Good News from Florida

We left for Florida last Monday to see Charlie's radiation oncologist for a six-month check-up.  I got my big cast off on Friday and was fitted with a Star Wars Storm Trooper boot just in time for the trip. With wheelchair service at the airport, I got along well on the trip from Greensboro to St. Petersburg.

We were nervous about the scans because of the recurrence of cancer last year, but everything looked good this time.  He goes back in six months for the next evaluation.

A big thumbs-up after his check-up at Dattoli Cancer Center in Sarasota!

We are so happy!

 The day after that, we had lunch in Punta Gorda with some other friends that we met at Dattoli last summer.  Bill and John just finished their long three phases of treatment in December and are doing well.  It was so good to visit with them again, as well as John's wife Beverly.   We spent many hours together last summer.

We stayed in Ft. Myers with my brother Jeff and his wife Anna for most of the week.  We had some nice visits with family while we were there.

I don't have much artsy or quilty to report.  Since we flew in and out of St. Pete, I would have loved to visit the Dali museum and Chihuly glass collection, but this was not the right time for gadding about with my cane and giant boot.  Maybe when we go back in July.

Meanwhile, Life is Good!

A Few New Things

It has been a little crazy for the last month.  Many doctor appointments and trips to the hospital.  Charlie's blood counts got so low that he had a blood transfusion a couple of weeks ago.  That is probably due to all the radiation and the drug Xofigo which is radioactive.  After getting two units of packed red cells, he was a new man.  Amazing how bad you can feel when you are anemic.

                                                    

We are continuing to enjoy our new life in the mountains, and trying to get our house organized.  It has taken awhile because of all the furnishings we brought from Raleigh, and because the new basement was just a big room that I am trying to make into a usable studio/laundry room/office.

I managed to make an Auburn Angel for my daughter-in-law Melissa's birthday.

My brother Jeff and his family from Florida came up for a week in August.  We had multiple family gatherings.  They are the ones we stayed with in Ft. Myers for three months when Charlie first had radiation at the Dattoli Cancer Center.  We love them bunches!

We celebrated Jeff's birthday while they were here.  I gave him a little remembrance of the North Carolina mountains to take back to Florida with him.

My sewing stuff was fairly organized in bins even when we lived in Wake Forest, two houses ago.  It has been easy to find stash fabrics.  Everything else, not so much.  I recently tried actually sewing an eight-inch Sister's Choice block for a quilt for a friend, and it took me eight hours by the time I found the power cord to the sewing machine, some rulers, cutting mats, etc.

Here is a little watercolor sketch I did in my art journal.  It is the Sarasota skyline as seen from across the bay at Longboat Key in the last afternoon sunlight.  The city looked golden in the last rays of the sun.

My littlest granddaughter, Layla Grace, turned one on Saturday.  She had a rubber ducky birthday party.  I made painted a yellow duckling for her birthday card, and a little one with blue and green highlights framed in a floating frame.  Both paintings were inspired by photos on Pinterest.

And here is my little Ducky!

Family Fun

Lily's Birthday card...one of my watercolor prints with a few additions!

Our family has been with us in Florida for almost a week now!  We have had so much fun.  Four extra adults and five extra kids, including nine-month-old Baby Layla.  Lily turned eleven on Tuesday.  We have had great meals, fun at the beach, and trips to the park.  The weather was rainy only one day...the rest of the time we have dodged the showers and even seen rainbows.

Our family...fighting cancer together!

Before they arrived, I ordered bracelets from a company called MudLove.com, with the word Together on each one.  I had bought one at the Mast Store in Boone that said Hope.  When I went to the MudLove website to order more, I found out that you could have the bracelets customized with the word of your choice.  Together has been our family codeword for fighting cancer for the last two years.  

Baby Layla has been delightful.  Baby Kasey is a little jealous.  She thought she was the baby.

Well, it is hard to blog when you have four extra adults, five kids and a dog in the house.  They have all gone back home today.  This house is very, very quiet.  

Treatment Update

Charlie has now finished two weeks of radiation for his recurrent prostate cancer at Dattoli Cancer Center in Sarasota.  He goes in at 1:00, and it usually takes about forty-five minutes.  Most of the time is spent trying to position him for the radiation to the back of his head and his neck.  They made him a new mask/helmet to protect his face and keep his head still, but they will be making him a new one next week.  They think that by adding a mouth piece and breathing tube, they can have more control.  Sounds like torture to me.

