Roller Derby, other family stars and chemo

Stella Guns the all Star!
This is Star (in front hauling ass) in the regional Roller Derby game in Las Vegas. She has been having a lot of fun and she can go like fire from a gun, thus her name Stella Guns. The Utah team won! Congrats Star!
Diane and Bill came to visit this past week. This picture is Diane's reward for feeding me sand cakes when I was a little tyke!
Mom, Diane, Faye and I, sisters, moms, grandmothers, aunts, daughters some of our many hats, all having fun
Faye and baby bun!
We also enjoyed a surprise visit from Sean a couple weeks ago. His knock on Grandma's door was the first she knew he was in town. We had dinners and he did various things around Mom's house. He made her a roll out trash can in the kitchen, fixed something in the shower and most important fixed her bike! She said, Sean, you don't need to do that. Sean said, Grandma, I have to you used to ride me in the basket to the library! When Sean got older he would ride Faye and then Ryan around in the bike. This bike has a lot of history

Jules is finished with his first round of chemo. He got his pump off the other day. It seems to be helping. He can eat apples and grapes again! He will have another round of chemo in a couple weeks. However, we have to see Dr. McBride Monday who wants to discuss radiation. We are leary at this point. We are thinking that he should do 2 rounds of chemo and see how it is responding to that. We will go and see what Dr. McBride has to say. The chemo wasn't fun, but it was OK. The nausea was well controlled with anti nausea meds. At home we are concentrating on diet, eating foods that are shown to be cancer fighters. We are going to start growing broccoli and red clover sprouts and eating other fruits and veggies, etc that show promise. We are talking a lot and continue trying to figure out the best course of action.

Our busy week

We got the results of the final test, the esophageal ultra sound. It showed cancer in the stomach also. It is a type that doesn't show up well on PET scans. The tumor in the lower esophagus is through most of the layers. This was definitely disappointing, however, Dr. Kukunoor thinks there is a good chance that chemo will be able to tackle the stomach cancer. He had a port put in his chest last Friday. This is a button under the skin with a permanent line going into a vein allowing easy access for administration of chemo. Julian jokes that he will be able to hook a keg up to it!

We go for a chemo class this afternoon at the doctor's office where we will go tomorrow for the first chemo session. Larry says that the class is to teach you how the throw up with dignity! We both thought that was funny in a truthful way.

We have been living out lives in and among all this medical stuff. I've been going to work when we don't have to be at doctor's or hospitals and the kids cheer me up immensely. Just everyday things and great. We went out to dinner with our good friends the Burrs on Thursday and Jules found something he could eat (he had crab cakes), then we went back to our house and had apple blossoms with ice cream. Saturday I took the youngest of the boys (Niko and Maceo) to the family fun day at my school. Their favorite things were jumping in the basket ball air tube house and using the sledge hammer at the strong man test. Well Maceo did that about 20 or 30 times and won lots of stuff because he could hit it clear to the top most every time. So could Niko, but he went off to other things. They were 2 of very few kids who could easily hit it to the top. Faye says that it is because they practice hitting the dirt in the back yard with a sledge hammer all the time!

Saturday afternoon Mom, Jules and I went to see the wildflowers at south mountains. We've had a lot of rain this winter and the Calif poppies and lupine were beautiful.

Our Journey

We have been to many doctors in our search to find the correct treatment for Jules esophageal cancer. We have seen his primary care physician, Gastroenterologists, Oncologists, Radiology Oncologist, and Surgeons. He has had a Fluoroscope, Upper Endoscope, PET and CT Scans and hopefully next week a Esophageal Ultra Sound. That is a relatively new test and the only place in Phoenix now that you can get it is Mayo. It will be available in 2 weeks somewhere else, but we cannot wait two weeks. Hopefully he will have it done at Mayo on Tuesday 3/16. The doctor who is going to do it has the week off, but he is going to come in specially just to do the test. Isn't that amazing!

There are many things which we have found as blessings and things to be thankful for:

Jules had his yearly physical in October and started taking vitamin B12 by his doctor's suggestion. This caused stomach irritation which started this whole thing. If he hadn't started taking B12 the cancer symptoms may not have shown up till later.

He had a pain in his back and right arm which is what actually made him to go to the doctor. This pain disappeared after his upper endoscopy (which possibly resolved a pinched nerve?).

We found that the cancer is only in his esophagus. I never thought that we would be celebrating anything after a cancer diagnosis. It sounds strange, but we try to concentrate on the positive and that is definitely positive!

