Hello from Salt Lake City Utah.

Posted on July 14, 2011 by admin
Hello from Salt Lake City Utah.
Thursday afternoon July 14, 2011 (first travelogue of this trip).
Before we get started on documenting this trip, I want to mention that I have not given up on adding more details and photos for our family vacation in Dillon, CO. We had a blast and I want to tell the readers a bit more about our great time. Maybe next week.
We are in Salt Lake City for a Stampin’ Up! Convention. Pat attends each year. I have accompanied her twice. The last time was in 2009 (documented here). We are again at the Marriott Downtown (map).
As was the case last time, we have a corner room that overlooks the continuing construction of the huge reconstruction of downtown Salt Lake (details here). Most of the huge cranes are gone, but the construction continues. I am still able to do a little “sidewalk supervision”.
We left Denver about noon on Sunday (7/10) with the intention of taking a leisurely, scenic drive in the PT Cruiser. We chose to take US 40 through Colorado and Utah. We enjoy this route as an alternative to the interstate. We stayed the first night in Craig, CO at the Hampton Inn. It was a great experience as the room was very nice and the employees were quite friendly. They even gave us a tip about a great Mexican food restaurant.
Our next stop was Park City. We had decided to try the Hampton Inn again, but it was booked. We decided to fall back on our “normal” choice: Holiday Inn Express. It was your typical Holiday Inn experience which is just kind of OK.
The drive from Park City to the Marriott is about an hour, so we did not leave Park City very early. As usual, Pat was a bit behind in getting her swapping cards read for the convention, so she worked on them at each of the motels.
Swapping cards is quite a tradition at these conventions. Most attendees prepare between 100 and 200 cards and then trade them with other demonstrators. It really gives them a large base of ideas for cards they can prepare for their workshops.
Pat qualified for the VIP level at the convention. That gives her access to a large room in the Salt Palace Convention Center where she can relax (yeah, right). It also qualified both Pat and I for a special tour of the Stampin’ Up! headquarters and distribution headquarters. It is a huge, beautiful new facility that Stampin’ Up! paid cash for. The distribution facility is huge and extremely well equipped. At the time of our tour, they were filling two large UPS trailers for the day’s shipment. We were transported both ways in beautiful Prevost Buses (for the readers with buses, that is our bus content).
Pat is on the go from basically sun-up to sun-down. There are tons of activities and, of course, meeting new and old friends. While she is attending the activities, I am trying to catch up on a bunch of work/projects. I have also been taking long walks and viewing the amazing Temple Square which is just a block from the hotel. On the walks, I was able to scout out a great historical, local restaurant for breakfast, and a pub with sidewalk tables and a huge variety of beers and good sandwiches for dinner.
That is all for this post.
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Hello from the Oakland Airport.

Posted on July 8, 2011 by admin
Hello from the Oakland Airport.
Thursday Evening July 7, 2011 (first travelogue of this trip).
First of all, these next few posts will be a bit confusing. I did the first post from Dillon for the family vacation and was too busy to do any further posts. I will catch up on those posts – hopefully next week.
On Tuesday 7/5 we left the campground early and drove home so that I could get ready to fly out that night. Some of you who know me, know that I always try to arrive at the airport at least 2 hours early and usually 2.5 hours. Well, as I headed down the mountain, I hear that I-70 was closed due to an accident. It was in an area where there is almost no alternatives. The sad story is that I missed my 6:45 flight and had to take a 9:45 flight.
I got to Oakland about 11:00 PM and rented a car. I had loaded my destination (The Marriott in Walnut Creek) into my Hand held GPS. Only problem, was that there was a lot of construction at my first exit (big work lights that blind you and an exit you can’t see). I ended up taking the Bay Bridge to the island in the middle. There, the construction had closed my entrance back on the bridge going the other way. It took me a bunch of time to get back on track and I arrived at the hotel at 1:30. Had to get up at 5:45 so that I could get to my appointment.
This trip was to present our new fire detection and suppression system to a very large potential end user. We did all of the preparation work at the suppression vendor’s shop and that worked well, as their shop was well equipped..
The project has grown in complexity by a factor of at least two – depending on how you categorize the project changes, the factor is really more like three. I had spent a great deal of time during our family vacation to make a detailed display and test all of the new components.
The preliminary testing yesterday went exactly according to our design. Today the customers came to the shop for our presentation and then we traveled to their location to do an simulated installation on one of their large pieces of industrial equipment. Again, the system functioned flawlessly.
The project is a huge technical success and I think the customer was very impressed.
Unfortunately, the team dynamics are a real mess and I am very frustrated. These issues are not new. I would love to detail a few of the issues, but that would not be very professional.
I can only hope that I can find a way to continue working on the project.
That is all for this trip
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Hello from Dillon Colorado.

