How does the garden begin...

Saturday was such a beautiful day that we decided it was time to get busy in the garden, as it was still under all of the fall leaves that had protected it over the winter.

Bill got out the tiller and got it going and did his thing.



In the mean time, I decided the the trellis for the peas would be natural and I had just read an article talking about using apple tree branches for the trellis. We just happened to have an apple tree and a few branches that we cut off last weekend, so off to the burn pile I went. When I was finished, here was my prize:



Without a true plan in mind we began the process of creating "teepee's that we hope will become a trellis for the garden.



the plan is to grow peas on the four legged trellis' and as the peas go away, we are going to try and grow squash on the trellis. The three legged trellis will be used to grow beans.

Who knows if it will work or not, but it will be fun to try. We are even going to try and plant the seeds in stages to spread out the crop. We'll see if any of it will happen, but it will be fun to try.

Happy Gardening!

Buddy's final radiation treatment

Today Bill & I took Buddy to see Dr. Cyman for his final radiation treatment. Dr. Cyman came out and told us what to watch for as his disease progresses.

While we had the opportunity, Bill asked her a question about the safety of her job and the radiation and the "vault" as she called it. It was quite an education, most of it was over my head, but I can say that the "vault" where the treatment occurs has concrete walls 3 feet thick, and a 10,000 pound lead door. She said that they "over shielded" the "vault" for safety purposes.

It was quite an education that I never wanted.

On Thursday, Buddy starts the vaccine for melanoma. It is a series of 4 shots ever other week. Then a booster at 6 months.

We'll see how that goes, and will be switching back to Dr. Freeman.

Buddy is in good spirits and Mom is spoiling him rotten.

And the treatments begin....

Buddy’s schedule of radiation treatments were Friday Feb 19, Monday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday and the final treatment scheduled for Monday March 8.

According to all discussions, dogs do not have the same types of side effects as people do, but they do have side effects. Due to the melanoma being in his mouth, they were treating his mouth, plus the lymph nodes on his neck. The side effects are a tender mouth and throat.

Some of the other interesting items have been that Dr. Freeman had us start giving him fish oil pills as they are very good for cancer patients, and suggested that rather than the chicken and rice that has been added to his dinner, we drop the rice and increase the protein. Dr. Cyman also suggested a high protein low carb diet, and recommended a couple different brands of dry food. We ended up selecting EVO. He is now eating their turkey/chicken kibble and we are also using the same brand of biscuits and alternate between the turkey/chicken and red meat treats.

On March 1st Buddy started showing signs of side effects. The Dr said this was right on schedule. While he appeared to be hungry and thirsty he would only pick at both food and water and he started drooling. His reactions made us think of a severe sore throat. Dr. Cyman started him on some pain medication to help through this period. She also pushed his Thursday appointment out to Friday to give his body a chance to recover a bit more.

During this period either my brother Bob or Bill transported Buddy to his appointment. On Monday, March 8, I will be also going to the appointment so that I can learn about what happens now.

Sometimes when it rains…..

it absolutely pours.

The holidays were hectic, January wasn't much better but we figured that things would begin to quiet down a bit in February.

We were sadly mistaken. On Saturday, January 30th we took Buddy in to see his Dr. for an old dog check-up to make sure all was ok, with the plan of having his teeth cleaned. When his Dr Laborde checked his mouth, she found a tumor growing that we had not noticed, and she thought it could be melanoma. His blood work came back the next day and was a total mess which resulted in another trip to the vet to check his blood pressure and his clotting to make sure that he could have surgery to remove the tumor.

The following Saturday Buddy made another trip to the vet to have the tumor removed. He came through the surgery really well, which was great, but it was only the beginning.

Three days later the biopsy results came back and the tumor was an aggressive form of cancer, and we were given several options to think about....surgery, oncologist, do nothing....

We had a family discussion and I was on the phone with the Oncologist later that day so that we could here all of the available options.

So on Thursday after his Saturday surgery Buddy and I found ourselves at a Cancer Clinic within the Dove Lewis Clinic seeing an Oncologist for a consultation.

Dr Freeman did the exam and gave us a list of options: 1. surgery, 2. chemo, 3. radiation, 4. melanoma vaccine. To start the process of knowing where we were, she did an aspiration of the lymph nodes a chest x-rays and the other problem was that the biopsy did not have a specific cancer diagnosis and we had to send it off to TX to determine exactly what we were dealing with. All of this takes time.

