End of Year Report: All Good

We went back to M.D. Anderson in Houston last week for Jim’s three month scan and doctor visit. We always expect the report to be good news but it is nice to have it confirmed.

Appointments were early this time. Bloodwork at 6 AM, then the scan at 7 AM. Doctor appointment for results at 1:30. He can’t eat before the scan so that left a little time for breakfast, his favorite meal. One good thing about the early appointments is there is no problem finding space in the parking garage. The scan takes a couple of hours.

Hospital Motifs

When we got to the doctor’s office he checked in and we waited. For like an hour; this is unusual at M.D. Anderson. Somebody came by and told us that the doctor was still reading the scan. Hmmm…

Another hour and we were starting to wonder what was going on. What was different that it took so long to analyze? At that point Dr. Strati himself came out and greeted Jim, telling us that everybody’s scan was backed up. Whew. That was really nice of him to come and assure us not to worry, which we were starting to do.

When we got back in the office we thanked him profusely for coming out to tell us everybody was waiting. He said he didn’t want anybody to “freak out.”

We are so grateful for this year-end good news and thankful that we got hooked up with Dr. Strati, he is the best. We go back in early March for another scan, the fourth, and then we don’t have to go back for six months. We thought it was every three months for two years but he explained that they are counting from the beginning of the clinical trial.

We are looking forward to our cruise through the Panama Canal during the holidays. We board the ship in Fort Lauderdale and fly home from LA. We will have a lot of days at sea so Jim is bringing his ukulele and we have a veranda room. This will be our first ocean cruise with Viking so it will be interesting to compare to the river cruise. At least we won’t be docking next to another ship where the veranda gets blocked; that happened a few times in Europe.

We have good cat care arranged for Carmella for which we are also thankful. She really likes our friends who watch her. She waits for them at the screen door and proceeds to march around the dining room table while knocking Sandy’s hat off. They keep us in touch by text and that is really nice when we are gone for a long time. This cruise is 16 days.

Then in March we are doing another Viking Cruise, “In Search of the Northern Lights.” I don’t really have a bucket list but if I did, that would be on it. As a friend here said, “You’re playing catch-up this year.”

We both wish you a Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate and a healthy and very happy New Year in 2024.

From the drive back which was uneventful. Grateful for that too.

It’s Not Too Late to Brine

My turkey is in the brine. Last year we had to go to Houston right before Thanksgiving and I wasn’t sure if the turkey could be in the brine for 72 hours plus. Decided to try it anyway and it came out super delicious. So this year I am brining from Sunday through Wednesday till cooking Thursday morning.

I also updated my recipe, see below. It’s not too late! Even 24 hours will make a huge difference. Try it.

TURKEY BRINE 2023

2 cups kosher salt
2+ cups brown sugar
5 grams Rosemary leaves
5 teaspoons Sage
5 teaspoons Thyme
8 Bay leaves, crushed
13 whole Allspice berries, crushed
13 Cloves, crushed
1 head Garlic, peeled and cloves crushed
2 tablespoons black peppercorns, crushed
3 Cinnamon sticks, broken in half
2 cups Orange juice
6 cups Apple Cider (from one gallon jug)
Zest, pulp and juice from 2 oranges

Combine above ingredients and stir well. Bring to a boil.
Pour into a five gallon bucket.
Add remainder of apple cider and mix well.
Add water and mix well. About a gallon for a 15 pound turkey.
Rinse turkey and pat dry. Submerge into bucket, making sure all cavities are filled with the brine.

When finished brining, rinse turkey well. Stuff cavities with cut up oranges/lemons.
Roast as usual. One trick is to sprinkle bird liberally with melted butter and paprika and roast at high temperature (450) uncovered for about 20-30 minutes till browned. Then turn temperature down to 325, cover with loose lid or foil and baste often.

Guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser. Enjoy!

A Month in Europe? Yes!

On August 5 we finally began our European Adventure. We had been trying to go on some version of this trip for the last three years. First year, 2020; everything got cancelled due to COVID-19. So we figured we would go in 2021. OOPS! When Jim got diagnosed with cancer, that put off the trip for that year too. EVen though he wouldn’t need treatment yet, according to the RGV doctor.