We were sitting in the waiting room at St. Joseph's Hospital today waiting to see Dr. McBride and we were talking about this journey we are on. We got home and there was a package from my childhood friend Janice. It was a book titled, "Cancer Journey: A Caregiver's View From the Passenger Seat". It was written by a friend of Janice's, Cynthia Zahm Siegfried. We started reading it together in the waiting room at Mayo's. The first couple chapters sure sound like what we're going though now.

We have met with or talked on the phone with 2 people who had esophageal cancer who have shared their experiences with us. It's very helpful and a blessing to talk to others who have gone though what we are going through now.

There are so many people and churches praying for us and that is certainly a blessing! We feel encircled in love and care and God's arms.

There are so many people who have shared every cancer fighting food and cure with us. If we could read and consume all of this it would take us about a year to decide that treatment we will go with. We have gotten heavy boxes filled with charts, magic fluid, on and on all with cancer fighting properties. We have read parts of books ourselves on cancer fighting foods and what to eat to prevent or fight cancer. I just want you all to know that we have made some changes. We are using that "lard" called coconut oil for frying potatoes, stir fry etc. We are having smoothies with whey protein powder and sprinkling Tumaric on everything, eating asparagus and avacados. We have a juicer that can turn veggies etc into juice. Actually the Gastroenterologist said that he should stick with liquid and pureed foods, so I think that it is a miracle that he is able to eat regular foods at all. He has become a "slow eater, tiny bite taker" and I don't think I'll call Mrs. Piggly-Wiggly for the cure yet because Jules is staying strong by eating slowly, chewing well (as taught by Mimi) and taking tiny bites. He can spend 45 minutes eating breakfast. For example for this morning he had cereal (healthy kind with lots of whole grains) with dried cranberries and raisins, a sweet roll and half a cup of coffee. The sweet roll was given us by this cut old couple from Maricopa, AZ who have been coming by to pick oranges from our trees. She baked this chocolate almond German style sweet roll for us, so we have to eat it! Anyway, we do our best, but right now I am just trying to keep Jules healthy for whatever treatment is to come.

A bump in the road of life

Well we are in this for the long haul. Jules has esophageal cancer and fighting that will be our life for awhile. If I can suggest one thing at the start, you all should go right down to your doctor and talk about your indigestion and acid reflux. Insist that they look at both ends. When you get that dreaded colonoscopy insist that they also do a upper endoscopy- in medical terms (esophagogastroduodenoscopy, EGD).
This has been a tough pill to swallow. In fact I'm amazed that he has been able to swallow at all because the bottom inch of his esophagus is finger size because of the tumor. We go together to his primary care doctor tomorrow afternoon to start planning our attack and asking questions. Next Tuesday is a CT scan and PET scan. I think they will tell us the stage and see if it has spread. Then we see an oncologist.
A blessing from the biopsy is that it is not melenoma (which he had a removed from his back 10 years ago). We are very thankful for that.

This is Jules holding on as best he can, struggling to eat, but determined.
These are all our friends and family gathering around to support us.

For the love of Trees

I think that love of trees are in my genes. Mom when she was little (6 months to 11 years) lived at "The Cedars" in Ballarrat, Australia. You see above a picture of the cedar trees which my Mum loved so much as a child. She tells a story of climbing up high into the cedars and I wrote the below poem about her story.

Climbing the Cedars

She climbed up in these cedar trees

She climbed so high she felt the breeze

She felt so grand as she climbed higher

The view was a sight, she was inspired!

However when she looked around

She discovered that she couldn’t get down

A little voice from high above said,

“Help me for I’m filled with dread!”

“I’m up so high and I can’t get down.”

“Is anyone here or are you all in town?”

Mum came out and looked high above

“Hold on tight!” she said with love

“Where is Coral?” Grandfather asked

“When I find her, I’ll take her to task.

“I know that she is only ten”

“But she’s been in my tools again.”

Mum said, “Finding your tools will have to wait.”

“She’s up in the tree again, in quite a state!”