Posted on June 26, 2011 by admin
Hello from Dillon Colorado.
Sunday morning June 26, 2011 (first travelogue of this trip).
Tuesday, we drove all of 60 miles to the Heaton Bay Campground (map). Our daughter Kelly and her family camp here every year around the fourth of July. They have fantastic fireworks over the lake and it is an area where there is lot of fun things to do.
We decided to make this our family vacation. Kelly and her family will be here the full two weeks and our reservation is the same. Our oldest daughter Lisa and her family will come up the 29th. Their two boys have been with us a couple of days. Youngest daughter Judy and her family sold their motorhome a couple of months ago, so they are staying in a condo that Pat “rented” as a part of our timeshare. We arranged the condo, as it give us all a place to swim and do some laundry.
When we were getting ready to leave for the campground on Tuesday, the morning news showed a picture of the campground with 3-4 inches of snow on the campers. By the time we got here, everything was melted off. Judy’s older boys and a friend are going snowboarding this morning, as Arapahoe Basin is still open on the weekends.
I took this picture of the bus on the day after we arrived. There is still a lot of snow on the mountains.
Last night four of the kids slept in the tent. They came into the bus about 4:00 AM as they got cold. The weather service said that the low is supposed to be the mid-40s at night, but they said that our outside temperature thermometer was in the thirties. I think they had a great time. The youngest granddaughter (5 years old) had not slept in a tent and was really looking forward to sleeping with the cousins. I think they still had a lot of fun.
My new project is getting pretty hot and we are scheduled to do an install in California as soon as we get back. I will probably have to fly out the day we drive home. I have been spending a few hours most days testing all of the components here in the campground. I also had to make a trip to Denver to get a couple of things done at the house and meet with the person who has done such a great job designing the new system. This install threw us a bit of a curve, as they want a dual suppression system and an automatic battery disconnect. Our system needs a minor modification (provisions already built into the design) and some special relays for the battery disconnect. So far everything seems to be working very well.
It is a bit of a bummer to have to work during the family vacation, but it is so beautiful here that the working conditions almost make the work fun {grin}
That is all for now.
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Breast Cancer, Surgery Recovery Update – GOOD NEWS!

Posted on May 25, 2011 by admin
Breast Cancer, Surgery Recovery Update – GOOD NEWS!
Wednesday afternoon May 25 2011 (twelfth post in this series)
As has been the case all along, we have been spending a great deal of time with Kelly and her family helping out doing whatever we can. Over the past week or so, we are seeing signs of the “old” Kelly coming back. The pain that was engraved on her face is mostly gone and the wonderful smile comes out a bit more often.
As you will see in her update, she is FREE AND CLEAR OF CANCER!!! We could not ask for a better outcome. 
She still faces a great number of doctor visits as the reconstructive process begins. Those treatments, followed by at least two more surgeries are not pleasant to think about. It appears that the final surgery will take place early next year, so it will be a lengthy process.
As we have said many time, SHE CAUGHT IT EARLY AND THAT MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!
Pasted below is the update she posted last night:
Hello Family and Friends!

