Category: Stage IV

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New Truck!

You may chuckle if you’ve heard this one before. About two years ago we bought a dually one-ton truck with full intentions to pull a fifth wheel, then something happened that changed our minds. I think the brain mets might have scared us at the time, or for other reasons the fifth wheel ended up not being the right choice. Timing wasn’t right and we traded the truck for a VW Atlas SUV. Who does that? 😂

That was then. This is now. We are no longer afraid of my diagnosis, nor our future. We are living life to the fullest. We are living life in the present, fully engaged in ministry together. We are no longer worried about my cancer coming back because, guess what, it already did! My body is stable, and there are lots of treatment options if anything recurs. Worrying and fretting does not alter reality.

“Don’t live in the past or future…make history.”

~Wally Byam

Like the RV industry, trucks are hard to find! It’s nearly impossible to find a good used one, and the choice on new ones is slim due to decreased production in the pandemic. We settled on a 2020 Dodge Ram 1500, equipped with the tow package. The color is Patriot Blue with a black interior. It has new technology so we can charge our devices on the road. After multiple trips back and forth, they gave us a better deal than the Ford dealership could offer us. It has a little ding on the passenger door, so they also threw in service for two years because they didn’t want to fix it. (This was part of the reason for the back and forth, as we were looking for one without the obvious flaw.) Once the papers were signed we ended up in a better position than our VW Atlas. My husband is a negotiating savant. Amazing.

They gave us a “We Owe” to add the trailer break control. This is a requirement or the Airstream dealer will not let us drive off their lot. After we signed all the paperwork we went to parts department who said these were on back order until December!! Whaaaat?? Yet another result of the pandemic and decrease in production. We were about to tear up the contract, but they managed to do some computer voodoo and find us the part. Whew! We will have that installed on Monday. Wow! What a drama…

We got it home and it barely fits in the garage…barely! But it does fit with a few inches to spare. They were true on their word. I may need to lose a few pounds to squeeze over to my side. 😂

If you read my last blog you will recall that we are fully intending to keep this one. I made Tim promise we would not buy a truck until we had bought an RV. 😂 We put down a deposit on an Airstream and we are not going back on this deal! We will reveal more about our new ministry in time, but this is the first step of faith toward following God’s leading.

“Taking a leap of faith is better than taking a leap of doubt.”

~unknown

Á la prochaine…until next time.

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Echocardiogram, Electrocardiogram, and Cardiologist

the metastatic breast cancer journey banner

My medical vocabulary has increased dramatically since starting this journey, which is hopefully making up for my decreasing vocabulary due to old age and brain fog 😂. I had my echocardiogram on September 4th, and follow-up with my cardiologist who did an electrocardiogram today.

Both of these events take place at the medical center in downtown Houston, which is not my favorite drive. Today’s traffic came to a screeching halt when an accident blocked all but one lane of traffic (the on-merge ramp). 😱 😱 Tim was driving me down there, as he often does, but this was the worse we have seen it. Fortunately we left a bit early, so I arrived exactly one minute before my appointment.

In case you are wondering, an echocardiogram (also known as an “echo”) is not the same as an electrocardiogram, better known as an EKG or ECG. For an EKG, they stick electrodes on your chest and print a read-out. It takes longer for them to bring the system into the room than it does to actually conduct the test. I had that done today, and I was a bit annoyed because this meant my appointment would be longer than expected. MUCH longer than expected because I had to wait for each person to come in the room. Since I just had the echocardiogram I thought that would suffice, but NOOOooooo. 🙄🙄

An echocardiogram is much more intense than an EKG, including access of the veins (they always do contrast for mine), sticking on the electrodes, and doing the test. It’s like an ultrasound of the heart and valves with lots of pictures, sounds, and color. It’s pretty interesting if you have never done one. The first time I saw my heart I was in awe…wow! That’s my heart! It’s losing it’s novelty since I go in so often, but it’s still pretty interesting to watch the little flaps go up and down on the screen while the heart is pumping the blood.

Until now I have been directed to do the echos every three months. Now, I can do it every six months. Yay! And, I can do it the same day I go to see the cardiologist. This means I just decreased my trips downtown from 8 to 2. More time to ride the Harley!

