The Taber Family Blog

I had my follow up appointment with Dr. Woolf today to go over the results of my Pet-CT scans from last Friday. The first thing he said to me when he entered my room was “your images were completely clear.” Man, that is some good news to hear right off the bat. Thrilled is what I’m feeling right now. I knew in my heart that would be the result, but hearing it from him and after having the images reviewed by other experts as well, gives me such a feeling of relief.

He examined me pretty thoroughly, including the camera up my nose and down my throat, poking me and prodding the site of the tumor and feeling my neck all around. He said I still had some swelling in my throat and near the tumor site, but I already knew that based on the effort it takes to swallow. But the swelling will subside as the weeks roll by.

After the appointment, Denise and I had a brief celebration lunch at Favela’s in Fairfield and I had the quesadillas. They were awesome! And for the rest of the day, back to work.

I had my first Pet-CT scan on Friday at Northbay in Fairfield and I’m anxious for the results. The scan took about 2 1/2 hours, but most of that was preparation, including having the radioactive sugar injection and waiting for an hour while it made its way through my body. Sitting in the “quiet” room for an hour, resting comfortably. After the that I was placed on the scanner for about 30 minutes.

Example Pet-CT Scan - NOT MINE

The way this particular scan works is based on the fact that cancer cells feed on sugar (glucose), so when the radioactive sugar is coursing through my body, the Pet-CT scan will expose where high concentrations of sugar are located. There are normal places in your body where sugar concentrates, such as the brain, kidneys and bladder, but in cancer cases, seeing other places “lighting up” is not typically a good sign.

After the scan was complete I asked the technicians if they could tell me what the results were, and although I knew what the answer would be, I still thought I’d ask. Since they’re not my doctor, they can’t discuss the results with me, but I could take a peek at the images on the computer. I took a quick look at several images, including those of my head and I couldn’t see anything lighting up anywhere in the images. I’m very hopeful about what I saw, but the final say will be up to my doctor this week when I meet him on the 17th. Needless to say I was very encouraged that my treatment was successful!

4th of July in Vacaville

I love 3 day weekends! I get caught up on things around the house, things around the yard and on holidays like this one, we get to spend time with friends and watch the local fireworks. Except for the constant wind everyday, this has been a great weekend so far, and today we’re going to have our July “5th” back yard BBQ and hopefully do some swimming too. Not too sure about that because it’s ridiculously windy today and a bit on the chilly side outside (so far today).

Last night we all piled into the suburban and drove over to the Costco parking lot (one of the highest places in town) to watch the fireworks. Well I guess last year hundreds of people left tons of tailgater garbage strewn around the parking lot, that this year they closed it off entirely. So most folks ended up parking on the street or on the hill nearby, like us! We had a pretty good view of the event albeit a bit far away. It was nice.

Earlier today we drove to Walnut Creek and did some shopping and on our way home we stopped at Chevy’s in Pleasant Hill. I know, it’s a chain and often a roll of the dice as to the quality of the food, but we were very pleased with how clean the place was, how nice the staff was and how good the food was too. I had the fajitas that Denise and I shared and I was able to eat them pretty well. I also had my first Margarita of the year. I was worried about the possible sting, but it didn’t sting at all and tasted great. Now if only wine were as nice to my mouth, I’d be a very happy boy.

Well, it’s been a while since I posted and I should write something to keep everyone up to date. Probably the main reason I’ve been late on this blog, is that Internet access in France is spotty, so getting a reliable connect to the tools I use in the U.S. was frustrating at times. We get so used to how nicely the Internet works here in the U.S., but forget to think that from Europe, all access to sites in the U.S. has to route through network connections under the Atlantic Ocean, so there is dreadful lag at times. For instance, I was never able to browse to My Yahoo news portal page from France. The site would never come up at all. And Facebook rarely worked at all. Anyway, back here in the U.S., the Internet works great again and I’m back to normal.

Denise and I had a wonderful time in Brussels and Paris over the past two weeks. The weather stayed nice the entire time, except for the very last day in Paris when it started to sprinkle very lightly. While in Belgium and France, we elected to do most of the touristy type of things, like seeing the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame and the D-Day beaches in Normandy, but we also really loved the change of culture too. The French are in a rush for nothing! Events like eating lunch or dinner could and should take hours in France and Belgium. Nobody is in a hurry. We really enjoyed that. One thing that was particularly interesting is that people eat at specific times, and if you miss the meal, you’ll find all the restaurants closed up tight until dinner time (after 6pm). And we also noticed that nearly everyone we saw didn’t sit down for dinner until after 9pm, and a lot of people would arrive for dinner after 11pm. They eat (and drink and socialize) late into the night. Very cool.

So my challenge was finding things I could eat while in Europe. I have recently begun eating soft things, so I had to make sure wherever we went to eat, they had something on the menu I was familiar with and could eat. This really wasn’t much of a problem, because once I became familiar with a handful of French words, I was typically able to find something to eat, like fried or scrambled eggs, or an omlette. I fell in love with a sandwich called the “Madame”. It’s basically a piece of toast with layers of ham, cheese and topped with a fried egg. Easy to eat, tasted great and almost every place knew how to make them.