We hope you’re all doing well!

The good news just continues for us!  My drains were removed last Thursday as expected and, although it was a pretty painful process, it was so FREEING to have them out.  I could actually dress myself without any assistance because I didn’t have any attachments!

Sunday was my first shower and that was a wonderful gift!  Spongebaths are fine, but can only last for so long!

This week is a busy one with doctors’ appointments.  Yesterday we had an appointment with the oncologist who had nothing but good news.  It was a short appointment and she hugged me and told me that I no longer need her (she confirmed that I don’t need radiation or chemo).  It doesn’t get much better than that!  I guess we can check that one off our list and know that we’ll have one less appointment to think about.

Today we had a follow-up appointment with the medical surgeon who said that everything looks just as she would hope and that we will see her in a year when we go for the first of our annual follow-up visits with her.  Another one to check off our list!

Thursday we will see the plastic surgeon again to continue the reconstruction process.  It sounds like we’ll continue to meet with him on  a weekly basis for a while.

I feel really good considering the major surgery I had just over two weeks ago.  I’m down to pain medication on a very occasional basis and I really have no complaints!  I haven’t loved sleeping partially upright every night and I’ll look really forward to sleeping on my side soon, but that doesn’t seem like much to worry about.  I tire very easily, but I know that, too, will improve with time.  I’m still working on that ever-important patience!

The girls have three days of school this week plus next Tuesday and then we’ll be out for the summer!  We’re looking VERY forward to moving at a much more relaxed pace and doing some fun things.

Thank you all for being part of this journey!  It sounds like there won’t be many changes for a while, but we’ll continue to keep you updated.

With love,

Kelly and Damon

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Breast Cancer, Surgery Recovery Update

Posted on May 16, 2011 by admin
Breast Cancer, Surgery Recovery Update
Monday Morning May 16 2011 (eleventh post in this series)
Kelly and Damon have written an update that is pasted below.
This has been a very trying 10 days for us. It is terrible to see your daughter in so much pain and so helpless. To be sure there have been some positive and “funny” events. Obviously, the positive is the fact that the cancer has been removed and there does not appear to be a need for any further cancer treatment.
As noted in this update and from Judy’s comment on our prior post, we went to the sock hop with the girls last Thursday. Some of you are familiar with the fact that I have very sensitive hearing. For two hours I was exposed to perhaps a hundred screaming kids {grin}. I was so glad that they were having fun, but I left the dance with a screaming headache (another big grin). Yesterday, we took the girls to McDonalds and the “playplace” was equally loud. Someday I will learn to carry ear plugs.
The other positive is that we have been able to spend some quality time with the girls. They are at that wonderful age where the love to be with Grandma and PaPa!
Here is the update:
Hello Family and Friends!

I’ve been wanting to write this note for a couple of days now, but have been doing LOTS of sleeping so it’s hard to find time to e-mail between naps.

The past week has been one of peaks and valleys. The highest peak was that we received the final pathology reports and all of the cancer has been removed!  We will meet with an oncologist later this month to confirm that and then determine what future scanning procedures will be like since I will have no more mammograms (hooray!).  As we understand it, we have confirmed that there will be no radiation or chemo and we’re VERY thankful for that!

I did get to come home from the hospital on Saturday as I had hoped, but it wasn’t quite as smooth as I had hoped.  We had some issues with pain medication and thought we got it under control until my pain pump wore off on Wednesday.  Luckily, I was able to endure until our post-op appointment on Thursday and I think we’ve now found a medication that will keep the pain under control. 

As I said, I’ve been doing lots of sleeping, pretty much the opposite of what Damon has been doing since he’s now carrying both of our loads plus getting up to give me meds in the night. 

It’s been GREAT to have my parents “camping” in their bus at Chatfield because they’ve been here every day trying to make sure that we’re all where we need to be.  They had the distinct pleasure of taking the girls to a Sock Hop at school last Friday and I’m sure that was at the top of their list!

