Headin' West!

Another busy week with a visit from our kids in St Paul (eldest son, Peter, wife, Tammy and kids, Samantha, Benjamin and Hannah). It was a great opportunity for our first "3 Generation" bike ride: grandson, son, and granpa! We did a 50 mile ride with plenty of hills and felt we had accomplished something when we returned home.

Sabine ran errands and the girls hung out at the pool, visited Josh at his job at the puppy spa and did some other stuff in Madison.

This is a shot of me and grandson, Ben (age 13).

Oh yes, there were chores -- we took down a large and deceased maple tree from our yard and stacked wood (all good soul work!).

This past week, we also had a visit from one of Sabine's childhood friends, Shirley and her beau, Ron.

And, of course, the evening meal was sufficient with Charlotte's good cooking and at the outside diner.

With a quickly passing light rain there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky to the east of the farm.

I supplied yesterday at St Luke's in Madison -- there is something wonderful about that Anglican liturgy that simply moves my soul...

At the end of this week, we pack up the camper and head west to Glacier Park with dialysis supplies packed away and the freedom of the great American road. Wish us a safe journey and return. When we get back, Sabine will have a bone marrow biopsy, some more blood tests and a checkpoint as to how the stem cells are doing and where the cancer is at.

Yumi's Visit

We had a visit from daughter, Yumi, this week. She flew home for a week of leave from her Army assignment -- Medical Corps, 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, NY.

Yumi was recently promoted to Captain and due to medical constraints we couldn't make the ceremony last month.

It looks like Yumi will be posted to Iraq or Afghanistan early next year. We hope to see her home for Christmas before she leaves but all that is dependent upon the needs of her battalion.

She got back on the plan to New York and a stopover at sister Sumi's place and Yumi's niece, Taylor. (We can't wait to see the little outfit Yumi got Taylor while shopping on State Street!) [pictures, no doubt to follow].

This past week was one filled with numerous medical appointments, surgery, and tests -- but Sabine did get the go-ahead for a trip to Glacier Park at the end of this month!).

On our return, Sabine will meet with Dr Longo who will look at her most recent blood tests and then do a bone marrow biopsy that will give us the first information as to how new blood cells are dealing with the cancerous ones! Stayed tuned and we soon hope to give you reports from Glacier Park.

Whew!

This has been a busy week again and it's only Thursday!

Earlier this week we had a dialysis machine failure. After an hour into the treatment we had to shut down and manually return Sabine's blood (this was great for me, I love emergencies I can handle!) but probably a little trying on Sabine.

[The picture above is us dancing in the park last week!]

We called the machine supplier in Massachusets and within 24 hours we had a new machine delivered. We did the programming and off we went. We had some alarms and needed to contact tech support a couple of time to resolve them.

Then we had labs on Monday in preparation for meeting with a member of our transplant team on Wednesday. Sabine's blood work all looked good with her hemoglobin rising again to 9.4 (still below normal but climbing). She got the okay to travel to Glacier Park at the end of this month!

But... her fistula arm appeared to be swelling (this along with the alarms with the dialysis machine) so we were sent to UW Hospital for an arteriogram and checkup.

As we expected, there were blockages in the fistula and catheter areas and the surgical team immediately set about clearing them. After surgery we saw the "before and after" xrays and knew that the intervention worked (I think it's the same process as a heart catheterization).

Sabine was a little groggy after surgery but we soon were on the way home with a few puncture holes in her arm -- but with excellent results.

Earlier this week, daughter Yumi was home on leave from the Army and was able to help out (her new medical corps assignment seemed appropriate). Yumi will most likely be posted to Iraq or Afghanistan early next year and that will be a time of concern for all of us.

Next week we take labs again and have out monthly "clinic day" at the dialysis center and, we both will be thinking about that beautiful national park called Glacier and making arrangements for supplies to be delivered to our lodge and for the camper to be packed!

All in all, it's been a lovely summer...

So far, it's been a good summer!

Growing new cells.

Day by day.

LIFE IS GOOD!

Stomping on Cancer!

Beats me as to how I can turn this image around. But if you recline on your right side it will work out...

This is a video I took when we were on a 2-day camping trip to Oshkosh and the Experimental Aircract Associaition museum. We really got into flying and so we tried it!! Up. up and awaaaaaaay!

