The Patient Approves A Road Trip!

First the medical update...  A week after the start of Chemo last weekend, we feel that Melinda's breathing and cough are improved, but we're struggling to stay ahead of her nausea.  The problem is that she has been sleeping up to 10 to 12 hours a day, and especially during the night she doesn't take the pair of drugs she has at her disposal every 4 hours.  She was also suffering through a sore throat (making swallowing difficult) and Friday the Cancer Center had her come in for fluids to make sure she was staying hydrated.  They also scheduled her for a liter of fluids Saturday and Labor Day.  Today, the "day off" between hydration stops, she felt well enough to get out of the house for a drive!  I described the "Arivaca Loop", SW to Three Points, South to within a dozen miles of Mexico, East to Arivaca and Amado, then back North to Tucson.  Our friend Erica joined us - she hadn't been on those roads, so saw some new territory too.

We had a cloudless day to start, though it was
warmish in the mid-90s.  We didn't plan to spend much time outside, so had a late start (about 10:30am), and headed out towards Kitt Peak.  South of Three Points, with the Observatory out our window, I tried to take some 3-D shots out the window (Erica driving!), but with the cloud buildups starting, even though the shot pairs were taken less than  minute apart, the cloud movement was quite distracting.  Even so, the shot at left, taken about a mile or so separation shows the mountain profile quite well.  The religious mountain Baboquivari (to the Tohono O'odham) fared a little better.  Rather than have Erica pull off the road for the shots, I just had her drive slowly while I shot some frames.  Even then we had some cloud movement, but the results are still interesting.  These are cross-eyed views - cross your eyes slightly to view the left picture with your right eye and vice-versa.  Your brain will then assemble a 3rd picture between them showing depth.  It is easier to fuse the thumbnails, then click on them for the full-size image for more resolution.  Again, ignore the cloud motion between frames that is seen in illumination changes.

Turning East towards Arivaca, we pulled off at a nature walk at Buenos Ares Wildlife preserve to see what we could see.  There wasn't much visible during the little walk we took, though I stalked some butterflies.  The one I saw here is an Arizona Checkerspot (Texola perse) feeding off some lil' flowers. 

There wasn't much happening in Arivaca, so after a slow drive through town we continued the 15 miles or so on to Amado.  The only wide spot in the road here very near where it intersects with Interstate 19 is where the "Cow Palace" is located.  The picture at left (an HDR shot with wide-angle lens) shows another restaurant, now closed, with a giant cow skull as entrance!  The Palace serves as a food destination for many folks - a dozen Harleys were parked outside as we arrived, and lunch that day (admittedly at 2pm) had only the HD crowd, us, and a couple other tables.  The food was quite good, and no doubt we'll be back again in the future as we get to the area again.

Still not in a hurry for a rapid return to Tucson,
we ambled northwards on the I-19 frontage road, and paused at the Titan Missile Museum, where the Cold War missile silo serves as a sobering reminder of our atomic age.  While neither Melinda nor Erica had toured the place, we saved our money this trip and just toured the small visitor center and gift shop at no charge.  From there we headed west up the east slopes of the Sierrita Mountains past the mine tailings of the huge copper mines there.  We then descended into the SW side of the Tucson area.  Upon hearing that Erica had never been to San Xavier Mission, we altered our path to get her to witness this "Must-See" location!  With the sun getting lower and an interesting thunderhead formation over the Santa Catalina Mountains, I shot a trio of exposures for a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image with a polarizing filter to show the dramatic structure against the clouds.  While pausing in the quiet confines, Melinda lit a candle and we all said a prayer for her recovery.  We can't have too many people praying for us!

From there it was a short jaunt to return home.  In all we covered 150 miles in about 6 hours, and we all had a great time.  While I expected Min to be pooped out, she did pretty well and is just now going to bed close to our normal time.  More hydrating fluids on tomorrow's holiday - the conclusion of a pretty good weekend!

Latest Melinda News!

