A Friday Night Find...

Tonight Felipe and I went down to the Union Square area tonight just to get out and about. We stopped at the Stand for a couple of burgers, then we walked down the street to the Strand Bookstore (my favorite place for books in this city).



My two favorite sections of the bookstore at the etiquette books and the psychology books. The etiquette section because I really love those books that were printed back in the 40's and 50's. The etiquette tips in those are classic. Today I was looking for any books by Abraham Maslow, and was lucky enough to find his "The Farther Reaches of Human Nature". As I leafed through the book I saw a piece of paper sticking out from in between the pages. When I pulled it out I found this Patti Smith Concert Ticket:



The ticket was for a show at the Meadowbrook Ballroom in Cedar Grove, New Jersey on Tuesday January 13, 1976. This would have been her first major concert tour for her debut album. The ticket cost $5.25! It's so cool to find such a little treasure in the book...I really wonder who was the person that went and what was the show like?

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a wonderful thanksgiving holiday with our friends here in New York City. We ended up being 10 people this year, and I made the biggest turkey yet. Our guests included our friends Nicole (for the first time!), Cord, Laurence and Sylvain, Laurence's parents, and Mike and Emily.

I was pretty busy cooking, so didn't get too many photos (I can't wait to see the ones that Sylvain took!). Here are a couple of pics from the place setting, I really enjoyed the preparation this year.

Updates on Dad

Dad had his appointment with Dr. Prendergast yesterday afternoon, and apparently his blood counts are up enough that he can begin his second cycle of chemotherapy on Saturday. So Saturday morning he will be checking into St. Mary's again to continue with the chemotherapy (this cycle is supposed to take five days, but he could be in there longer depending on his blood counts). He has another appointment with Dr. Kahl at the UW on Wednesday - Dr. Kahl has a bit more specialization when it comes to Lymphoma's and so we're looking forward to his review of dad's case. I'll update when I have information from that appointment.

I'm still trying to figure out when I can visit next...unfortunately tickets are outrageously expensive due to the holidays. I would love to visit once before Christmas, and I was hoping to also be home for Christmas as well. It seems like there should be some discount if you are traveling to see ill family members for the holidays. It's hard to think that I might not be able to visit during the holidays.

Enjoying the relaxing weekend....

well...in all reality this picture wasn't taken this weekend, but I was having fun at the time :D

This weekend so far has been nice...very relaxing as I needed it to be. I made a yummy batch of turkey chili today, and we watched a couple of my favorite episodes of the Simpsons. Maybe I'll even be able to sleep until 9am again tomorrow! wheeeeee...

Have a Nice Weekend

Dexter wants you to enjoy your weekend :D It's going to be a cold one here, but maybe we can take that walk in central park on sunday when it warms up...

A New Visitor

Dexter gets to visit with Felipe and I this weekend while Nicole is visiting her family in Wisconsin. Maybe we'll have a nice little walk in Central Park..... :D

Leaving Madison

Actually I left yesterday, but was too exhausted to write any entry. It was a long and difficult weekend, and I am glad that it is passed. I spent a good majority of my weekend at home cleaning dad's apartment for his potential return to it. Due to the extent of the chemotherapy and it's adverse affects on his immune system, Mariam and I (with the help of Asha and my mom at times) cleaned dad's apartment thoroughly in order to minimize any chance of infection. This was hard work, and very draining.

Medically speaking, dad seems to be doing okay. They've given him several units of blood over the last few weeks and also given him shots of a medication called Neupogen that is supposed to stimulate blood growth. Dad's white blood count was up to a whopping 600 yesterday when the nurse checked his chart (normal white blood count is 4,500-10,000). So that means he's got something. Because of the improvement they are going to let dad out of the hospital tomorrow.

He could have left today, but yesterday we spoke with the social worker and as a family approached dad about transitioning to a nursing home while he undergoes chemotherapy. This is a difficult and an easy decision all at the same time. Difficult because it is not where he would like to be going, but easy because it is the healthiest place for him to be while he is trying to recover and undergoes treatment. After discussing it with dad, he agreed that it might be the best place for him and tomorrow he will be transferred to Middleton Village nursing home. We are hoping to eventually transfer him to Oakwood Village, as it is closer to family and Aunt Miriam works there.

