Today and This Past Weekend

We are in the process of doing home dialysis this afternoon without supervision.... s-c-a-r-y! (Well it is to Sabine but I have to admit I feel pretty confident (so far). This past weekend is captured below: start with "Wild and Crazy Weekend" and then to Roman numerals II and III.

Have a great week!

Wild and Crazy Weekend III

"Miss Relay" contestants who raised nearly $2,000!














Some of the fantastic fireworks that evening.














Flying Monkeys, Emerald City and the Yellow Brick Road!

A Wild and Crazy Weekend

I will start out this crazy weekend with a narrative and then some pictures.

FRIDAY: Our trial-run home dialysis at the cottage. Are Nurse Dawn and Dr Song were here to observe and give us our FINAL EXAMINATION! (Sabine's BP was a little high!). All went well and we passed. Then a nap and off to set up our site at the Mt Horeb "Relay for Life." Sabine had her Dorothy costume and Charlotte's friends (the folks who painted at the cottage have also helped us out last month during the Wisconsin Heights Relay. This time they were Munchkins and the Scarecrow! Charlotte had her tin hat and axe as the Tinman. Thanks to Laurie, Pat, Maggie, Gail, and Pat #2!). We were also joined by Sue Wenger from St John's in Portage and Kim with her two boys, Jared and Jackson -- Charlotte's GREAT grandkids! They all were such a good help in setting up, taking down and helping entertain us.

I got talked into joining a special event to raise money around the track. Men were asked to dress up as women (drag?) and collect as much money as they could in an hour. Sabine was so nice, she lent me her Dorothy costume, red sequined shoes and wig. More about that later.

At 10 p.m. a special memorial fireworks display was set off and I have to say I have NEVER seen fireworks as many, varied and lengthy as these were. We were awestruck!

We got home and in bed just before midnight.

SATURDAY: We were up around 7 a.m. and attended the pancake breakfast back at the Relay site. A good breakfast. Then there was breaking down our "Wizard of Oz" campsite and loading it into the truck before the final awards ceremony.

While we had to split our money between two relays (raising over $3,000) we still ended up in the top twenty. Our movie theme campsite (and characters) won us second place overall among nearly 30 campsites. And when it came to the "Miss Relay" competition, I was squeezed out by two other "women of the night" but I was an acceptable third place.

Overall, the Mt Horeb "Relay for Life" raised over $100,000 to fight cancer!

SUNDAY: I was the supply priest at little St Andrew's in Monroe. Tired but present! Sabine got a pass.

See some of the pictures we took this weekend on Wild and Crazy Weekend II and III!

Thanks again for your support, love, and prayers.

Wild and Crazy Weekend II

Here are some pictures of the Relay itself. The first pic is a great one -- Sabine in a "Survivor" shirt!!











Kim Lobitz, Jackson and Jared (Tinman in background)
Dorothy and Tinman.

The whole cast of Characters!

BREAKING NEWS!

As many of you know, we had our meeting with Sabine's hemotologist/oncologist, Dr Sheehan, today.

Sabine has been on a 10-week "rest" since her last chemotherapy session. The break was to see how the cancer would react without the chemotherapy (Velcade and dexamethasone).

We got the lab report back last week (and I thought it looked pretty good!) but Dr Sheehan thought it looked even better.

He said, "As of now, we have got the cancer under control!"

He suggested we check back in another six weeks to see how the "numbers" look. And, as for now, there will not be another round of chemotherapy.

Praise God! and thank you all for your love and prayers!

Hope to see some of you at the Mt Horeb "Relay for Life" -- starting at 6 p.m. this coming Friday at Grundahl Park, just south of Highway ID.

This Friday is also the day we finish our home dialysis training and the staff at the dialysis center meets us at the cottage and we set up and do "home dialysis" that day. A busy week!

Gandy Dancer Festival

On Sunday our little village of Mazomanie had a music festival called the "Gandy Dancer" (those who worked for the railroad laying track).

There were great bands -- an especially good Cajun group -- and plenty of food (and beer!). (Sabine can't drink so I had one for her).



One of the highlights of the day was a free one-hour train ride. (I wasn't able to upload the video -- but the picture below is the start of it. You can see mile number 162 where the cottage stands).

If you look at the picture below of the cottage (a picture we took from our train ride that day) you can see Charlotte's fine gardening work.

She has planted flowers all around the cottage and in the yard. Yes, it is a blessing to have a hard-working German gardener on staff.


It was just one of those wonderful summer days in Wisconsin and Sabine greatly enjoyed being at the festival, walking to the cottage for a nap, and then going back to the festival. We hope to be back next year for another great time.

Charge Nurse Swings Into Action!

Here we are in our last week at the University of Home Dialysis. (I think we may even graduate after a rocky first week!).

We have been preparing the cottage for our transition from clinic to home. We have two huge 7" deep drawers filled with supplies and we will have 40 boxes of 5 liter bags of dialysite delivered each month. (Dialysite is the solution that surrounds the artificial kidney/cartridge and cleanses the blood of toxins by an osmosis-like process).

I actually am getting excited about being the "Charge Nurse!" In the picture you can see the cycler (dialysis machine) behind me with the 4-5 liter bags of dialysite that are used each treatment session. In the picture, I am about to make the sterile blood connections to Sabine's tunnel catheter that will begin the dialysis process.

We will continue using the tunnel catheter near her neck until the fistula (or graft) is ready to use. This is a surgical technique and will need to heal before it is used.

This weekend between cottage preparations we were able to amble over to the Mazomanie "Gandy Dancer" festival which had a great selection of bluegrass and Cajun music. There also were free one-hour railroad car rides (I will enclose some of the pics we took of the cottage as we went by on the rails!

Wednesday is our meeting with Dr Sheehan and I anticipate some good news with regards to the treatment cycle. The weather has been great -- there really is absolutely no better weather in the world than summers in Wisconsin.

Stay tuned!