Incidentally, my oncologist said there isn’t a requirement to do the echo when you are on Herceptin. In fact, some oncologists don’t do them at all. Why? Because they don’t want to know! That’s right…if they don’t know it is hurting your heart, they don’t have to stop treatment. My oncologist requires it because he said he wants to know! It is easier to correct a problem with a pause in treatment than it is to reverse advanced heart failure when it’s too late. I love my doctor. He cares about treating the cancer, but he is also concerned about the whole body. My heart is grateful.

The only number from the echo he really watches is the Ejection Fraction. Mine typically hovers in the high 50s, which is the normal range. One time it was 40-something when I was seeing my local cardiologist who estimates the EF, so that is why he wants me to go downtown from hereon. The echo they do downtown with the contrast provides an exact number rather than an estimate. I found the brief video linked above to be interesting, as I am watching my EF as well.

Á la prochaine…until next time.

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Double Vision and Prism

I just got a call from my radiation oncologist. My brain MRI came back clean. No new lesions or growth. I’m on an every 4 month schedule now. Praise the Lord!

On another note, I saw my optometrist who said I have double vision. Maybe I’ve had this a while. In the past I said, “yes” when asked if I was seeing two charts next to each other, but I never told him one was higher than the other. Note to self…point out the obvious, even if they don’t ask. He asked if the charts are side by side. Well, they were, but they weren’t aligned vertically. I pointed this out and then he said, “let’s talk about that.” So, now I have a new prescription for glasses with prism. 🤓

I’ve been out of glasses for a few years now, due to cataract surgery (except I do need readers). I was a bit disappointed with the prospect of wearing glasses 24-7 again, but at least now I won’t have to look for my readers!

That likely explains the occasional dizziness. 😔 I’ve never heard of a prism issue. He said I probably lean my head to the side to compensate, so I maybe never really noticed. This could account for the neck and shoulder pain. I recall a chiropractor telling me I lean my head to one side way back in early 2000s. He said it was a back alignment issue, and adjusted me. Who knows? Like I said, maybe I’ve had this a while. Or maybe it’s new.

The two are likely not related, although brain issues can impact vision. My radiational oncologist is going to send the MRI result to my optometrist and see if he needs anything else. MD Anderson does a whole brain MRI with and without contrast whenever they do it. Next time they do the MRI they would look at the areas closest to my eyes more closely if they think this is a problem. It is not likely a brain issue. It is probably the muscles around my eyes…due to getting old or perhaps due to chemo. It may be totally unrelated to cancer.

Who knows…it’s always a mystery as to how chemo affects the rest of the body.

Á la prochaine…until next time.

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Day 11 (and final day) of our 35th Anniversary Ride

208.8 miles today…. in the rain. 🌧 Cleburne, TX to HOME (Conroe, TX)!!

Today was our last day. Sad the trip is over but we are so glad to be home. We purposefully rode further yesterday to make today a shorter day. We kept watching the weather and there were thunderstorms all around us. But we decided to press on and prayed the whole way. It rained, but the visibility and temperature were manageable.

It rained for the first two hours—we were soaked to the bone—so we stopped in the new Sonic in Hubbard for a reprieve. It’s an indoor Sonic, not a drive-in like you typically see. I did not want to get back on the bike, but the show must go on!

After that we debated our route and decided to get home the fastest way possible. On to the interstate! From Buffalo the ride home was rain-free!

Total trip miles…3,008.8 (some 2-up, and some on two bikes). On my bike I rode 2759.9 miles!

Time for the 10,000 mile service!

As I reflect on this trip, I am grateful to the Lord for so many things. We made it, and we made it safely. (I did lay the bike down once, but that’s par for me.) I am thankful for a husband who supports me in my cancer journey, and even helps me get the bike into a good position for pulling out of parking spots. I am so blessed to have a stable body, with the ability to ride my own ride and go the distance. While I may get tired a little easier, I still have the ability to ride. We may sell my bike at some point and go back to riding 2-up on all the trips, but at least I can ride! God has blessed me with so many things. I can’t complain.

Thankful for a safe ride, for all the wonderful sites we saw, and for the joy of being together to celebrate our 35 years of marriage. Like I told Tim, this trip mirrored our life in many ways. Ups and downs, rain and sunshine, beautiful sites and some boring as well, life on the wild side, frustrations and love, laughter and tears, education and recreation, yummy foods and boring breakfast bags, exhausting but exhilarating, and so much more. We hope there are at least 35 more!

Á la prochaine…until next time!

