A rough 24 hours

Yesterday's treatment went fine, but I've been feeling nauseous since about halfway through. This is only the second time I've experienced this, and while it's not pleasant, at least it doesn't happen often. With any luck, it will fade this time and not last 7 days like it did before. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get to sleep last night because of it, but I eventually did and slept fairly solidly for about 9 hours. The nausea was gone for a while this morning, but I've been doing too much (visting the organic farm where I pick up my "share" on Saturdays, library, pool store, card store since Ed's birthday is Wednesday, liquor store to stock up on a few new wines to try out when I'm feeling better).

I also spent 20 minutes wrestling with the automatic pool cleaner until I realized that it was broken and I need to order a new part. I refuse to let that stop me from getting in the pool today though (although the potential thunderstorms might), so I'm headed upstairs right now to get into my bathing suit and out to the water -- even if the bottom isn't completely clean. :)

TGIF

Another week gone by. Where does the time go?

I have treatment at the new place again this afternoon, so I tried to get some things done outside this morning. It's hot out there already! Hard to believe it's the end of June and we haven't been in the pool yet. Maybe tomorrow if the weather holds up.

Thanks for all the positive comments on our photos on Webshots. I tried to pick the representative ones from the 900+ photos we shot, and I didn't want to have so many you were sick of looking at them. I've spent this week printing photos. I know it's easy to look at them on the computer, but I still enjoy leafing through photo albums. I feel like I've been printing for days and I'm still on Paris! It's fun to revisit our adventure, though.

Speaking of Paris, our friends Lydia and Wilfredo (and their two children) spent the last few days in Paris before heading to England for a cruise. Bon voyage! Can't wait to hear all about it.

Link and thanks

I finally uploaded some photos of our trip to my Webshots album:
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563862563GJIaYV?vhost=good-times Obviously, this is only a small representation of the 900+ photos we shot, but it gives you an idea of what we saw and did. I hope you enjoy it.

I am humbly surprised by the number of people who mentioned reading this blog both in person and via e-mail recently and I thank you so very much for your concern and interest. In fact, I was so surprised at the graduation party held yesterday by Lydia G. for her son (way to go, Jon!!) by the number of people who mentioned the blog that I failed to say thanks. I truly had no idea that so many of you were following along with this diary of sorts, and it touches me deeply that you do. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for your thoughts and prayers. They mean more than I can express.

I feel pretty good following my treatment on Friday, although I only lasted an hour or so at Jon's party yesterday before I had to come home and take a rest. I have a little bit of nausea, but I'm trying to keep that under control as usual by eating small snacks in between small meals. I've been on the computer all morning, so it's time to go put something in my stomach. Best wishes for a good week!

New doctor, new facility, same treatment

I met with Dr. Greenberg on Wednesday and if I asked you to imagine a cool doctor, she would fit that description. She seems laid back and unconventional, she's quite chatty, and she doesn't seem to mind being simply a facilitator of Dr. K's plans. I asked her why Dr. K might have decided to switch to Doxil, which can cause serious side effects including an allergic reaction to the drug and/or hand foot syndrome, which is when the skin on the patient's hands and feet during red, feel like they are burning, and the skin peels off (lovely, huh?), when I didn't think we were really sure that the Gemcitabine was no longer working. She called Dr. K and they decided to give Gemcitabine another round to see if it has any effect on the main tumor (I suppose we can definitely consider that one a tumor).

After several fits and starts, none of which frankly gave me too much confidence in this new facility, I had treatment this morning. I think the staff there and I have come to an understanding that I know what to expect and that I'm "on my game" as one of the women put it to me, so I'll be keeping an eye on everything to make sure there aren't any problems. The best part is that it's in-network, so my treatments now cost $20 a week. Woo hoo!

Right now I feel pretty good, although I'm starting to fade a bit. We got home around 1:30 and I've been working on the computer since then, so I think it's time for a rest after the market closes. I tried to get all my summer clothes out, the rest of the clothes from our trip put away, and all the other miscellaneous stuff sorted and organized yesterday afternoon since I didn't know how I would feel today. I'd like to get out and do some weeding tomorrow (my onion plants are being taken over) but we'll see how I feel and how hot it is.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Some changes

Someone asked about my new profile photo, so I thought I would give its background. That was taken on a very cool evening in Paris as we were waiting for the Eiffel Tower to be lit (which occurs around 10 p.m. in the summer). Thankfully, I had packed a beautiful shawl given to me by my boss and his wife following their recent trip to India, so I was wrapped up tight against the chill. I guess the photo is a little blurred because of the low light, but I liked it and it reminds me of Paris even though there is nothing of Paris in the photo!

