4000 feet and still climbing

OK so I know the climbing metaphors are getting old, but this time I really did climb a mountain. Mt. Tecumseh in Waterville Valley, NH a 4004 foot mountain to be exact. Pat and I decided to spend some down time in NH this weekend and this meant some outdoor activities. The weather was hot and sticky with high humidity but we set out early to beat the worst of the heat. Because of all the rain everything was quite lush so I spent much of the first part of the hike snapping pictures of the many, many shades of green. The camera got less and less use as the trail got rockier and steeper. It was tougher than we thought it would be, but there was another group on the trail with us and we traded off taking the lead, which to me meant they were resting as much as we were. Since they were younger and semi-experienced hikers (if you can judge this by their footwear, packs, and bug spray, and the later conversations we had in which they talked of climbing most of the mountains in the Presidential Range), I wasn’t as frustrated as I might have been if we were alone. Reaching the top was anti-climatic. The weather was overcast and the tree line dense so not a lot of views. But we made it (as you can see here and here). Yippee!!! I felt good!!

Going down should have been and easier trip. We decided to take another trail down – we knew the trail was partially in the woods, but most of it was going down the ski slopes since this was the other side of the mountain. Not our brightest moment. It’s a lot harder walking down ski slope than skiing down them (and that’s coming from someone whose last trip down this mountain was on a toboggan towed by the ski patrol because she had a spectacular fall and screwed up her knee on the first run of the day). It’s really difficult to stop the downward momentum and tempting to just sit and slide down on your butt. We crisscrossed the slope and made it down in just under an hour (it took us almost 3 to ascend, so you do the math). Our knees were sore and we got a few more bug bites than we would have liked, but we were back at the condo for lunch. Spent the afternoon at the pool with the rest of the Gasbarro’s.

Sunday we both awoke in pain – OK, me more than Pat, but he admitted to being a little sore as well. To combat this we decided to take a 2.5 hour kayak ride down the Pemigawassat River. Our nephew Aidan joined us for the first part of the trip, and then we kayaked the rest of the way on our own. By the end our upper bodies were as sore as our lower, but all in all it was a good weekend and for us, relaxing in its own way. Now that he has some free time on his hands, Pat and I both hope to do lots more of this type of stuff this summer – as long as my energy holds out.

I had treatment 6 of Round 2 on Tuesday. At least I think I did. I fell asleep after one round of Pass the Pigs with Pat and awoke 2.5 hours later when they were disconnecting me. If only all treatment days could go as smoothly. I have 2 more treatments this round, a scheduled two week break in the beginning of July, and they have already signed me up for 8 more weeks. This plan could change. I have a CT scan next Tuesday before my treatment. We are hoping that by timing it this way, I will avoid the dehydration issues I had last time. My follow up appointment with Dr. Lange will be the following Tuesday before Round 8. As long as the scan is clean again (which we have lots of reasons to believe it will be), we will go ahead with the next round. I do plan to talk to him about the possibility of extending the break between rounds - mostly to see if it makes any difference to my diarrhea. The decision will most likely be a gut (no pun intended) feeling because as I’ve said before, there is no protocol for using Erbitux for appendix cancer.

After a few problems with shipment, I got my vials of Sandostatin. I’ve been on it for 6 days now. Two injections a day and thus far it has not stopped or even slowed the diarrhea. Some days it has actually been worse, but we all agree that it may just take a few weeks before the effects of it kick in, so we’ll continue for at least another week.

And that’s all from our end….