The girls have been doing well – between their cousins, their friends and my parents, they’ve had incredibly busy social lives and I know they’ve been enjoying that!
Two quick blessings that I have to be sure to mention:

Before my surgery, I had to have radioactive dye injected into the breast to trace it to the lymph node that was removed.  When the doctor walked in to do the procedure, it turned out to be the same very kind doctor that had identified the abnormality in the second mammogram and very nicely told me that I have to have it biopsied.  I thanked him for being cautious (for catching it so early) and for being so kind to me at what was the beginning of this long journey.  I know this doctor was carefully placed in my path because he is rarely at Littleton for these procedures.

The next blessing occurred with my family in the waiting room.  As the tissue was removed, it was immediately sent to pathology for a first review to make sure that all affected tissue was removed.  As it turns out, the pathologist studying that tissue was a member of our church, someone who is well-known in his field.  He actually took the time to visit with my family twice to reassure them about the tissue.  Again, I know he was carefully placed at Littleton Hospital that day because he’s usually only there about once a month.

I continue to be thankful for so many blessings (especially my husband) as I work through this recovery process.  I am realizing that it is going to be a long process and I will focus on the advice of the plastic surgeon: PATIENCE.

Our next appointment is this Thursday and we are anticipating that the drains will be removed.  I can’t tell you how thankful I will be Thursday night – even though I try really hard, I can’t find a single positive thing to say about them!

I hope you all have a great week!  Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers!!

Love,

Kelly and Damon

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Hello from Chatfield Reservoir.

Posted on May 16, 2011 by admin
Hello from Chatfield Reservoir.
Sunday evening May 15 2011 (second travelogue of this trip).
When I last posted about this trip (5/1), I talked about getting the bus ready for its first trip since last October. Our travel in the bus, since 2006, has been considerable more frequent and we really miss being on the road. As noted in the series on our Daughter’s breast cancer journey, we have canceled one major trip to CA and NV planned for earlier this year. We have also delayed a trip to Iowa. There was never any question that we would change our schedule so that we could be a part of Kelly’s support system.
On Wednesday May 5th, we made the short trip from our home to Chatfield Reservoir (map). If you look at the map, the subdivision to the left of our location is where Kelly and her family live. That is one of the main reasons we are staying here. As the crow flies, it is a short distance to their house. However, we must drive around the lake, so the distance is about 5 miles.
Chatfield is a state park. It is a beautiful facility. There are a ton of things to do here. Unfortunately, we have been so busy that we have not been able take advantage of the facilities. Today I did ride my bicycle over to the radio controlled air strip and watched a couple of folks fly their planes. Really fun to watch.
The weather has been wet and cold most of our stay here. We even had a bit of snow a couple of days ago. We have had terrible drought conditions for several months, but this week we had over 2 inches of rain. We have been watching some of the folks camping in tents and really felt sorry for them. I am sure it was not a lot of fun. The weather has not been much of an issue for us. The bus is nice and warm and we are not here much. We have spent most of our time at Kelly’s house helping wherever we can. For the most part, that was taking care of the girls. Damon has been very good about helping Kelly during her recovery from her double mastectomy. She has had a rough recovery, and has needed a lot of support.
Staying here has also been convenient for my physical therapy. The facility is only a few miles from here. Kelly and Damon lined me up with their physical therapist and he is great! I am amazed about the factors that I must work on to strengthen the knee and prevent any further damage. One example, is that I have had to learn how to walk up and down stairs so that my butt muscles do most of the work.
We have had the granddaughters stay over in the bus a few nights. We had them over night last night and had planned to do some fun outdoor things today, but it was just too cold and wet. We still had a lot of fun.
The camping limit here is 14 days and we will need to pull the bus out Wednesday morning.
That is all for this “trip”.
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Breast Cancer, Surgery Recovery

