The Olympics are over

It sure is good that the Olympics are over. We are big Olympics fans and spent much of the past two weeks in front of the TV. We have really enjoyed watching - but they sure have kept us late pretty often. For me, two of the swims were fabulous - the men's 4 X 100 medley relay and Michael Phelps' race that he won by a fingernail. And...that guy from Jamaica, Usain Bolt sure is fast!

I continue with my treatments by Dr Yang - the Doctor of Chinese Medicine. She is using a combination of acupuncture, cupping, electric pulse therapy and herbal patches & pills. The progress on my frozen shoulder and neuropathy in my feet is amazing. She is working to increase my "chi" - energy level and some of the treatments are for my lungs. I'll take anything I can get right now.

One year since remission

Well...today was my "one year since remission" check up. And, it was great. Dr. Einhorn told me that my xray was improved from last time (two months ago). He said that he compared and discussed this xray versus May 07 with the head of radiology. Dr. Einhorn says that the progress that I have made is remarkable. And, it is particularly great that I have improved over the past few months with no treatments of any kind. My last Avastin was in late April/early May.

Needless to say, I am very relieved. I had some anxiety when the Avastin treatments were done. I was concerned that cancer would become active again shortly after. But...not the case. Hurray!!

acupuncture

Well...I am amazed at the progress being made on my frozen shoulder by Dr Yang. Just over a week ago, I had an almost constant throbbing in my shoulder and upper arm and I had a range of motion of about 35 degrees - I could raise my arm straight to the side about to waist height. Now, after four treatments, most of the pain is gone and I can raise my arm to the side just over my shoulder - maybe about 100 degrees. I am now able to do things that were painful - like tucking in my shirt, reaching into my back left pocket, closing my car door. I am really pleased with the progress.

Yesterday, she started treatment for the peripheral neuropathy in my feet. She is using acupuncture and electrical pulse treatments. My feet seem better today; but, I am waiting to see of any improvements stay with me.

It was kinda funny on Sunday - we had cards at our house and had five other couples playing. When the topic of my acupuncture came up, all of the strange comments, myths, etc started coming up. However, nobody could deny the progress of my improved range of motion in my arm and the reduction of the pain. Most people were still a little uncomfortable because I think there is such a lack of knowledge and understanding about Chinese medicine.

Acupunture

Well...after quite a while of being told to "wait" for my frozen shoulder and the neropathy in my feet to get better, I made a decision to try alternatives. Yesterday, I visited Dr Yang, who is a Doctor of Chinese Medicine and is a chiropractor. We discussed my issues and agreed to try a few things to alleviate the pain. We agreed to focus on my shoulder first.

So...yesterday was my first ever acupunture treatment. Dr Yang inserted somewhere around 14 to 18 needles in my legs. The basic belief is that pain is caused by an energy imbalance. Inserting the needles helped to "push" excess energy from certain body areas to those areas lacking energy. The needle insertions really didn't hurt - some I didn't even feel other than the pressure that I knew she was inserting a needle. After my legs, she next inserted needles into my right hand and arm. (The frozen shoulder is on my left.) Finally, she inserted three needles into my left hand and just above the wrist.

After inserting all the needles, she lightly rubbed my left shoulder with an ointment of some kind - smelled like menthol. She turned out the lights, told me to take a few deep breathes, said to sleep if I could and she left the room. Unfortunately, I was not able to sleep. After a few minutes of sitting very still, my left shoulder and the muscles on the back of my arm started to throb. It got pretty uncomfortable. When Dr Yang finally returned, I told her about the pain and she immediately rubbed my arm/shoulder with more of the ointment, removed the pins from my left arm and allowed me to move the arm - which eased the pain. Dr Yang thinks it may have been the position of my arm and we will try a different position next time. She also put an herbal patch at the spot where I indicated the most pain.