A Busy Week (again!)

To illustrate that Sabine is getting move of her "groove" back each week, I have the following pictures from this past weekend.

There must be a bug in the blogspot program which seems to prevent me from arranging these pictures in some kind of chronological order.

So, I have decided to test the reader by asking iblog readers if they can match up the pictures with the events.

No, there is not a prize. But simply the self-satisfaction of being right!



Here we go. (Think of the pictures being numbered A through L, top to bottom).

1. Mazomanie Fire Department's Annual Chicken Dinner fundraiser. Vol. Fire Chief Walter "Pete" Peterson worked with Sabine for years.

2. A summer get together and picnic at Fredericka and Bonita's tree house about four miles north of our farm (as the crow flies).


3. Overnite camping in Kettle Moraine State Park near Whitewater.

4. Bob Eagle's (affectionately known as the "Big Bird") retirement party after 30+ years as chaplain at Meriter Hospital at Olin Park in Madison and a performance of the Oregon City Band.

5. A tour to the beautiful "Ten Chimneys" estate near Genesee Depot which was the summer home of actors Alfred Lunt and Joan Fontaine (and frequently visited by Noel Coward).

6. Antique Car Show and brat fry sponsored by New Heights Lutheran Church in Black Earth.

7. Fundraiser and pie sale for Habitat for Humanity at Single Oak Farm and Gardens near Paoli to support the home being built in Mazomanie.

8. Short hike on the Ice Age Trail.

Be careful, some events have more than one picture!

Well, that's our weekend! And that's why (at least speaking for me) I feel a little tuckered out!

Love to all of our bloggers!

Relay for Life (T + 51)

Around Transplant Day 50, Sabine (like Stella) "got her groove back!" And began increasingly getting her energy and endurance back.

I didn't report late last winter when one of our donkeys, Mauritz, came down with the dreaded Equine Protazoan disease and succumbed to it. Sad time in our households... Sabine's mother, Charlotte, was also very connected to the boys since Sabine took ill and could not be around them.

We have been searching for a replacement (remember, "a donkey alone is a lonely donkey") and folks in our neck of the woods have been looking out for a friend for Max. This weekend we found one -- a donkey family just outside of Argyle had one for sale and so we drove down and adopted, "Bucky" (he actually is called "The Downs -- Buckpasser" and it a pedigreed donkey (no, we are not going to tell Max because he will just feel bad).

Charlotte and our neighbor, Bob, will pick him up this coming week. They have about 16 donkeys and two newborns!







Sabine's brother, Rainer, made one of his summer visits (they spend the winter in the Las Vegas area) and being a good German, was looking for things to do; so he mowed grass, expanded the donkey pen, and then, helped me build a shed for the pool heater and filter system (something I was "gonna do" for the past 12 summers!).

Rainer is a retired social worker and just as good carpenter. So away we went. Notice the picture of Rainer working and me drinking ice tea! But it was a hot day as you can see from our sweaty t-shirts.
















































































(I can't seem to get these pictures to line up! Bear with me...)

A number of events are milestones in our new life with cancer -- our local "Relay for Life" is one of them. Sabine was this year's speaker at the Black Earth/Mazomanie/Cross Plains "Relay for Life" held at Wisconsin Heights High School this weekend.

She was a great speaker (well, I knew that... but she was really wonderful as she spoke about "battle buddies" -- (those who has cancer and their care providers) and how one has to pay attention not only to the physical side of this disease, but also mental and spiritual aspects.

On Thursday, we attended a great production at the American Players Theater in nearby Spring Green with a couple from our support group who lives down the road from us -- Gil and Kathleen. The production was Shaw's "The Philanderer" and wonderfully presented!

This Sunday (Father's Day) I led worship at New Heights and had a the opporunity to preach about the importance of Father's and how the church has become "unbalanced" with the absence of men in worship and in church ministries (on any given Sunday, congregations are 60% female) and how a growing church needs to have men present. And I talked about a great film that could be used to attract men -- a film about duty, honor, courage, commitment and service above self -- "Taking Chance," starring Kevin Bacon. As a former Marine, it greatly moved me and has the same values that I believe followers of Jesus hold.

Well, we had a busy and grateful week. And, as I have said in the past, when Sabine feels better somehow I do, too!

Love and blessings to all!