Home Dialysis Approved!

Hurrah! We were just notified late yesterday that our health care provider has approved home dialysis for us. We begin our training the first part of next month and are very excited about this new program! Thanks for all your prayers. (Don't forget the "Relay for Life" -- if you can join us do come. Sabine is already making sequined red shoes!).

Summer Visitors

Sabine logged in a three-mile run this week with her trusty companion, Mocha (while I have been hitting the hills and dales on my bike).

Our efforts are now being directed at trying to arrange home dialysis. We are scheduled to begin our three-week training course right after the 4th of July. And Sabine is already scheduled for a pre-surgical analysis of her arm veins.

There are some good reasons for doing home dialysis (especially for a cancer that affects one's immune system). First of all, it is a better dialysis. Doing daily dialysis (they tell us) is better than doing every other day dialysis. Secondly, the home environment is a cleaner environment with regard to infection than a clinical or hospital environment. And the third reason is that we can program the machine to better accommodate Sabine's chemotherapy which will be part of our life for sometime to come. Now, all we have to do is convince our health care provider -- Group Health Cooperative. Home dialysis is a new program and we are told is about the same cost as dialysis in the clinic. So we are waiting for their decision and in the meantime we have asked Sabine's primary care physician and nurse case manager from GHC to do what they can do to help us. (An area for prayer!)

You might wonder who these birds are -- they are not Sabine and me strolling along the prairie with Mocha; no, they are our new guests who have taken up residence across the highway from our farm -- a pair of Sandhill Cranes and their young chick (you can see the chick on the right side of the picture).







The other summer visitor we wish to note are the Ladyslipper flowers that we found growing last year on our south trail. They only last about two weeks but are beautiful wildflowers.

So that's the report from New Journey Farm. Next Sunday we go down to Janesville and fill in at Trinity Episcopal Church while the priest takes a needed vacation. We are also going to help out at New Heights Lutheran Church (Mazomanie and Black Earth) at the end of August while that pastor takes a well-earned vacation.

The pool is warm [80 degrees] (using only the sun to heat it this year!), the woods a rich green, and Charlotte's flowers and vegetable garden are doing their thing.

Don't forget to come and visit during one of the Relays this summer: JUNE 27 AT WISCONSIN HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL and JULY 25 IN MOUNT HOREB!

Love and blessings to all of you!

Rain, rain and more rain...

The sump pump has been running continually in our old farm basement. The good news is that the cottage is dry as a bone! We have springs springing up everywhere. The only folks that seem to enjoy all this rain and water and new found springs is our geese. They are having a heyday

I enclosed this picture of our driveway wash-out -- the second time this year! Even though we have 2 foot deep ruts, it is still passable. Not so for our friends, the Bradley's in Portage who live in the Baraboo bluffs -- their driveway is not passable and has nearly 4 foot gullies in it due to the 12 inches of rain they received one night.

Sabine and I were at St Peter's this past Sunday and it was great to see old friends. They presented us with a beautiful watercolor of their beloved church. It is a picture we will treasure. They also did something with their "rumage" (Fr.) sale and raised over $1,000 for Sabine to give toward cancer research. What a generous and needed gift! We thank you all so very much! Your love is palatable!

We are enjoying the "no-chemo" period. Sabine is out running and despite the rain, there have been wonderfully warm, sunny days (aha, a metaphor for this life!).

We are anxiously waiting to start our training for home dialysis next month and Sabine has her first preparatory consultation which will "map" and check her veins for the surgery (hopefully some time this month) that will implant a button "fistula" in her arm and make the dialysis more aseptic and give her the freedom to swim again (the "button," as I understand it, is actually skin that will grow over the fistula and permit dialysis through it by a needle. The button hole will be just like the opening one has in a pierced ear.

So, that's our life to date. We have a number of "dates" this summer to supply our liturgical services to area churches and look forward to these visits and worshipping in different congregations. My friend, Jerry, who is a U.C.C. pastor has invited me this summer to preach at the First Congregational Church in Madison (we are looking forward to this bit of ecumenism!).

