Hawaii: The Wedding

In February I traveled to the island of Oahu for my niece's wedding. Julianne is stationed in the U.S. Army, as is her new husband. Hawaii is certainly a better assignment than Iraq. Juli, who has her B.S. and M.S. in criminal justice, is a surveyor with the Army Corps of Engineers. But given the amount of dollars being spent in Iraq she's not doing much surveying. So Juli plays the taps for the many military funerals in Hawaii. While that might not mean much to you civilians the sound of taps is a must at military funerals.It gives those of us who've been in the military chills, the same way the National Anthem does, or Eternal Father for us Navy veterans. So it is an important job.

The wedding was held at the Ocean Crystal Chapel, on the grounds of the Hilton Hawaiian Village at Waikiki Beach. The location was beautiful. I especially liked the throwing of rose petals on the bride and groom as they exited the chapel after the ceremony. I have to say, Protestant weddings aren't very long compared to Catholic weddings. That makes it easier for kids at the wedding. The reception was held at the hotel also, in one of many reception rooms. There were several other weddings the same day as Juli and Stephen's wedding.

I caught the bouquet, what a hoot!! I was told to go up since I am not married. Well, I figured if I was competing with young Army women I, the old Navy Nurse, was going to out jump them. I did ;-) I wanted the bouquet so Juli could get it back. I sure am not planning on getting married again.

It was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful setting with a beautiful bride and handsome groom.

Which TV Dog Fits You?

Which TV Dog is Your Ideal Pet?

More on Pushing Daisies. Created by BuddyTV

I've never seen the show but the dog looks like a golden retriever and I do like them. My sister always has a golden, and my parents did too. When I move to a dog friendly apartment I'm getting a miniature goldendoodle. They get to about 35 lbs. I'm hoping to find one who matches my red hair ;-) I plan to get the dog from a MN breeder:

http://www.dogpage.us/red-cedar-farms/goldendoodles.html

My foster cat has returned home. Donegal, his litter mate, really misses him. So now I have 3 cats.

In Memory of My Dad

My Dad was born on Valentine's Day 1904. This day was always special in our home, mostly because it was Dad's birthday. He was a very cool parent. He was 41 when he married so when we kids came along he was more like a grampa than a dad. He had time for us kids. Everyone loved him, he was called Daddy-O by everyone. He had no enemies.

During Prohibition he was a rum runner, and had keys to over 100 speak easies in New York City, NJ, and CT. He was Irish but always drank responsibly, no getting stinkin' drunk. What he loved almost as much as his family were the horses and ponies. I was in high school before I figured out that The Daily Racing Form wasn't a daily paper for any of our neighbors. I also thought every family had a bookie. I wasn't sure what a bookie did. I just knew that what the bookie said determined my Dad's mood.

The best gift my Dad ever gave me, besides the gift of life, was a box containing every letter I had ever written home. The letters started in 1953, when I was in Girl Scout Camp. Those letters help me a lot with my scrapbooking in that when I'm scrapping photos from the first few years of marriage I just get out the letters from that time and I have the details of where we were and what we did. He also saved every letter his 1st cousin sent to him from WWI. His cousin died during the influenza epidemic. The man surely would have become an author. Each letter is 10 - 15 pages long, with all kinds of very interesting details about the local environment, people, etc.

On the day he was born his father gave his mother a beautiful gold bracelet, which she wore the rest of her life. It has my Dad's baby teeth marks indented in the gold because he chewed on it when he was being held. I now have the bracelet and think of him every time I wear it.

My son and his wife gave their baby son my Dad's 1st name as a middle name. I wish he was still alive, he'd be so proud.

In the girl looking photo he is 3 y,7 months old. In the haywagon photo he's the one standing on top of the hay . The old man is his grandfather, who died when my Dad was 12. The other person is a cousin.

I miss him everyday.

Look Alike Meter

http://www/.myheritage.com

This is a very interesting site where you upload 3 face photos and the meter will tell you who the subject in the middle most looks like. It is set up as mother-child-father but the final outcome just shows names so you can do siblings, grandparents, etc.

The example I am showing is of a great aunt, great uncle, and their daughter. The photos were taken in 1898, all are now deceased.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Familytree - Ancestory

Off to Hawaii

I leave shortly for Hawaii, where my niece is getting married. Back in a week.

How Cold Is It?