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Day 10 of our 35th Anniversary Ride

370.5 miles today. Zig Zag route from Woodward, Oklahoma to Cleburne, Texas.

KSU 6:30 AM. We were trying to get ahead of the storm. It was still dark when we left. Unfortunately we never saw the sunrise because it was sooo cloudy all day. 😪 Very few patches of blue sky. I wore my clear goggles all but the last thirty minutes of the day.

It’s always an adventure!

We had planned on going one route, through Elk City, but my GPS had other plans 😂. At one point we were zig zagging through the countryside on Oklahoma county roads that didn’t even show up on Tim’s nav. Similar to when we rode through Kansas, these roads turned into dirt roads right after we turned off, so we were sweating bullets at times! It may have been an angel 👼 preventing us from the big storms which we could always see in front or beside us, but we did not ride under.

We ate breakfast at Love’s because we are so tired of the COVID- bag breakfast in the hotels which only offer a muffin at best. The Love’s cashier was an interesting lady. She rides this trike to work every day. She converted it to power with a 1-gallon gas tank all by herself. I love meeting people on our trips as they lead such fascinating lives!

We finally saw the sun! Somehow we managed to ride between the storm clouds for most of the day.

We did get rained on, only briefly, but we managed to avoid riding through the bad thunderstorms. We pulled into a roadside (covered) picnic area for a snack in Olney, Texas off 281 and the rain stopped. This is a new road for us but we have noticed Texas has lovely picnic stops. Incidentally a Sheriff pulled in the spot next to us, eating his BBQ lunch. We made sure to STOP as we were leaving 😂 (our last trip we both got a ticket for not stopping completely at a stop sign).

When coming through Wichita Falls, the temperature changed from a very cool 78 to a hot 90 in about one minute or less. Sudden changes like that are not usually a good weather sign 😳. A supercell formed to the east of us bringing heavy winds… so we kept plodding along.

We arrived at our hotel in Cleburne Texas just before the sky opened up. It did finally catch up to us after we checked into the hotel, so we ordered food from DoorDash. Wicked storm for sure!! We scored with an upgraded room and upgraded snacks. 😃 They talked us into trying the local root beer, and it was delicious! I would definitely have it again.

Flash Flood warnings – we are so glad to be inside! This storm looks like it will be hanging around a while. We have a short ride home tomorrow. About four hours. They are expecting more thunderstorms all day 😢😢. Praying the weather changes or we may have to hang out here in Cleburne until it passes. We are debating whether to just leave my bike here or grin and bear it. I admit I am a little scared! 😱😱

Á la prochaine…until next time!

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Day 9 of our 35th Anniversary Ride

(Life 360 App)

391 miles today. North Platte, Nebraska to Woodward, Oklahoma.

KSU was 8:00 AM, a little later than normal since it was 54 degrees. Brrr! Bundled up, layered up, buckled up and… eventually it warmed up to around 80 and the layers came off. With the exception of those two massive construction delays 😤, it was, as many folks along the way commented, “a beautiful day for a ride!”

This flagger was quite chatty. But she would not let us put our kickstands down for our FIFTEEN MINUTE delay. She said the blacktop was too soft, so we had to hold the bikes up in the wind. The trucker behind us got out to ask how long, and then made a snide remark about being a female on a construction crew. 🙄 She ended up switching to our pilot car driver after the wait, of which we were thankful because the other driver was really slow.

It was a super duper wicked windy day…and has been for the past several days. 💨

Tomorrow does not look as promising. For the first time in ten days, it looks like we are heading into a storm. Yikes!

Á la prochaine…until next time.

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Day 8 of our 35th Anniversary Trip

Rapid City, SD to North Platte, Nebraska. On our way home!

We rode on the Gold Rush and Western Trails Scenic Byways and stopped for a brief, cool-off, museum visit in Bayard Nebraska to see the Chimney Rock National Historic Site. The pioneer emigrants used this landmark to navigate the trails. More emigrants wrote about Chimney Rock in their diaries than any other trail landmark. The museum is interactive and pretty cool for being in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. We agreed the entrance fee was our contribution to education. We didn’t walk all the way out to the Rock, as it was very hot and we had on our riding gear, but maybe when we were in our twenties we would have enjoyed the climb!

