Christmas 2021

Because of my ASCT, I got to be home all Christmas.  It snowed overnight so Christmas Eve was white. Tammy had off Christmas Eve.  We had a French Toast breakfast.  Watched Frosty the Snowman, Frosty Returns, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and Elf. We also watched our church's Christmas Eve service as well as Calvary Baptist's Christmas Eve service.

We were to go to Lizzy and Stas's house Christmas Day, but Christmas morning saw freezing rain falling.  Three of us thought of postponing Christmas until Sunday, but Tammy wanted Christmas.  So off we went.  Stas had waffles for us when we arrived.  We then opened our presents and FaceTimed with Jaclyn in OR.  Tammy and Stas made us ham, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and crescent rolls for dinner.  After dinner, we played Scattergories which I won.  For dessert, we had macarons and "Christmas Crack".

Christmas Photos

A Look Back at My ASCT

My ASTC (autologous stem cell transplant) process began on Saturday, October 23, when we arrived at the hospitality home in Jamaica Plain that Tammy would be staying at during my transplant.  After watching Sunday church, we walked to the Lorenz Anderson Auto Museum, the Anderson Arboretum, and Cafe Beirut. Monday, October 25 I had the placement of a triple lumen in the upper chest.  The next day, Tuesday, it was used to withdraw my stem cells that would later be replanted back in me.  They were able to gather double the needed amount that first four hours that I did not need to return the next two days for more collection.

On Wednesday, Boston was hit with a nor'easter; so Tammy and I stayed put for the day watching movies.  Thursday, we went to the Franklin Zoo as well as spending a good deal of time cleaning bird poop off my car from the nor'easter.  Friday was to be admission day.  Since it was to be later in the day, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

I was admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital room 7B-32 at 4pm on Friday, October 29.  I was immediately depressed about the small size of the room, the even smaller size of the bathroom, and the room's view out the window.  This was to be my home for the next 21 days during which time I learned I had one of the larger rooms and bathrooms and a good view compared to others.  

Saturday, October 30 began my six days of chemo treatments (BEAM) off with a bang due to that day's drug's side effects.  The next four days of chemo treatments went well with Tammy and I able to play cribbage, Over/Under, and Rewordable.  The last day of chemo treatment on Thursday, November 4 was to mess up my stomach for the foreseeable future.

Friday, November 5 was transplant day.  It went off without a hitch that is until about 130am when I had the worst heartburn I have ever had which lasted until around 530am.  Little did I know that this was the beginning of fourteen days of what I will call "dark days".   These were days of just laying in bed, not opening my eyes, not eating, lots of nausea, vomiting, head to ankle body rashes, several days plus of the runs, a gain of about 30lbs of water weight, 3 platelet transfusions, and some off and on fevers. 

Tammy took good care of me during this time.  She would arrive at the start of visiting hours 11am and stay usually until their end 8pm.  She stayed by my bedside - helping me wash up, changing my sheets, taking me for short walks in the hallway, being my advocate as she understood alot of the medical terminology being used.  I cannot imagine making it through everything without her.  

I was released from Brigham and Women's on Friday, November 19 and returned home where I developed another fever Saturday afternoon that sent me to the Baystate ER and then a stay at the hospital for the next week.  While there, I had lots of tests done to determine the cause of the fevers.  I was also pumped full of different antibiotics to fight whatever was causing the fevers and given a blood transfusion.  No cause was ever found, and the most likely scenario was I had Engraftment Syndrome.  After being fever free for 48 hours, I was released from Baystate on Saturday, November 27 where I have been convalescing at home.

Apple Picking 2021

 We did our apple picking a bit earlier this year because we thought my stem cell transplant was going to be Oct 11.  We had a large group participate with us this year - Tammy and I, Lizzy and Stas, Rachelle and Alan, AJ and Vania, and the VT grandparents.  We took two cars to get to Johnny Appleseed with Rachelle and Alan's vehicle getting lost for about 40 minutes.   

