How to Grow Tomato Plants in Winter

Just in case anyone is wondering what's happening in the garden, things are still growing. Well, the tomatoes aren't technically in the garden, but who says the garden can't be on the kitchen counter! The center plant grows yellow cherry tomatoes, the other two are working on red cherry tomatoes. Here's a pic:

Also the fava are growing nicely, the frosts we had a couple of weeks ago didn't hurt them at all. Now that it's been warm they are loving life! Here's a pic:
The final pic is of one of my boxes, containing Brussels sprouts and kale:

Acceleration

I got a phone call this afternoon from the liver surgeon's assistant. She was calling to inform me that all of my appointments have been moved up. Instead of my PET and CT scans next week now I am doing them tomorrow. Also my follow-up appointment was moved up a couple of days, to Tuesday. The reason for this is that they are going to try to get me on the surgery schedule for Wednesday January 21st instead of the 28th. Whew! That's next week. Oh, well, I guess I should try to get all I can do done before then. (I know that was awkward, but still grammatically correct!)

By the way, the liver surgeon should be the best at Stanford. His name is Dr. Samuel So and he is the Director of the Liver Cancer Program. Prior to this he specialized in liver transplants. So I know I'm in good hands.

I have applied for disability benefits with the Social Security Administration. It appears if you are stage 4 (which I am now) then you are automatically granted approval. We'll see if that's true.

Stanford Liver Tumor Board Visit

Today Dave and I saw the surgeon at Stanford. He said the lesion is in a good spot - it's on the small upper left end of the liver and is the portion of the liver that is used for donating to children. So obviously there should be no complications from removing that portion. I have to have another PET scan and CT scan (probably later this week) and then after that the surgery will be scheduled. We anticipate that will happen on January 28th. The surgeon only operates on Wednesdays. We got no details on chemotherapy as we didn't actually meet with an oncologist today. I think the treatment will be decided fully once the pathology is performed, after the surgery. He did say that I would have surgery on a Wednesday and would likely leave the hospital on Sunday.

That's really all that I can remember right now.

A Very Small Update

After many phone calls and wheel-squeaking, I now have an appointment Tuesday January 13th with the Stanford Liver Tumor Board. We expect it will consist of the surgeon, an oncologist, and a radiational oncologist. After they meet with me and David they will deliberate amongst themselves and come up with a treatment plan for me (surgery, chemo, etc.) So by Tuesday I should have a better idea about what to expect.

It's about time. My oncologist said that because there is only one spot on my liver it's still considered curable. Great. So, let's delay this for a while until it spreads further and it's incurable, shall we?

Not Really an Update

Just so you know, I'm still in a holding pattern. I sure am getting tired of flying in a big circle! I've been doing that since Friday December 19th now. That's the day that my oncologist called me to tell me that the liver biopsy was positive. She told me that she was referring me to a liver surgeon at Stanford and also requesting a 2nd opinion from the Stanford Liver Tumor Board. She said that if I didn't hear from someone by Monday the 22nd to call a number that she gave me. When Monday rolled around I hadn't heard from Stanford but I didn't know what I was supposed to call for. What, get someone on the phone and say: "My oncologist told me to call but I don't know whom I am supposed to ask for, what I'm supposed to ask for or say"? So, I called my oncologist's office back and spoke with someone at the front desk. She said that Stanford would take a couple of days but if I haven't heard from them by Wednesday the 24th to call her back. So, when Wednesday rolled around I called her back. At that time she gave me another phone number for Stanford and the name of the person to ask for (Laura) who is a new patient coordinator. So, I called Laura and told her that I wasn't sure why I was calling but I was told to call her. She told me that she still hadn't received the request letter and the copy of my records that she requested last Friday, on the 19th. So, I called the person at the oncologist's office AGAIN and told her that Laura was still waiting for my records. I waited until the following Monday to call Laura and she told me that she did get the records (finally) - on Friday the 26th. Tuesday she called me again to tell me that the nurse that has to review my chart was out of the office until Tuesday, January 6th. So, the first chance now that someone will even review my chart to make a plan of action for me is a full 2 & 1/2 weeks after I got the call from my oncologist that the biopsy was positive, and that she wanted to act on it right away. At this point I don't even know if she is aware of the delays. And that's one of the things that has me frustrated. I don't think she is paying very close attention and allowed this to slip through a very large crack.