Brother Laurie helped her down, he saved the day

Coral dried her tears and ran off to play

By Carol A. Ayraud

We planted this Maple tree in Flagstaff and it is alight with a red fire for a short time in the Fall. Arizona really does have seasons contrary to popular ideas. When I was a kid we lived next to one of our Phoenix canals which had a lot of Cottonwood trees which turned yellow in the Fall and rained white cotton seeds in the spring. Mom and Dad planted a lot of trees. We loved the fruit trees best. We had 2 Apricot trees. I used to sit up in the Apricot tree for hours, reading and eating the best tasting apricots ever. They spoiled me for store bought apricots which are tasteless. Right outside my window was a Tangerine tree, next there was a pink grapefruit, next to it a naval orange, then 2 plums and a pecan.
Aspen trees in the Fall
I like standing below, looking up into the tallest branches of a tree. I think that some of my best pictures are from the ground looking up.
These are Arizona Cypress in a side canyon of Oak Creek
This is a Ponderosa Pine. One tree in the largest stand of Ponderosa pines in the world.
Gum tree in Australia from the bottom up
There's a track winding back to an old fashioned shack on a road in Kangaroo Island. Actually, I grew up singing, "Road to Gundiguy". We liked the verse, " There's water in the petrol tank and sand in the gears, she hasn't seen a quart of oil in over 40 years, but Oh Lord, how we roared in that old fashioned Ford On the Road to Gundiguy." You see Eucalyptus Trees elsewhere in the world. Well they all came from Australia. Did you know that there are over 500 different kinds of gum trees? Koalas eat only 48 of these Eucalyptus and the trees supply all their food and water!

Snow, Rain, moon glow and baby bun

I'm having trouble keeping up with my life! Our friends Julie, Jeff, Jacob and Jack joined us in Flagstaff last weekend for a snow day. We had great fun and our snow hill preformed famously. The snow was somewhat icey and the older kids had made bumps and holes that sent us flying. We used a shovel and filled in the holes so we had no broken bones. Which made me happy since I ended Friday at work with taking care of a 14 year old with a dislocated elbow and broken arm. That was my 2nd broken bone last week! That was enough for a few days! I took Monday off. Extra time to play in the snow and time to go with Faye and Javier to see the baby via ultrasound. It was the most amazing sight! The little bun's heart was beating! Arms, legs, nose, chin, spine and even ribs were clearly visible. She is cute as a button. Yes, I said she. The doctor said, "It's a girl!" He sounded pretty sure, but will check again next month. I am excited!
This is Jack 3 years old, fearless and funny!
We celebrated Jeff's 40th Birthday and Julie made a snow man cake with was enjoyed by all.
This is the snow on our porch. As you can see it is up to the railings. The other end where the icicles were flowing off the roof, we had a mini glacier a foot or 2 of pure ice!
Back to Phoenix with the full moon closer to the earth and so larger than it's been for a long time. I was driving home and saw it soon after it rose. Ran into the house told Jules, I'm going to take pictures of the Moon. I then drove around the neighborhood looking for a wonderful shot and didn't really find it till it was a little higher and so not as large appearing, but in reality still the same size. On the Phoenix end of my life, we got 2.8" of rain over 24 hours the end of the week before last. Arkansian's and Brisbanian's may scoff at this but when you remember that it was almost half of our normal yearly rainfall it is a lot! There was flooding everywhere and lots of snow in the high country.
Here is Jules digging our way into our Flagstaff homestead
These 3 pictures are Oak Creek Canyon under snow, Love those reflections. Both the blue skies and trees are shown in the reflections.

Grand Canyon and snow

After Christmas we went up North to experience snow. Here are some pics from the Grand Canyon. I never tire of seeing the canyon in different weather conditions. I dragged Jules to all my favorite northern Az spots to see them under snow. He puts up with it and humors me. I am always overjoyed by the depth and varied beauty found in the canyon. Did you know that many native Arizonians have never been to the Grand Canyon? People often have beauty under their noses and miss seeing it. We miss so much just because we don't look or are too busy to see.
Yours truly
Jules at the entrance to Hermits Rest, one of the many buildings at the canyon designed by Mary Colter at the end of the West Rim Road to provide a resting spot and refreshments for travelers. It is still this and more, with a concentration on selling stuff. Such it is everywhere in our day and age!

This is Hermits Rest. You walk through the door to a huge fireplace under a stone arch. Most of the buildings at the Grand Canyon have large fireplaces, being built when that was the only source of heat. It is fun to be here in the winter and enjoy the fires built in these large fireplaces.

The horizon line is the North rim, much higher than the south and covered with snow. You cannot get to the North Rim in the winter because it is snowed in and the road is closed. I think you can get in on cross country skis!