It was a really difficult trip back to New York City. I had a hard time holding back the tears, thinking how sad dad seemed at the idea of a nursing home. I'll admit that a lot of it was probably exhaustion (and that fact that I hadn't had a moment to pause in five days), but it was much more difficult emotionally speaking than I had anticipated - especially knowing it was the best thing for him. It is harder than you might think to convince your parent that they belong (temporarily or not) in a nursing home.

I think in the next few months it will be very important for dad to have visitors (this is for any of his family or friends who are reading this blog), so please be sure to try and visit him or take him out of the nursing home every once in a while (although cautiously! his immune system will be compromised and he cannot risk infection!).

In the meantime, I am searching for the next flight back to Madison for me. Keep him in your prayers....

Back in Madison

So I've just traveled back to Madison to help take care of my dad's situation. I've spoken with another doctor who came highly recommended from my boss at work (the Chairman of the Department of Medicine and a former president of the American Society of Hematology).

The bad news is, it is definitely stage IV cancer, because they found cancer in his bone marrow. This of course is the highest stage/most advanced form of the cancer. This is scary to think just how bad the cancer is, and how complicated this will be for dad given his health history and the aggressiveness of the cancer.

Also interestingly enough - the chemotherapy is much more intense than I had previously understood. They have dad on a Modified Magrath (CODOX-M/IVAC) regimen for Burkitt's Lymphoma. So this whole time my dad has been in the hospital (the last two weeks) he's been receiving the chemotherapy, what I thought was the whole four cycles over the last 14 days. I was mistaken. This last hospital visit has only accomplished one of the four cycles. So...his chemotherapy will go through February probably, as it goes like this: 15 days chemo - 21 days recovery - 5 days chemo - 21 days recovery - 15 days chemo - 21 days recovery - 5 days chemo. So now the concern has shifted to what kind of toll this will take on dad. I'm not sure that he will even be able to remain living in his apartment. So we are not entertaining the idea of how to transition him to a hospice or nursing home. The problem is that, according to the doctor, there is a 10-15% chance of "fatal complications" from the chemotherapy alone. Fatal complications meaning a severe infection. The chemotherapy is so intense that it will basically destroy his immune system practically speaking. This would make him susceptible to any sort of infection. So we have to make sure that through out his treatment he remains in a healthy environment (something that I don't think he'll be able to maintain without someone being heavily involved).

So this is where we're at. I am in town and will meet with his doctors and my family to try and determine where we go from here. Of course, updates will come.

Get out and Vote!

Although I am not in the country to go to the polling place and vote, I sent my ballot in before we left. Everyone should get out and vote!

The Beautiful Costa Brava

Felipe's parents took us for a drive today, we went up the coast north of Barcelona along Spain's Costa Brava. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. It's hard to say that I've seen anything more breathtaking than that. Below are a few of the pictures I took while we walked around:




These two photos are taken from the beach at Tossa De Mar, the top one has an old medieval castle.


A view of Tossa De Mar from the hill.


Looking through the gateway by the castle.


Some of the ruins.


A view through the ruins.


Just Beautiful, absolutely breathtaking.


A nice bench to sit on, and enjoy the sunset.


And one last shot of the town and the mountains.


Overall, I would highly recommend going to this area of Spain if ever given the opportunity. I'm only sorry we couldn't spend more time there (although I hear it gets a little crazy around the summer when the tourists come. It was SO BEAUTIFUL!

Our Halloween Fun (edición de España)

Mine is the pumpkin with the Raven on it. Photo by Eda.


Photo by Sergi

Last night we had fun carving pumpkins and making caramel apples, and watching the Vincent Price version of House on Haunted Hill (Highly recommended, it's kind of a Halloween tradition for me). it was a very enjoyable evening.