Richland Woman Completes Radiation

(Richland, WA.) Lois Bumgarner, cancer survivor extraordinaire, completed the final of twenty-seven radiation treatments on Friday, August 24th of 2007. She reported no pain throughout the ordeal. When asked, the radiation oncologist replied the reason for no pain is due to the severence of the nerves during Mrs. Bumgarner's mastectomy last year. Only during the final 5 or 6 treatments did she begin to voice concern over the feelings of dryness and irritation. When scrutenized by this writer, the areas she refers to are 'red as hell' and there is more than a slight hint of burned flesh in a few spots. The doctor said she would continue to cook (sic) for a few more days, then she will begin to heal and return to normal.

Mrs. Bumgarner assures us that after a couple days of sleeping-in, she will indeed be returning to her normal schedule of shopping for low valued items at Valu-Village, Shop-Ko, and the Goodwill Stores, as well as any and all grocery items by updating her memory bank regarding the prices of all grocery items in every grocery store in town; babysitting her grandchildren while their mother teaches school; and, of course, taking care of Bronco Jim.

The Bumgarner's celebrated by attending the local county fair where, Mr. Bumgarner: aka, Bronco Jim (click here), celebrated by joining the rodeo.

Monday's RAD Report

We didn't know until today that on Mondays the doc sees Lois, so this morning we were at the cancer center just long enough to let the outside temperature creep from the cool upper eighties, to the warm and toasty upper nineties. I had to mow the lawn and was planning on being home by about 8:45 to get'er done. Didn't happen. Got home at 10 am when the thermometer was reading "97" degrees. About half way through the job, I stopped and soaked my hat in water and poured a gallon or so over my head and finished just as this eastern Washington oven hit 100 degrees. Lois saw all the water dripping off the bill of my hat and thought it was perspiration. I shouldn't complain though, it's s'posed to hit about 105 by the end of the week. The lawn don't get mowed in that kind of heat.

The doctor said Lois is doing fine. She answered the few questions I had about radiation and just exactly what it is, and showed us the pictures in Lois' file which show where the beams are directed and how deep they travel. She told Lois to get some large t-shirts to wear, and stop wearing her bra. It doesn't bother her now, but the doc said the pressure points will get more sensitive quicker if she continues wearing them. She puts on large doses of a special Aloe formulation the night before radiation, and afterwards each day. The doc said eventually she will be using a white paste instead; "sorta like toothpaste," she said. Thank goodness for good air conditioning in this weather. I can't imagine how miserable this condition could become in this heat. I'm probably not even going to ask her if she would be interested in mowing the lawn.

Two Famous People and Two RAD Days

The picture is to showcase the hats we purchased while on our mini-vacation in Seaside, Oregon, last month. Next to Lois and I, the prettiest thing in the picture is obviously that hanging basket of flowers over our heads (click on the pic for a larger view). Beautiful isn't it; reminds me of all those huge flower baskets Daryl Sharpe and the ag kids at Sequim High School hang all over town in the summer. Can't grow stuff like that in our desert here in Eastern Washington.

We just finished up the first two days of radation. She goes in each morning at 8:20 and the whole process took about 25 minutes this morning. I sit in the waiting room and read. Yesterday she woke me up when she came back into the lobby. I was tired; but she managed to drag me all over town; Brooke's, Lowe's, Valu Village, and Costco, before we got home and I was able to take a real nap.

We'll keep you posted, and please feel free to leave comments, flowers, coins, or paper money if you prefer.

Yes, Virginia, There Will be Radiation

The meeting with our radiation oncologist yesterday afternoon, for follow up to the PET/CT scan, went as expected: "there is no evidence of any recurrence of the cancer." Lois goes in this morning for measurements for a body mold which will hold her body in the exact same position for each session of radiation. There will be 28 sessions, Mondays through Fridays, 10 minutes each, and they are scheduled to begin next Thursday.

The odd thing is that Lois says she never thought she would be "excited about getting radiation." I think I know what she means. If you're confused here's a synopsis: A surgeon in Spokane, who was scheduled to removed her other breast, questioned why she hadn't had radiation, so we returned to our two oncologists in Kennewick for review consultations. The removal of four or more cancerous nodes mean required radiation, three or less, not so. She had three. The surgeon in Spokane said she would have strongly recommended radiation anyway, and our radiation oncologist here in Kennewick had said the same thing; but our chemotherapy onocologist had "swayed" us away (the evidence for survivability with women with three or less, who had radiation, was statistically no different than those who didn't). After the review consultation a few days ago with the rad oncologist, we walked out bummed thinking we had made a bad decision a year ago when the original decision was made, especially since the radiation oncologist said this time it was too late to do radiation, but it was also probably "ok" since she was in the recommended, rather than the mandatory category (even though only one node away from mandatory). whew!

The next day we got a call from the rad oncologist saying she had consulted with a colleague at UCLA and she was now recommending Lois get a PET/CT and "if it shows no cancer we can still do radiation;" so here we are.

I questioned her about why she said "if it shows no cancer," then the she would do radiation, I thought radiation was to reduce tumors. "That is correct," she said, "the reason we would do it now (with Lois) is to kill any microscopic cells that remain in the region of the breast that was affected; and they are there." I didn't like that last comment, but sometimes reality smacks you up side the head. "And the radiation will kill them before they start growing again, and spreading." Zap away doc.

Before meeting with her I was thinking there's no good way out of this. She's either going to tell us that the cancer has spread and we have to start all over with the chemo, or she's going to tell us Lois will have radiation. Not much of a good news/bad news scenario; but taking everything into account, we both agree, it was good news and we're both excited about radiation.