Tammy and I picked the six variety of apples that were available for the pies and crisps we make each year.  The whole gang helped with the peeling, cutting, mixing, making of 8 apple pies, 4 crisps, and the freezing of 9 bags of prepared apple filling (enough to make another 18  pies), and the cleaning up.

Below is the link to see a few pictures of the day.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wL3yFSRk5LhCA6i68

My ICE Experience

The course of chemotherapy treatment for the relapse of my Hodgkin's lymphoma was the acronym ICE.  Normally done at Baystate Hospital over 3 days as an inpatient, I was considered a good candidate for the 3 days of chemo as an outpatient which is being done now at many hospitals elsewhere.

I have added a link to the Google spreadsheet that I am using as a crude diary of my symptoms each of the days since I started treatment until I experience no more effects.  Here's hoping its short.   

ICE Spreadsheet

Hurricane/Tropical Storm Henri

Sunday, August 22, Henri hit Westerly, RI and traveled right for us.  

Our local news followed the storm for days letting us know each time it made a move toward us.  People were listening.  The gas lines were long with the filling up of gas cans for generators, and propane tanks flew off the shelves.  Ice and water were virtually non-existent at the stores.  

I did my part in preparations for the storm and made sure the cars were gassed up, filled our gas propane tank, turned our refrigerator and freezer to their highest setting, filled the freezer with zipper -lock quart baggies of water, and brought all the things in from outdoors that could possibly be blown away.  I also had been running all of our air conditioners to get as much cold air "trapped" in the house in case of power loss.

Henri did make its way to us but with much of its fury zapped.  It was now a tropical depression bringing mainly torrential rain with winds not really noticeable.  Oh well, as Geraldo Rivera said, "Mother Nature may be forgiving this year, or next, but eventually she's going to come around and whack you.  You've got to be prepared."

A Two Week Vacation

On Saturday, July 24th, I began a rarity in my life -- two whole weeks off from work all at once.  

WEEK 1 - Maine

For about a year, we had been planning a 5/6 Gangwer family (no NC Mitchells) reunion along with all of Tammy's immediate family in attendance in Saco, Maine at the Ship Captain's Mansion.  Jaclyn and her family arrived from OR around 1am Friday, July 23.  Tammy's mom and dad arrived later that day.

The vacation got off to a rough start as the Saturday ride to Maine was filled with puking grandchildren and traffic, traffic, traffic - a 3 hour trip took us 5.5 hours.  When we arrived we scoped out the home which initially left us disappointed.   Some of the room set-ups were not what we expected, cleanliness was lacking, a horse was living in the driveway, and the owner of the house lived over the garage with his dog.  As the week went on we adjusted to the above drawbacks even making sport of some of them (i.e. the catch a mouse pool in which Jordan won 40 dollars).  Saturday saw my clan (Tammy, myself, Jaclyn, Blake, Lilly, Juniper, Lizzy, Stas, Grandpa and Grandma Kelly) and Chad; the NY Gangwers, the VT Beauchemins (Rachelle, Al, Jordan, Brandon, AJ, Vania, Ellie, Jusin late that night), and the OH Raffas (Randi and Gabe) arriving and getting situated for the week ahead  We ate dinner at Rapid Ray's down the street.

Sunday was a rainy day.  Tammy and I along with the OR Laberees, and the IL Kellys attended Saco Bay Community Church.  We then just hung around the house the rest of that day.  The VT Gangwers (mom and dad) arrived late that afternoon after being the only ones to get lost finding the place.  We ate Grandma Kelly's chicken dinner for lunch (and several more times later that week for lunches).  During the evening, I won my first ever game of Ticket to Ride. 