The latest news is that there is actually very little news.  Melinda has been resting a lot, and I've been helping as best as I can - running for food shopping, prescriptions, doing what needs doing.  She had a cardiologist appointment today to analyze why she had an "episode" of tachycardia during her first chemo dose.  It remains unexplained, but we've got several excuses, including not eating for over 20 hours last Thursday while we were running between MRIs, oncology appointments, PET scans and packing clothes before checking into the hospital.  Then the next morning she gets tachycardia during her first chemo - certainly no stress or reason to be nervous there, right?  Anyway, today's EKG was normal, the doctor ordered an echo cardiogram on Thursday adjacent to her audiology exam (one of the chemo drugs can affect hearing), but those 2 exams are all that is scheduled this week.  We're working on getting her leave paperwork completed, I got her car battery replaced when it wouldn't start yesterday - just stuff like that.

We expect her to be tired, REALLY tired the next week or more as the chemo kicks in.  Nausea is an issue the next few days, and we've been trying to stay on top of getting a couple nausea drugs into her to keep up with it.  Other than that, she has had a little dizziness - she compares it to early stages of the flu, without the fever.  We may have a friend over tomorrow, and if she seems stable, I might go in to work for a few hours for the first time this week, but mostly I'm being the Jewish mother - pushing the food, fluid and anti-nausea drugs.

We have been amazed at the outpouring of love and prayers coming our way!  Our friend Jenn from Phoenix has made 2 trips down with food, today coming down to cook some more and spend time with us.  Others have just come and spent time, called, sent cards and messages on Facebook.  We've got several offers the next few days of food deliveries, and time to spend for whatever we need.  We appreciate it greatly, and will take you up on it, but are mostly just spending time to see ourselves how we're doing and finding out ourselves what we need.  Be patient and know that we love you all too!

The Patient is Home and Resting Comfortably...

Today Melinda got her last round of chemo this cycle and surprisingly, her doctor decided to delay her scans that were scheduled tomorrow, so sent her home.  She has some blood tests tomorrow and other doctor visits the next few days, still to be scheduled.  But for now she is home, unpacked, resting and is enjoying acting as jungle gym for all our cats who are eager to see her.  She had one wave of nausea while having dinner, but that's the only ill effect so far.  I'm hoping the expected exhaustion expected the next week or so is less than expected.  Only time will tell, but for now we are still happy we're on course and glad we have a great team working on our side.  Stay tuned!

Melinda's Weekend Chemo Stay-cation

Life has been a whirlwind the last half dozen days, from detection to diagnosis to treatment of the small-cell lung cancer we're facing.  The great news is that brain scans come back clear.  So long as any tumors remain in body organs that get a blood flow, it should respond to chemo.  The PET scan does show "hot spots" in her pancreas and neck, so we all think that the decision to start treatment NOW is a good one.  Melinda has been amazingly determined and with the help of a parade of our close friends that have offered support and come stayed with her this weekend, how can we not continue to feel optimistic.  The staff at 3NW has been great, and while nurses can be difficult patients, we've universally loved everyone we've worked with on the floor.  Between the attentive care, central location, and 24 hour room service with a varied menu, it almost seems like a little spa, except with IV chemo!

While the care is great, there is no mistaking why we are here.  Chemotherapy is tough stuff and watching the nurses don gear to protect themselves is startling.  I've been a patient for lots of procedures, but watching them "gear up" is still a shock.  She is getting a dual combo of Cisplaten and Etoposide on the first day, and just the latter for 2 additional days.  She had a bit of a reaction half way through the first bag when her heart rate rose and blood pressure dropped and pulse Ox lowered.  They are still investigating the causes of that, but might have been a reaction to stress, anxiety, or weird eating schedule the day before (hadn't eaten in 20 hours for some of the Thursday tests).  We're meeting a cardiologist Monday for that issue.  No repeat issues on  Sunday's treatment, thank goodness.  Also, more MRI scans on Monday after the first round to monitor any early reaction to the weekend treatment.  She will likely get released after that, and will be recovering with me at home.  Subsequent rounds of treatment will be as an outpatient from the Arizona Cancer Center, literally a mile from our house - only the urgency of the start of treatments dictated the inpatient treatment this time.

