50 year High School Reunion – Class of 1967

We made it!

On Wednesday we didn't know if we were going to make it to the reunion. I started chemotherapy on Friday the 7^th of July and we had no idea how I was going to react to the chemotherapy drugs. My oncologist said I would feel like I was hungover, our family doctor said that it was a sliding scale and some people get very ill.

I got very ill. I slept most of the day on Monday and Tuesday. I felt a bit better on Wednesday so we decided to drive half way, to Pierre and make a decision on Thursday morning, if there was no change we would return to Custer but if I felt better we would continue on to Fargo. We continued on to Fargo.

The reunion was scheduled for 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. Considering the chemotherapy drugs compromise the immune system we decided to attend only one evening and leave before I got fatigued, we looked over the schedule of events and decided that Saturday evening looked more interesting.

The party was at El Zagel, the club house of the Shrine organization in Fargo. It was built in the late 1960s if I recall correctly,  when they tore down the old Shriner building in downtown Fargo, I was in DeMolay at the time. El Zagel is a great place for a party.

We got there early, got registered and got a drink, said hello to Paul Meyers. The place looked very festive!  We looked over a display of photographs taken by George Schatz and news clippings that he and his mother had saved, there were hundreds of pictures as George was the yearbook photographer. George reminded me that we had both been in DeMolay during high school and he shared a couple of interesting stories.

Carol and I found a spot to sit down and watch people for a while. No sooner had we sat down

Terry sitting on the ice.

I saw Terry Miller. Terry and I had done a fair amount of SCUBA diving together, some of it chopping holes in the ice and diving under the ice. There were some interesting stories about that.

About that time Tim Berreth walked up and joined the conversation. Tim and I were study partners while we were engineering students at NDSU. Tim was also a SCUBA diver.  When he was in the Air Force he was flying a supply route to Vietnam and visited me twice when I was stationed in Okinawa. And we kept in contact throughout the years.

Dave Anderson walked by and visited for a few minutes.

 

And the evening kind of progressed like that...

I spoke with Stella Coser our exchange student from Brazil, Ann Koslofsky, Terry Slinde, Carol Nelson, and Chuck Stanton.

Got to speak with my old neighbors: Janice Rorvig, Dave Knodel, and Barb Moorhead.

BBQ was provided by Famous Dave's and was very tasty.  Tim Berreth joined us for supper.

During supper Paul Meyers and Merrill Piepkorn were MCs. My name was drawn out of a hat for a gift. On the way to the stage I began to get anxious and when Merrill put the microphone in front of me, with the question, "what is so great about Custer", I blurted out, “nobody lives there.” I wish my anxiety would leave me alone for a day. I could have said, “the rock climbing is great”, or “during the off tourist season it is very quiet and serene there", or "it is close to heaven."  I got back to my seat and my knees literally shook for 20 minutes. Reminded me of the panic attacks I had during Ted Larson's speech classes in the 9^th grade, I hated that class.

After supper the program continued with speeches from our class valedictorian, Shirley Olson Flittie

and class president, Stanley Grimm. Stanley is just as funny as ever. At the end of the program the group got together for the class picture.

I was getting tired and figured we should excuse ourselves in about 30 minutes, I wanted to say hello to a few more people. I visited with Gray Doffin, Stanley Grimm, Jan Byhoffer, Carol Lageson Seim. Then I caught up with Shiela Berg, Shiela was my angel when I was in high school, and I told her so. She always had a wonderful smile and a pleasant word that caused the sun to shine into my wretched life (I struggled with severe anxiety and depression) if just for a minute. I missed some people, sorry, I just ran out of energy.

On our way out the door I spied Nancy Willson and gave her a big hug and thanked for her many kind words on Facebook.

Tim Berreth walked us out to the parking lot and we chatted for 15 minutes more, promising to get together sometime in the next year.

Many thanks to Paul Meyers and the Reunion Team for putting on an awesome party.

I would say, "see you next time", but I doubt that I will be here for the next reunion. If I am not please “lift one for me”.

And if you are in the Black Hills of South Dakota, please look us up in Custer. We are in the phone book.  We always have the coffee pot on. And we love to share our love of the area with others, it is a beautiful part of the country. We have three seasons here, tourists with kids during the summer, it is a busy time of the year; newly weds and nearly deads in the fall (which is one of the best times to visit the Hills as far as I am concerned); and winter/spring, when the snow birds leave and “there is no one here!” (Winters are mild in Custer, snows don't usually hang around for long, unlike Fargo where the snow that falls in November is still on the ground in April, and temperatures are typically 20 degrees warmer than Fargo.  And if you want to try rock climbing, that could be arranged too.

Love to all,

Van

Flush Twice

Cancer Sucks!

Cancer is a mind fuck.  It fucks with your emotions.  Knowing that you are going to die in some period of time is hard to stomach.  It takes me 3 days to come around from that kind of news... and them I am back to normal.  It also fucks with your schedule, Carol and I have been back and forth, 100 miles round trip, to Rapid City Cancer Center, a good 50 days since the beginning of the year, we also made two trips to Denver, to National Jewish Health, 3 weeks and one weekend... cancer, it is time consuming.

When you go through cancer it is important to have a support team.  I like that Facebook provides ease of contact with old and new friends, a forum to share information about my fight and how important you all are in my life.  My mother's second husband, Bob, died of lung cancer.  He wrote a poem, that when I find a copy, I will share with all of you, entitled "I would rather have cancer" as opposed to dying from a heart attach, as he would have time to talk to each of his friends, to tell them how much they meant to him.  Friends, I want you to know that your comments are unbelievably uplifting.  I encourage you to keep in contact with your friends who are fighting health issues, you will be a blessing to them too.