Early Monday saw me, my dad, Blake and Chad head to South Portland for a 4 hour inland fishing trip.  It was the foggiest the ship's captain had seen in quite some time leading to myself especially and Blake a little getting sea sick (No vomiting happened luckily, but I was apparently a green hue.) as we stopped so my dad and Chad could catch some live bait.  We then headed to our fishing spot near Mackworth Island where we each caught a stripped bass that was not a keeper.  Blake came the closest at 1in away from the legal size of 28in.  Unfortunately the boat's live wells were malfunctioning killing most of our live bait before we could use it.   The IN Raffas arrived that afternoon after dealing with an airline ordeal of delayed and cancelled flights.  We played in the pool a little that afternoon.  For dinner, we went to Sea Salt Lobster with the the OR Laberees (Where we all had expensive lobster rolls.) and the great grandparents.  In the evening, Tammy and I made our first visit to Bay View beach for a walk.

Tuesday, the OR Laberees went to visit nearby distant relatives; so Tammy and I watched the girls.  We went to a nearby park during the morning.  Then the granddaughters took advantage of the pool in the warm afternoon.  For dinner we had the 5/6 family reunion cookout of hamburgers and hot dogs (cooked by yours truly), corn on the cob, pasta salad, baked beans, potato salad and regular salad.  Afterwards, we had a July white elephant party.  I traded my original gift for a remote control set of bumper cars that were a favorite to play that evening.

Tammy and I did a little bit of antiquing Wednesday morning.  During the early evening, we visited the Bay View beach with the OR Laberees.  Tammy and I stopped on the way home for some ice cream at Garsides getting scoops of Almond Joy and Keylime Pie.  

The next day, all the girls and ladies headed to a local cafe for morning coffee and tea.  Thursday afternoon, Tammy, I, and Lilly braved heavy rains to take part in an hour and a half lobster boat demonstration in Portland with the OH Raffas.  We all got to handle a live lobster out of the trap for proper processing.  Lilly also got to be captain of the boat for awhile.  We had dinner at a McDonalds where we learned that the Portland Sea Dog baseball game we were planning to attend that evening was rained out with a make-up date when we were gone.  Blake had the good idea of donating all of our tickets to the Saco Bay Community Church for their use.

On Friday, we visited the town's local library book sale purchasing several history books of interest.  In the afternoon, the OR Laberees, Tammy and I, and Rick and Lauren did an escape room in Biddeford.  We literally made it out with 1 min and 1 sec to spare.  Tammy and I went out to eat that night at the Golden Rooster in Saco.  I had the lobster mac n cheese.  

Saturday was pack up and leave day.  We got up early and left around 730am so we could avoid the traffic, traffic, traffic.  We were successful in making a 3 hour trip in 3 hours.  

Some photos of the week can be seen here https://photos.app.goo.gl/diAJ4MH3XsJUAdqJ7

WEEK 2 - Staycation with the OR Laberees and IL Grandparents

The OR Laberees stayed for an extended visit with us until Friday, August 6 and the IL grandparents stayed until Tuesday evening.  The days were filled with playing with the many toys (castle, barns, kitchen, roller coaster, slide, bikes, bubbles, sit-n-spin, karaoke, Doc McStuffin, garden stones, and a cookie kit) Tammy had been accumulating from tag sales for just this occasion.  Some special notes of interest during the week were attendance at the Sunday morning service at First Baptist Church followed by a get-to-together with Jaclyn's childhood friend Chelsea and her family along with her discipler Elaine; a visit to the gun range by Blake and I on Monday and an evening game of Oregon Trail; a visit Tuesday to the Riverside Reptile Center here in Enfield followed by lunch at 99 and a chicken dinner prepared by Grandma Kelly and another evening round of Oregon Trail; Blake and Jaclyn's Wednesday visit to Charlestown, NH for some ancestry information after which Blake made us a chicken enchilada dinner; and wrapping up the visit on Thursday was clothes washing and suitcase packing in preparation for the plane ride home early, early Friday with a 6am take off time and a sick Juniper who had came down with a cold Tuesday.  Friday at 8am, I finished off my last day of vacation with a visit to Baystate Hospital for my portacath installation in preparation for my first round of ICE chemo that begins on Tuesday, August 12.

