the neighborhood in the early evening. I char'ed burgers for dinner. It was a nice day. This morning? We woke up to cool gray skies with sprinkles off and on throughout the day. They were 'on' during our walk this morning. It still smell like wet dog around here.

Ma Nature has been trying her darndest to spruce things up around here

The trees are just about to break out the leafs and of course there are plenty of dandelions to go around

My back is still sore from pulling weeds yesterday.

I've been plenty busy at work. I was a little concerned what I would be doing to fill my days once we finished the SSQA audit but it certainly hasn't been a problem. Lot's of changes to follow through on, details to take care of and problems to resolve. We had some excitement several weeks ago: a small roof fire caused by the afterburner on the new kiln. It turns out we have a wooden roof on the building! The heat insulators have been sufficient for all the others up until now. Unfortunately the fire started right at the roof, above the sprinkler system. It happened around 5 am. The fire was out and the fire trucks all gone by the time I got to work by 8. All the kilns got shut down when it happened, as you might expect. Luckily all but one were at a firing process stage where it didn't hurt to turn them off. Even still, it caused a glitch in the manufacturing pipeline that we've just about smoothed out. Lets put it this way: we were still able to meet revenue goals for the month and quarter. The wheels of commerce keep rolling on regardless of the difficulties.

T was over yesterday. She had some jeans to be altered. It was a good visit. Tyfini is ending up her time at U of Idaho this semester. She is still waiting to hear if she has been accepted into any of the programs she's applied to. Surprisingly (to us at least) there are a number of schools the offer dental hygienist programs around here. T is starting to get used to the idea that her daughter will be back home for more than a visit or school break. A reverse "empty nest"? The grandson has been busy with sports and church activities recently. No driving lessons from me lately. Ah, to be young and have that kind of energy... Heck! Just to have that kind of energy!

Welcome to Spring

We hit 60 for the time this year today AND it didn't rain! The neighbors celebrated by bbq'ing this evening. It smelled wonderful. I had a colonoscopy Wednesday. My last solid food meal was Sunday evening. I was empty from stem to stern. The doc found 4 small polyps, nothing serious. Now I'm working on refilling my system. So many choices. That bbq made me hungry all over again even though I'd eaten an hour earlier. This weekend I'll crank up ours: burgers, maybe a pork tenderloin. Yum!

The SSQA audit it over. We hit our goal of 5.0 according to the auditors. They've turned their report into Applied Materials who have to review it, approve it and flip the switch in their database changing us from "Conditional" to "Approved". Only then do I get to stop filling out first article reports on a sampling of every shipment we send them. I've had to do it so often that it's almost routine. A routine Chinese fire drill every couple of weeks, more often towards the end of the month. Lots of extra paperwork.

And the fun never stops: we have another customer audit the beginning of May. This is the one that hit us shortly after the last SSQA audit in August. He ended up writing us up saying in effect "what ever they have to do for SSQA, that goes for us too". He was happy with the copy of the roadmap we were using to track all the things we were doing for SSQA. He should be happy with the state of our Quality Systems too. All we have to do is keep all the things we started going strong. It gets me up in the mornings and makes the days go quick.

On the weekends I've been giving driving lessons to the grandson. He's moved from practicing in my truck (an automatic) to learning to drive a stick shift in the Rav4. It's surprisingly forgiving. He's got the basics down. Now it's a matter of practice, practice and more practice. He's a freshman in high school and made the baseball team as a "swing" player between the varsity and the Freshman or "B" teams. That means he get's to travel and suit up for the varsity games and even play some if and when they get 20 runs ahead. Don't laugh, it happened this week. He got to play a little first base. I'll hear all about it when we're out on the road Saturday morning. Troy visits with P while we're out driving around. It's a good time to hash out the problems of the world.

It smells like "wet dog" around here

It was drizzling for both dog walks this weekend. Now that I'm working again the boys really look forward to the weekend, probably more so than I do. The official start of spring is just around the corner and the temperature has finally climbed back to normal: low 50's. A very humid low 50's. The cold weather (and extra rain) has been great up on the mountain. There will be skiing until May, perhaps even June this year. Too bad I'm not one who enjoys that sort of thing. Much too cold for my blood.

We had our ISO audit last week. It went well. The auditor has been auditing the company for the last 1o years or so. He knew more about some aspects of the company that I or my boss did. Between the two of us we have less than a years experience at this company. The auditor found a couple minor things in the procedures for us to fix. Not bad at all. The real challenge starts tomorrow: two auditor will spend the next three days looking over everything we've been doing since they were here six months ago. They left a list of 41 "Opportunities for Improvement" we've been working on since then. The audit is based on about 120 questions in a 15 categories. They score us on a 10 point scale in 4 aspects of each category. Last time we scored just over a 3 in the key areas and 3.6 overall. We have to get that up to a 5 overall. Right now we are a "Conditionally Approved" supplier that has to submit first article samples tested by a third party every time we ship them parts. A lot of extra time, effort and paperwork. We move to "Approved" when we achieve a 5 over all. We have come a long way in the last four months. The question is: have we come far enough? Even if we have, they will be back in a year to do it again. By then we'll have to get our overall score up to at least 5.5. All this for less than 20% of our business. Don't get me wrong, all this is a good thing for our operation, it is something we should do/ would have done sooner or later. It helps with other customer audits too. The SSQA (Standardized Supplier Quality Assessment) audit usually cover 90% or more of what other customer look for in a supplier quality system. It's just that having to do it in a crash effort in six months is pretty stressful.

Once we get past the audit, I'm scheduled for a routine colonoscopy at the end of the month. The fun just never stops around here...

Inclement Weather

While not unheard of, it is unusual to get snow this late in February. It will make for an interesting day. I believe it's suppose to stick around until tomorrow and then it's going to get cold for a few days. The weatherman is calling for temperatures in the teen's over the weekend. Brrrrrrrr!

Frosty Morning

Just above freezing this morning for the walk with the boys. It was raining when we went to bed last night. A cold front moved in overnight and made pretty ice patterns on the cars.

You can't see it very well but the pattern on the truck canopy has little hairs of ice crystals standing up, making the patterns. Mini stalagmites!

It's going to be a beautiful sunny day. First is a driving lesson for grandson E. Time to try a short drive on the freeway in my truck and then some more practice with the stick shift in P's car. P get's to visit with Troy while we're out terrorizing the other drivers.

At work it's two weeks to the two day ISO audit and a week after we get hit with a three day SSQA (Standardized Supplier Quality Assurance) audit. It's the second one that has us worried.

Signs of Spring?

Saw these on our walk this morning along with a flight of geese heading in a northernly direction.

Spring can't be far behind.