Me and my riding buddy at Chimney Rock Historical Site
Chimney Rock

After the museum, we rode through some horrible wind. Actually, we rode through strong winds all day. The byways are spattered with idyllic views. In the distance we saw Courthouse Rock (where we are told they used to put criminals on trial) and Jailhouse Rock (where they would hang them). We were on the bikes so I didn’t get a picture of those, but it entertained us nonetheless. I would like to visit them up close, as well as the remains of the pony express and other sites on the byways. This trip is the first we have spent riding through Nebraska and we left much for future trips. It’s a beautiful and historic state!

The bikes got thirsty so we stopped at Sinclair to fill up. It’s a popular gas station in this area, famous for their dinosaur icon. Even the DINO (Apatosaurus or Brontosaurus?) has a unique history. It was fun to see how each Sinclair presents the DINO. We like this local chain as it is clean and all, but they don’t usually have premium gasoline as it is harder to get. We settled for unleaded without ethanol. 🙄

I got 53 mpg on that last tank!

Á la prochaine…until next time.

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Day 7 of our 35th Anniversary Trip – For Shawn

Short site seeing trip through the Badlands National Park and an early lunch at Wall Drug. If you’ve never been there, it’s like a shopping mall but every store is owned by the same family. Their story is incredibly inspiring. While we were there we learned that my brother Shawn had passed away. 😢😢

The day was bittersweet. While we were enjoying sights and capturing wildlife on camera, my brother was struggling with his life. He had a triple bypass surgery a few weeks ago, came home from the hospital, and today I received the call that he was in cardiac arrest. He died about an hour later. 😢😢😢

Tim had just recorded me singing Amazing Grace in a chapel in Wall, South Dakota, which was our last stop of the day. The chapel is dedicated to the travelers who came through the area. The acoustics were beautiful and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sing. It seems appropriate to share this story in memory of my older brother. We are all just passing through. We are travelers…don’t get too settled because this is only a temporary home! Shawn is HOME now. Heaven must look good.

My brother was sixty years old and the oldest of us three (I’m the baby). I am still in shock that he is gone. We just talked about a week ago. Now, he is probably partying with Mom and Dee (Mom died in 2014, and his wife died in 2017.) This is one of the first pictures I have of us three kids. This was taken in our home on McKinley Street, in Middletown Ohio. Our street recently became famous in the best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy, soon to be released as a movie. Small world indeed.

Providentially, today is our last day in South Dakota, and we had already planned to leave and head toward home tomorrow. I don’t know any details on the funeral, or whether I will be able to go. Their 23-year old son Christian is the only one left in the family, and he will be planning everything. It will take us about four days to get home as we see some heat in the forecast. Then we can decide. We washed clothes and we are all packed.

Aside, when I was diagnosed with terminal cancer I assumed everyone would outlive me. Here I am four years later and going strong. You never know how much time you have! Every day is precious. Live life abundantly as Christ would have you to live.

Á la prochaine…until next time…Shawn, à bientôt!

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Day 6 of our 35th Anniversary Trip

Site seeing around Rapid City, South Dakota. Some people trailer their bikes, then ride around when they get there. Not us. We rode our bikes to South Dakota and then rented a truck 😂😂. It’s not quite the same thing as those trailers. After all, we do ride! But we wanted to see more than we could accomplish in a day on a bike. We went all the places we missed (or didn’t see as completely) when we came here before. 

Stop one … Mount Rushmore.

Last time we came through the Black Hills, we pulled over on the motorcycle and took a picture, but we didn’t go in. This time, we went inside and walked all those steps. 😳 My legs were just beginning to feel normal after that climb at Happy Jack’s Peak, so I felt a bit of a burn on the thighs. However, these steps were not nearly as intense as the Peak. Of interest was how the sculptor chose the four presidents according to birth, growth, development, and preservation. We also remembered seeing Nicholas Cage on these same steps in the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Mount Rushmore is an amazing wonder!

Next…a drive through Custer State Park.

After Mount Rushmore we drove through Custer State Park and the Needles Highway (SD-87). The bison had just walked through some wildflowers, so they had a lot of hitchhikers. (No, those aren’t bees LOL). One of my FaceBook friends said she wants to brush the poor thing. I agree; but, I don’t want to get any closer than my camera lens will take me. They did walk right by the car but generally left us alone. We saw lots of wildlife, in addition to the donkeys 😂, one-lane tunnels and magnificent views. We went to Custer State Park last time, but this time we drove on the extra tiny roads. We ended up on the Needles Highway somewhat by accident, but it was well worth the drive! A local told us about an RV who had to drive in reverse all the way back down that mountain, as the tunnels on SD-87 are too narrow and clearance too low. There’s an example of poor planning! I said to Tim multiple times while spinning around the 10 mph hairpin turns and narrow roads cluttered by traffic, “I’m so glad we are not on the bikes!!” Yikes! We had “plenty” of room, but we did fold in the mirrors on that big truck, just in case. A bit claustrophobic at times. To sum it up…Wow! Go there!

