20060604 - Seattle

In November 2000, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. At that time I was treated with a Lumpectomy, Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy. That treatment took almost a year with my last Radiation treatment in October 2001. I did follow-up care for the cancer until February 2004 when I was diagnosed with a recurrence of the breast cancer. This time I had a double Mastectomy and they removed 20 lymph nodes. I also had another round of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This time the treatment took a little less time and the last radiation treatment was September 2004. I have been continuing with follow-up medical appointments in Seattle every 4 months. This week in Seattle was about these follow-up medical appointments, seeing my friends from my office, a family wedding (my husband’s cousin’s son), a baptism, and a baby naming ceremony.
Monday, being a holiday, we walked around Green Lake. It was a cloudy day but no rain so it was a nice day for walking. Since it was a holiday, there were lots of people and lots of dogs at the lake. It made me miss Max although we will have to train him before we could take him for such a busy walk. He would have gone crazy with all the people and dogs on the trail.
Wednesday, I had my first medical appointments. In the morning I had my appointment with my Oncologist, Dr Jacobs. The blood tests and his physical exam did not find any recurrence of the cancer. In the afternoon I had an appointment with my ophthalmologist, Dr Vesselle. She had me take a base line HRT which takes a 3-D picture of the Optic nerve. I have glaucoma but just recently started on a new medicine which is working well for as my pressure was 16 with correction to 12, 13 with my fat corneas. Later that afternoon I had an appointment with my Radiation Oncologist, Dr Hunter. Dr Hunter congratulated me on having passed 2 years since the 2nd diagnoses, which is a big deal towards my continuing survival. The longer it is the less aggressive the cancer and the more positive the outlook. Additionally, Dr Hunter spoke to me about a new study which says that a low fat diet could be as important as chemotherapy in preventing a recurrence of the cancer. For my type of cancer there was a 40+% less recurrence in women following a low fat diet. Good news: This means there is something about this disease that is in my direct control. Bad news: This means there is something about this disease that is in my direct control.
Thursday, I had Lunch w/ Kristie, one of the women was working with before I retired. That evening I had dinner with some of the members of my Quilt group ( Toni, Robin, Sue T, Jani).








Friday morning, I attended a wedding luncheon for the bride Ann Marie. In the afternoon I had an appointment with my Internal Medicine Doc, Dr Hughes. They gave me a tetanus shot since they could not find a record of my having had one in the last 10 years. Additionally, she gave me some options to get my blood sugar down. My A1C says my sugars have running a little too high. While I was in the clinic on Wednesday, they had a patient come in with chickenpox, so I had a shot for that too.
That evening we went to the Rehearsal dinner for the wedding. Even though we are a part of the ceremony, we were invited to the dinner since we had come such a long way for the wedding and have been very close to the family. They have been our Spokane family for all the time we lived in Seattle. Pictures are the Groom, the Grooms father, the Grooms Mother, and the Bride.






Saturday, We attended Eric & Ann Marie’s wedding and Eleanor’s (their baby) Christening. It was a lovely ceremony. The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, and both of them were very happy. This was the Ruthanne and John’s fourth son to marry so they also were very happy.







Sunday, we went to Joshua (another of John & Ruthannes son’s son) naming ceremony. It was also a lovely ceremony. A welcoming of the baby into the Christian family. The photo is Greg, Monica, Chris, Louise, and Joshua.








Then we went to a wedding reception for Eric & Ann Marie and Eleanor.













Welcome to the family Eleanor and Joshua!