Here's a picture of Brooke and Maia (is that a binkie?) taken at Twin Lakes a few weeks ago on a nice cool day with natural air conditioning. It was 107 degrees here in Kennewick yesterday; today we're having a cool spell, only going to be in the upper nineties.

The Oregon Coast and Radiation

Top Left: Lois, Maxine (mom), Kiauna, Brooke -Middle: Maia, Aidan, Izaiah, Derik

Bottom: James

Vacation:

We went to Seaside, Oregon last week with Derik, Brooke, James, Kiauna, Izaiah, Aidan, Maia, and my mom. Lois and I each bought a new hat and had our pics taken in one of those booths. Aren't we handsome? lol We had a great time building sand castles, flying kites, barbecueing some great food, bicycling on bikes built for six, roasting marshmellows and making s'mores, driving up to Astoria, and just being together. None of us was quite ready to come home. The weather was perfect.

* Click on the pictures for enlargements.

Medical:

Getting back to the radiation oncologist took much longer than we wanted, or what we thought it would take. To get to her, we had to go back to our chemo doc and he was booked for about 5 or 6 weeks, including being out of town for one week. After visiting with him, where he continued to believe the odds of an advantage with radiation for Lois were equal either with, or without, radiation, we were able to get back with the radiation oncologist.

She had talked with the surgeon in Spokane who raised the issue of Lois not having radiation, and both agreed that since standard protocol is to have radiation when four or more lymph nodes are removed, and Lois had three, she is borderline. But the research isn't clear about the advantage; still, both these doctors agree that it would have been advisable to go ahead with radiation with the three (only one away from mandatory). Apparently we read our rad oncologist incorrectly last year, thanks in part, to the chemo doc. And since my father passed away eleven years ago after an infection developed in a radation-damaged lung, our focus may have been blurred. Damn.

The rad oncologist said that since a year has gone by, radiation is no longer advisable since if the cancer has spread, microscopically, radiation would not be beneficial. We talked further, she read the chemo doctor's notes aloud. I just about fell out of my chair. Since the outset of our discussions, he had led us in the "no radiation" option, even when we met him just a few weeks ago; however in his notes he made the comment, "should she choose radiation..." leading me to believe he was simply covering his a _ _ (cya).

Where are the experts? Who has the ultimately correct answers?

The next day, the rad oncologist called Lois. After further thought and checking with a colleague at UCLA, her recommendation now is for Lois to get a PET/CT scan. If it is clear (no cancer appearing), then the rad oncologist and her colleague agree that radiation is still a viable option.

We learned today that our insurance company will cover this approximately $5,000 procedure. She's scheduled for the scan on July 3rd. We assume the insurance company will cover the radiation as well. We no longer complain about $800/month insurance billings.

Who Are These People?

Here's a picture we had taken recently. You can see Lois' hair is coming in nicely, and speaking for myself, I think it looks great at this length.

Can't say much 'bout the guy she's with in the picture, but you know, you gotta go with what you got. I particularly like the way the photographer got me to crink my neck like this: looks like pain medication is just a few minutes away.

Just for fun, this picture, taken the night before our wedding in 1970 provides some context to the one above.

I like this picture of Lois, and yes, that's a pack of Winstons in my shirt pocket.

Brooke was born seven years later; that's when I quit smoking.

Lunch at Cyrus O'Learys

Ok, so it was a little early for dinner, and late for lunch when we arrived. You don't really expect the place to be jumpin' at 3:45 in the afternoon do you? Thanks to the doctor who was TWO HOURS LATE for our appointment, with no explanation or apology prior to FINALLY coming into the room, we were starving when we left.

We used to go to Cyrus O'Learys when we went to the conventions in Spokane for principals and other public school leader types who needed some R&R once the school year was over. We've had some great times in this place with friends and collegues over the years. Kinda sad to see it so empty...but it was 3:45 in the afternoon.

Lois did not have to eat her lunch alone! I repeat, she did not have to eat her lunch alone. I sat with her and kept her company and we ate our lunches together. My lunch was so good, I had to take a picture of it; so here it is, about half gone: It's honey glazed salmon on a bed of spinach drenched in a roquefort with slices of avocado and cucumber. Mmmmm. Lois had a sandwich and she didn't like it, so it didn't make the cut for posting with my salmon.

To Reconstruct or Not To Reconstruct

Hi everyone, it's been a while since any updates were posted here and now we have one. We just got back from a lightning trip to Spokane, WA., for consultations with two surgeons: one a plastic surgeon for reconstruction; and two, a surgeon who specializes in breast cancer surgeries who would perform a mastectomy on the other breast.

We saw the plastic surgeon first and felt good about what he had to say. He even hooked us up with a couple, also from here in the Tri-Cities, who had the second breast removed and reconstruction surgery at the same time, about two weeks ago. She and her husband were very encouraging; she said she was very happy with the choice she had made. We also were shown pictures of patients who had had reconstruction. I was amazed. This guy is good!

The other surgeon gave us concern. First, she was TWO HOURS late for the appointment, my patience wore out about half an hour earlier; and once she sat down and started reviewing the reports Lois brought, she started questioning why there had been no radiation treatment. Lois deferred to me to explain and I did the best I could by telling her what both our radiation and chemotherapist oncologists had told us (for the number of nodes which were identified with cancer in them, there is no clear evidence that radiation makes any difference in long-term survivability); but it was pretty clear she wasn't convinced. We told her we would feel better if she contacted our oncologists. She said she would do so and call us back tomorrow; so here we are feeling like it's last summer again when we were in limbo with "what to do."

Here's a "not very good picture" of the both of us following the consultations. You might be able to see we didn't sleep the night before and we're both sick with chest colds. A rather miserable day in many respects; but...we stopped in one of our favorite places, Cyrus O'Leary's, for a very late lunch. It's the green roofed building behind us.