***Ringing phone***

We just now hung up with Laura and she told me that we'd probably be on the appointment calendar for the Tumor Board on January the 13th. Of course the nurse has to review the chart and make that determination, but if she does say that I am eligible for the Tumor Board consultation then I'd go in on the 13th.

I am actually very strongly considering transferring my oncology treatments up to Stanford Cancer Center. After all, I am fortunate enough to live (relatively) near a top-notch state-of-the-art Cancer Care Center and I may as well take advantage of that fact.

Our Christmas Letter (Penned By David)

roughly Christmas 2008

Happy Holidays everyone!!

Well, it’s been an adventurous year for us. If we haven’t managed to keep in touch with you over the past year, our apologies. It has been a bumpy ride for us. As the flight attendant says, “place your trays and seat in the full upright position and fasten your seatbelts snugly around your midsection.”

We FINALLY moved into our house in the middle of January and started to settle in. We started working the pizza oven and having small gatherings. Wahoo!!! If you haven’t seen the pictures, you can find some at http://picasaweb.google.com/laurie.d.coleman/HousePhotos

In mid February Laurie went in to check on some strange symptoms she was having. A not too long story shorter, the doctors removed a stage 3b cancerous lump from her colon that had also gone into 2 of the 9 lymph nodes they removed with the colon. For the next 6 months Laurie endured every other week treatments of Chemo (3 hrs of IV fun followed by 2 more days of a continuous infusion pump). The good news is that she didn’t lose any hair, but it did leave her with neuropathy issues so there was no way she could work during the non-treatment weeks.

We had a HUGE open house in May. I think there were more people than our wedding party! It was a blur of a day and neither of us remembers many details, but the caterer (same people that imported the pizza oven) was amazing and everyone seemed to have a good time. We anticipated people would just drop by, but much to our joy people stayed around for pizza and wine. I think the last people left sometime after 10 pm.

In the mean time David started more seriously trying to find a job, but at the same time not wanting to start so that he could be around to help Laurie (she couldn’t get things out of the refrigerator without gloves and, as one might expect, without someone to push her she didn’t have much of an appetite). His health coverage was due to end July1, so it was really important for him to find something by then. After lots of frustration and pulling a few strings with old friends, David got inside the Cisco wall again and completed the interview process in early June. Mid July Cisco finally finished the hiring process and David began work as a Product Supportability Engineer at Cisco (his primary responsibility is to provide product input and watch support issues for products from the customer side of things). He’s happy there, although working for a big company does have its share of frustrations.

In September Laurie finished her chemo and a PET scan came back clear and she had her Mediport removed as we were DONE! Or so we thought…. In early December Laurie had a 2 month follow-up CT scan and a 9mm spot was found on her liver. An ultrasound scan revealed that there is a mass there that is not a cyst. A week before Christmas Laurie went in for a biopsy. We received the word 2 days later that the results are positive for cancer. The oncologist has referred Laurie to the Stanford Liver Tumor Board. She’ll have surgery there sometime early in 2009 followed by another 3 months of chemo therapy. Laurie maintains a blog of what’s going on if you want to follow along. It helps her keep in touch with family and others that she communicates with in the cancer forums. Her blog is at http://lauriecoleman.blogspot.com/.

In the mean time life goes on. Theo continues to be a huge source of joy and support in our life. It’s hard to greet the day negatively when you’re woken up by a 130 lb bear of a dog wagging his tail, giving you kisses and telling you it’s going to be an exciting day (even if we don’t share his joy of chasing squirrels and bounding around the yard).

In 2009 we’re looking forward to taking a trip to the Caribbean in the spring and spoiling ourselves silly.

I think we’ve reached our destination for now. You’re free to unfasten your seatbelts and exit the cabin. Please remember to take anything you brought with you.