When we first went to M.D. Anderson, a member of the team for the doctor running the clinical trial told us, when we asked, “You’re not going anywhere!” So we put it off that year too. Then treatment began and naturally, we couldn’t travel when we were heading to Houston once a month (at least).

First things first.

Finally in July 2022, just a couple of months since beginning treatment there was no evidence of disease. We were shocked it was so early, but grateful too. Of course we would continue till the very end. At some point at one of our appointments, Jim asked the doctor about going on the trip we’d been looking forward to for so long. He said, “You should go.” That got Jim planning and we ended up with a great itinerary. We flew to Paris for a few days, then took a train to Amsterdam for another few days. Then we boarded our Viking River ship for the Grand European Adventure to Budapest with many stops in between. When we finally landed in Budapest, we planned another few days before taking a train to Krakow for a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Then we took a private car to Warsaw to fly out to Franfort, then Houston.

I was able to post a few pictures but the internet on the ship was terrible to non-existent so that didn’t help. Plus, we were so busy doing stuff that there realy wasn’t time to even look at the pictures, never mind choose, edit and post.

For brevity’s sake (Ha!) I will break these posts down into groups, starting with Paris. Enjoy!

I studied about Saint Chapelle in my college Art History classes and knew we had to go.

We arrived at our appointed time but when we got into the building it wasn’t the walls of stained glass that I remembered. After looking around the first floor a bit, we discovered small spiral staircases that led to the extravaganza I remembered. So satisfying.

On the walk there and back. We also looked in on Notre Dame and the ongoing reconstruction. It’s true, these cathedrals are never finished.

We took a dinner cruise on the Seine, great way to see the Eiffel Tower in all its glory. I loved the elaborate doorways and entrances. And in the Gustav Moreau Museum, more spiral staircases.

Next we were on to Amsterdam. We try to blog to keep track of ourselves but it’s getting harder with more pictures and places to see. We’re up for it though.

Best Birthday Ever!

We just got back from our final trip to M. D. Anderson in Houston for Jim’s clinical trial. The infusions were done in April but this time he had several appointments marking the end of the 13 month trial. A PET scan, bone marrow aspiration, electrocardiogram, Dr. appointments. Normally we are there for two nights but this time we were there for four.

He had good reports throughout the trial, with an early “complete response” to the treatment by late July of last year. His bloodwork was going in the right direction and ended up being completely normal just months after starting the trial. So we didn’t have any reason not to think the news would be good. But we still wanted to hear it from the Doctor’s own mouth.

He had the PET scan and bone marrow aspiration on Monday. Tuesday he only had one appointment in the early afternoon so we went out for dinner and drinks that evening. The appointment with the doctor who designed the trial was on Wednesday. Celebrating a little early but why not? We were a little nervous over what he might have to say but we just wanted to get to it. Dr. Strati has proven to be a godsend. Not only did he design the study but it has been so successful that he recently got an expansion to twice as many people, 50 instead of 25. He told us in an earlier visit that this treatment would likely become the standard for this and similar cancers. We consider ourselves very lucky to be so close to Houston and a leading specialist in the field. As Jim said, all the stars and circumstances had to align just right. And they did.

When Dr. Strati came into the room, he didn’t waste any time. As usual, he pulled his chair up close to Jim’s and gave us the news that he continues to have a “complete response” to the treatment. Whew! He also told us that standard chemotherapy, which he said would have been what anywhere else would have treated him with (100%), was about 50% successful. This targeted immunotherapy is 93% successful. What a difference! And he said again that since he had such a positive early response that there was little likelihood of re occurrence. We asked him what would have happened if he hadn’t gotten any treatment and he said there was a chance his spleen would rupture since it was so enlarged early on. That, he said “would be a surgical emergency and he could lose his life.” The first three scans are below, from left to right.

And the scan from May 22 on the right, compared with the first one.