I had my first chemo therapy treatment yesterday, the 7th of July.  I tolerated the treatment well.

I have to admit that I was pretty apprehensive about the procedure.  My luck on this journey has not been stellar.  I didn't qualify for treatments based on genomic structure of the cancer: ALK or EGFR-1.  The ALK and EGFR-1 treatments are very specific to a mutation of the gene structure in the cancer and are very effective and have very few side effects.  The treatment plan I am engaged in is a more standard chemotherapy.  The chemicals that are being used are for lack of a better word are poisons (cytotoxic) and many people have adverse reactions to the process.  I didn't.

I share this medical anthology to raise awareness about how we deal with health issues like cancer.  I found, when I began this journey that people don't like to talk about this kind of stuff (I avoided it myself) and they really should be less hesitant about the subject.  My religion requires that "my private life is my public life" and so I am comfortable sharing this with you, if one person is educated, I have contributed to the Karma of man. 

The Rapid City Hospital Cancer Care Center is a very nice facility, fairly new, well maintained, the building is pleasantly decorated and comfortable.  The staff is wonderful, courteous, well trained and has a pleasant sense of humor... they are all very special people.

The chemo treatment area consists of about a dozen rooms that face a central nurses station.  Each room has either a bed or a recliner, my room had a recliner, and a comfortable chair for a family member or friend, a couple of stools for the staff, a desk and a TV.  There are 3 bathrooms reserved for cancer patients, and other bathrooms for guests and staff.  The chemotherapy drugs are strong poisons and the hospital doesn't want non-cancer patients exposed to the drugs, for their safety.  We were told that at home, that the patient should flush the toilet twice to get rid of the chemicals expressed while pooping and peeing. 

Our nurse informed Carol and I that there should be no smooching or other hanky-panky for 3 days until the chemicals are gone from my body. 

Generally:
Don't go out in the sun, cover up, wear a hat and SPF 15 sun block.  Pretty much standard procedure.
No aspirin or Ibuprofen.  No problem here, I haven't used a bottle in 67 years.
Wash hands often.  I put a Purell hand sanitizer in my pocket this morning.
Avoid crowds and/or people not feeling well.  I will wear a mask.  I am planning to attend my 50th class reunion this summer.
Any sign of infection, seek medical attention immediately.  You will likely be admitted to the hospital for a few days.
In general, keep alcohol consumption to a minimum.
Avoid contact sports or activities that could cause injury.  There goes judo and rock climbing... NOT!!!  Planning on breaking both of these rules this summer... I promise I will be careful.
Wear a mask while mowing the grass or working in the garden.  Both disturb the ground and expose the patient to pathogens that are normally controlled by the immune system, the chemotherapy drugs used reduce the ability of the immune system to fight off these pathogens.
Get good rest.  I have had lots of practice recovering from the lung surgery back in February and 15 days or radiation treatments in April.  I was sleeping 10 to 12 hours a day and a 2 to 3 hour nap after lunch.  Now I sleep 8 - 9 hours at night and take a 45 minute nap about every other day.
Stay active and keep doing the things you love.

After all the does and don'ts discussed, the infusion began.

First an IV was started.  Four drugs were infused. 
1.  Palonosetron - anti-nausea, to keep me from throwing up
2.  waited for 45 minutes, then a dose of Dexamethosone - a steroid, to reduce allergic reactions to the chemo drugs.  It gives a boost of energy, was warned to not overdue the added boost.  Sam Rudd and I went for a slow one mile walk, the longest I have walked since the surgery... it felt great!  And I feel good today.  One side effect that I did experience was that I still had energy at bedtime and was up until about 3 am watching episodes of "Game of Thrones" on my Kindle.

3.  waited for another 20 minutes, then a dose of Pemetrexed.  Premetrexed is an anti-cancer (cytotoxic) chemotherapy drug and is classified as an "antimetabolite" agent.  Generally it is well tolerated by most patients and can  be used long term to control cancer.
4.  another wait, then hooked up to blood pressure cuff and oxygen sensor, a dose of Carboplatin was infused.  Carboplatin is a cytotoxic chemotherapy drug and is classified as a an "alkylating" agent.  Carboplatin is one of those drugs that gets your hair to fall out.  The medical community generally assumes that most people will develop an allergy to Carboplatin by the 7th treatment, so it is typically used 4 to 6 times.  The typical allergic reaction is the inability to breath.  In the middle of my treatment, the woman in the next room had a reaction and there were 6 nurses in her room in a heartbeat.  Carol says I became pretty anxious for a couple of minutes.  Scary stuff.

Then it was all done, just a few minutes shy of 2 hours.  I felt good, maybe a bit spacey, glad I had Carol to drive home.  We made it home without incident.  Rested for a bit.  Sam and I went for a walk about Ruby Road, about one mile, with a couple hundred feet of elevation change, at just over a mile of elevation.  It is a beautiful walk, the hills, rocks, trees and wildlife are breathtaking, didn't see another person, quiet, we live in heaven.

David Scott reminded me that I always yelled at my judo students during randori, "attack", attack", "attack".  Fuck Cancer!

Keep up the good fight and remember that every day is a great day!

Love, Van