Posted on May 11, 2011 by admin
Breast Cancer, Surgery Recovery
Tuesday Evening May 10 2011 (tenth post in this series)
The past few days, since her surgery, has been rough on Kelly.
She did very well the day after her surgery. She was able to eat dinner Friday night as well as breakfast and lunch on Saturday. The doctors took precautions to make sure she did not get sick from the various anesthetics and/or medications. She was released Saturday afternoon.
Just before they released her, they gave her two Vicodin. She really did not tolerate the medication well. The doctor then prescribed a non-narcotic medication (Tramadol). She is not having reactions to that drug, but it is also not as effective in pain mitigation.
As I looked at our last post, I realized that I did not report the initial pathologist report. It was an excellent report that suggested that the surgery got all of the cancer. As I was writing this blog, Kelly called and she got the detailed/final report. They got all the cancer. She will NOT have to have any secondary treatment – radiation, chemo, or other medication. What good news!!!!
She has a pain pump and two drains. Those are cumbersome, but a part of the process. She has extremely limited movement of her arms (normal) and has quite a bit of pain at times. She has been doing quite a bit of walking and has been going to school with the girls in the morning (Damon driving).
A double mastectomy is a terrible procedure, but it was the correct decision and resulted in a very positive health report. We are all grateful for that outcome.
As we have said many times, we are amazed at the tremendous response from her family and friends. One friend set up a meal calendar online, and a large number of people have signed up to furnish meals for the family over the next six weeks! That is a huge help and so appreciated!!
That is all for now.
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Breast Cancer, Surgery Today

Posted on May 6, 2011 by admin
Breast Cancer, Surgery Today
Friday Morning May 6 2011 (ninth post in this series).
I will add several updates to this blog today and the events unfold.
Most of you know that I am an engineer and I have dealt with facts all my like. So, here as some facts:
Our family is lucky in that we have not any of the really bad events in our life – at least compared to what some other folks have had to endure. Another fact is that we have three daughters and they have all had some pretty major heath issues. Lisa has recovered from hers. Judy has some pretty significant health issues that she will have to deal with for the rest of her life (seizure disorder and pretty significant back issues). We are glad that Lisa is in good health and that Pat and I are in pretty good health. Our heart breaks for Judy as she deals with her problems, but she is managing pretty well with the cards she has been dealt.
Some more facts. A huge number of ladies (and a few men) will have breast cancer. The technology has improved greatly and the long-term survival rate has improved significantly over the past several years. Further, double mastectomy surgery is performed thousands of times each year.
The other major fact is that Kelly is healthy and detected the disease early.
So much for the facts. Lets talk real world. The whole ordeal has simply and completely kicked our a**es. When it is your daughter all of the facts fade and the word “Cancer” becomes overwhelming.
Now our healthy 43 year old daughter is facing a terrible procedure and and a few more followup procedures. She has dealt with this situation with a tremendous amount of dignity. Damon, her husband, has been very supportive. All of the family (close and extended) has been an extraordinary support system. We have been blown away by all of Kelly and Damon’s friends and associates who have offered all kinds of help/support/prayer.
Kelly and Damon’s girls are at their aunt Lisa’s house and seem to be handling the situation well. Lisa and Dan have texted a couple of pictures and they are hunkered down with their cousins and their dog, Toby. Toby seems to understand that something is wrong and is staying pretty close to the girls.

Judy, our youngest daughter, made a special trip down from Bailey to say HI to her sister. That really meant a lot to all of us. We are fortunate that we are a very close family and that really helps at a time like this.
Kelly is being prepped for surgery now. She will go into surgery at 11:00 and the surgery is expected to take 4-5 hours. It will be performed by a oncology surgeon and a plastic surgeon.
I will update this post in a few hours as we learn more.

Update 12:15: We got to meet both the surgeon and the plastic surgeon and visit with Kelly just before they took her to the OR. The surgeon was about 45 minutes behind schedule, so our updates will be delayed a bit. Kelly seemed to be in pretty good spirits. Like all of us, she is anxious to get this ordeal behind her.