Crazy Horse Memorial was a quick stop for a photo but we didn’t go inside to save time. My great-grandmother was Cherokee, so I am always interested in learning more about Native American history. Maybe you know the story about the negotiation for Mount Rushmore. This was the Indian alternative to the other mountain sculpture. They declined government funding. The sculpture is still under construction. 

Next we took a ride on The 1880 Train.

It’s a steam engine, round trip ride to Hill City from Keystone (a very crowded city, so we were glad we didn’t wait until Saturday to do this one). We saw beautiful sites, more wildlife, and smiled at the joy of children on the train reminding us of our grandkids.

We learned lots of fun facts about the Black Hills from the narrators, but our favorite story revolves around “The letter Q.” If you’ve ever wondered why a train does too long whistles followed by a short whistle and another long whistle at the crossings, it is Morse code for the letter Q. Why? Because this was the signal ships would use when the Queen was on board, signifying she had the right of way. This remains the signal at Railroad crossings today, and of course a train always has the right of way.  Don’t debate it. 😂 😂 It was a refreshing ride in the warm afternoon.

Our last stop was Bear Country USA. We have never seen so many bears in one place!! I especially loved, loved, loved the bear cubs, and learning the different brown and black bear 🐻 subspecies. We also enjoyed watching the Timberwolves playing. This was a fantastic stop with lots of wildlife on the drive through safari. It was well worth the money.  We could not have done that on a motorcycle (not because we wouldn’t, although one might be a bit mental to try it, but because they do not permit it.)

I took many, many pictures! These are only a few. I love ❤️ checking items off my bucket list. I don’t know if I will ever finish the list, but traveling to these great icons and spending time with my honey is such a wonderful treat.

The weather was perfect. Nice and cool, breezy, and sunny. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. 🌞 

Á la prochaine…Until next time!

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Day 5 of our 35th (Riding Free)

Day 5 of our 35th Anniversary HOG Ride. From Kearney, Nebraska to Rapid City, South Dakota. 

We rode 436 miles today.

The projected storm ended up delayed so we made it all the way to Rapid City where we will stay three or four nights. We road the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway for a couple hundred miles, following the Middle Loup River and a railroad most of the way. Ruins and cemeteries decorated the path, making us wonder if there were any unique tombstones or gravesites of famous locals. This is a pretty cool ride, actually. We saw three out of the 10 “must sees” on the link above. In the spring, sandhill cranes migrate through this area, and the prairie chickens put on a show (apparently). We’ve seen the cranes in Florida, but they are here in abundance so we want to go back in some future spring.

We took the scenic byway all the way to Alliance, which has brick roads downtown for a super cool ride. Tim said he saw some old guy checking me out as I passed by 😂. You can hear me commenting on it in this brief video.

If you touch it, will you transport in time? Get it...? transport. 😆😆😆😂😂

Before leaving Alliance, we stopped at a unique art exhibit called Carhenge (cars painted and put in the ground patterned after Stonehenge) 😂😂, then rode through the Nebraska National Forest and two more scenic byways and on to Rapid City (through miles of construction).

We decided to give our legs a break for a few days. We have seen some of the sights from the road on a previous bike trip, so now we plan to get closer. They only had two options…a 1500 Dodge Ram or a minivan. You can guess which one we picked 😂. We didn’t realize it was missing running boards until Tim had to hoist me in, laughable for sure.

Found a fabulous pizza place before heading back to the hotel. It rivals our favorite pizza joint in Florida. I had the Wisconsin Cheese soup and garlic knots, but Tim’s pizza was some of the best we have tasted. The weather was perfect for outside dining, and again no one seemed too concerned about the coronavirus. Few if any masks out in public. We steered clear of people and kept our faces covered, but it was nice to feel a sense of normal again. 

As we were heading to bed the sky lit up and gave us a beautiful show. What a storm!

Á la prochaine…until next time!

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