Hanging out in Puerto Penasco, MX

We're enjoying a little downtime after Christmas.  I have the week off from work so we decided to drive to Southern Cal to see family and then stop at Baja on the way home.  We booked a place at Puerto Penasco for three nights and have absolutely nothing to do.  Well, Heidi is finding some places to shop.  We bought some margarita glasses, pottery and some other glass vases and things.  We also got this one decorative mondo margarita glass.  It won't be for drinking so much as just a shelf piece.  You'll have to see it next time you visit.

I apologize, O Gentle Reader, for leaving you hanging after my last post.  Apparently I didn't spell out the details of Heidi's treatment plans very well.  Some of you have prodded in ways that appeal to my sense of gratification.  To explain, I have been lauded with praise, with words like "good writer" and "cool guy."  There are few things more complimentary than to be regarded as a cool guy.  For that, I will reward you, O Gentle Reader, with an extra loquacious and bombastic, but hopefully not obfuscatory, blog today.

Originally I thought we would be driving to Seattle this week.  Obviously I am not the right one to consult in such predictions.  Our report date at SCCA is January 12.  This means I will be at work the first week of January and we will depart Tucson to start driving north Jan 8. 

But first, a little interlude about how funny it is to be watching NFL games on ESPN Spanish edition.  If you listen closely you can catch a caliente or a que pasa occasionally, but . . . well, ya gotta be here to really appreciate the humor.  I guess the hotel we are staying at is intended for those who understand more than just cerveza and el bano. 

Okay, now I gotta take a little deeper interlude, because blogger.com has put me in the Spanish version.  All the headings at the top of the dashboard page are in spanish.  The spell checker doesn't understand anything I am writing.  All misspellings from here on out are not my fault.  Unless I write about margaritas or how you aren't supposed to rebase on the raya continua (something they make very apparente on the Federale 8 highway), then I am not responsible for any typographical errors.  By the way, I now know how to say "goal" in spanish.  And I just saw a basketball commercial and now I know how to say "alley-oop" in spanish.  My vocabulary is growing.


Sunset, margaritas, dinner, ahhhhh . . .



Okay, back to the topic at hand.  We check in at SCCA on Jan 12.  This begins a couple weeks of testing.  Heidi will have to study anatomy real hard so she can pass all her tests.  [That was a joke, BTW.  The fact that I have to tell you is proof of the language barrier here.  Ay carrumba!]  January 28 she gets a Hickman port to replace the inferior port she currently has in her chest.  February 8 she starts radiation treatment.  This is a special soup of Yttrium 90 and Indium 111 that promises the best of Beta and Gamma rays science has to offer. 

Actually, we don't knowthe best science has to offer because it is only part of a Phase 1 trial.  So all we can say for sure is that there is evidence this radiation protocol has promise, but they don't really know what dose is appropriate.  Phase 1 trials are intended to benefit the research organization more than the patient, in my humble opinion.  I don't have all the info I need on this and am still in the research phase of my inquiry.  So far I haven't heard anything about how it is supposed to benefit the patient.  Maybe I haven't been reading the right things yet.  Personally, though, if I they don't sell it as a benefit to the patient or future patients, then I don't see why we should participate.  Tell us how much you know about who it will benefit, then we'll make our decision.  If any of you readers have any advice or council on this subject, please email or call Heidi or me.  It is Protocol Number 2309 and John Pagel is the principal investigator. 

Pelicans have absolutely nothing to do with this blog,
but I love how they utilize ground-effect aerodynamics

Following radiation in this trial, Heidi gets 3 to 7 days of isolation.  She'll be too radioactive to interact with the public.  Her clothes will have to be shipped to a hazardous waste facility.  If she takes a computer in to her room, it will have to be wrapped in plastic wrap because her sweat will be radioactive.  On the plus side, she'll be able to sell her stools to terrorist groups as raw material for a dirty bomb.  Wow, that would be a dirty bomb in more than just one way.  I can just see the news organizations reporting on how some rogue terror cell is working on a dirty stinky bomb.  That would be both a nuclear weapon and a biological weapon.  Well, it would be pretty shitty anyway.

  Enough potty humor?  Long about February 17 Toby shows up in town and starts his 5 days of nupagen injections.  At the end of that mini-vacation he donates his stem cells and Heidi receives them.  This should be about February 23.  This day is important because it will be called Day Zero in the stem cell transplant procedure.  Heidi must stay in Seattle until Day 100, which would be early June.  Those of you who have been reading from the beginning know that establishing Day Zero is not an easy thing to do.  If we decline the Phase 1 Trial, it would move Day Zero up a few weeks.  If we decline this trial but accept another, it could move Day Zero an indeterminate amount.  In other words, Day Zero is not written in stone and will be the subject of future discussions, arguments, and even perhaps epithets.  Stay tuned.

Hoping to remain a cool guy,
Scott