But besides the serious issues going on, several of our friends joined in to make it a tolerable weekend, especially when I needed to go to work for most of Saturday for the next Mirror Lab casting.  I had promised a tour to a big group from Phoenix, and was to help with the big crowd of partners and affiliates.  Our local buddies jumped in to make sure she didn't miss me in my absence...

And while keeping one's hair always seems a concern, Melinda is being pro-active.  Knowing that more than likely it will come out or thin dramatically, she wanted to get it cut short, not only to minimize the effect of the chemo, but it is also tough for her to bend over with her current breathing issues, so hair maintenance is much simplified.

Our friend Michelle volunteered to bring scissors and clippers and do the deed for her.  Not that I couldn't watch, but I needed to leave for cat chores, but returned to find Melinda with a short, very stylish cut.  Shown here is the post-shampoo, pre-clip do and the after version with our buddy Erica.

We've been really gratified by the response from around the world as friends find out about the rapid change in our lives.  Facebook is responsible for most, and she enjoys reading all the notes she gets, responding to those that she can.  Evidently, up in the NICU, they reward the milestones of the preemies with beads that are strung into strings.  Well, some of her nurse buddies responded with her own set - these for IV starts and needle pokes, these for chemo treatments.  Of course, delivered in a cat-themed cloth bag!  Hopefully far in the future they will remind us of the trialing time we spent recovering Min's health in the late Summer of '13.  In the meantime, thanks for all your support, love and prayers for her recovery!  We love and appreciate hearing from you!

The Path is Clear(er)!

We've been feeling a little lost lately, but our journey became a little clearer today!  Melinda has been a little under the weather - she traces it back to June when she felt a little out of breath at the Canyon, blaming it on the elevation.  More recently she has been feeling tired and developed a bit of a cough before our recent Midwest trip, slowly getting worse with labored breathing, almost day to day lately.  She saw her doctor 2 weeks ago when we got back, a chest x-ray saw a mass between her lungs, a CT indicated perhaps small-cell lung cancer or lymphoma.  A biopsy was performed just 2 days ago (seems like a week ago already!), and today the firm diagnosis - small cell lung cancer.  Initially chemotherapy was scheduled for next week and more imaging (head CT and PET scan) bookending an oncology appointment today (a long day!).

The oncologist, upon hearing the description of her worsening condition said she wasn't going to wait till next week - she was being admitted to University Medical Center TONIGHT for chemo TOMORROW and for the NEXT THREE DAYS!  I just got back from the hospital where she has been chipper and perky, feeling the most optimistic she has in a while after the oncologist insists her breathing should improve after 3 sessions over the weekend.  Some of her co-workers came down from the NICU, and some of mine from the Mirror Lab came by to offer support and love.  The journey starts tomorrow, but for the first time in a couple weeks, the path looks clearer!

Last of the Leftovers!

These are the last of the leftovers from our recent Midwest trip - don't think I can wring out any more posts of the nearly 700 pictures I took in those 3 weeks...  But these shots are cool enough they need to be on the blog!

First up are a couple pictures taken a day or two into my trip - I stopped in Clinton, IA to have an early dinner with my schoolmate Jeff.  I was on my way to join the RAGBRAI group in Cedar Rapids, and Clinton, right on the Iowa side of the Mississippi (and where I was born!) was a nice stopping point for the 3.5 hour drive.  After dinner at a burger joint, we noticed there was a car show in the adjacent parking lot.  While I admire restored cars from decades ago, I'm not a car guy, but I like the photo ops that present themselves.  At left is a hood ornament from a '55 Chevy Bel Air.  While it looks to be a jet plane to me, a Google search calls it a bird, and while birds generally lack vertical stabilizers, what appears to be a windscreen can be a stylized bird head...  You can form your own opinion!