I was able to keep my calories up pretty well while we were there, which is good because we did a lot of walking and stair climbing all over Paris.

Some of our highlights were:

1. Walking around in the old town area of Brussels and eating a real Belgian waffle.
2. Enjoying real Belgian beer!
3. Riding the high speed train from Brussels to Paris. Super fast!
4. Seeing the Sienne River for the first time.
5. Attending a full Sunday mass in French at the Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris.
6. Walking up the Eiffel Tower at night.
7. Standing underneath the Arc De Triomphe and walking the Champs-Elysees.
8. Standing next to the Venus De Milo and paintings by DaVinci in the Louvre.
9. Walking and biking through the never ending gardens at the Palace at Versailles.
10. Standing in the surf at Omaha Beach and looking out from Pointe Du Hoc.
11. Reflecting at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer near Omaha Beach.
12. Visiting the Bayeux Cathedral and seeing the Bayeux Tapestry.
13. Walking up Montmarte and seeing a panoramic view of all of Paris.

Photos of our trip can be seen here:

Denise on the Grand Place

The Mannekin Pis

The Royal Palace

Parc Du Cinquantenaire

Milk Protest

This morning I’m sitting in our room at the hotel in Brussels, just of the Grand Place and getting ready to start packing to leave and take the high speed train to Paris for the next 6 days. Denise and I have had an amazing time in Belgium so far. The people here are so nice and eager to help and the quality of the food here is simply “off the hook”. We’ve enjoyed the beer, chocolate, waffles and cheese among many other things. I’m not sure I’ve tasted better chocolate anywhere. Fortunately we’ve had good weather the entire time we’ve been here so far, so going outside and walking around this beautiful city has been very enjoyable. Denise and have always loved going into really old churches and there are so many very old churches here. We’ve gone into nearly all the ones we’ve come across and they’ve all been spectacular on a grand scale. The Cathedral of St. Michael is probably the biggest in Brussels, but the Notre Dame du Sablon is also another beautiful church we visited. We also walked up to the Avenue Louise, which is a very fancy shopping district near the Royal Palace with stores such as you might typically see on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

The meetings I attended on Wed-Fri went very well and I was able to network with a great number of other IT-types from the Springer family of companies. And at night we were treated to some great food at a few local restaurants. This city is very friendly to the person who likes to walk around, especially the area near the Grand Place. Everywhere you look, there’s some new amazing thing to see. All the streets are made of cobblestone and musicians are everywhere playing guitars, accordions, saxophones and other instruments. Yesterday we took a taxi to the Parc du Cinquantiare. A simply breathtaking park crowned with a very large Arc de Triomphe of it’s own. There seemed to be a demonstration or protest by dairy farmers about milk prices going on in the park, but it was all very peaceful.

Today we leave Brussels and head for Paris, and we’re both excited about what we’ll see there. We got some great travel advice from one of the other IT attendees about what to look for and to look out for while in Paris too.

Well, I’m sitting here at the kitchen table after getting up at 3:30am to be ready for the drive to the airport. I’m tired, ready and excited. Denise and I spent alot of yesterday packing and making sure we had everything we needed. We purchased some really nice and big suitcases a week or so ago, and they really are huge. Both of us were trying to find extra stuff to put in to keep the essentials from bouncing around. We made sure to pick up some power adapters too, since plugging U.S. devices into European power can be tricky. Fortunately most of our gadgets are capable of handing the 220 volt power in France and Belgium, it’s only important to have the proper adapter.

I checked with the TSA and I’m apparently able to bring my medicine on board the plane as long as I openly show it to the officers. We’ll see how that goes. I just know these long flights will be a challenge for keeping my mouth in good shape. And eating more solid food is going to be a blessing when presented with all the good French and Belgian food.

Denise’s parents are here too to watch the girls while we’re away and for the ride to the airport. Nice! The boys will be visiting the house later this week and spending the next week there, caring for Molly, Padme, the rabbits and the flowers on the piazza. I feel like we’ve thought of everything, but there’s that nagging feeling I haven’t. Oh well. Too late now. Gotta go!

I’m so excited about this trip to Europe next week! I have a business conference to attend in Brussels next week, and then I’ve taken some vacation time to extend our trip into the following week. Denise is coming with me, and boy do we deserve this getaway. We fly into Brussels on Monday night – Tuesday morning and I’m sure Denise will find ways to keep busy while I’m at the conference. We’ll take the high speed Thalys train to Paris the following Saturday and spend the rest of that week sightseeing in Paris and possibly outlying areas. This will be Denise’s first trip out of North America and she’s incredibly excited. Heck, I’m excited for her.

I’ve been gearing up for this trip for a while now, trying to get my mouth in shape not only for solid soft foods, but also for the cuisine we’re sure to enjoy in Belgium and France. I don’t think I’ll be enjoying any adult beverages yet, which is unfortunate, since some say the finest beers come from Belgium.