It is bitter cold here. When I went to an appointment this afternoon it was only about 11 below zero. But one hour later when I left it was 30 below. The wind just blew right through 3 layers of clothing plus winter gear. We don't get the amount of snow that Western New York, where I grew up, gets but it is so much colder. I'd rather have the snow. Getting up in the middle of the night to start my car and let it run isn't fun.

Monday I leave for a week in Hawaii. It is my first, and no doubt will be my last, trip there. My niece is getting married, she and her fiancee are in the Army. It should be a fun time because quite a few family members will be there. That is usually a good thing though sometimes it can not be a good thing. If we can just stay away from talking politics we should be fine. How one family can have both extremes of the political spectrum is beyond me. I'm looking forward to taking lots of great photos.

I had my every 6 month scans yesterday. My liver is stable but my lungs are in a sorry state: bronchiectasis in the lower lobes, lesion in the right lower lobe but only a little growth, fibrosis in the right upper lobe. It is certainly a good thing I never smoked, I'd no doubt be dead by now. I so detest smoking.I will probably elect to wear a face mask on the long flight to Hawaii.

The day after I return I'm having surgery, nothing cancer related but I have to be on coumadin and will be non ambulatory for 6 weeks. Not swimming for 6 weeks is going to be really hard. I live to swim. Then in April I will hopefully be having the last surgery related to my eye cancer.

Why can't the paparazzi leave Britney Spears alone? Honest to God, the woman is mentally ill, stop chasing her. When I saw the photo of her in a car when she ran over someone's foot I though how could she not run over his stupid feet, he was way too close to her car.

When I was driving home from yesterday's scan I drove through downtown Saint Paul. That turned my thoughts to the Republican National Convention coming this summer. I just cannot envision that many delegates, media, and agitators in small downtown Saint Paul. It must be a security nightmare. The road in front of my place is the major route from the airport to the Excel Center where the convention is being held. It will be a good time to leave town except that the Great Minnesota Get Together, otherwise known as the State Fair, is at the same time. It also coincides with the opening of the school year, which is always a hectic time. It should be a very interesting time.

Today's photo was sent to me by Dennis Wilcox, a friend from high school.

I hope everyone is staying warm.

El Salvador 2008

Yesterday I received the details about our medical mission trip to El Salvador in August. I missed the last trip 2 years ago because of my ICU stay so I really can't wait to go again. The plans this year are to do dental and ENT as in other years but adding orthopedics and pulmonary. I have worked in peds for the past 19 years with a focus on seizures and asthma so I'll be working with the asthma team. By team I think it's an adult pulmonary medicine doctor and myself. I hope we are able to develop and implement asthma action plans but I'm thinking it is going to be hard to come up with the staff in the orphanages understanding the need for controllers, not just using fast acting bronchodilators. But we shall see. I'm looking forward to seeing the kids again. We will be going to the same orphanages we went to last time.

There are two groups of people on our trips, the medical team, and teen/young adult Salvadoran adoptees making a homeland visit, usually with their adoptive parents but some come alone. Most of the adoptees are from Ohio as the group organizing these trips is Concern For Children, an Ohio adoptive parent support group. The trips started out as homeland tours, then after 4 trips it was decided a medical team should be part of the trip. The non-medical people learn about El Salvador history, visit some historic sites, and do service projects in the orphanages. Many of the adoptees either visit birth parents or get copies of their adoption files. The government of El Salvador strongly believes adoptees have a right to their original information, unlike so many states here. They also provide free searching services. Many of the Salvadoran adoptees were adopted during the civil war there. Some were taken to the orphanages by soldiers, and their parents, the ones who weren't killed, never knew what happened to them. It is sad and some stories are so tragic you want to cry. There are very few Salvadoran adoptions today, and those that do occur are mainly of special needs kids.

I plan to stay a week longer, along with a few doctors to provide post-op follow-up. I also want to spend more time studying the life of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated while saying Mass. In the movies about him it shows the assassination occurring in the Cathedral but in reality it happened in a small chapel on the grounds of a cancer hospital. He lived in a very small house on the grounds. He truly lived a very simple life, unlike other Church powers-to-be. His heart was with the Salvadoran people. He spoke the truth and for that was killed. I trust he will be named a saint someday but not soon. He didn't play by the rules of those in power in both El Salvador and Rome. But he did live his life according to the Gospel of Christ. It was his intercession I prayed to when I was close to death. So I want to spend some quiet time in the chapel and his house. Rent the movie Romero if you want to learn more about his life.

