Lazy Week

I didn’t get much done this week. Pam, on the other hand, moved ahead with redecorating the library. Snow and a trip to Mason City for my cancer tests rounded out the week.

The library painting involves a LOT of detail painting. Pam goes around the window frames, outlining them with the wall colors (green or white) but also touching up the brown window frames. Add in some patching with vinyl spackling compound, waiting it for it to dry, and the process takes a lot of time.

I don’t have any new photos of this work-in-process but hope to have some by my next post. Pam is almost at the point where larger areas of the walls can be painted. When that is completed I can show before-and-after photos that will clearly show the differences her work has made.

I do have a photo of one of Pam’s morning (and evening) rituals, feeding the cats. Four of the five house cats line up for their treat of canned cat food. The rest of the day they have to settle for the dry food in their feeding station. The exception is KitKat; she does not like to be around the other felines so does not come into the kitchen for this treat.

Pam also prepares three bowls of dog food for doggie breakfasts and dinners. The dogs are fed in the laundry room; a gate separates that room from the kitchen, to keep the two groups apart at feeding time.

We took delivery of a load of propane this week. With the forecast for bitterly cold weather this upcoming week (high temps near or below zero) we are pleased to have a full load of fuel for the furnace. One water line runs up the inside wall of the house to the 2nd floor bathroom, where a barn heater maintains a constant temp behind the toilet in that bathroom. Heating tapes keep first-floor water lines from freezing near the washer (also on an exterior wall). Ah, winter in Iowa.

With windchills in the minus 30 degree range or lower, most outside activity (and garage work) has come to a halt. Exceptions are getting the mail and refilling the bird feeder. That’s about it!

Thursday afternoon was spent clearing sidewalks and the alley (for garage access) after a snowstorm had dropped about 2.5 – 3 inches of snow in Elma. Unfortunately the snow blower developed carburetor problems and would not run properly so more hand shoveling than anticipated was needed. The blade on the John Deere can move snow but only if you have a place to move it to. The build-up of existing snow limited the blade’s usefulness in this new snowfall. Several hours of work later our walks, mailbox access, and alley access were opened up again. I will have to work on the blower before the next storm hits.

Friday I drove over to Mason City to take the tests that will indicate if my prostate cancer has spread into the surrounding soft tissues and/or bones. Two tests were done, a CT scan for the soft tissue and a bone scan.

For those who have not been exposed to these tests, here is a brief outline. The first step is to have an injection of a radioactive dye to be used by the bone scan system. It takes about 2 1/2 hours for this to fully circulate and be ready for the scan so the dye is injected early in the appointment. Since I would be getting addition injections before the tests the technician installed a ‘port’ in my right wrist.

The second step is to have an injection of a fluid that is used in the tissue scan. Along with this, two doses of a barium drink are consumed over a half-hour period. I took the first at about 11:50 (just before noon) and the second at about 12:20. During this interval I read I book I had brought along to kill the time.

After taking the second dose of the barium smoothie I changed into a pair of hospital gowns, one open in the back and the other open in the front. My gear was put into a locked storage area. I was taken into a room and given an explanation of the upcoming test, which covered my chest, abdomen, and pelvic area. I was also given an injection of another fluid that would enhance the contrast between my organs and the surrounding soft tissue.

The test itself was routine. I laid down on the machine’s bed, put my hands over my head like an olympic diver, and was moved forward and backward through the scanner. The technician told me when to hold my breath and when to breath again. The process took about 10 minutes. When completed another technical removed the port from my right wrist.

Back to the changing room and into my street clothes again. There would be a lull before the bone scan test so I nibbled on the three oatmeal and raisin cookies Pam had packed for me, and drank some water I had brought along.

After a short time I was escorted into the bone test chamber. Again, I laid down on the machine’s platform but this time with my arms by my side. In fact, I was ‘wrapped’ to keep my arms from moving or flopping off the side of the bed. (On both beds I had a support placed under my knees to help keep them stable.)

The machine started to operate and I could see and feel myself being drawn into the scanning chamber. The bed moves in a series of small steps, not a smooth pass, through the scanner. To be honest I kept my eyes closed though most of this process which took a bit longer than the tissue scan but not by much.

When the machine beeped, indicating the pass was over, I moved to a sitting position and another scan, shorter in duration, was taken. The tests completed, the ID band I had received when I checked in was removed from my wrist, the wrap that had covered the spot where the the port had been installed was removed, and I was free to return home.

Minimal side effect of the tests required me to stay close to a bathroom when I returned home. I didn’t feel very hungry for dinner so just had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich along with some hot tea.

Now comes an interesting wrinkle in this story. Jeff Hayes, a friend of Pam’s from childhood, mentioned during a phone call that the Mayo Clinic has a program called Proton Beam Therapy that can be used effectively on several types of cancer, including prostate. Elma is about an hour or so away from the Mayo Clinic. I called them during the week and spoke to Anne (with an ‘e’) about the Mayo program. The upshot of that conversation was enrollment in the Mayo system and their promise to get the results from Mason City (Mercy One care system) and determine if I could be a candidate for the Mayo program.

Mayo Clinic offers Proton Beam Radiation Therapy only in a few places in the United States, as the facility has to have a cyclotron generator to produce the protons used in the process. This is state-of-the-art stuff. The advantages are highly targeted beams resulting in minimal radiation damage to tissues and organs surrounding the cancer, often eliminating the need for surgery, and faster recovery with fewer side effects. Follow this link to view the clinic’s web page that discusses this treatment.

If I am a candidate I will get treatment at the Mayo Clinic. Assuming we can afford it and all the insurance pre-approvals support using Mayo. This is the most hoped-for outcome. If I am not a candidate then I will have to go ahead with surgery and/or conventional radiation therapy and will probably stick with Mercy One in Mason City. I’ll be pretty tense until I get the results of the tests (no earlier than the middle of next week).

Photo Archive

Most of my photos over the years have been of landscapes, fall colors, and places visited in Colorado. Here are a few fall color shots from 2004. (There will be more in the future.)

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

Outside time for animals in these fierce cold conditions is brutal. I keep an oil-filled heater running nights [and sometimes during the day] in the catio, which only warms temps in there to the 20 degree range at best. There are also heated water bowls and bed heaters running 24/7. B-r-r-r-r. Our electric bill borders on outrageous, when adding in the washer heating tapes, farm house heater for second floor bathroom, and space heaters used occasionally on the second floor.

The dogs resist going outside into the wind chill. I frequently need to accompany them outdoors and “cheerlead” them to complete their business expeditiously. What a fun week ahead, with temps and wind chills bordering on arctic.

We learned Iowa ranks 47th in the country at distributing the COVID vaccine. No wonder we haven’t seen hide-nor-hair of it.

Be well. Happy Trails.