A Recap of Summer - A Taste of the Fall!

Wow…where did the summer go? Eight months ago, my oncologist told me that I needed to “go enjoy my summer.” I thought to myself, “What does he mean by that?”  “Should I expect a change in my condition come the fall”, or “Do I just take one day at a time and make the best of it”? You know me…I chose the latter. I had a great summer filled with countless visits from family and friends. Many fond memories were made and I am convinced today, there are more to follow.

Birthday Weekend

The summer started out with my cousin, Beth and her family coming up from Tucson to spend the 4^th of July with us. It was wonderful having family here for the holiday and we were excited to show them our great fireworks show. Unfortunately, the show was delayed due to an accidental drowning down by the falls. Shortly after that, my brother, sister-in-law, and their two dogs drove up in their new 40 foot 5^th wheel and we camped up in the Island Park area for 3-4 days. It was great spending some one on one time with them. During their visit, we celebrated my 52^nd birthday at mom and dad’s cabin. Den, Joey and Kelli drove up from Island Park, Kristi and Greg came down from Livingston, my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Lyman were here to help us celebrate. It was a great time together although the emotions were high. I started thanking everyone for coming and …well you know it…the emotions came out. Not only from me, but from everyone else there. Oh well, I guess that is to be expected under the circumstances. Midsummer, my brother and sister-in-law flew up and we took a quick trip up to Livingston, Montana to show them Kristi and Greg’s place. The Livingston Food Pantry, whom Kristi was working for, was having their annual fundraiser which we all attended. It was a great night filled with yummy food, drinks, entertainment, and raffles. The latter part of the summer, I had visits from my cousins Mindy, Sabrina and her husband Larry, and some friends, John and Glenys Wilbur who I had not seen in over 30 years. It was great spending time with them catching up on old times. Ok…so much for the summer company.

In between spending time at the cabin, which I did a lot of this summer, Den and I tried to spend some quality time together. We took a week to drive down and see his mom in Arizona. While there, we took the opportunity to go to a Diamondback baseball game, my first at this stadium. It was lots of fun and happened to be “Dog in the Park” day where everyone got to bring their dogs. I had more fun watching the dogs than I did watching the game. It was extremely hot that week and I welcomed the cooler air at the stadium. We also took the opportunity to do some “birding”. There were several places fairly close to Idaho Falls where we would pack up the dogs and go see what we could find. Camas Wildlife Refuge and Market Lake were some of our favorites. We saw different birds each time we went out on an exploration. Some of our favorites were the swans, grouse, red-necked blackbirds, cranes, and blue-herons. The dogs enjoyed going just as much as we did. We enjoyed having them go with us!

Toward the end of August, that dreaded fluid around my lung had built back up and I was admitted to the hospital for a week. It was decided that they would insert a chest tube hoping to drain all the fluid from around my lung. Unfortunately, some of the fluid had become “loculated” and wouldn’t drain. My pulmonologist inserted two different types of medication into the chest tube attempting to break down the wall barrier. After two attempts, we were successful and all fluid was gone. It was at this point, that he decided to do a procedure called a pleurodesis, where he injected some talc powder through the chest tube hoping to seal the two linings of the lung together. This was quite an uncomfortable procedure causing extreme pain that night. I didn’t hesitate to call and ask for some pain medication. I was discharged the next day feeling quite weak but excited to get home to my own bed. That next morning, I could hardly wait to get a shower, wash my hair and shave my legs. Without much warning, my head began swimming and the next thing I knew, I was laying on the shower floor. When I awoke, I thought to myself, “What the hell am I doing on the floor of the shower?” Thank goodness I wasn’t hurt but had a pretty good bruise on my hip where I had fallen and landed across the shower door. I slowly got up and made my way back to bed.