I just can’t say enough good things about Dr. Strati and M. D. Anderson. The doctor is brilliant,,very personable and warm, and as Jim said, “he really seems like he cares.” Everyone who works there is top notch, from the nurses, schedulers, blood techs, scan operators and cafeteria workers. Almost all his appointments were early or on time. It is such a radical departure from standard medical treatment, where your appointments can be hours late. And, as Jim did, you can easily be misdiagnosed and treated for something you didn’t have. I’ve said it before, I hope you never need it, but if you do, M. D. Anderson is the way to go. We are fortunate to have helped a few friends navigate there on their cancer journey. So the study and the hospital not only helped Jim, but others will be helped as well as the study goes forward. Oh, and Dr. Strati told us that new participants in the trial will undergo a regimen of six months instead of thirteen. At first, Jim thought “why did I have to go through thirteen?” But we decided it was just extra added insurance that the effects would be lasting. Dr. Strati also told us that often a cancer diagnosis causes PTSD as real as being in a war or major trauma. Jim confirmed to him that he had a little grey cloud over his head the whole time but since we got the news and have had a little time to process it, the cloud is lifting.

Dr Strati saved Jim’s life. We are so thankful. Plus, this is the first time we have seen his face. Not only are you required to wear a mask at M. D. Anderson, they hand you a new one every time you enter. They don’t fool around.

We will return every three months for another scan for a year or so, then every six months after that. No more drugs or infusions. We put almost 12,000 miles on our car in the eighteen trips we made to Houston. Little car performed like a champ.

We couldn’t be more grateful for this new lease on life. Full speed ahead!

Motel Motif, Houston

MD Anderson. The parking garage is color coded.

Refugio

Houston

Refugio, Texas. Taken from the moving car.

Odem, Texas

Into The New Year…

…a little late, I know.

Where did we leave off? Our last 2022 visit to M.D. Anderson signaled the prospect of the clinical trial coming to an end. As of this writing, we have two more monthly visits. The last infusion will be in late April, then we will go back in May for a scan and another bone marrow aspiration.

The news continues to be good. As of our March visit the doctor said Jim continues to have a “complete response” to the drugs and his bloodwork was all normal. The blood draw is always the first appointment and the results come in fast. So even before we see the doctor we can tell how it’s going. The doctor even used the forbidden word, remission, again. He said that if we had gone anywhere else for treatment that he would “100% be treated with chemo.” So we dodged that bullet. He also told us that the trial was so successful for so many people in it that they doubled the size of the study, from 24 to 52 people. He also said that the drug regimen Jim was on would likely become the standard treatment. And he had mentioned before that since the treatment was so effective early on that there is little chance of recurrence. So that’s all good news. Very grateful for M.D. Anderon and the clinical trial he landed in. I hope anybody reading here never needs it, but if you do, go to M.D. Anderson! They are exceptional in every way.

Jim continues to experience some fatigue and the doc said this varies among participants. Some people have it for just a few months and others longer. So he is really looking forward to the infusions ending and getting his full strength back. We are booked on a five week trip to Europe starting in August and there will be lots of walking and some bike riding involved.

In other news, I got a new phone. My first one was from 2016 and I wanted to upgrade the camera since that will be the only camera I take to Europe. I went with the iPhone 14 Pro Max and I really like it. It has three lenses, wide angle, and 2x and 3x zoom. The photo quality is noticeably better and the transfer was painless. I even got it to talk to my computer, finally, and my new iPad also benefited from a new download of iTunes.

The garden is coming back to life so I practice out there a lot.

We had a cold snap earlier in the winter and the tops of the castor beans, which were as tall as the house, got bit. I just bow-sawed them back to hedge height and they are almost back up to the top of the house again! I am going to cut them down completely when we go to Europe so nobody has to deal with any wind damage or cleanup while we are gone. I have LOTS of seeds. Need some?

Before and After

Some iPad Art from Houston…

We feel like we are almost ready to put this chapter behind us. Of course, we were never ready for it to happen in the first place but we are actually extremely grateful for the way things have worked out so far. We have several friends who are dealing with various serious problems and can’t help but feel that we landed in a workable situation. The doctor who designed and is in charge of the trial has been nothing but compassionate, extremely knowledgeable and very engaged and involved. Jim has been a real trooper through all of this. He is disciplined, determined and definitely looking forward to life after the clinical trial. We both are.

Closing the Books on 2022!

We knew we would be scheduled to be in Houston close to Christmas. Jim’s appointments this time were for a blood draw, of course, Doctor visit and an infusion. First one was at 7:30 AM which is always the blood draw. Before we got to the Doctor visit the results were in and continued to look good. Whew! No extra doctor appointments, scans or tests.

