The short story is all is well. I am well, continuing my Keytruda infusions, getting stronger, building stamina.
Here is the longer story:

I had an abundance of family time this month. I met Mom and Matt at the Denver Airport and we spent 5 nights playing with the Gilroy gang in Boulder. We had a lovely drive up to Estes Park. Celebrated Kathy’s birthday with pedicures and lunch. Celebrated AJ’s and Kathy’s birthday with a pizza party and much, much more. The best part, of course is having time with all those great nieces and nephews. Love that! The weather and climate in Colorado is so different than Seattle’s. At the same time Seattle was hunkering down for the cold, wet winds from the Pacific typhoon, there was a hot, dry wind blowing through Boulder. I walked with Hunter to the park near Kathy’s house and felt I was walking through a blow dryer! The dry leaves and bits were falling from the trees like rain. We enjoyed stomping and crunching the dry leaves, something we rarely get to enjoy with all our wet leaves in Seattle!

After 5 nights in Colorado, Mom, Matt and I flew together to Seattle where they stayed with us for a week. We had a break in the weather our first day here so we headed straight to Alki to enjoy the beauty of the beach while we could. Day 2 gave us a deluge and we binge watched Jane the Virgin on Netflix. I cooked quite a few meals and we had a big dinner party to celebrate Betty’s birthday. Michael, Maggie and Eva visited with us more than usual, which is always a good thing! Other than that, we mostly relaxed, laughed at Jane the Virgin and took it easy. I have not had that much time with my mom in a long time. It was good. I know she needed that time to be convinced that I am doing as well as I am. And I am doing well!

I saw Dr. Kaplan and had my 4th immunotherapy treatment this past Wednesday. I love seeing my doc. I think I see him as a father figure and I somehow feel like he is proud of me. He gives me his seal of approval and is so happy with how well I am doing. Then I go in for my quick and easy Keytruda infusion. One or two more infusions, then I’ll have a scan to see if the Keytruda is doing its job.

Of course we talked about that coil. I so badly wish there was an easy way to peek into my duodenum to see how my ulcer is healing and to see if the coil is still there. But alas, we just have to have faith. As long as I have no symptoms, we assume all is well. I’ve had no pain at all and no blood. I am almost up to a full and regular diet. I have not yet had really high fiber food, like beans, but I plan to add that in this week. The only foods I will continue to avoid is spicy food and food with tiny seeds (raspberries, strawberries, chia or flax seeds) as they could get lodged in or aggravate the ulcer. It's a huge relief, one month out of the hospital, to be pain free. Everyday without pain is a day of healing.

We lost a good friend this week…
When I was in my late twenties and early thirties I taught special education preschool at the EEU at UW. It was a magical place and a magical time. That was where I met Mike and many other life long friends. There were 4 other women teacher friends I made during this time that remained friends throughout all these years. We all married and had kids within a few years of each other. When our families were young we camped together every summer at Mt. Rainier or Mt. St. Helens. When our kids started graduating high school and then college we had parties to celebrate them each spring. We tried to get together at least once a year. When Jim’s health and my health started to fail, we started to get together a little more frequently. We didn’t want to take our special bond for granted. We didn’t want to lose our connection. Our last gathering was an overnight this past summer at Kelley and Bill’s in Yakima.
Jim had struggled with his heart health for many reasons for years. He’s been through surgery, treatments and ups and downs. When I had heart failure and went to cardio rehab, I joined Jim, who was also in rehab. We bonded as we worked out together in rehab.
We lost Jim this past week. His heart just couldn’t come back this time. His body had fought so hard and so long and he let go with Julie and his two sons, Michael and Aaron by his side.
Last week, before we knew he was struggling, Kelley and Bill emailed that they would be over this weekend and hoped we could all get together. We had plans for most of us to meet up tonight for dinner. Little did we know, at that point in time, that we would be attending Jim’s funeral, instead. Yesterday we attended his service at their temple in NE Seattle. It was a wonderful service and tribute to Jim. Tonight there is another gathering where we will have a chance to celebrate his life and share our stories. Jim was a very intelligent man with an epic and classic love of baseball. Jim was a good guy; funny, clever, generous and kind. We will miss him so.
It does give me pause, great pause, at 60, to lose a friend like Jim. Someone Mike and I grew up with as a family. It seems too soon for this to happen. And, I am acutely aware that I could have been the first of our 10 to go. Everyone, at some level, realizes that our lives can change in an instant. It is true for any of us. We don’t think about it much or we would be paralyzed, frozen in place. Since I’ve had cancer, this feeling is closer to the surface, it bubbles up more frequently and easily than in my pre-cancer days. It’s a blessing in that I am less likely to take life and love for granted. It’s a curse in that as it bubbles up it is frequently accompanied by anxiety. It's a challenge to carry the blessing and release the anxiety.


And finally, trivia night…
If anyone has questions for me about trivia night email, text or message me somehow and I’d be happy to respond. We have great food and prizes and it should prove to be a fun evening. Hope to see some of you there! Here is the link to the evite:

http://evite.me/5JN9ZJYjKj

Happy Halloween my friends!
I hope you have many trick or treaters at your door, making you smile!
And for my little Seattle friends, we'll have lots of candy in case you are in our neighborhood Monday night!!
And please, may this election end in the only conceivable, logical way possible!!
Love and Peace
Janet

Good morning,
I had treatment this week and all went well. It feels good to be back on track and at least think and hope that I’m back to fighting cancer again. One has to keep that beast at bay, at least. I continue to be in awe of how quickly and easily treatment is with Keytruda compared to my chemos. I waltz in and I waltz out; easy peasy! I'll have 3 or 4 more treatments and then a scan. My next treatment is on October 26, Betty's birthday.

