Sam and I went for a leisurely Sunday drive today - only 230 miles roundtrip - to Eureka, Alaska. Normally, the wind at Eureka is, well, let's just say if Eureka were a city, it definitely would be the "Windy City" rather than Chicago. Since it is a lonely roadhouse with a few cabins, it is a great stop along the way to Glenallen. We decided to drive there for lunch and it was beautiful. The Matanuska River is starting to come alive, fresh snow is on the glacier, and the best part, no wind! The snowmachiners (snowmobilers for you Outside) had a poker run at Lake Louise today, so we shared the roadhouse with many of them.
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| At the Matanuska Glacier overlook today on the drive to Eureka. |
Yesterday I managed to talk Sam into going to the gym with me. He did not exercise much this week and he needed to get his body moving and get the blood circulating. Today as we were driving, he finally told me he is experiencing a new pain in the middle to lower part of his left lung which is why he did not do much this week. Of course, with my family history, my first thought is the heart...and then...what in the heck is he doing telling me this when we are already 40 miles out of town?!?! I then remind myself it is difficult for him to tell me about new issues, so driving down the road when he does not have to look me in the face is much easier. This new pain, Sam believes, is from a new tumor his GP talked about a year ago. Whether or not it is, we will not know until the next CT scan which is not scheduled for a couple months yet. No matter what, new pains and new tumors are a part of the process. We hope and pray the Tarceva has slowed the process down, something we will never truly know since non-small cell lung cancer - adenocarcinoma of the lung, is generally thought to be slow growing anyway.
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| Sweet Pea giving me the evil eye stare down. |
I know he is in pain when he is very quiet and that is how the entire conversation got started. Sam did not hardly say a word for the first half hour and I finally commented about the silence. The challenge for him is determining how painful it truly is because he is already on pain meds, so asking him to rank it on a scale of 1-10 is simply unreasonable on my part. Instead, I secretly maintained a silent vigil watching him out of the corner of my eye and listening to him breath to determine for myself how painful it truly is. He seemed a bit uncomfortable, so without the pain pills, it is probably a 6 or 7. With the pills, it is probably a 1 or 2. When Sam swam for the UofO, he learned a relaxation technique which he still uses today. It has proven to be a life saver for him and he used it today. That really makes a difference as well and makes the pain and other issues much easier to tolerate. Rather than fight the pain, he acknowledges it and controls it rather than vice versa. He is amazing.
Of course, upon returning home, Sweet Pea met us at the door and immediately began giving us a piece of her mind that we left her alone with Rocky. She gets very anxious when we are both gone for more than a few hours and is quite relieved when we return since she is the true caregiver in the family, don't you know? I am fairly certain she is much more worried about Sam being gone than me because she hardly notices me when I come home from work. Unless it is time to eat, of course, then I am the chosen one. I count on her to tell me when Sam is truly not feeling good and she does a fine job of that.
We had a good weekend altogether and are looking forward to a good week as well. The snow is melting rapidly and, although it is probably wishful thinking, I hope we have seen the last of it.
Ciao!