When Jim asked the doctor how he (Jim) was doing, he responded “Really well.” He said that Jim continues to have good tolerance and a “complete response” to the drugs. The Doc said that when that shows up early, as it did for Jim, that the likelihood of reoccurence is really minimal. So that’s good news. He had a couple other questions about the fatigue the drugs cause and when that would be over. And we asked about whether or not we could book that trip to Europe that has been evading us for three years. The Doctor said, “You should go.” As soon as we got home, Jim got to work and we are now booked on a trip to Paris, Amsterdam, a Viking River Cruise to Budapest, then to Krakow and Auschwitz. We will be gone for the month of August. We have good friends who feed and visit Carmella so hopefully she will be OK for that long. She won’t have Fluffytail to keep her company since he apparently got placecd in a shelter and hopefully adopted.

A few things have happened which put everything he’s going through into sharp perspective for us and helped us appreciate what we’re going through even more. And to be even more thankful.

First.

A friend from our bus travels posted a note on Facebook on November 28. She said that she and her husband of 53 years had both had the flu for over two weeks. She started getting better but he didn’t. They are located in Yuma, Arizona during the winters and he ended up going to the hospital. There they took blood and discovered that he had the flu, pneumonia and discovered he also had Acute Myeloid Leukemia, an aggressive, fast growing blood cancer. They said that if he had chemo he might last one to two years. No chemo? Two to four weeks! At first I thought that was a typo and she must have meant months.

They started the chemo to give themselves some time to discuss things and he had a seven day course. After a couple more days in the hospital after that, he went home. For two days. Then they found he had blood clots in his lungs so back to the hospital he went. The family was called. Two days later he died. It was eighteen days from diagnosis to demise. Her family was with her during this time but she rightfully said, “Nothing prepares you for the death of a loved one.” What a terrible shock and right before the holidays. Makes us appreciate M.D. Anderson, our doctor and the clinical trial’s success all the more. As if we weren’t already grateful…

After what we’ve seen happening with friends around us this was a real eye opener.

Second.

While I was in Yoga, of all places, my phone rang. Of course I silenced it but called the number back later. It was a friend and it turned out she was at M.D. Anderson and had some questions. Her husband, who had a stroke a few years ago and can’t see or walk well was diagnosed with Melanoma. She was asking about where we stayed, parked and maneuvered while at M.D. Anderson. I was happy to help since it can be overwhelming to navigate, even if you’re able-bodied. He apparently had a course of chemo while there and has to return for surgery and more treatment. Jim had started baking bread for the neighbors for Christmas and they were on the list. It’s going to be a rough winter for them.

Another way M.D. Anderson is exceptional; all your appointments are either early or on time. After the Doctor visit was over this time, we decided to head to the infusion center even though his appointment wasn’t until 1:00 PM. They got him in early and we were finished up by 4:00 PM instead of 5:00 or 6:00 PM.

We knew that when we got back to the Rio Grande Valley that we were in for a drop in temperatures related to the winter storm. The last time we got below freezing was for a week in February of 2020 and our power was out for over a week. We had to go get the bus to stay warm.

We got up early on Thursday to get home early enough to try to save some of the garden. We each drive the same leg of the trip each time and shortly after we had switched drivers, I got pulled over outside of Kleburg in a construction zone. Now, Texas drivers drive FAST but, construction. Jim had just angled back his seat and was taking a little rest when I passed the local Constable. Then I saw him pulling out and his lights on. I said to Jim, “I’m getting pulled over.” It was a busy area and he approached the passenger side window. He said I was doing 79 in a 60 MPH construction zone. OOPS! He asked where we lived and we told him we were Winter Texans and heading back to Edinburg from Houston. He asked what we were doing in Houston and we both pulled the cancer card and told him we were returning from a treatment. I figured a 19 mile over the limit ticket was going to be expensive. He took my license and insurance and went back to his truck. When he emerged I didn’t see a piece of paper in his hands. When he came back from the truck he said he was just going to give me a verbal warning and to slow down. Then he wished us Merry Christmas and we enthusiastically responded Merry Christmas! Somehow, right then, I knew that even when the cold weather came, we weren’t going to lose power and things would be fine. I drove the speed limit (which is 75) the rest of the way home. I slowed down for construction too.