He finally got to start one of the new medicines last week, Zytiga, and it made him sick as a dog the first day.  After that, he took it at night, and he has not had much problem.  He will get the second new drug, Xofigo, by IV on Thursday.  This is the one containing radium.  It sounds scary.

Meanwhile, we have been trying to amuse ourselves and pass the time.  We have been to two nice restaurants, one on Phillippi Creek in Sarasota, and one on the bay on Longboat Key.

Our 46th anniversary was Monday.  The Table at Creekside was beautiful, serene, and very special.

The first time we went to Dry Dock Waterfront Grill was with our new friend Bill from Dattoli.  He recommended this place for the great view of Sarasota Bay.  It did not disappoint.  We liked it so much that we went back today when my brother Jeff and his wife and son came up to visit from Ft. Myers.

New friend Bill and Charlie at Dry Dock

With my brother's family at Dry Dock Waterfront Grill

View from Dry Dock 

We also finally saw our first Gulf sunset.  We went to South Lido Beach Park.  It was very entertaining to see the pelicans dive-bombing the water for fish.  The sunset was great.

Sunset at South Lido Beach Park

Again, if we have to be going through cancer treatment away from home, it is nice to be in such a beautiful location.

Changes

You have not heard from me since Easter.   Sometimes life overwhelms.

Over a period of a few weeks, we found out that my husband Charlie's cancer is no longer in remission.  This was disappointing news after the very aggressive treatment he has undergone.  The good news is that Dr. Dattoli and his team in Sarasota think they can successfully treat the new areas with seven to eight weeks of additional radiation.

We are leaving for Florida tomorrow.  This time we are renting a house close to the cancer center.  We are taking our dog.  I am taking my sewing machine and watercolors.

We are going to get through this together.

In the meantime, we have moved!  We are no longer Raleigh residents.  This is quite a change after 52 years.  Our children packed us up and moved us to our mountain cabin just last week.  The basement got finished and the new storage shed arrived just in time for the move.  

So...on to Florida after only one week of being mountain residents.  When we get back we will have lots of time to sort things out and decide where to hang quilts and pictures.





  

Life is Beautiful

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind.  We soaked in a lot of beauty in Florida on our daily travels to and from Sarasota.

 We splurged and stayed for two days at Lido Key in Sarasota to save a bit of travel time and relax on the beautiful gulf beach.

                                          

We crossed a lot of bridges, both literally and figuratively.

And we are happy to say that on the last day, Charlie's doctor told us that he is in complete remission!  We cannot believe it.  It is almost a miracle!

Here is our Florida team that was with us all the way...my brother Jeff and his wife Anna.  We cannot thank them enough for providing a home, car, meals, and constant support and friendship.

So this part of our journey is over.  We are home.  We are feeling blessed and grateful.

If anyone you know is experiencing prostate cancer, even advanced cases with metastasis like Charlie's, I can highly recommend Dattoli Cancer Center in Sarasota, Florida.  All they do is treat prostate cancer.  And they do it well.

Life in Florida

They were still having technical problems with one of the radiation machines yesterday.  Another long delay.

Meanwhile, back at my brother's house...

They were enjoying this gorgeous sunset on the lake while we were driving home from Sarasota.

Last night there was a huge storm with thunder and lightning.  I lost a lot of sleep.

Apparently these otters who live in the lake had a rough time, too, and needed some drying out!  Can you see the otters sunbathing in the grass?

We have been binge-watching a series on Amazon Prime called Mozart in the Jungle.  It is about an oboe player from North Carolina who is trying to make it into the New York Symphony.  It is funny and quirky and delightful.  I highly recommend it!

Must get ready for the drive again.  It is taking about two hours now since it is tourist season.  At least we are not leaving at 5:45 AM like we did last fall.  I love my mornings!

Back to Florida

It has been a busy week.  It is time for my husband to have the last of his scheduled radiation treatments for prostate cancer.  We arrived back in Southwest Florida on Monday.  It is a much more inviting time of year to be here than it was last August!

We are staying with my brother Jeff and his wife Anna once again at their home in Fort Myers.

I love to sit on their back deck and watch the wildlife around the lake.  The first day, I saw a bald eagle in the tree right across from their house.