I had my scans on Thursday and they went off without a hitch. The nurse was back and she had to use the warming packs again, but found a vein after a few minutes. On Friday morning I saw Dr. K, who turned out to either be in a bad mood or became miffed with me after I told her about my meeting with Dr. Flores. She apparently wanted to be the one to make the decision that I should see him, not my orthopedic surgeon, but I assume she will get over it.

The bottom line: the main tumor in my right lung, which was stable at 1.1 x 0.9 cm following the first round of Gemcitabine, grew to 1.4 x 1.4 cm. Dr. K has decided to change my medication to Doxil. I will be seeing the new oncologist in New Jersey on Wednesday, so I suppose I could potentially start it late this week or early next. I will keep you posted. She also said that I'm probably looking at lung surgery to remove that tumor in three to six months. I don't know what that does to our plans for our cruise in November, but I'll wait to worry about that until I see the surgeon again at the end of the summer.

The other nodules are stable, and Dr. K is starting to think that some of them might not be mets since they haven't changed from scan to scan since December. I guess I'll have to get Dr. Flores' read on that when I see him again. I just realized I hadn't posted following my first meeting with him. Basically he indicated that he saw only two or three tumors but they were all too small for him to remove. He suggested I follow up with him in three months and he would follow along with my scan reports.

I didn't get a chance to work on my photos this weekend, but hope to get them onto Webshots this week. Look here for the link.

A belated happy father's day to all the dads out there!

A photo preview

Here are some photos from our trip. I'll post more to our Webshots album as soon as I have a chance. This one is obvious.

The two of us in Barcelona.

This was taken in Venice on one of the many bridges we crossed on our way to St. Mark's Square.

The banner.

We're back!

We enjoyed our last days onboard the ship. On Sunday evening, we finally saw our first sunset. Every other evening we either missed it because we were busy or the sun disappeared behind the clouds long before it reached the horizon. We never managed to catch a sunrise, though.

Monday, being a sea day, was gorgeous. We spent some time enjoying our balcony and then we packed. Since we had been away for so long almost all of our clothes needed to be laundered, so there was not much need for being careful in the packing process. We didn't buy too much either, except for the infamous candy and all the olive oil soap we purchased in Cannes, so we were finished long before dinner. We had our final dinner in Chops, which was a relaxing, unhurried way to finish the cruise. After a drink in the Champagne bar, we headed off to bed for a final night's rest at sea.

Tuesday morning the wake-up call came at 6:30 and it was all hustle and bustle around the ship. We managed a fairly leisurely breakfast and then left the ship about 35 minutes earlier than we had planned because we thought the truckers' strike in Madrid might spread to Barcelona. Luckily it didn't so we were at the airport and checked in about four hours before our flight. It's a good thing the Barcelona airport is so large with many shops and cafes, or time certainly would have dragged. The plane left about 15 minutes late, but other than some turbulence once or twice, the flight was smooth and we arrived about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. All of our luggage made it back from Europe, and our neighbor, Ted, was already at the airport ready to load up the car and take us home.

We arrived to find that Ted and Lori's daughters, Brieanne and Nicole, had made us a Welcome Home banner. Considering all the things the family did for us while we were gone (removed frogs, frog eggs and dead chipmunks from our pool, cut our grass, fed our fish, watered our plants), I'm sure they were glad we were home so we could take over our chores again! Thanks so much!

We also arrived home to an interior temperature of 90 degrees, since the northeast is experiencing a heatwave and the temperature was 97 when we landed. I had turned off the heat just before we left, because the daytime temperatures were in the 50s but the nights were still in the 40s. It never occurred to me to turn the air conditioning on. We also found water leaking near the curb in front of the house, so the water company is supposed to come sometime today to fix it (thank goodness it's their problem and not ours). The pool water is cloudy, but I think after a good vacuuming and some chemical adjustments, it will be ready for swimming.

I managed to get in 10 hours of sleep last night, but I think I've also caught a cold, so it will be early to bed for me again tonight. Tomorrow morning I have my CT scan and then it's back to the office. I see Dr. K on Friday morning for the scan results and to make my new chemo schedule. I see the NJ oncologist on the 18th, and with any luck I'll be able to start my treatments closer to home for the summer while my boss is working from his place in Montana.