It was predicted that we would have below freezing temps for four mornings. When we got back, we covered the elephant ears, rubber trees and a few pots. The castor beans were on their own since they were as tall as the house. I have lots of seeds.

Before:

That rubber tree covered with the blue tarp is over 10 feet tall and the brown tarp one is even taller. They both made it and are standing tall again. I cut some of the sweet potato vine and brought it in the house in case it wouldn’t regrow from the roots. All in all, everything came through just fine. The castor beans got bit at the top but I am going to cut them back to a hedge and see what happens. And we didn’t lose power during the storm!

Christmas was quiet and cold but it started warming up. Jim grilled steaks and we had them with roasted carrots and mashed potatoes. Jim is still not doing any indoor activities because we don’t want anything to jeopardize the clinical trial. So no dances or indoor Happy Hours. It won’t be long until we can do all that again, we hope. There are several viruses going around the park and we’re not taking any chances. As he told our financial advisor, “I’m not being antisocial, just asocial.” He is determined.

This was the end of his ninth cycle of 13 treatments plus the pills he takes every day. So we have January, February, March and April for a monthly infusion, then a return in May for a scan and the end of the trial! We are so very grateful that it is working! We couldn’t have a better ending to the year.

Wishing you all the very best in 2023. Remember, enjoy every day!

The Short, Sweet and Sad Tale of Fluffytail

We had heard that there was a stray kitty around the park but we hadn’t seen him. One evening he showed up in the garden under the birdbath. He was just sitting quietly. Carmella saw him but didn’t exhibit much interest. Several others in the park had seen him too and some were feeding him.

A couple mornings after we first saw him, he showed up in one of the free-standing flower boxes right by the porch. This time he had some things to say. I had noticed that the zinnia seedlings I had growing in the boxes weren’t doing too well Now I knew why. He decided to lay in the dirt in the boxes, messing up the plants. Once he was here for a day or two I transplanted one box into the other so one was empty. He laid in one half and once he started eating, used the oher side as a litter box. At least we knew the plumbing was working.

He was friendly and very vocal. When we went outside, he followed us everywhere in the garden, getting dangerously underfoot. He quickly got the name of Fluffytail because of his very long and very fluffy tail. Soon we started calling him other names like Fluffy Butt, Fuzzy Pants. We could tell he was starving so in a moment of weakness, we started feeding him. This picture is from December 9, when he discovered that the porch was a whole other world.

Look at those paws! We knew he was still a young cat, probably not quite a year old. For the next few days, every morning he was in the box. When he saw us inside the house, he started yeowing until we brought him out his food. We fed him in the shed because in our ongoing discussions, we knew that if we adopted him, we would need to start him out in an enclosed small space so he could get used to using the litterbox and acclimate. He’d probably never been inside a house and when we fed him in the shed, he got wary if the door started to close.

What to do? Of course we thought about keeping him, getting him all his shots, blood tests and neutered. Our sixteen and a half year old cat, Carmella was our main priority and we didn’t want to do anything to upset her apple cart. Jim was pretty adamant that he wanted Carmella to live out her life as an only cat. When we got the kittens Astrid and Carmella almost 17 years ago, we had two other adult cats, Tikita quickly became a mother figure for Carmella but Narcissus, the big white male cat wasn’t so sure about them. He kind of receded into himself and a few months later he got sick with we don’t know what and after they couldn’t figure it out, he got worse and we had to put him down. I always wondered if he died of a broken heart because of the kittens and it was not a nice feeling. We certainly didn’t want that to happen to Carmella. What to do?

A few more days went by and it became clear he wasn’t leaving. He let us pet him, begged for pets and let us pick him up. It was clear he had been around humans because most of the strays here are feral and wouldn’t let you get near them. I started going around the park to see if anybody would adopt him. He followed me to one friend’s house who I knew would love to have a kitty but when I beseeched her to take him, she said, “I’d have to give up a perfectly good husband.” The cat was shy about meeting her even after he followed me all the way to her house. She came over later to meet him but was firm in her denial.