Our first trip back to the Dattoli Cancer Center in Sarasota was on Wednesday.  They did some scans and lab work, and scheduled Charlie for his radiation treatments.

The last time we were here, he was scheduled for 7:40 AM.  It takes an hour and a half to get there.  I took many pictures of the sun rising over the Peace River on our daily drive.

This time it was setting over the Peace River on our way home.

And then it was a lovely glow over the Caloosahatchee River as we crossed the bridge back to Fort Myers.

On Friday, we reported at the new time of 3:40 for the "dry run" or "film day," as they call it at DCC. There are two linear accelerators that provide the radiation treatment there, and one of them was down.  They did not take Charlie back there until almost five o'clock.

That put us smack in Sarasota traffic at rush hour.  We did not get home until 7:30 PM.

We have already discovered the advantages and disadvantages of the early versus late schedule.  

It does not matter, we will do whatever it takes, and we are so grateful for this opportunity for healing.  And he only needs ten days this time.  We can do this!

Gratitude

We said goodbye to Florida on Monday.  We arrived back in Raleigh, NC at 11:30 PM after a long day. 

This post is to thank my brother, Jeff, and his lovely wife, Anna, for taking care of us for over two months.  They made it bearable to do what we had to do.  Staying at their home was calm, peaceful, and therapeutic.

Jeff and Anna took care of our food, housing, and transportation needs while Charlie was being treated at Dattoli Cancer Center in Sarasota.  They are both great listeners and encouragers.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Sea Turtle Painting...and Going Home!

I saw a sea turtle photograph on the cover of the Scene Magazine at the doctor's office.  I decided I had to paint him!

Sea Turtle, by Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2015

Wonderful news...my husband finished his last day of radiation on Friday!  We thought Day 44 would never get here!  They awarded him a diploma!

Here is a shout-out to Mary from Dattoli, who is also a quilter.  Thanks for looking at my blog!  I hope to have some more "quilty" content before long.

After finishing at Dattoli Friday morning, we had to go to the Sarasota hospital for a surgical procedure.  He did well, and we came back to Fort Myers to recover for the weekend.  After a return trip to the doctor on Monday, we hope to fly home to North Carolina in time to see a little bit of autumn.

Life is good!

A New Journey

I have not been very faithful in posting to this blog lately.  Much has been happening in my life this year; some good, some awful.  I have not mentioned the bad part until today.

My husband Charlie was diagnosed in April with a very aggressive form of prostate cancer.  It had already spread throughout his skeletal system and some lymph nodes.  We were told by his doctor in Raleigh that the only treatment was to slow it down with a hormone regimen.  And that would only be effective for a limited time.

So, we have spent lots of time on the computer doing research.  And spent lots of time with family and friends.  We have been to Sunset Beach, NC; our cabin in the North Carolina mountains; his brother's family home in Rutherfordton, NC; and recently Alberta, Canada!  It was cool and beautiful up there.  I have about a thousand photos.  More to come!

Bow River, Banff, Alberta, Canada

Anyway, the good news is that through networking and research, we think we have found a place that can treat Charlie's cancer and allow him to achieve permanent remission.  We have been getting ready since the beginning of July to spend a couple of months in Florida while he receives radiation treatment at the Dattoli Cancer Center and Brachytherapy Research Institute in Sarasota, Florida.  We came down on Monday August 10, and stayed in Sarasota while they did more exams, tests, and simulations for the radiation treatment.  

Charlie and me in front of the Miracle Machine!

Monday was Day 1 of treatment.  We had to be in Sarasota..86 miles away...by 7:40 AM.  We left at 5:45 and made it with 20 minutes to spare.  It was a long, dark, boring drive.  Only 41 treatments-more or less- to go!

The upside is that he was done by about 8:30.  Then we went to Lido Key for a few hours of R&R in the Gulf of Mexico!  We have been to three beaches so far and liked all three.

We ate a nice lunch in Sarasota and then headed back to my brother and sister-in-law's house.  They have generously offered us a place to stay for the duration, as well as a car to drive back and forth.  They live in a very comfortable home by a lake.  It will be a good place to unwind from all the driving and medical stuff.

The lake behind my brother's house just after a thunderstorm

So, that's what is happening.  We feel lucky on many counts, and have been very blessed with many prayers and well wishes.  We can do this!