Totally off the subject of El Salvador, I'm hoping the photo I want to upload will show up. It is of a newborn goat, a fainting goat. Jess DelBalzo in NJ raises this type of goat and her mama goats each had twin births this past week. In my opinion baby goats beat out kittens and puppies in the cuteness department. Jess gave me permission to post her goat photo(s) here.

Damn Giants

:-(

Go Packers

Well, today is the day. The Green Bay Packers play the Giants to see which team goes to the Super Bowl.I am a cheese head. Admittedly I am not a football fanatic. It is just a game after all. I don't think the Giants will be able to play in this frigid weather. It is below zero and with a game time of 5:30 p.m. there won't be any sun for a little warmth. One thing I like about the Packers is that they play outside, the way God intended football to be played, not in some heated dome with fake grass. The Packers are the only football team I remember from childhood, which was in NJ and NY. I never envisioned I would one day be living in either Wisconsin or Minnesota.I was 25 years old before I made it further west than Erie, PA.


What I remember from childhood is hearing about their coach, Vince Lombardi, and the fact that the city of Green Bay owned the team. There was a loyalty that seemed missing in many other teams. Vince Lombardi was like a priest with his advice and dedication. I remember watching a game in the 1960's where it was below zero, watching many games where it was snowing, and even one game where it was pouring rain.


My kids have all been to games in Lambeau Field but I haven't. The photo is of my daughter Emily and her husband Jake at the 10/14/2007 game. I sat through 4 years of football games every week when my younger son Alex played for Cretin. I have sat through games where it was below zero. It isn't fun. So I will not be at today's game and will probably only watch bits of the game. My older son Nate is a die hard Packer fan. He and his son will be here watching the game. They really get intense about the game so I will probably need ear plugs to block the yelling out.

In other news, my biopsies were all OK. Just various benign results so that is a relief. Now I get a week's reprieve until my scans next Monday.

The Waiting Game

When you have cancer you get to play the waiting game, often when first diagnosed, less often down the road. It never goes away. This week I am again waiting. I have long had esophageal problems and periodically go in to have my esophagus dilated and stretched, otherwise food and pills get stuck. I had that done this week. This time they saw suspicious areas in both the esophagus and stomach so biopsies were done in 4 areas. I'm not unduly worried but I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm a little worried. I'll no sooner get the news, whatever it is, and then next week are my every 6 month lung and abdominal scans so waiting begins again. I have a tumor in my lung that is slow growing, thus it isn't melanoma since that is fast growing. I elected not to have it biopsied because it's in the very bottom of the right lower lobe, a difficult area to biopsy. It cannot be reached by a bronchoscope, I'd have to have a rib removed and go in thru the chest, hopefully missing the diaphragm. So instead scanning is done every 6 months. If it shows growth then it will be surgically removed. I have gotten better at waiting than when I began this cancer journey on 6-6-2002. But it is still waiting, and that is hard.

In 3 weeks I leave for my niece's wedding in Hawaii. She is in the Army, stationed at Fort Shafter, the oldest U.S. Military base on Oahu, completed in 1907. It looks identical to the way it looked on December 7, 1941, and thus is the location for many WWII movies. Julie is marrying a career Army man. They will remain in Hawaii another 2 years or so. Right now Julie's job is playing taps at military funerals in Hawaii. She is a surveyor with the Corps of Engineers but surveying is on hold as money is being spent in Iraq instead. Her undergraduate and master's degrees are in criminal justice. This is the same Army that drafted my Dad at the age of 40. His entire life had been spent in the business world but they tested him and decided he'd make a good bombardier mechanic, LOL. Needless to say they soon realized he was not at all inclined to anything mechanical so they reassigned him on a special project at the Navy Ship Yard in New York City. And there he met my mother, the Admiral's secretary. The rest is history.

Speaking of Iraq, my surgeon is once again there. This is his second tour. He is in the Navy reserves. He was called up between my 1st breast cancer surgery and my second. He served a year at that time. Now he was called up again. I feel bad for his wife and 2 young children. I'm hoping I don't need any surgery before his deployment is up. The Navy Nurse Corps, in which I served, and the Navy Medical Corps take care of the Marines. Where Marines go we go, thus the need for good nurses and doctors in Iraq. I hope we are out of Iraq soon.