We started calling around to various animal shelters, animal control, the county and any adoption facilities we could find. The friend who gave me the dog food suggested a cat only shelter in Corpus Christi. We have to go to Houston next week anyway so we figured we could take him then. We offered to sponsor his shots and neuter and adoption fee but they were also firm. Same answer everywhere, nobody had any room to take in a stray. People here in the Rio Grande Valley have a very casual attitude about spaying and neutering and this is the result. It is not unusual to see packs of seven or eight dogs wandering around and naturally there are lots of dead animals on the roads.

Very frustrating and stressful trying to figure out what to do and if we should just bite the bullet and keep him. Meanwhile, of course, he was growing on us. Another friend had several cans of wet dog food to give away because her dog went on a special food. I got them because by this time, after just a few days, he was eating us out of cat food fast. When I carried his bowl to the back of the garden, he seriously earned the name Underfoot. By the time he got halfway there I could say “Let’s go to your bowl” and he would run ahead. So he’s smart too.

On Wednesday morning I woke up after not sleeping much, trying to figure out what to do. Jim was softening on keeping him by this time, but Carmella was getting so she wouldn’t even go out on the porch, which is where she lives. Finally Jim found a place in Weslaco, about an hour away, where they said if he could get there within a certain window that day, they would take him. So we agonized some more. Finally after coming in from feeding him again, I decided that we should take him and turn him in to Animal Control since they were the ONLY ones who said they would and they had more resources than we did.

We put his food in the cat carrier and got him in after a brief struggle. Jim said he was good in the car and settled down right away, When he got there, they explained the procedure. They keep him there for a few days, then see if a shelter will take him. If they do, he will get adopted out. If a shelter won’t accept him, they euthanize him.

WHAT? The girl said it was very likely that they would accept him because cute, friendly, orange long haired fluffy-tailed cat. He made her promise that if he didn’t get placed that she would call us and we could come and get him. She assured him she would. On next Wednesday we will be in Houston but we will throw the carrier in the trunk just in case she calls and to ensure that she doesn’t.

Some people here fed him but didn’t try to get him a home. One friend said he had caught him twice in his trap and turned him loose both times. I’m glad we persisted and found a solution, however unsatisfactory it may seem. I just hope we did the right thing.

Say a little prayer for Fluffytail that he will be placed and will make somebody a very nice Christmas and lifetime kitty.

Halfway to the Finish Line

For the clinical trial, that is. I know I haven’t updated much (at all) lately so I figured I would wait until after our October monthly visit to do so. The August and September visits were uneventful and everything was looking good. One of the drugs causes Jim some fatigue but hey, we’re old and retired so how can a little rest hurt?

On the way to Houston.

At the September visit the doctor mentioned that in October they would do another PET scan just to make sure everything was on track. At one of those visits he brought up the initial scan and compared it to a recent one. The difference was amazing. In the early scan his spleen was very enlarged.

Compare from May 2 to October 24. In May his spleen was, as the doctor said, “Huge!” In the June image, his spleen was “Nonexistent!” according to the doc. He was really pleased with that. The lymph nodes showed evidence of disease in May, but in the second and third scan they disappeared. The very dark spots are organs, brain, heart, bladder, etc.

This is all really good news. We also found out that this cancer is even more rare than we thought. I thought it was like 13 people in 100,000 get it. The doctor said it was one or two people per million! How lucky are we that we have an expert in the field just five hours down the road? At the Number One cancer hospital in the world? Jim asked him if he had people come from all over the country and he told us they come from all over the world to be treated here. He also told us that since the study has been so successful, they are expanding it by double. That means instead of 26 people in the clinical trial there will be 52. Remember, rare. He also said that when these results occur so early on in the trial that there is little chance of recurrence. The clinical trial will be over in May 2023. His last infusion, scan and bone marrow aspiration will be in April. Then maybe we can finally take that trip to Europe we missed out on the last two years.

Motel Motif: Houston.

As if all this wasn’t enough going on… Our good friends Doc and J were getting ready to come down for the winter. They were putting their boat up at the lake when J fell, breaking her hip and wrist. She had surgery on both the same day but recovery will take awhile. They are our KC Chiefs watching, Joker, dinner and other pals. We will really miss them as they are trying to sell their house here.

