Hello again, Fellow Travelers,
 |
| Our new living room |
There are several reasons it has been over a week since we last posted. The main culprit is our gross ignorance of technology. Another was the move into our townhouse over the weekend, and all that goes into relocating. Friday (the 23rd) was our first night here in our new bed which, fortunately, was finally delivered before we actually needed it. We have been slowly adding a few of our own items to the many we've borrowed from Erika and Brad, and it is beginning to feel like home.
What does any of this have to do with technology, you ask? Well, these homes come with a free internet port wired in. It took us a day or two to muster the courage to contact the service provider and get Kathy's Mac directly connected. During that time, I was totally offline. Then we bought a highly-rated dual band D-Link wireless router. We procrastinated another day or two before contacting the provider again so that they could make the adjustments necessary for their system to recognize that device. In the end, after over an hour on the phone with D-Link technical support, we were informed that the router was defective and should be returned to the store. We think this was their nice way of saying that we are the ones who are defective and way too stupid to set up their equipment. Yesterday we returned the D-Link and replaced it with a Cisco Systems Linksys E3200 dual band router, which we were able to install and have functional in just a few minutes. We are now getting exceptional password-protected wireless coverage throughout the house. Maybe it wasn't us after all. Guess which company gets a 5-star vs a 1-star review from us. The main thing is, both computers are back on line - as is Kathy's new iPhone that she got for her birthday. Now we have no more excuses.
Last Tuesday, on the way back from radiation, we visited Rob and Susan Thomason at their Orenco home, where we stayed the past two months. Their home was such convenient and comfortable housing for us during most of my treatment that we hated to leave. Thank you so much, Rob and Susan, for providing us the opportunity to stay there!! Good luck with your future rental venture.
We find that it takes us about fifteen minutes longer to get to the hospital from our new location, adding a half hour to our daily commute. The good news is that there is now only one more radiation session to go--(Fri. 3/30)! The bad news is that many of the side effects which made us decide to sit out for a week have returned. With just one more session to go, we will get through the radiation treatment this time, but it doesn't end there. I have an appointment with a gastroenterologist next Tuesday to see if we can find a curable reason for the severe pain and bleeding, which, at least to us, is obviously directly connected to the radiation and my unusual vasculature. As part of that evaluation, I submitted what I thought was a correctly collected "sample" to the lab this morning only to be informed that the information I had been given on collection technique, number of samples needed, and timing was all wrong. Now I find out that instead, I have to take several different samples over three days, label them in a specific manner, and refrigerate one of them before dropping them all off before my appointment next Tuesday. Seems like there is always something to keep us entrenched in the Oregon medical system. The ironic thing is that, try as I might, I have been unable to establish a primary care doctor here. Instead, I just get referred from one specialist to the next and maintain close phone contact with the Petersburg Medical Center for my other medical needs. They have been great! Unless you have received treatment in a large urban area, you have no idea how much more convenient and personal our small-town medical system is for everyday care.
Our last three meetings with the oncologists have been most interesting. They keep saying, "In all my years of radiation treatment, I've never experienced anything like this." Dr. Hanson said he had a "one-in-500,000" patient once, but this is a very different situation. Talk like that makes me feel just, oh, so special despite the pain. We just hope and pray that either the symptoms will go away shortly after treatments end, or we can find a curable cause and deal with it. Although I am able to function OK with pain medication, I'd very much like to get back to a more normal, pain-free life ASAP. A decent night's sleep without getting up every 45 minutes to attempt to drain my bladder would also be a welcome change. I'm especially anxious to get off my prescription pain meds so that Kathy will let me get back behind the wheel again. Kathy is doing a great job as chauffeur, but I have to admit I'm a bit of a Nervous Nelly as a passenger.
 |
| Greater Scaup |
Spring is coming very slowly to Oregon this year. It has been damp, chilly, and windy most of the past two weeks. We even woke up to 2" of fresh snow last Wednesday. Unheard of!! There are flood warnings through tomorrow and rain is forecast to continue through the weekend. We got out for a short walk with Erika, Brad, & Rowan at Dawson Cr. Park on Monday afternoon. The main change from our previous visit was that the migrating waterfowl are moving through in large numbers. The ponds were absolutely full of birds. Besides the expected mallards and Canadian geese, we saw a wide variety of other species I'd never seen in park ponds before, including the ones shown here.
 |
| Northern Shovelers |
Rowan reached his eighth-week birthday yesterday and weighed in at 10
pounds even. His medication dosage was increased slightly to compensate for his added weight. He is just so much fun to be around. The idea of putting
Rowan in a stroller and walking over to Nana's house is now a reality.
We are just getting used to the idea of living in the same neighborhood with
an adult child and her family, being close, but trying not to intrude
too much in their life. It's very convenient to be able to walk over to
their house or vice versa. And, it makes it that much easier to help
Erika out if she needs a break while Brad is at work.
 |
| Rowan @ 8 weeks |
Despite the cool weather, the flowering trees continue to impress us. The ornamental fruit trees are in full bloom and the tulip trees are just starting to open. So far there has been only one day over 60 degrees, but it hasn't seemed to effect the timing of the flowers as much as I'd thought it might. I'll admit it would be nice to experience some really nice Oregon spring weather before we return home. The photo below is on the main entrance street to our subdivision. It would look even better with blue sky behind it.
 |
| 11th Avenue Entrance to Arbor Roses |
In spite of some setbacks, we really are doing quite well. We continue to stay very busy, perhaps even too busy at times (Kathy keeps telling me I need to rest more). We are anxious to get the daily commute to the hospital behind us. That will add a full morning each weekday back into our discretionary time allotment. We are hopeful that our next post will be all about how much better I feel after radiation treatment ended and about all the fun things we are doing prior to our long-awaited return home to Alaska.
Thank you for hanging in there with us! We are so blessed to have your thoughts and prayers coming our way!
Shalom,
Barry and Kathy
No comments:
Post a Comment