Taking some getting used to

I was just reading online that former Duck basketball player Maarty Leunen had signed a contract to play basketball in Turkey.

I was about to turn to Cheryl on the couch and say "Hey, honey, guess where Maarty Leunen is going?" when I caught myself.

This really sucks.

Thank you all for the kind words and support

Not quite up to the longer post as yet, but I think I've contacted everyone in our collective phone lists. Thank you all for you kind words and support during this time.

Please keep leaving comments; they're appreciated. Anyone who needs to get a hold of me can call me 509-768-0529 or my primary email address at bddave@yahoo.com.

I had a long chat/session with Cheryl's counselor today, and that helped quite a bit. We spoke at length at how Cheryl was dealing with the stress and, yes, guilt of her cancer - Cheryl was painfully aware that her procrastination at dealing with that mole on her back may very well have been why she was in this predicament. It sounded like Cheryl was starting to accept the possibility of passing and was making peace with that, and that made me feel a little better.

I am presently making arrangements for Cheryl's service in Eugene and will post that information here when plans are finalized.

Cheryl passed away Saturday evening

I'll post more when I can. She went peacefully and surrounded by friends and family.

Thanks to all for your kind words and support during these difficult times.

One sliver of sunshine in this otherwise crappy year

OOOOOO! SSSSSS! UUUUUU! Oregon State! Fight! Fight! Fight!

You better believe I'll be rocking the orange tomorrow. You don't have the answers for the Quizz! You don't! You just don't!

Dave

A decidedly mixed bag

So, we're back from the latest trip from the Oregon Clinic, and we've got good news and not so good news.

The good news is that Dr. Crocenzi was very pleased with how Cheryl has bounced back from radiation therapy and that she's gotten her appetite back.

The bad news is that we're now out of clinical trials. There's a few coming down the pipe, but they're not yet taking applications for those. Plan E looks like chemotherapy, and the best case with chemo and melanomas is simply slowing it down; it's very, very seldom an actual cure.

Yeah, not the news we wanted. We're both pretty down about basically being down to our last straw.

The next clinical trial Dr. Crocenzi mentioned would involve a biopsy of a melanoma in order to create a vaccine, and perhaps fortunately, Cheryl is now covered in purple dots, so they won't have to go far to find one...

Hey, I'm trying to find good news anywhere I can these days.

I'm going to run away and join the circus

One peculiarity of our 2nd-floor apartment is that it's right across from the Latah Country fairgrounds, and it's that time of year again; the Zipper is spinning, the air is filled with the smells of cotton candy and elephant ears, and there's so many carny folk around it looks like a Joe Dirt convention. In short, the fair is back in town.

Mind you, as fairs go, this is pretty rinky-dink. Latah County is not exactly large - outside of Moscow, you've got a handful of tiny ex-mining towns that number in the low hundreds, if that - so the fair reflects that. We don't even get has-been musical acts, we get never-wasses ("Ladies and gentlemen, the Latah County Polka All-Stars!")

Okay, that was a cheap shot. I have nothing against polka music. Still, any fair that gives out ribbons for Lego sculptures...well, I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

That being said, the Latah County Fair is a damn sight better than LentilFest, I tell you what. And it's free, too. Can't beat that price.

Cheryl is doing better and we hope to stroll the grounds and "see the aminals" (sic), as well as get some greasy corndogs. Mmm, corndogs...however, I doubt we will be taking a spin in the Tilt-a-Whirl at this time. Winning a cheap-ass stuffed animal, however, may be in the cards.

Yeah, I know, late update...cut me some slack

It's been a long, long two weeks at my loathsome job, and I've been very, very tired lately. Not to mention that Cheryl and I are both lazy and enable each other horribly, as the giant pile of clean clothing sitting in the middle of the living room can attest.

But, anyway, the news out of the Harpish household is...mostly good. The radiation therapy, combined with the injectable cocktail of drugs Cheryl takes on a regular basis seems to have done the job pretty well for the short term. She's eating a much more regular diet (regular enough to ditch the five-pound-milkshake each night, we don't know yet), and her energy level is much, much higher - for the first time in months, she seems like the "old" Cheryl, which is much welcome in these parts.

Now, we still need to work on that muscle tone - she's got matchstick calves and arms like my 85-year-old grandmother, and climbing up two steps of stairs has tuckered her out for the day, but we're definitely moving in the right direction.

Now, this current progress is strictly pallative; we've still got plenty of cancer to worry about, and when we head to Portland next week, we'll find out what Plan E is going to be (the ipi is out for now, but at least we've got a Plan E).

More news as we get it.

Dave