A couple days later, Jim’s phone rang while he was getting a haircut. I looked and saw the name of a good friend and neighbor from Kansas. I let it go. When Jim called back, he got the friend’s wife, who told him that she had gotten up that morning to find her husband dead on their kitchen floor. “Stone cold dead,” she said. And she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery just days prior. He was four years younger than us and never got to retire.

Another couple is dealing with early onset Alzheimer’s for the husband. These are longtime friends we met in Mexico and meet up with frequently. It has been going on for a few years now and he is starting to lose weight and fall. Nothing broken so far but their doctor told them it would happen more frequently as he loses strength and his knees buckle on him. Don’t fall! As we always said before heading out in the bus, “Be smart, pay attention!”

We are very happy that Jim is heading in the right direction and that the outlook ahead looks good. We are so thankful for Jim’s progress, our little house and garden, our sweet 16 year old kitty, our amazing financial advisor and all the friends who have shown such love and concern for us.

Remember the old saying “Be kind to everyone, as everyone has something going on.”
Practicing gratitude is a full time job.

About Those Student Loans…

Everybody seems to be up in arms about the recent “forgiveness” of student loans, up to $20,000 per person. For some this might seem like a lot but if you went to school recently, and entered any kind of specialty, your loans could be much higher. Still, better than nothing.

A lot of people seem to think that people who chose not to go to college are now stuck with paying for the loans of those who did. That is simply not true.

I will paraphrase an explanation I read recently. If I loaned you $100 and said I would charge a dollar a day interest until the balance was repaid. After 300 days you have not paid me anything so you now owe me $400. Imagine I say, since I am a nice person, that I will forgive $100 of your debt so now you only owe me $300 and the interest continues. Do you understand that this would not actually cost me any money? I’m not spending any more money, I am erasing money that never actually existed.

That’s how student loan forgiveness works; it’s not actually costing anybody any money. Your taxes are not paying for this because nobody is actually spending any money. The amount of debt being forgiven is less than the amount of debt that was created by capitalized interest on the original loans.

I have also seen all the items that say something like, “Well, I had to pay back my student loans, so you should have to too or it’s not fair to me.” In other words, If I had to suffer, you do too. That’s like saying we can’t cure you of cancer because all those other people died from cancer and it wouldn’t be fair to them. And my favorite is “I had to pay back my student loans and I turned out OK, so you should too.” That tells me that you really didn’t turn out OK.

Here’s my student loan story.

When I went to college after high school, my parents said they would pay for four years of college but they had to be continuous. Fair enough. I headed to Colorado State University and spent three years coasting along and partying. I just wasn’t interested in school after three years so I quit. My mom and dad were plenty pissed but they reminded me about the four year deal.

Fast forward a few more years. Now I was living in Columbia, Missouri and working for the University of Missouri, basically as a graphic designer. When I asked my boss for a raise due to these new design duties I was told they couldn’t pay me more because I didn’t have a college degree. OOF!

Since I worked for the university, I was able to attend classes at a seriously discounted rate. I took advantage of it and took as many prerequisites and art classes as I could. Then the project I was working for came to an end. No more discounted classes but I could get financial aid. So I did.

I probably had about a year and a half to get my BFA in Fine Art so I kept going. I loved college and did much better and was more highly motivated than when I attended CSU. I guess I finally figured out what I wanted to do. I made the Dean’s List every semester and got some Curator’s scholarships for good grades. In 1980, when college was still fairly cheap for in-state residents, I graduated with my Bachelor of Fine Art degree. I even used one installment of my student loans to put a down payment on a house. Mortgage interest was 11% at the time, so I had to hustle to make my house payment. The loans could wait.

I started doing some free lance photography and a girlfriend and I started a housecleaning business, The White Tornadoes. That was pretty lucrative and we did fairly well but I still didn’t make enough to start paying back my student loans. They sent me notices and I finally started paying back what I could, which wasn’t much. I guess they just wanted to see some good intent.

In about the mid eighties, after working at a couple of photo labs and free lancing, I got a job at the University Police Department as a Night Watchman. I worked the night shift, which I never could get used to. The money was pretty good and the job was super easy, just take my ring of master keys and check on my assigned portion of the campus. I even had a patrol car to drive around in and I worked on my own, no partner. If I found anything unusual I could call it in but I don’t think anything like that ever happened, except one night we were all called to a building that had a fire.