When I saw Dr. Kaplan we were both pretty speechless in regard to the ridiculousness of the detour we’d just been through. I reminded him that I had wondered about the coils when the pain first started in March. He acknowledged that, he remembered. I got the credit I wanted. I told him when I was done with all of this I was planning to be a doctor, so I needed that credit! But the fact is this is a very, very rare situation. It really just does not happen, hardly ever! And I wonder, if we’d figured it out what could have been done? The coil was traveling in my artery. Maybe they could have gone up and retrieved it the same way they put it in but there is a good deal of risk to try and dislodge something that is supposed to be stuck in your artery. It definitely would have helped to have known the cause of all the pain and I probably could have managed the pain better, knowing what it was. I would not have had to jump through hoops of theories with a variety of treatments/approaches. But that is all water under the bridge now. I’m relieved to know what caused the pain, delighted to be pain free (for nearly a month now!) and happy to be visualizing my tiny precious pearl forming in the wall of my duodenum.

I’m heading to Colorado on Thursday. I’m meeting my mom and brother there and we are hanging out with the Gilroys for 5 days. We get in the day before Kathy’s birthday. Then mom and Matt are joining me on my return flight to Seattle and they will be here for a week. I’m looking forward to lots of family time here and there.

That puts the Gastric Cancer Trivia Night Fundraiser right around the corner, November 20. I’ll attach the evite again, at the end of this post. I’m wondering if anyone has connections for donations of beer or wine? Please let me know if you think you can get some donated for our good cause. We are a mini fundraiser with the donations going to Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Institute. Since it is a small organic fundraiser we do not have a tax number, so we just need donations from the goodness of people’s hearts! Please let me know if you might help us procure some beverages for our event. Also, try to join us! We’ll have pasta and salad and desserts followed by trivia games. My friend Gaby, in her former career, was a caterer and she is a fabulous chef, so, we’ll be in for some tasty treats that evening! Bring your own trivia team or join up with others that night. It should be a grand time!

http://evite.me/5JN9ZJYjKj

Lots of love,
Janet

Okay, that was one weird and unexpected detour on my road to kicking cancer. I try to find that balance between anxiously waiting for symptoms to recur and being aware of symptoms if they do occur. Vigilant, but not freaking out; I guess that is what I’m going for. Thanks to my friend Shannon I have a new way of thinking about this irritating little coil. She said she was imagining a pearl forming inside of me. So, just like the grain of sand is irritating to an oyster and will form a pearl over time; my coil is an irritant and the scar tissue is forming a pearl. I like it. Easier and prettier to visualize than the wall of my duodenum!

I am on a low residue/low fiber diet. Eating nearly the opposite of what I usually eat. I usually eat lots of fresh veggies, fruits, lots of salad, nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains. NO, not right now. All of those are no-nos.
I can eat a few fruits and veggies, cooked well or canned or very ripe. I can have white bread (they still make that!), white rice, white pasta anything without any of the forbidden foods made with enriched flour. Not even fake white bread made with regular wheat flour. I can have lean meat and fish (thank goodness, salmon and chicken are ok!). I can have eggs. I can have dairy (but limited to 2 cups a day). It is the same diet I was on when I was released from the hospital 2 years ago (nearly to the day!!!).

I am gradually building my strength and stamina. Prior to my side trip to the hospital, I was up to about 40 minutes a day with Wilson, walking hills and stairs in the neighborhood. I tried to keep up my walking in the hospital. I walked figure eight laps around the two sides of the 12th floor, listening to Radio Lab. One day I took over 10, 000 steps! Pretty good for a day in the hospital! But, it was so flat! Walking in the neighborhood with my high strung pup is a little different, it takes a different kind of energy!

And now…back to our regularly scheduled programming! I was supposed to get a Keytruda treatment on the Thursday I was admitted to the hospital. I get to have that infusion on Tuesday next week. I’m so relieved that we are getting back to the main event: fighting this cancer!

November is Stomach Cancer Awareness Month and my friend Gaby and her family are organizing another trivia night. Our family is helping out a bit procuring some food and some trivia prizes (any leads for donated salad, pasta, dessert or prizes?) Last year we were in a bar on Capitol Hill and we really didn’t have the room we needed. This year we have a hall so we’ll have plenty of room to fit and be able to sit with our friends! So, save the date: November 20, 2016. I’m including the link to the evite below. I’d love to see you there!

http://evite.me/5JN9ZJYjKj

Thanks for all your emails, texts, posts, walks, visits and calls. We feel very supported! Thank you to all who have offered to help with the painting or to just finish it for us! (Thanks, Matt!) But the truth is I am very capable, I have the time and am getting the energy back and I actually like to paint! Mike and I finished the primer coat in Michael’s room today, so we are well on our way!
Thank you all!

On to Keytruda, on to kicking cancer, on to life!
With love
Janet