Dennis and I had the privilege of watching our grand dog, Clyde for two weeks the latter part of summer while Kristi and Greg spent a week in Mexico for their delayed honeymoon. Now I have to tell you, Clyde is just not your ordinary dog. He has severe separation anxiety but at the same time very intelligent. Earlier this summer, my daughter ran into the store and left Clyde in the truck with the windows partially cracked so that he wouldn’t get too hot. The next thing she knew, there was an overhead page in the store asking for anyone with a tri-color corgi to please come to the front of the store. She thought to herself, “Clyde must be having a panic attack in the car.” As she approached the front of the store, there was Clyde in someone’s arms. He had been rescued inside the store as he was wondering up and down the aisles looking for Kristi. She thought to herself, “Clyde, how did you get out of the car?”  As she went to put Clyde back in the car, she could see that he had slid opened the back window with his snout, jumped out and made his way into the store. Now if that isn’t a smart dog for you, not sure what is!!! The two weeks that we had him, nothing that exciting happened. He was a good boy and enjoyed our company.

 

Kristi was registered to run her first half marathon Sunday morning after returning from Mexico City late Saturday night. My mom, dad, Joey and Clyde drove up to Bozeman, Montana to stay the night. We met up with Kristi and Greg Saturday night at the airport to return Clyde. He was one happy camper knowing that he was going to be reunited with his mom and dad. We were excited to get up the next morning to watch Kristi race. We parked ourselves along the side of the street near the end of the race. One by one, the runners rounded the street corner and headed to the finish line. We anxiously watched for Kristi as time went on. The next thing we knew, she was right in front of us racing to the end. She looked great and finished the race in one hour and forty nine minutes. Not bad for a first half marathon race, arriving home from Mexico the night before, and having an upset tummy. Way to go Kristi!!!!

 

As we transitioned from summer to fall, I was so looking forward to the all-day fly fishing trip for two, down the South Fork, that I won on the silent auction at Relay for Life. Our guide for the day was Mike Parsons, who happened to be the nurse practitioner to my oncologist, Dr. Adams. Small world it is. I had gotten to know Mike in the office and was excited to spend the day with him on the river. October 5 was the magical day. It was a crisp fall day with the morning temperature around 32 degrees. We bundled up in layers as we knew the day would warm. We drove to Swan Valley and prepped the boat for launching at a place called “Huskies.” Mike had his own guide boat, fishing rods, and flies. My dad had decided to lure fish as this is what he was accustomed to. We were on the water by 9:30 and a beautiful day it was. The sun was shining with very little wind. The fall colors were spectacular. Mike gave me some quick fly fishing lessons before we headed down river. Fishing was a bit slow and I struggled to get my fly more than eight feet from the boat. At one point, as I began to tire, I hooked my green wooly bugger into Mike’s shoulder. Ouch…I felt bad. He took it in stride as if this was not the first time this had happened to him. Midday, we took the boat to shore to take a break and have some lunch. Mike had packed a BBQ and we roasted some brats. Did they ever taste yummy!!! We floated about 9 miles of the river and ended up at the South Fork Lodge. Fishing was spotty to say the least. Dad landed several during the day and Mike was able to fish a little along the way. He was kind enough to let me land a couple of his fish that he had hooked. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch any but that didn’t matter to me. I loved being on the water, spending valuable time with my dad, and just enjoying the great outdoors. Thank you Mike for the unforgettable day and the great memories that were made!!!

 

Last but not least, I must mention the great time I had at the cabin this summer. Mom and dad-you’re the greatest. I so enjoyed our morning walks, cumshaw card games, fishing trips, cribbage contests, evening BBQ’s and yes, mom, the time spent on the computer. It’s been a great summer and I have so enjoyed the time that I have spent with you. Family is everything, and we have the greatest family. I love you all!!!!

With that said, I will close until next time. It’s been a great summer. Hard to believe we are already into fall. Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the changing of colors, the crisp mornings, and the smell of burning fires. We have the holidays to look forward to…yeah, more family time and memories to be made. Cheers to all of you my friends and family!!!