Now...the results...I actually do have reduced pain in the shoulder and I am able to move the arm more that before the treatment. I was able to lift my arm about maybe 45 degrees when extended to the side. I am not able to raise it just about 90 degrees - or almost straight out. Still can't raise if above my shoulder when extended to the side; but, it is better. Obviously, I must wait & see, but I haven't had any episodes of the shoulder throbbing yet. Maybe best of all, I slept well last night. Even though I have been taking Ambien, I have had some difficulty sleeping as I am unable to get into a position without pain.

Dr Yang gave me extras of the herbal patches and a bottle of the ointment (only available from China) with instruction to use them. We also agreed to treatments on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for two weeks. At that time, we will review status/progress and decide whether it makes sense to continue.

An interesting thing about this venture into treatment alternatives is the fact that Dr Yang's husband is a pulmonologist here in Indy. Therefore, she was very careful to ensure that her treatments don't interfere in any way with my normal lung cancer treatments and follow up.

It's been a while

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything. I guess I just didn't have anything to say. But...today a read another article about "that question" you get when someone learns that you have lung cancer -- "Did you smoke?" I certainly realize that it seems like an obvious question. And, most people don't seem to realize that it is almost like saying that you are to blame for having lung cancer if you smoked. But..when they learn that I didn't smoke, there is always this ackward pause -- like they thought they knew where they were going but, now, don't know what to say. Of course, there is always the next question, "Huh, do they know what caused it?"

Fortunately, the people I work with most closely are now very accustomed to the situation. They realize that someday I will be gone -- but it ain't gonna be tomorrow. They work with me, talk with me and interact with me mostly like I am a normal person without lung cancer. And...on the days I need it, they cut me some slack. But...we go on another cruise in Sept and I know I will have to deal with the same old questions again.

Re: me -- I continue in remission. I am currently getting no treatments of any kind. I've been back to see Dr Einhorn once since my last Avastin infusion and all was OK. I go back again just before the Sept cruise. My feet hurt from peripheral neuropathy - damage from the chemo. Some days it is difficult to walk very much. The pain is pretty much there all the time. My shoulder is still a problem - frozen shoulder/adhesive encapsulitis. It's not bad some days...but...on other days, it just throbs. Sleeping is sometimes difficult because I can't get into a comfortable sleeping position. But...I am still here and I am figuring out how to keep going.

Re: Jill -- She had a bad episode last week. She ended up in the hospital for a couple nights. Even though the doctors could never confirm it, we are pretty sure she had food poisoning from a crabcake she had when the kids were here. She was miserable for about a week including the time in the hospital. Once they got her rehydrated with IV fluids, she began to improve. She is basically back to her normal now.

Speaking of the kids, we learned that Brett and Arielle plan to marry next April. Another great milestone to push to ensure that we both make it. And, Julie has started her first job. Apparently, she enjoys it so far because "everyone is nice and treats her nice."

six weeks since avastin

Yesterday, I had my first check up since having my last avastin infusion. My Xray had not change - which is a very good thing. I was a little nervous about what might happen after the end of the avastin. Basically, Dr. Einhorn says that I am doing very well. No change of meds or routine. He said that someone in my situation would normally call for a follow up in six months. However, he feels that my situation is unique enough to warrant more frequent follow up. So, I will be returning in two months for Xrays and another checkup.

Basically, I am still in remission. The nosebleeding and headaches from the avastin have just about cleared up. My feet still hurt from the peripheral neuropathy. My left shoulder is still "frozen". My energy level is so-so; but, quite a bit better now that I am getting a full night sleep using the ambien. I won't be running any marathons very soon. But, I feel pretty good considering.

annual physical

Saw Dr Forkin today for my annual physical. Guess what? If I didn't have lung cancer, I would be really healthy!! Cholesterol, blood pressure, thyroid function, liver function, kidney function all normal. PSA/prostate good. EKG - good. Red blood cell and hemoglobin counts just a little low. Breathing very good and lungs sound very clear. Have been having a little trouble sleeping and started taking ambien a couple weeks ago - really helps. I have the smallest dose - so I am testing just taking a half pill this week.