On Friday Dr. Freeman called and said no sign of spreading in the lymph nodes, nor the lungs, so now we wait for the biopsy results

On Wednesday while out for my lunchtime walk, I received a phone call from Dr. Freeman. The diagnosis was oral melanoma and an aggressive form. She recommended that we go to another oncologist over in Beaverton, Dr. Cyman for a consultation for radiation, and that I needed to move immediately because the clinic was scheduled to close in a couple of weeks. Good thing for lunch hours, by time I got back to the office Buddy was scheduled the following day for another consultation with Dr. Cyman. More scrambling and my brother Bob was enlisted in the process, so he drove from Seaside to Sandy, picked up Buddy and drove him to Beaverton and I met them at the clinic.

Dr. Cyman examined Buddy and her recommendation was radiation, and she wanted to start the next day (Friday) for six treatments

Lacey's Check up

Friday was Lacey's 4 month check up to see how things are going. We always pick the 9:45 appointment as it allows for a somewhat relaxed departure time, plus the always necessary latte/mocha stop.

The weather for the last week has been cold and dry. Even Lacey is unable to do a thing with her hair!



Dr. Scollan was out of the office so we saw Dr. Bulmer. Our student this time was Jennifer. We thought she was very professional and gave us a great tip of buying capsules and putting all of her tiny tablets in the capsule for ease of handling. We give Jennifer a A++ for this tip, it makes things easier for both the pill receiver as well as the pill giver.

After the initial exam Dr Bulmer let us know what tests they would be running and said he'd call if they found any additional tests needed to be run. So off we headed to the Inter-zone Cafe. I don't think that we were there more than 15 minutes when my phone rang. It was Jennifer saying everything was fine, but they wanted to run some blood work as they wanted to make some adjustments to Lacey's meds. I was not expecting a phone call, but the conversation wasn't as bad as it could have been.

After coffee we headed off to our favorite stops in Corvallis and enjoyed the day. At 1:30 we headed back to the school to pick up Lacey and find out the results of her tests.

The results were good and bad. No sign of arrhythmia which was excellent, but Lacey's heart had become a bit more enlarged which was bad. But a positive along those lines is because of the pacemaker, they were able to increase her heart rate up to 90.

There was a minor adjustment to her meds and a request to keep and eye on her and farewell with a see you in 3 months.

Here we are in front of the interesting artwork at the hospital.

Bikes Again Only This Time As Spectators

For sometime now Bonnie and Bill have discussed watching a cycle-cross bike race. Well, with one being held within five miles of their home why not. Barton Park: behind the park is a large gravel pit. Bill decided to take rubber boots, green ones at that. Oh well, being dry was more important than being fashionable. Was not long and Bonnie went back to the car to install her boots as well.
Not sure what to expect other than mud, expectations were, well open. When Bonnie and Bill entered the parking lot area there was a line of riders waiting to wash off their bikes as well as themselves. Hmm, this might be a bit more extreme than anticipated. I might add, this was not just a guy thing. As Bonnie and Bill were leaving at the start line maybe 200 woman participants were prepping for their races. These may have been the novice groups, but still quite serious about their sport, young and old alike.
About half way through the time Bonnie and Bill were there, a kids race was announced. And yes these were kids, maybe six and under. Parents running along side of their child assisting when needed. The kids track was around a shed, but with all the traffic from the various races, there was mud and water to be had even for the little ones.
A couple of pictures here show some of the extreme times, but none of the races were easy. Minimum time ~45 minutes. Most races were six laps or less depending on class by skill set, age, and weight.

BRRRRR

For some reason Bonnie and Bill decided to go for a bike ride, and with the Farmers Market in downtown Portland calling their names off they were. No, they did not ride from Damascus. They drove into Sellwood and road in from there.
What a busy path along the old rail line. Numerous walkers and many bikes. It was 40 degrees when they left the house. Yes warm dress was in order, only to realize another layer would have been nice. But the ride with a bit of fall chill was well worth it. They were rewarded with squash and apples from their favorite Hood River orchard to make a squash soup for an up and coming club meeting. At the market they found a pastry business that looked too good to pass up. Once again they were rewarded with two fabulous cookies, a cranberry and raisin granola, as well as a butter toffee chocolate chip cookie. The best award has yet to be given. Ha, but to leave with only two items. Not. They picked up a blue cheese, tomato, and asparagus tart, and of course a cranberry tart dessert. These were for home consumption.
So, back to home they headed. Still a bit cool, but closer to 45 than 40. Bonnie dawned her footie boots for wind break, and Bill added a toe wind break to help with thawing the toes.
The outing would not be complete without a coffee shop break. On the way in Bonnie had spotted a new shop, so of course this was our next stop. Bonnie had her white chocolate mohca and Bill had his second egg-nog latte of the season. Both were quite pleasant.
Onward the truck rolled only to be delayed again with a stop at a local sport shop to check out foul weather gear: lobster gloves for both, and a head warmer for Bonnie, of course with a pony tail slit.
Overall a great morning that remained dry between the NW storms.