It was a fabulous vacation despite the weather, and we both agree that Paris was the best part -- although dinner with Captain Lindegren was pretty special, too. We'll have to try to get back to Paris in the not-too-distant future, but we'll have to deal with those credit card bills first. Ouch! It was so wonderful to spend days on end not thinking about treatments or scans or blood draws or doctor appointments. It was possible to put all that aside for 20 days and just enjoy life: good company, good wine, good food, good destinations. I'm a lucky woman.

Bon voyage to Melinda and Ward, who leave for their Liberty of the Seas sailing tomorrow, and to Lydia A. and her family as she makes the final preparations for their trip to Paris followed by a northern Europe cruise. We wish you all safe travels and smooth seas!

Greetings from cloudy/rainy Tunisia!

We have experienced beautiful, sunny sea days and rainy, cloudy, cool port days on this trip. It’s fine, though, as we had no plans to get off the ship today anyway. I was planning to do some sunbathing today, but that’s not to be unless the weather completely changes. Normally I would say that the chances are slim, but we’ve seen so many days that started off with blue skies, quickly turned to rain and then ended up sunny and warm that I would not deign to predict the weather at this point.

We’ve been booted out of our cabin for a few hours since we’ve experienced two floods in two days. A seal failed on our plumbing two days ago and flooded our cabin and the cabin next door, and then the seal on their plumbing failed yesterday and flooded both our cabins again. The bad thing about yesterday is Ed was just about to lay down for a nap before getting ready for formal night, so it threw a monkey wrench into our plans. The standing water is gone but parts of the carpet are still damp, so they just sprayed the carpet with disinfectant and we were politely asked to make ourselves scarce for a while so they can turn on the high powered fans and turn up the heat to try to dry out the carpeting. Once it dries, they will shampoo it, but I have a feeling that won’t happen until we’re already on our way back home.

Other than the floods and several mishaps with the laundry service, we have had a wonderful vacation and can’t believe it’s almost over. We enjoyed most of the ports. In Naples we somehow managed to find a pizzeria recommended by the New York Times for its wood-fired, thin crust pizza. It wasn’t the one we were looking for, but somehow we stumbled across it. For 11 euros, we each had what I would call a medium-size pizza and a can of Coke and it was delicious. Well worth the effort of wandering around in a dirty, deserted (it was a national holiday), all stone city. No trees, signs of walked dogs everywhere, and graffiti, but surprisingly no piled garbage. We had been reading for months about the garbage problem, but there was no sign of it. Once we filled our bellies, we headed right back for the ship which was fortuitous as it began raining just as we got back onboard.

Venice was a bit of a disappointment. I don’t know what I expected, but I suppose something less dirty. The buildings in St. Mark’s Square are covered with soot and the area along the waterfront by the Doge’s Palace is littered with vendors. We found the boat traffic amazing, with boats of all sizes zipping around in the Grand Canal. Our private boat tour along a few of the smaller canals followed by the Grand Canal was interesting as we saw many buildings we otherwise would have missed, but it wasn’t worth what we paid for it. It was interesting to see all the algae that covers the foundations of the homes, and I find it difficult to believe that anyone lives on the ground floor. I would have liked to have seen a flood line, as I’m sure that the water level must get quite high at times.

After much searching and imploring a few locals to help us, we finally found the restaurant where I had made reservations. The appetizer was good, the entrée so-so, but the wine was fabulous and the dessert just as good. Of course, with a final bill of 130 euros, we were hoping for an excellent all around meal. I suppose that’s hard to find in Venice. We somehow found our way back to the ship through the maze of streets aided more by the signs for Piazzale Roma than by my map, which I couldn’t read in the dim light. On one street as I was struggling to decipher it, an old woman stopped in front of me and asked in Italian what I was looking for (at least I assumed that’s what she asked). When I answered, she responded in full Italian accompanied by hand gestures and head nods. I picked up a few words and got most of the rest through her motions, and we found our way back. We were surprised that there wasn’t more activity on the streets, but it was very quiet except for some sidewalk cafes that were full of 20-somethings. That was an experience we will forever remember.

We missed St. Mark’s Basilica as it was pouring Thursday morning (our reservation was for 9:45), but we got some extra sleep, which we needed, and then after the rain stopped headed into town for lunch and to find an ATM (not as easy as one would think). Food is very expensive in Venice, but it’s tough for us to pass up trying the local food. I’m glad we finally visited Venice, but I don’t think it’s a place I need to return to. Florence and Rome, on the other hand, are places I could see spending at least a week visiting.