Christmas Dinner At Our Home

We were very thrilled to host our first family Christmas at our home. I planned a menu of prime rib, Yorkshire puddings, mashed sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts braised in cream, green bean casserole. Our dinner went quite well. It did take a long time to cook the prime rib roast. I followed the recipe in Cook’s Illustrated (actually every dish was a Cook's Illustrated dish, come to think of it) and my hunk of meat was closer to 9 pounds than the 8 pounds called for, so it really took a long time at 250 degrees. However, it tasted wonderful, so it was worth the wait. I planned for dinner to be ready @ 4:30 realizing it might actually be 5:00 realistically, but then everyone wanted to open presents and I hadn’t put the roast in yet so the roast got put on hold. The gift opening took so long so when I went back into the kitchen I was 1 ½ hours behind schedule (I actually made a timeline on a spreadsheet!) so our dinner was actually on the table at around 6:30. Everyone loved the food and we all fit at the table so overall it was a great evening. One snafu: Our main floor toilet got stopped up just before bedtime so everyone had to either go to the basement or upstairs to use the bathroom. Luckily, that wasn’t a real problem. Dave got the toilet working again this morning. I spent the morning straightening up because the cleaning team came at 2:00 to clean the house. Thankfully!

Happy Holidays to Me

Well, this Christmas it looks like I'm getting a questionable gift, to say the least! As a previous posting indicated, I had a liver biopsy Wednesday the 17th. Yesterday the oncologist called me and confirmed that the spot on my liver was cancerous. She did say that since it's an isolated lesion that it is still considered curable at this point. She is referring me to the Stanford Liver Tumor Board and will request a specific specialist to perform my liver resection. After that I will have 3 more months of chemo. She will try a different drug this time since it seems that the cancer cells did not respond to the previous drugs as we had hoped.

Looks like I'm still along for the ride... what more can I do?

The First Christmas In Our House

David and I decorated the house for its first Christmas.
Here's the finished product of the Christmas decorating effort:

(By the way, the lights are LEDs which use very little electricity, plus you can't see it from these photos but we have 27 solar panels on the roof.)

Liver Biopsy

Well, looks like I have to have a biopsy done on a spot on my liver. It's a 9 mm spot that is suspicious. It was not there on my previous CT scan (last February) nor on my PET scan done 2 months ago.

All I can say is that I'm numb, upset, angry. And I don't even know anything definitive yet.

The biopsy will be next Wednesday, the 17th. I don't know how long it takes to get the results. Hopefully the upcoming holiday won't slow things down.

Frustration

I had a CT scan done last week on Tuesday. Yesterday I went to Dr. Chen for the results. Apparently there is something suspicious on my liver. I had an ultrasound done today to determine if it's solid. If so, it will need to be biopsied. If not then it's a cyst and no cause for alarm. This is all I have for now. I'm not sure when I'll get details from the ultrasound scan but hopefully I'll be able to find out tomorrow.

A Cute Photo of David

I just had to share this darling photo of Dave, taken at tonight's hockey game:

Garden Updates

Well, the garden is doing its thing. A few weeks ago I planted rows of fava as a cover crop. According to the instructions that came with the seeds, I was a month late putting them into the ground and was told to expect 25% - 50% decreased germination rate. So, I planted a LOT. Well, wouldn't you know, the very next week it warmed up and stayed warm for 2 weeks, so they ALL germinated! A couple of days I spent 3-4 hours out there thinning out the seedlings. They are supposed to be thinned 8-10 inches apart. Boy, was that tiring! I removed at least 1/2 of the seedlings. More. For sure. Actually I think I removed, on average, two for every one that I left.

Here's a pic of what it looks like today:

In my 2 boxes are Brussels Sprouts (3 plants each) and lots of little kale seedlings. 2 different kinds. When the kale get larger I will thin them out. I want them to compete a little longer to decide which ones are indeed the strongest ones. Here's a pic of one of the boxes (the other one looks just the same!):

Who's a Foodie!

Recently a friend of mine remarked that the girl that he is dating considers herself to be a “foodie” but is not really. Which made me wonder: I never considered myself a foodie, but am I one? Hmmm… This led me to look up the meaning of the term “foodie”. According to Wikipedia, foodies are amateurs “who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.”