Overall I’m doing pretty well. I’ve been into the office twice now, and both times I felt pretty good all day long. The walk to and from the train station can be a bit tiring, but with an hour ride either way, I’ve got plenty of time to recharge. My tongue is still hurting with what feels like an open wound on the right side and it’s still affecting my speech a bit. But it hasn’t stopped me from eating. I can feel it’s still swollen from the radiation, along with my esophagus, but things are slowly getting better all the time. I no longer have issues with mucus, which is huge. Fighting the mucusitus daily was a real drag. My weight a few days ago was down just a bit to 188 lbs. Not too bad though. I can’t wait to really start taking in some calories each day, so some daily exercise would be possible without feeling light-headed.

Anyway, good news overall, and I’ll try to update the blog while I’m away. If I can’t, then I’ll post a bunch of stuff and photos when I return.

Au revoir!

Well, I’m happy to report I’m able to nibble on some solid foods finally. This is a big deal because it opens up my possible menu choices each day and I’ll be relying less and less on Ensure drinks and protein shakes. I had a bowl of cheerios a few times this week, and it’s pretty easy to eat, since the milk helps keep things moist. I’ve also had some more helpings of tortellini, ravioli and some small pieces of chicken. Yum!

My tongue is still pretty sore with what feels like an open gash along the right side, but I’m able to eat on the other side of my mouth until that heals.

My first day back at work on Wed went very well. I shocked a few people that weren’t prepared to see me and along with them and many others, I was greeted with hugs and smiles all day long. It’s nice to be back and feel connected once again. My lunch that day consisted of a few Ensure drinks and some pudding. Pretty boring, but it kept me energized throughout the day. The train ride there and back was so lovely along the bay too. I had missed that beautiful commute into work and was happy to again ride the train.

The Soloist

In other news, I had another band practice this week, which is always fun and invigorating. And I finished a book entitled “The Soloist”, which is the very same book that was turned into a movie last year starring Robert Downey Jr.and Jamie Foxx. It was a quick read and a great story about patience when dealing with mental illness. I’ll have to now see the movie and hasten to make the obligatory statement that the book was better then the movie.

Last week I took vacation time off so I could hang out with my visiting Aunt Nell and cousin Deirdre who were here from North Carolina and I have to say, a week off felt very nice. This week I’m back to work and digging back into my daily work routine. I’m feeling better every day and have started to nibble on some solid food here and there. So far I’ve been able to eat tortellini, ravioli and the meatballs from a Subway meatball sandwich. My mouth gets very nervous when food is entering, but other than some mild discomfort, I’m able to eat some new things, as long as I have my water bottle close at hand.

I’m still doing my swish and swallow routines, along with a baking soda and salt water rinse a few times per day. My face is clearing up, although I still have the remnants of the red rash on my cheeks and temples, but that’ll clear up soon hopefully. I still do not have much hair on the back of my head, but Denise tells me it’s starting to grow back slowly. I can’t grow a beard or full mustache yet either, but that will change as the months go by.

Grant's Graduation

The big news last week was that my oldest son Grant graduated high school. It’s unbelievable really, but he’s heading toward 19 years old and now ready for some college. I’m very proud of my boy and excited to see where this world after high school takes him.

The big news this week is I’m going to start going into the office on Wednesdays and work with my team at Key. I can’t wait to see them and start feeling like I’m no longer a remote and lonely employee. I’ll have to take my day’s food with me, along with my mouth care items, but I feel good enough to make the travel there and start my reintroduction to the folks at the office. My energy levels are good these days and the fatigue I was having has seemed to diminish.

I think now that the heavy stuff is now really behind me and things will only get better each day. The move into solid food is a real mental boost for me too.

At Pedroncelli

Pedroncelli Vineyards

Pedroncelli Vineyards

At Raymond Burr At Amphora

Well, I’ve been pretty busy since my vacation started and having a great time too so I apologize for the lateness of this update. My aunt Nell and cousin Deirdre are visiting this week from North Carolina and we’ve scheduled some fun day trips to show them around the Bay Area. So far, we’ve taken them for a day’s adventure in San Francisco, and yesterday we spent the entire day in the Sonoma/Alexander/Dry Creek wine region doing a whole lot of wine tasting. I didn’t have any wine, so I guess that made me the natural choice as the driver for the adventure. We visited the following wineries: Pedroncelli, Raymond Burr, a late lunch at Amphora and finally Everett Ridge.

Yesterday was such a nice warm and calm day in the Sonoma wine country and we wrapped up the day in the city of Sonoma and had dinner at a local Italian restaurant. I was feeling brave throughout the past two days with my mouth and decided I might try some tortellini with cream sauce. I found that with the proper amount of water sips, I was able to enjoy the pasta fairly well. My tongue is still very tender with some healing wounds along the sides, but I’m getting better at trying some new things here and there.

Today we’re all relaxing and will be attending my nephew Owen’s graduation from Bethany Preschool tonight. Tomorrow is my oldest son Grant’s graduation from high school. It’s amazing to think he’s already done with HS and planning college life and beyond. I’m so proud of my boy.