Split, Croatia was a surprise. The morning started off sunny and warm, but a thunderstorm quickly arrived and the rain lasted for a few hours. When two of the crew members mentioned they hadn’t been to Split before and we knew they collected magnets from all the ports, we wanted to pick some up for them so off the ship we went. The sun soon came out and we discovered a charming and old town – with kiosks everywhere!! It wasn’t hard to find magnets, and if you were in the market for shoes or sunglasses, Split is apparently the place to go.

I had met Captain Lindegren when he attended our Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle party, and we saw him again for photos at the Welcome Aboard party on the first formal night. He seemed to be a very kind and personable man, so I boldly invited him to have dinner with us one night in Chops, the steakhouse onboard. He told me he would have to check with Fabiana, the group coordinator, who handles his schedule and we never expected to hear from him again, so we were very surprised when we received a call inviting us for dinner Friday night. We enjoyed a three-hour dinner with the Captain and Fabiana, and I'm sure that anyone who saw us in the restaurant is wondering who the heck we are. We covered a wide range of subjects, and he is very interesting and has a great sense of humor. We would be happy to sail with him again.

Tomorrow is our last sea day, and I’m hoping we have some nice weather for the trip back to Barcelona. If we can get back into our cabin sometime soon, I’d like to start packing today so we can take advantage of the weather should it be better tomorrow. We haven’t bought too much since the candy debacle, so we don’t have to worry about our luggage being overweight on the way back. We, of course, would probably have to pay an extra charge if the airlines started weighing passengers in addition to the luggage.

I hope that you are having sunnier weather wherever you are and we are looking forward to catching up with everyone after we get settled back into real life.

Buon giorno from cloudy Napoli

To pick up where I left off, we did get off the ship in Cannes after lunch while it was still drizzling a bit and did some shopping. We bought some olive oil soap and then went on a hunt for the fruit candies that Ed likes. We ended up in a candy shop that had what we thought was a bargain: 1 kilogram of the candies for 13 euros (a kilogram is a bit over two pounds). Unfortunately, what we heard in the French woman's accent was not 13 euros but 30 euros, so with the addition of the small box of chocolate caramels that I wanted, we walked out with about $55 of candy! Next time, we'll ask the person to either write down or point out the number to make sure we are absolutely clear on the price.

Our day in Tuscany was lovely. We began by seeing Michaelangelo's David at the Accademia museum, then we stopped at a leather factory that made beautiful wallets, handbags, belts and leather coats. We then visited Santa Croce church where many famous Florence residents are buried (Michaelangelo and Galileo among them). After that we stopped at Michaelangelo Square which overlooks Florence. What a bellissimo sight! We then headed out to Tuscany along the Chianti highway and stopped for lunch at a lovely trattoria overlooking the farms of Tuscany. After a stop for some delicious gelato, we headed for Pisa and the famous leaning tower. Then it was back to the ship for a quick shower before sailaway.

On Sunday we headed to Rome. This time, we visited in depth two places we had only seen from the outside on our visit in 2005: the Colosseum and the Forum. After that we stopped at the Pantheon, but there was a wedding going on inside so we didn't get to see the famous dome. We then went to St. Peter's Square and saw the Pope's Sunday address, which he gives in Latin and then makes a blessing in several languages, including English, Italian, French, German and Spanish. We had a delicious lunch of pizza and pasta and then we went back to St. Peter's Church (the rest of the group went inside, but since we had seen it, I had a latte, we picked up a souvenir for our cabin steward and then we just people watched in the Square). Finally, it was a quick visit to the Trevi Fountain to throw in another coin (it worked last time) and a photo op at the Spanish Steps before heading back to the ship.

We were very tired from all our travels, so we decided to take off today. We didn't sleep in, but the only thing we've done so far was track down a pizzeria recommended in the New York Times for its wood-fired oven pizza. We couldn't come to Naples and not have pizza, and mama mia that was fabulous pizza! Ed is taking a little nap and I'm about to have my first glass of wine for the day, but I wanted to write to catch you up on all of our doings.

Tomorrow we are at sea as we sail toward Venice. We will arrive there around 1 p.m. on Wednesday and then we have 1-1/2 very busy days planned. I'll be back after that visit to update you on our trip. Keep your fingers crossed for better weather in Venice!