Here are some signs you are a foodie:

• Activities and interests include the food industry. Check
• ...wineries and wine tasting. Check
• ...food science. Check
• Enjoy watching specialized shows about food such as Top Chef and Iron Chef. Check and Check (Also “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares”)
• Have specialized cookbooks. Check
• Read specialized periodicals like Cook’s Illustrated. Check
• Seek out fresh produce from the farmers’ market. I’m growing my own vegetable garden. So check

Looks like I might actually be a bona fide foodie! I’m not so hard core as to photograph and post on the Internet every meal I ever make or consume, as Wikipedia states that some foodies do. Aren’t you glad?

You know what this means? I think this is the first cultural “club” that I’ve ever been a member of! Never was a yuppie. Nor a preppy. Nothing. Might have been a dork, but that’s not a club. :-p

Well, it looks like perhaps I found a comfortable space in life to settle into!

Irrigating The Garden

Last week I planted the garden full of Fava Beans. I was worrying that maybe I planted them too late in the season because it started to get quite chilly, but as soon as I put them in the ground we got a "warm wave" which is not as hot as a "heat wave", but is significantly warmer than normal for this time of year. So, the fava have had a week of nice, sunny, warm weather and hopefully should be showing their little heads soon. Since we have had no rain since I planted them I needed to set up a sprinkler for them. It took three attempts but I think I got it right. First try: I set up our big oscillating sprinkler, the kind that sprays back and forth in a big arc overhead. The problem was that it oversprayed so much that it was spraying over the fence and into our neighbor's yard! They have 2 kids and a dog so I didn't want to make a wet patch over there every day for the kids and dog to get muddy in. So, try number 2: We got 2 pulsating sprinklers:

This style didn't work because it throws water out in a curve and soaked the fences. We just weren't happy with the performance. So try number three was this:

These are two "square" sprinklers hooked up together. These cover the entire garden and I can control it so that the spray almost, but not quite, reaches the fences. Success!

The picture below is of the composting area. I have two bins working right now. The one on the right is as big as it will get. The one on the left will hold more and there's still a section I can add to make it as tall as the other one. That piece of plywood is to chip/shred on. I lean it up against the tree when not in use but when I have leaves and trimmings to shred into the bins then I lay it down to make a nice firm surface to work on.

Last week I also planted 2 kinds of kale into two of my planter boxes. The seed packet indicated that it would take 10-14 days to germinate but I planted them in November 12th, and it's now the 18th. This morning I saw the first of the little seedlings poking their heads out so they are eager to get going!

That's all the garden update I have for now. Once the fava sprout I will share a photo.

Compost Is Down In The Garden

Last Thursday I decided to add a lot of compost to the garden area to enrich the soil so I used an online calculator to help me decide how many cubic yards to get. I ended up ordering 7 cubic yards for the garden which was actually a pretty thick layer (the other 2 yards of material were for the planter boxes. That's another story!) Saturday morning we hired two guys to help haul it all back to the garden area and spread it out. David then rented a large tiller to incorporate the compost into the ground. We do own a small electric one but that one would have taken all day and it wouldn't have tilled nearly deep enough. This large gas one only took 2 hours and dug in much deeper. So anyway, here's a pic of David tilling the compost in:

The area at the bottom of the photo is never going to be planted as it's the pathway from the gate to the composting area so we didn't bother adding compost there.

It took several passes with the tiller but hopefully it got mixed in well enough. This week I will plant the fava cover crop and cross my fingers. :-)

Irrigation Is Complete

Well, the garden is progressing. It's a lot of work converting the vineyard to a garden so it's not going very fast but is almost there. Today irrigation valves were installed and hooked up to the timer. There are 3 valves total so I can have three different areas that can water independently from others with different watering needs. (For instance, if we do melons they will need a LOT more water than tomatoes.) Tomorrow 9 yards of compost material will be delivered here and dumped in the street in front of our house. Saturday morning two guys will show up with wheelbarrows and shovels and start hauling it back to the garden. I was told it will take 4 hours for 2 guys to haul this stuff back there. How big of a mountain will we have in front of the house??? Anyway, they will take it to the garden and spread it out. David will then take out our handy dandy electric tiller and start tilling it all in. Boy, will he be tired at the end of the day! I will then let it sit for a couple of days and hopefully get the fava planted mid-week. This will serve as a cover crop to add nutrients into the ground as we will till it under in the spring. Then the real gardening will begin!

