SPRING TRIP

Planning has started for our Spring Trip starting April 14th.  As you can see above we will be going directly to Las Vegas where we will spend about 3 weeks getting used to our new digs at the Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort.  Larry and Linda Bergo, our friends from San Diego, will join us there in their motor home and we will head north on May 14th intending to work our way up to the West entrance to Yellowstone National park.  Right now we don't know if the park will be open yet or not due to the federal government sequester.  The roads may not be plowed yet.  Guess we will just wait and see.  Items 11 and 12 above are Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks.  We are keeping our fingers crossed but also have a "Plan B" if that does not work out.  This trip will total somewhere around 3200 miles.

LVMCR

We've been hunkered down for the winter and not had much of anything to post - until today.  A few weeks ago we concluded that, retired or not, we were going to spend the winter somewhere warmer.  That fact combined with Arlyene's need to be closer to her mom and the rest of her family led us to make an offer to purchase our own RV lot in the Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort.  This location also puts Walt only about a 5 hour drive from his dad in Cathedral City, CA.  We will not be officially "moving" to LV however we will spend 5 months or so a year on this lot.  Probably until the webs between Walt's toes start to dry out and crack.  Washington will remain our official residence.

Our offer was accepted this afternoon and so we are just a week or two away from being the owners of lot #187.  This will be our winter base of operations.  Walt can and will do most of his work via remote computer connection with an occasional trip back to Seattle (by air) as necessary.  When we are not staying on our lot ourselves we will put the lot in the" rental pool".  We will be headed down in mid April and will spend about 3 weeks here before heading to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons where we will meet up with our friends Larry and Linda.  Should be back in Seattle the first week of June.  We will keep our spot at Lake Pleasant until September and then probably give it up and just stay here as transients when we are in Seattle.  We plan to spend the summer months in the Pacific Northwest if we are not traveling elsewhere.

The Adventure moves on.........  Now all we have to do is stay healthy.

All that is missing is us and our motor home.  

Mount Baker In The Fall

We are on a short outing in the motor home.  Wanted to get away for a few days before Arly's radiation treatments start.  Also wanted to investigate some of local Thousand Trails parks.  That investigation was a disappointment.  These parks facilities are not a good fit for our motor home.  They are older and tend to not have a big enough electrical service. Although they technically  take reservations they do not reserve any particular site, they are fist come first served.  For someone like us with a larger rig that means we can get there and not be able to find a site we can fit in to.  In the summer that would be a common occurrence.  Thousand Trails is clearly intended for folks with smaller rigs and those who are camping.   We knew the limitations our larger motor home would create when we bought it so no complaints.  After leaving the Birch Bay Thousand Trails we came to the Cedars RV park near Ferndale.  This park has much larger sites and all the hook ups we need.  We can also get a satellite signal here where most of the TT sites had too many trees.

We had hoped to go to Canada for a day but a shooting at the Blaine border crossing had the border closed there so we scrapped that idea to stay away from the mess that created.  Instead we made a side trip up to Mount Baker.  Baker itself was shrouded in clouds but its neighbor Mount Shuksan was pretty clear so got a few good shots.  Pleasant enough day with no rain. 

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Hopefully The Last Medical Report

The pathology report came back showing the surgeon got all the cancer. I will begin radiation therapy (five days a week for seven weeks) beginning around Oct. 22nd. I opted to not go the chemo route as it only lessened the chances for reoccurance by 2%. My doctor concurred with my decision. I will begin hormone therapy in December, for ten years.

The PET scan showed benign tumors (hemangiomas) in my vertebrae which may never present a problem. My medical oncologist said since I will be seeing him for ten more years, if I develop problems, he would take care of it for me. 

Surgery was a week ago but I am still a bit sluggish. This is not like me--I usually bounce back quickly after surgery. But my sweet Walter reminded me, gently, that I am not as young as I used to be. I may get touchy once I begin the hormone treatments--he may need to watch himself...

We are hoping to get the motorhome out for about ten days beginning Oct. 10th, before I start the new job of radiation every day.  We will probably go north up to Birch Bay and La Connor.  I have been feeling ripped off because we had to scrap our trip to the Redwoods and Napa this month.  Birch Bay isn't quite the same but it will do.

Medical Update

I received wonderful news before going into surgery yesterday.  The surgeon told me he looked at the PET scan from the day before an there was no evidence of cancer anywhere in my body except the left breast.  He said the spots in my vertebrae are benign tumors and as long as they don’t get heavy enough to compress my discs they will leave them alone.

The surgery went well except there was one more tiny, cancerous looking lesion hiding behind the larger one.  The doc had to remove more tissue than expected, down to the muscle in one area. 

This morning I am only slightly uncomfortable—a nice surprise!  Today I will allow Walt to wait on me though.  Tomorrow he may need to tie me down…

Love you all!  The prayers and good vibes you all sent my way made a huge impact on my peace level—it was incredible how I could just “let go” of all anxiety and rest in the knowledge God was in control.   
THANK YOU!

Biopsy report

Well, the good news is they didn't find any cancer cells related to the breast cancer having spread to the bones. The bad news is they didn't find anything outstanding which may mean they didn't hit the right spot. I will be scheduled for a PET scan. The scan will hopefully be done before next Tuesday, when I have surgery, so I am thinking maybe Monday. The results won't be in until the 26th--so when I have it done is irrelevant. Next stop--surgery on the 18th. I appreciate your notes of encouragement and the prayers. I have been feeling so calm and at peace through this ordeal that people have commented how I am "unreal." I attribute that to all the prayers and good vibes being sent my way. Love you all!! Arlyene

Breast Cancer Diagnosis (Fall trip plans scrapped)

The radiation oncologist's office had a wall rack display of brochures for a variety of types of cancer; rectal, mouth, brain, etc. I thought as I surveyed the brochures, "If I were to have to choose a brochure it would be the one on breast cancer (it could be way worse)." The two lumps I have in one breast are very small, classified as slow growing (level 1) and will be receptive to hormone therapy. The only bad news is the cancer was invasive, which means it had spent some time outside the duct, infiltrating the nearby tissue. I am scheduled for a segmental resection on September 18th, followed by weeks of radiation. Today I was thrown a curve ball--they have found spots on my spine. At the moment the plan is to biopsy the biggest spot (there are one to two spots on practically every vertebre)to determine if they are cancer or something else (?). I will use the blog to post updates. Please pray for me! I am hanging in there fine because I am supported with the peace from prayers, and from the clear message from God, "Settle in, don't be anxious, trust me!"

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