Everything else is going well. Jill is feeling pretty good. She has started to do her bike rides when weather permits.

Recap

Well...today is a day at sea before we dock in San Francisco early tomorrow. This has been a very nice cruise.

We have found that Celebrity has clearly passed HAL in onboard service. Our cabin steward and his asst, our waiter and asst waiter and our butler have offered us better service than we have had for years on many HAL cruises. Notable was the afternoon tea that was delivered daily directly to our cabin by our butler. Celebrity also seemed to have lots more onboard activities to our taste.

In terms of cabin, HAL's concierge level cabins are bigger with a dressing area, double sink and both a whirlpool tub and shower. HAL verandahs are also bigger. The Sky Suite on Celebrity has a cramped bathroom, smaller verandah, single sink, combo tub/shower. The HAL Neptune Lounge is also missing on Celebrity.

In general, it is apples vs oranges when comparing - but, I must say that the higher level of service is very nice. We are already booked on the Celebrity Constellation for Sept and I am sure we will look seriously at Celebrity for the future.

On this cruise, the highlight was clearly Butchart Gardens in Victoria. This is surely a place to which we can return.

In Juneau, we again had good luck on the whale watching excursion - exact same operator as we have done every other time in Juneau. Astoria was an interesting new port for us; but, it is small and probably would handle multiple visits well. Seattle was a nice new stop and we visited Pike Place Market.

Vancouver was "odd". It was an interesting stop; but, they really seemed lacking when handling the crowd. Don't want to think about when they have the Olympics soon. Had we decided to get off the hop-on-hop-off bus at one of the sites, it would clearly have been a long time before we would have been able to get on another bus. Lucky for us we just stayed on the bus for the entire circuit.

The other Alaskan ports were pretty much as expected. The scenery and wildlife are always outstanding in Alaska.

There will probably not be time for an update tomorrow. We simply spend the day disembarking, shuttling and flying home - hopefully, without problems. We aren't scheduled to arrive home until very late.

Butchart #2

Butchart Gardens

Oops...forgot to attach the pics I took at Butchart Gardens with my blackberry.

Looks like I need to split up the pics. Will try again.

Victoria, BC

We docked today at Vancouver Island and visited the city of Victoria. Very historic, very beautiful. After an early breakfast we took a bus excursion to see Butchart Gardens. Along the way, the driver gave us a city tour and pointed out various important and/or historic buildings.

Many of the most interesting buildings date back to the mid-1800's. Fort Victoria was established in 1843 and was a large whaling and sealing port. After the brief city tour, we made the short drive to Butchart Gardens.

Without question, Butchart Gardens are some of the best gardens we have ever visited. At this time of year, the gardens are filled with tulips of every imaginable variety and color. I'm sure that Jill could go on about all the other flowers that we saw - but I will simply say that it was glorious.

The variety of flowers and colors were fantastic and the landscaping was beautiful. Only problem is that it is too early for the roses. So...guess what? Yep, we'll have to come back during rose season.

After about a 2-hour walk of the gardens, we sat down for an English tea. The tea was every bit as good as tea in London. Half a dozens types of sandwiches, pastries, scones, quiche, chocolates, sausages in pastry, cakes, etc. - all served quite properly on a 3-tiered dessert tray. Certainly much more than we could eat.

The driver took a different route returning to the ship. So...he pointed out other sites. In Jill's words, "The entire trip was worth the experience today.". Obviously, she loves visiting gardens and this was one of the best.

As we are leaving port, we are a Princess ship waiting to go into port. We were in port with the HAL Volendam and our bus driver told us there are 3 ships coming into port this afternoon. Very busy port.

Tomorrow is a day at sea - our last day onboard the Millenium. Doesn't seem like the trip is almost over. But...gotta finish this one so we can get ready for the next.

Vancouver

Sun...we finally have sun. We arrived in Vancouver, BC today and were greeted by a brightly shining sun.

