We are on a roller coaster. We hope you don't mind a bumpy ride, because that's definitely the kind of ride we are on. Roger's pathology report showed that the cancer was found in four of twenty lymph nodes. There is a PET scan in our future, a meeting with an oncologist, and chemotherapy. The health care detour continues. We will keep you posted.
Roger's surgery is scheduled for Monday morning 7:30 am PDST. If you want to know what time that is in your part of the world, please Check here. He's going to spend at least three hours on the operating table. Then some time in the narcotic haze of morphine while he recovers. Post-operative hospital stay is expected to be between 6-8 days. What we would like to ask of you, our incredibly loving and supportive virtual family here, is to send him your very best wishes and healing vibes while he's in surgery and after. We don't think there's any way to alter outcomes, but we do think you can raise his endorphins with love. So, let's do that.
post and feeders in new location with slopier metal baffle and plastic bottle insurance.
plastic bottles recycled into a squirrel foil. check the reflection.
I keep thinking I should write something profound, eloquent and poetic about these past few days. Or maybe it should be a blistering rant about the unfairness of everything. But I can't seem to find the right rhythm. We're staring our philosophies in the face. Roger says, "Well if it's metastasized, I'm toast." Yes, that's the horrible truth. We've read the survival statistics for that scenario and they are absolutely grim. We won't know for a while yet what the status is on that large mass because the gastroenterologist and the surgeon are concentrating on determining how to treat the smaller lesion. Even though it may or may not be cancerous (the biopsy on that one has been sent to another lab for a second opinion), it still needs to be removed. If it's not malignant can it be taken out piecemeal during additional colonoscopies? Should it be removed surgically? These are the questions.
On trying to maintain life here in the normal way: Roger moved the bird feeder Thursday afternoon. We've been chasing the squirrels for a few days, after they figured out how to leap from the rocks to just above the squirrel-proof baffle. Hah, it is truly baffling how they figure that stuff out with their little rodent brains. The little blind and lame squirrel (pictured above) stopped showing up two days ago. He hadn't been looking very well lately. My twin brother said I should call Wildlife Rehabilitation and Release to pick the little fellow up. I said, "No I don't think so. Why deprive some coyote its natural meal?" Poor little thing. He was limping all the time, a real wreck of a creature. I often put out secret little stashes for him, hoping to cure him with extra food. Sometimes he even found them, and I would clap and sing.
The plan for now: The next appointment with the surgeon is Tuesday. Supposedly the pathology report will be back from the lab at the University of Washington. Then there really will be a plan on how to restore Roger back to his good health.
Lots going on, all of it family and health related. Good thing it's a Wordless Wednesday, or I'd have to bore you with all the gory details. Hah!
We spent the weekend at Three Graces Farm in Sonoma County, in the middle of wine country, although the farm is most definitely not a vineyard. Why were we there? To spend time with Indigo and Elena, Roger's daughters (and incredibly lucky me, my step-daughters). I highly recommend checking out their website because these three women (the kids and a friend) are doing the serious work of starting a farm from scratch.
I mean scratch: an outdoor kitchen; no electricity; no potable water (a well that can be used for dishes, watering the garden, etc); a newly drilled well, but not yet pumping; no internet.
Indigo had friends visiting from the city who had come to build her an outhouse. They spent much of Saturday in that endeavor, and as the sun was going down it was loaded onto the old pickup truck and hauled almost to its destination. Some more digging of the hole was in order before it could be planted.
Elena showed us around the farm and introduced us to the pigs and goats. They have plans for raising heritage pigs and for producing dairy products from the goats' milk. They have an already-productive garden and space to grow a ton more. I should have photographed the huge pile of kale I cut for Saturday night's feast, but instead I've got a pic of the puffball that Roger found on the way to the creek Sunday morning. This puffball was featured in our breakfast feast a short while later.
Three Graces Farm is extremely hard, endless work. But you can't imagine what it's like to eat a gourmet Indian meal that has been cooked in this beautiful outdoor kitchen. Or to sit with young people who understand what they are doing and why.
Now that the temperatures have finally moved into somewhat normal range, we're starting to see more insects out and about (and luckily not close to the poison-zone around the house). This makes us very happy. Most of the action takes place down by the pond. So, we moved a picnic bench down there and just sit and watch.
We're seeing a lot of dragonflies. This one skims the top of the pond for food. A rather handsome fellow, a Common Whitetail.
We're also seeing damselflies flying around or hanging about together while otherwise engaged.
The thing that caught my eye though, and made me look at bugguide for hours was this beautiful orange moth. Still no ID on this one, but what a strikingly brilliant orange moth it is. I wish it would have unfolded its wings, but it sat quite still for a long time just like this.