And while I don't go out of my way usually to capture a 3D stereo view, the curves of some cars scream for its use.  Here is a view of a '66 Corvette, which I do remember making my heart go pitter-pat back in the day.  This is a cross-eyed view - cross your eyes slightly to observe the right picture with your left eye, and vice-versa.  You will then see a center picture that reveals depth to your brain.  It is easier to do it with the thumbnails, then you can click the image for the full-resolution view.

One of my walks in the prairie section of the local forest preserve, I was looking for targets to shoot and saw a plant just covered in lil' red aphids!  This is the only plant I saw them on, and there were likely hundreds on the otherwise healthy-looking plant.  While there were few adults (with the wings at left), there was a variety of sizes in various stages of growth, as shown at right.  They all looked so curious doing headstands with proboscis buried in the stem!  These are taken with the macro at just about the closest I can get!

On our last weekend there, we were slow to leave the pizza joint where we had dined with relatives and were once again visiting with classmate Jeff.  It was nearing sunset and I happened to look up and saw the most remarkable sky.  While not particularly clear or cloudy, the range in tone just caught my eye and I squeezed off a couple frames, one of them shown here.  For some reason, we don't see many cumulus clouds like this in the desert southwest, and it stands out to me.

Well, that just about concludes the coverage of our Summer Midwest trip.  I hope you enjoyed the pics as much as I did taking and presenting them!

Another Mirror Lab Extravaganza!

With the next big mirror casting coming up next week, we didn't need much more on our plate at work, but the notice came at our Monday morning organizational meeting - prepare for an event on Wednesday that includes the University President and a congressman! 

These have come up before in the past.  The Mirror Lab is a high-profile site and enjoys some notoriety in industry.  For instance, a few years back,I blogged about another event that enjoyed congresswoman Gabriel Giffords who was critically injured by a gunman 8 months later.  This one was a meeting of University officials and local industrial affiliates pushing Congressman Ron Barber (who was Gabby's chief of staff and eventually won her congressional seat) in promoting a National Photonics Initiative.  From the growth of astronomy and the associated optics industry the last 60 years, Tucson is sometimes called "Optics Valley".  Mr. Barber agreed it was not a good time to ask the federal government for seed or research money, but was told by industrial officials that the US is falling behind in the industry as Europe, China, Japan and Korea all invest in photonics.  Both of these pictures is the same, but I couldn't decide which I liked better, the 4-frame mosaic at right or the 8 frame mosaic showing the test tower that dominates the optic lab at left.  I hope you enjoy both!

The event started by Ron Barber and UA President Ann Hart touring the Mirror Lab.  They were followed by a crowd of aids, security, University officials, and, of course, the press.  It was amazing to watch the crowd surrounded by photographers and reporters as they moved slowly through the lab.  At left, from left is Roger Angel, Regeant's Professor and Director of the Mirror lab, Thomas Koch, Dean of the College of Optical Sciences, Mr Ron Barber, Congressman, Ann Hart, UA President, and Buell Jannuzi, Director of Steward Observatory.  Of course, this tour gets to go where no one else gets to go, so they were led down adjacent to the LSST mirror being figured.  Here the group is joined by Peter Strittmatter at right, former Director of Steward Observatory.

The tour ended with Mr. Barber giving a couple quick video interviews while guests and affiliates visited a light buffet.  I'm thinking that a Congressman always has to be "on", as I caught this shot of him from overhead as he talks to the press.  This was followed by about 20 minutes of a statement and remarks before entertaining questions and ideas from the affiliates in the optics and photonics industry.  We had shut down the polishing operation by that time so that the noise wouldn't interfere, so I was free to wander and take a few pictures, including the panoramas atop this post.  At right, Peter Strittmatter at left and Roger Angel at right listen to Mr. Barber's comments in the distance.  The only resultant stories I've seen (didn't see the news that evening), was a report from science reporter Tom Beal. 

These are fun events, the Lab is certainly an interesting place to hold any sort of expo to highlight optics or local technology.  I'm sure we'll have them again - stay tuned!