The Chaos of Cancer

Going through cancer for the second time in three years, I have come to a conclusion.  The start of the cancer diagnosis is chaotic.  

From the instance you get the call from your doctor that you might have cancer to the starting of its treatment, there is a flurry of appointments, phone calls, and procedures that come at you with little time to plan for their happening.  

Don't get me wrong.  The initial pronouncement that you might have cancer until the verification that it is or is not cancer seems like forever.  But once that pronouncement is made, things take off in a hurry.  There's the scheduling of the pre-biopsy appointment, the Covid-19 testing, the biopsy itself, the post-biopsy appointment to remove sutures and take x-rays, and of course the appointment to discuss the course of treatment.  To add to the mix, all the above steps require phone calls from the various offices to get you pre-registered for the appointments, then there are the reminders about the upcoming appointments, not to mention the obvious going to the actual appointments.  

It seems to me though that once you get to the point of the actual treatments things settle down, and there is a rhythm to how things are going to be.  Treatments are every x days at x time for x amount of weeks/months.  You take x amount of medication at x time for x amount of days/weeks/months.  The doctor will see you after x amount of treatments to check how things are progressing.   All the x's are mapped out in advance allowing there to now be a sense of orderliness in what is a difficult process to go through physically and emotionally.

Gut Punch

What's just as bad as hearing you have cancer?  Well, one answer is being told your cancer has come back.   

I have been having night sweats to varying degrees since my chemotherapy stopped back in 2019.  A PET scan was done early on showing no real uptake in the cells; so it wasn't likely from any lingering cancer.  A test taken after that did show I had low testosterone levels most likley produced by the chemotherapy I had taken.  Night sweats can be a symptom of low T.  Hence, as testosterone levels improved over time night sweats would diminish, or I could opt for various treatments for low T. 

Jump to April 2021, and I was still experiencing night sweats.  After an appointment with the oncologist on April 30th, she ordered a PET scan to help ease any fears of a relapse.  The insurance company opted instead for a CT scan on May 17 as a cheaper option.  It showed some issues in the neck and abdomen, so a PET scan was ordered for May 28.  It wasn't until June 1 that I got the call from the oncologist that the cells in those areas were active and most likely my Hodgkin Lymphoma had returned - the gut punch.  A biopsy would be needed to determine exactly what I had though.  

I met with the thoracic surgeon who had done my last biopsy.  During the appointment, she let it be known that the mediastinal biopsy performed last time was too risky to do this time because of the scar tissue that had formed from the last one.  This biopsy would involve VATS through the back to get to the infected lymph nodes in the chest.  A relatively simple procedure with a long recovery period  due to  the nerve and muscle damage.

I was scheduled to have the biopsy done June 17 at 3:45pm but was wanted at the hospital at 2pm.  On my way to the hospital from work, I received a phone call from the surgeon's secretary that the surgeon wasn't up to doing the biopsy after working all night on an emergency operation.  She would like her associate to do it.  If I wasn't comfortable with that option, we could reschedule.  I said to go with the associate.  

From 2 to 4 pm, Tammy and I waited in the lobby to be called to the pre-op area.  Once there, the only thing of note was the amount of work it took for 3 nurses to get a good vein for the IV.  Around 6pm, I was finally wheeled into the operating room where I was put to sleep.

I began waking up in the recovery room at 9:07 pm.  It was a weird sensation.  My mind was active but nothing else worked.  It's like your trapped in a world where you can only watch and not participate.  I truthfully remember nothing other than that from the recovery room.  The next time I woke up around 10:30 pm, I was in my hospital room where I would spend the night so my chest tube could be monitored.

(Tammy had stayed at the hospital the whole time since we had parted at 4 pm.  She kept busy doing some work at the EP lab until she was able to come for a short visit in my hospital room.)