Being able to have the keys to everything was great. My natural curiosity led me to explore all the darkest depths of the university and find all the hidden places. I discovered where the best couches were for napping. I had a radio so if they called me I could respond. I found lounges where the dark and quiet made for a good snooze. I also explored the theater department costume room, which had some fabulous finds. I got a really good look at the inner workings of the university.

One night I was assigned to an area of campus that included all the records for the student loans. Remember, this was way before the days of surveillance cameras and computers; everything was on paper. I decided to see if I could find my student loan file and I did. It detailed everything I had borrowed and paid back and how much I still owed. I spent quite a while trying to decide if I could make the file “disappear.” I don’t remember what the balance was at the time, but it was considerable for my income.

I ended up putting the file back on the shelf and leaving the office and locking the door. I figured I knew where it was so if I changed my mind, I could always go get it. I never did.

I didn’t get my loans paid off until about 1995, the year we moved to Kansas from Washington DC. I had been paying all along and finally decided to just pay them off when I could. What a relief that was!

My theory about loan forgiveness is that everyone who is eligible should take advantage of it. I also believe that higher education should be free in the United States like it is in other countries like Finland, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, Germany, Russia (!), Italy, Iceland, Norway, Holland, Portugal and Denmark, to name a few. Since 1973 the average income has actually gone down while all other costs like housing, food and college have gone up. I know people who have been paying on their student loans for YEARS and still owe more than they borrowed because of compound interest. If they could have paid it off all at once they wouldn’t have had to borrow. And I think it is obscene that we spend so much on “defense” and various wars around the world. What if we used that money to fund higher education?

We all benefit from an educated society and a population unburdened by debt.

Still BIG BIG Lucky!

When we began this cancer adventure and the doctor here said it was time to start treatment, Jim was adamant about going to M.D. Anderson for a second opinion and options for a clinical trial. From the beginning we have both been very impressed by their professionalism, compassion and knowledge. The hospital is one place that isn’t air conditioned to death and almost all his appointments have been early or right on time. Each member of the team has their specialty and they are top notch.

As I mentioned before, we went to Houston every week for five weeks in June and early July. For the first couple of infusions he had a slight reaction but after that he was fine. Our now monthly trips consist of two days driving and a day of appointments in between.

A few scenes along the drive:

When we decided to put a new floor in the house, he was back to his usual self, moving and painting furniture, taking down and replacing shelving units. It was truly a heartwarming sight seeing him do things he probably couldn’t have done a couple of months before. Good thing we had to wait!

At the end of July it was time to go back and start the fourth cycle of treatment. These appointments were for a PET scan. which takes a couple of hours, a blood draw (of course) a visit with the doctor and the targeted immunotherapy infusion. He had his annual physical here before we went and the results of that bloodwork were completely normal! Promising.

The PET scan went fine and by the time we saw the doctor he had the results of both the scan and the bloodwork. Bloodwork was in the totally normal range. He had the first scan before treatment began and the doctor put them side by side onscreen to compare. The results were amazing! I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture but the recent scan showed no cancer at all, where the previous one had highlighted areas including his spleen and lymph nodes.

The doctor had two words; “Complete remission!” We looked at each other in disbelief; we were shocked and grateful. So early in the treatment, which will continue for the next nine months. Of course we want the treatment to continue and that will include another bone marrow aspiration later in the schedule. But, cancer free! The doctor asked us what we were going to do to celebrate. Jim said, “Get the infusion, then have some Liberty tacos,” a place we have ordered from several times. The doctor is a cute little Italian guy and he was so excited he was bouncing around in his chair showing us the results. He gave Jim a big hug.

When we left the doctor’s office Jim said, “Well that was easy.” And he’s the one getting his ass kicked. Whew. We’re still in shock but in a good way.

We can’t say enough times how glad we are that we settled on M.D. Anderson. As a friend here commented when we got back, “Jim has pep in his step.” And we both have hearts full of gratitude.

Back home:

Thanks so much to all who have reached out to us to offer support and good wishes. We are thankful for you all and know we are still BIG BIG lucky.