Anyway, that's the plan. I'll let you know if anything goes astray. By the way, did I mention that the garden total area is just over 1100 square feet? (I re-measured today. The 1200 square feet mentioned in the previous post was taken off of the landscaping plans.) There's an area that we won't plant (the composting area) so we will have roughly 1000 square feet available for the garden.

Gardening and Composting

Well, we finally bit the bullet and decided to remove the vineyard in order to have a nice big garden, roughly 1200 square feet of space, minus the corner where the pecan tree is growing and the compost bins are to be kept. Yep, I'm now composting. I figured it was a nice thing to do with the grass clippings and the leaves, plus as the garden turns I'll be able to compost the spent plants rather than send them off in the green bin. I have done some research on composting and have learned that the proper compost pile needs about 50% "greens" (such as grass clippings) and 50% "browns" (such as dead leaves). Right now autumn is starting up and we still have grass clippings each week and I just asked my neighbor across the street if I can have his pile of leaves that are set out in front, waiting for disposal. If I collect his leaves and add to our grass clippings (our trees aren't dropping many leaves just yet) then I will have a nice large compost pile going in no-time flat. I already started it last week and it's doing well. The temperature inside the pile has reached 120 degrees. This week I'll add more grass and leaves, building the pile to 3' x 3' which should really get it revving. Once the piles are as big as I can make them then if I have any leftover leaves I'll stockpile them for the summer when the "browns" will be harder to come by.

In addition to the yard composting we are also composting kitchen scraps with worms. Yes, worms. It's apparently quite a successful way of getting rid of kitchen scraps, and the worm castings that are produced will make very nice fertilizer for the garden. The worms are living out in our shed in a nice worm home.

So, our first step for the new garden (after removing the remaining grape vines) is to plant a cover crop of fava beans. In the spring all of them will be tilled under which will help to make the soil nice and rich, just in time for spring planting. Then the real work will begin.

I've Been De-Ported!

Just a quick note to let you all know that my mediport was removed yesterday. My chest is sore where it was cut out and sewn back shut but that will heal and go away. I am so happy that it's gone, and I hope I never have to make the decision to put it back in.

Whew, now I can take the large binder clip off of the passenger-side seat belt!

Next stop along my pathway: I will have a CT scan the first week of December. Then another PET scan will follow 6 months after that.

PET Scan Results

Just an update: On Monday Sept 22nd I had a PET/CT scan done and the bottom line is that "There is no PET-CT evidence of residual or recurrent tumor." Apparently I have some "mildly hypermetabolic subpleural nodular densities" in my lungs which are "likely related to either focal atelectasis versus infectious/inflammatory process." What this means is that I have some small areas of collapsed lung that is usually of no major consequence, I guess caused by the chemo. That's no big deal, really. (Added 10/6/08: We spoke with the oncologist today and she is indicating that the "focal atelectasis" could be caused by the way my lungs were sitting or resting during the PET scan. They did not tell me to take a deep breath or anything. As a matter of fact I was probably asleep when the 45-minute scan reached that area. So it may not be collapsed lung after all. So, it could be less than nothing. I'll have a follow-up CT scan in a couple of months. They make you take a breath and fill your lungs for that one.) Other than that and some inflammation from the surgical scar tissue the findings were unremarkable. Which is the way we like them!

The neuropathy is still troubling my hands and feet. As this is exacerbated by cold, I will continue to be on medical leave from work until at least the first of the year. I am still unable to handle cold items at length so handling cold and frozen blood products all day (as I would have to do in my job) would be a problem. I will put off going to work until the neuropathy subsides. Which hopefully it will.

My oncologist wanted me to keep the mediport for a year. Is she kidding me? I SOOOO cannot wait to have it removed. It's scheduled to come out next week, October 9th.

On a different note, Dave and I are headed to Paso Robles for the weekend. We are going wine tasting with some friends. Before we head back on Sunday we will stop by Hearst Castle. Though we've all been there before (I think) we are looking forward to seeing more of this magnificent place.

I have been having fun re-connecting with old high school classmates on Facebook. If any of you drop in here, I'd like to give you a giant wave and an enthusiastic "Hello and Welcome"!!!