This was only my second hospital stay.  The other being when I was around five for tonsils. My first sensations upon now being awake and alert were ones of hunger from lack of food since 3 am that day and a very sore throat from the breathing tube used during the biopsy.  I was told no food until the morning as I was on a clear liquid only diet.  I was given ice chips for the hunger.  I ate two cups of it.  It didn't help the hunger one bit, but it did help the sore throat.  

Around 1:30 am, I feel asleep after a trip to the bathroom that earned me the alias 'dizzy patient' as I had trouble making it there by myself with the added fun of having trouble going once I got there.  I awoke around 5:30 am, hungrier and with a continued sore throat.  So I ate two more cups of ice with the same results as the previous night.  The ice did make me have to go to the bathroom but I wanted to make sure I really could go with no issues this time.  Well, when I knew I really had to go, I pushed the call bell.  Fifteen minutes later, someone came to help me to the bathroom.  I had no issues with going this time.  (This happened a second time where it was taking so long for someone to come I was trying to unhook everything myself so I could get to the bathroom.)

I was taken to X-ray and returned to my room where as I was eating more ice chips, the nurse informed me that I was now on an ordinary diet.  I replied to her, well I don't see any of that food.  Still never saw any food until 8:30 am when the breakfast tray was delivered.  As I was finishing up the tray, Elaine brought me up a bag of PBJ, cup of strawberries, and chocolate milk.  I went from famine to feast.   Unfortunately, I ate it so fast it lead to later issues of trapped air in my belly and intestines -- aka gas pains.

As I was getting ready to wash up. transport came to take me to X-ray.  After being wheeled down and quickly taken in for my two minutes of X-rays, I was left in the hallway a good 15 minutes waiting for transport to come take me back.  When I got back, Tammy had gotten to my room.  We were informed the earlier X-rays looked good so the chest tube would be taken out (which it was around noon), another set of X-rays would be taken (with a twenty minute wait this time in the hallway to be taken back to my room), and then discharged (wheeled out of the hospital at around 2 pm).

A Visit with the granddaughters - March 2021

 https://photos.app.goo.gl/kWNrTAUchVcdNV4H8

February and March Weekends

Plain and Simple. 

Church Attendance and Clock Repairs.

Books Read in 2020

The Fourth Part of the World - Toby Lester

Bunker Hill - Nathaniel Philbrick

Tales of Old New England - Frank Oppel

The Voyages of Joshua Slocum - Walter Teller

Radium Girls - Kate Moore

Connecticut Disasters - Ellsworth Grant 

Are You Ready for Some Football?

 In 2015, I started playing fantasy football with Stas.  Below are my results from each of the years.

2015 - Finished the season 6-7 and made it to the Championship game finishing in 2nd place

2016 - Finished the season 8-4 and finished in 7th place.

2017 - Finished the season 9-3 and made it to the Championship game finishing in 1st place.  (Beating Stas)

2018 - Finished the season 6-7 and finished in 11th place.

2019 - Finished the season 8-5 and finished the season in 5th place.

2020 - Finished the season 9-4 and made it to the Championship game finishing in 2nd place.  (Losing to Stas)

Season Holidays

 Christmas was a CT Gangwer family affair.  After working my normal air shift Christmas day, I went to Lizzy and Stas's house.  Tammy was already there as they had picked her up earlier in the day.  We opened our presents and then had Chinese for dinner.  After dinner, we played an escape room type game that took us into the early evening to finish.  

New Year's Eve saw Tammy and I in bed before 8pm.  I was working the early shift at work and had to leave the house at 3:30am New Year's Day.  After getting off work at 9am, I picked Tammy up, and we headed to VT for the annual White Elephant featuring a catered meal from Chiptole.  Lizzy and Stas had left the day earlier.  In attendance, were all the Beauchemins, the Matos, the NY Gangwers, Randi, VT grandparents, and of course us.  

While in VT, Tammy began having what she thought was allergies to the cat.  She had a runny nose and itchy eyes.  The symptoms lasted into Monday morning where Tammy's co-workers sent her home to get tested for covid.  Fast-forward to Wednesday, the test results came back positive.