Our first task of the day was breakfast. I haven't mentioned that we've had breakfast in our cabin each day - personally delivered by our wonderful butler, Ram, who is from India. We see Ram each day at breakfast, at afternoon tea - also delivered to our cabin, and when he delivers afternoon appetizers. Ram told us on the first day that if we didn't get enough food, it would be his fault! He and our cabin steward, John, are both a delight. I must say that the service we have received onboard this ship is far, far better than the service on our last few HAL cruises. We also have a great dining room waiter, from Istanbul, and an attentive asst waiter. The level of service has really stood out from past cruises and we look forward to seeing if Celebrity continues that service on the Constellation in Sept.
In addition, it seems to us that food quality has been superior on the Millenium.

Anyway, back to today. After breakfast, we left the ship and stumbled around for just a short but until we figured out what to do since we hadn't booked an excursion. We located a trolley/bus service that offered 2-hour tours of the city. Our driver/guide was excellent and entertaining. The trolley was one of the hop on & hop off buses - but we just stayed on. The biggest highlight of the tour was Stanley Park. This is the 2nd largest municipal park in N America - SF Golden Gate Park is largest and NY Central Park is #3. About half of the tour was through the park.

After the tour, we headed back to the ship for...yes, you guessed it...lunch and a nap.

We don't sail until 11PM tonight; but, I don't think we'll get off the ship again. We'll just hang around, relax and enjoy dinner and the ship's entertainment.

S€@tka

Well...it's probably not fair to Sitka; but, we really had crummy weather today. Would have been much better for a day at sea.

After breakfast, we decided to go into town. The ship is anchored - so, we took tenders over to the dock. It wasn't too bad going over - about a 10 to 15 minute tender ride and it was nice and smooth. It started to rain shortly after we got to town - which is only a few blocks with only a dozen or so shops.

With 3 ships at anchor, rain and only a few shops, it was way too crowded for me. Everyone crowding into the few shops. Didn't take us long to give up and head back to the pier and that's when the real fun started. With most people having the same idea as us, the line-up at the pier for tenders got very long - longer than the protective canopy set up by Celebrity.

It took several tenders to load up the crowd and we were in the rain for quite a while. Luckily, we were in the middle of an Asian group and one of the guys held his umbrella over Jill for the entire time - nice guy. We were wet and shivering by the time we got back to the ship. As it turned out, we should have just stayed on board.

Trivia - we finally won at entertainment trivia. It hasn't been quite the same since they are only allowing teams of four and hardly any teams are staying together. There are two teams that remain intact and they win most every game. It was fun to finally win in Jill's specialty.

One of our dinner couples is hilarious - they are from Australia. Yesterday, she went on and on about how she was "snowed on" since they have apparently never really experienced snow. She talked about the big flakes and the wind making it snow up. "How cool is that?!?" was a frequent phrase. It is fun listening to someone who is so thoroughly enjoying something that we take for granted.

Anyway, we've warmed up and will have tea and cookies shortly. Then dinner and a show. Take care.

Skagway

We docked at Skagway early this AM. This is the original site of the Alaskan gold rush. In the past we have always taken the train ride on the White Pass RR. Since Jill thinks she could narrate the train ride, we decided to skip it this time.

When we went down the ship's gangway, oh my, it was chilly. The wind was biting thru our clothes. Luckily, they offered a shuttle bus to downtown. What a lifesaver! - without the bus, I think we would have just skipped it and gone back to the ship.

Happily, it was much more pleasant in town. With buildings to block the wind and, eventually, some sun, it was comfortable shopping. Jill found some jewelry and I got a sweater. We couldn't believe the number of jewelry stores - almost as bad as some Caribbean islands.

After shopping, we headed back on the shuttle, ate a little lunch and, of course, took a nap. After a little sitting around doing nothing, we are preparing for tonight's dinner.

Oh, last night's trip to the casino ended up so-so for Jill. She lost her allotted $20 - but, as she says, "I got to play for quite a while".