Celebrate life every day. Enjoy one another. Be thankful!

Lest we forget...

Lest I forget... What's that old prayer? "Lord, you have given me so much. Just give me one more thing now -- a thankful heart!"


death valley
drove through it once
below sea level
hot
parched
emerged on a beach
in corona del mar

death valley – the other one
our cancer
fiery hot
thirst crazy
lost
yet emerged on a beach

God
thanksgiving’s
in my heart
joy entangles us

Round 6? Not yet!

Here's the report from our meeting with Dr Sheehan yesterday. As we mentioned earlier, it seems that this last round of chemotherapy held the "light chain" to the same level. They may not get lower, but they are GREATLY reduced from a beginning level of 10,800 down to 100.

So, Dr Sheehan's recommendation is that we stop the chemotherapy for 6 weeks and see what happens. In the meantime, Sabine can go through the preliminary tests and day surgery to get a "button fistula" implanted in her arm for dialysis purposes that will greatly reduce her chance of infection and permit her to go swimming and kayaking as well.

We will begin her surgical preparation and training on home dialysis next month and we are excited about this new-found freedom that a home dialysis program will give us.

Thanks for you prayers and keep them coming to specifically repress those light chain proteins from causing problems. Sabine's energy is up, she is looking forward to seeing many of you at one of the two "Relay for Life" dates (see below). Follow the yellow brick road!

Home Dialysis

I know this is Wednesday and many of you are axiously awaiting the results of our visit to Dr Sheehan this afternoon.

But first a report from our meeting yesterday with the home dialysis staff.

It looks like we are good candidates for home dialysis! What this means is that starting mid-July we will be going to home dialysis class five days a week for three weeks.

We will be trained on how to use this fantastic machine (see picture) and how to handle any malfunctions. The machine weighs about 70 pounds and it transportable (yes, that means would could vacation with it!). The filtering supplies are all in self-contained sets that will be mailed to us at home.

Home dialysis means "dialysizing" six days a week for two hours (versus our current scheduled of driving to Madison three times a week for four-hour sessons). We need a room to be set aside for the machine and a comfortable chair and take reasonable germ precautions.

We learned something new. As soon as we are certified we can begin home dialysis even if Sabine doesn't have her arm fistula in; that is, we can use the tunnel catheter in her neck for dialysis until the fistula "button" is surgically implanted and heals over. The benefits of having a fistula are great: less chance of infection, and swimming!

So we are waiting for Sabine's surgery to be completed sometime this summer and getting trained on this machine. The staff has been wonderful. They not only have a 24/7 tech support number for us, but one of the nurses are always on-call if we should need help at home.

Cottage Weekend

There are two additonal new blogs beside this one. Scroll below and take a look!

This weekend we did a trial run at our cottage. Everything has finally been completed except for the phone service (another long story of struggle with a "public" utility). Nevertheless, it was a wonderfully warm and grand weekend as we have a two week intermission between cancer therapies.

This coming Wednesday we meet with our oncologist and see how things are. (Those dreaded Lambda Light Chains seem to be holding their own. I just got the blood test back today and it was 116 (last time it was 100) but much better than the 10,800 we started with. We will see what Dr Sheehan has to say and what the next step is. Stay tuned.

These two pictures are taken at Indian Lake which is about 10 miles northwest of the cottage and has a free-run dog trail that Mocha great enjoys (well, so do we!).

I think I mentioned at Sabine has been running up to two miles. The research shows that excercise is of great benefit to cancer patients. Most everyone agrees exercise has great psychological benefits and so think that there are physiological benefits as well. Sabine thought back in January that she would never be able to run again, so this is a great leap forward for her.

This weekend niece Teak and her two children, Seger and Malea, joined Kim Lobitz and her kids from the Chicago area, Jared and Jackson for a visit with Grandma Buddy and some romping at the pool that is a very comfortable 78 degrees without benefit of fossil fuels! We joined them on Sunday after church.

This Sunday I "supplied" at St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Monroe. It is a very tiny (I think the tiniest) church in the diocese. We enjoy the congregation and look forward to our monthly visits.