Update 1:15: Dr. Kercher just came out and told us that Kelly’s surgery went very well. She said that she went to sleep with a smile on her face and patients tend to wake up the same way they went to sleep. She said that she did not find any signs of cancer in the lymph nodes and that was the preliminary finding of the pathologist. She still has about 30 minutes or more of plastic surgery. 

Update 2:40: Dr. Bateman (plastic surgeon) just came in and told us everything went very well. She will be in recovery for another hour or two and then will go to her room. The hope is that she will get to come home late tomorrow.

Update 5:17: At 4:17 Kelly arrived in her room (456). .She is still pretty groggy, but seems to be doing pretty well. The nurse said that all vital signs are good.
I forgot to say that she is at Littleton Adventist Hospital. This is a wonderful place. The folks are very friendly. We were surprised that there were not many people in the surgical waiting room. At times we had the whole room to ourselves. There was a great table in the room in a little bay window-type room. Damon and I were able to work on our computers there and had a great view of the main entrance.

 

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Breast Cancer, The Journey Continued

Posted on May 5, 2011 by admin
Breast Cancer, The Journey Continued
Thursday Morning May 5 2011 (eight post in this series).
I have attached Kelly and Damon’s latest letter. As you can see, the surgery is tomorrow. We are all very emotional right now. Tomorrow we will post a couple of update blogs as we get information about the surgery while we are at the hospital
Jim and Pat

Hello Family and Friends!

The weather in Colorado this week is spectacular – it’s beautiful spring weather!

It’s been an interesting week as we prepare for my surgery on Friday.  Some of you may know that we had a little excitement with Molly earlier in the week, but all has turned out well.  Molly has been having some quirky little symptoms which we were attributing to anxiety but our pediatrician and a neurologist felt that we needed to rule out a brain stem malformation.  The MRI went very smoothly on Monday and we got the great news on Tuesday.  Yet one more thing to be thankful for!

The reality of my surgery is setting in and we’re preparing for the challenges of the next few weeks.  Surgery is scheduled for 11:00 at Littleton Hospital on Friday and should last about four hours.  The plan is for me to spend one night in the hospital and come home late Saturday afternoon or early evening.  I’m really looking forward to having the surgery behind me and moving into the recovery stage.

The girls will go to my sister’s house tomorrow night and stay until Saturday or Sunday.  We’re thinking they’ll be too busy to miss us because one of our nephews doesn’t have school on Friday so they’ll have a great time.  There’s also a school carnival that night so that should be so much fun for them.

Some interesting parts of the recovery process include:
No showers for two weeks
No driving for 2-3 weeks
Very little range of motion with my arms
Weekly doctor appointments

Maybe this means I’ll have time to catch up on some reading and computer projects.

My parents have brought their bus down to Chatfield campground for the next two weeks.  It will be nice to have them so close!

We thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes!!

Love,

Kelly and Damon

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Getting the Bus Ready

Posted on May 1, 2011 by admin
Getting the Bus Ready
Sunday May 1 2011 (First travelogue of this trip).
What? You thought we were not going to travel for the foreseeable future based on our last several blogs.
Well, we are taking the bus down to Chatfield Reservoir this Thursday. We have reservations for two weeks. The trip will be all of 30 miles, but at least we will stretch her “legs” a bit.
Kelly will be having her surgery this Friday and we thought it would be convenient to have the bus about a mile from their house. That will let us come and go and perhaps have the girls stay with us a few nights. We will be right by the lake and close to the playground.
Today we really scrubbed the interior of the old girl. And she needed it. We are looking so forward to staying in the bus for a couple of weeks. We really feel comfortable in it and have all the comforts of home.
I just looked at our travelogues and was amazed that we have not had the bus on the road since October of last year. No wonder we are kind of homesick to spend some time in her.
We will give you updates on Kelly’s surgery and our little camping trip as time permits.
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