Great Day!!!

Yaahoooo! Kidney stone extraction successful! Feeling great.

(Disclaimer: I think I am still feeling the effects of sedation. I am not to make any important decisions or sign any papers less than 24 hours after waking up. Therefore, this blog is at risk for some off-center thinking/writing.)

We left for Hershey medical center at 5:45 am this morning after Barb downed two cups of coffee. I was not to have anything to eat or drink after midnight so no sugar or caffeine jump start for me. 

We did a fair amount of waiting around, but nothing serious. I went into surgery around 9:30 and woke up at 11:30 am WITHOUT A KIDNEY STONE, CATHETER AND PEE BAG. The procedures I had were: cystoscopy, right ureteroscopy, basket stone extraction and stent placement.

Translation: going through my urethra they grabbed the whole stone (with a basket??) and pulled it out in one piece. No Star Wars laser beams were needed or sonic blasts to break the stone. They were prepared to use a laser, if needed. The stone was sent to a lab to determine type. I won't know the results until I go back next week to have a ureter stent removed. The stent was placed to allow the inflamed ureter to heal without any possible adhesions which could block the flow of urine from the kidney. Don't want that. So, one more trip to Hershey for stent removal. We plan to coordinate that with my oncology visit next Friday during which I will have some blood tests done and discuss future treatments for the pancreatic cancer.

After post op recovery and getting on my feet we headed home at 4:30 pm and I was starving. Had a crazy urge to have a crab cake so we stopped at Martin's Country Market on the way home and bought one (Barb didn't share my compulsion). I had a great supper w/fresh tomato, sweet corn, crab cake, spaghetti.

Last evening we had a delightful "ice tea, pears, crackers and cheese time" with Norman and Darlene Hofer of Freeman, SD. It's always fun to catch up on the haps in SD.

Thanks everyone for your support and prayers today ... and earlier ... and upcoming. You help keep me dealing with the real.

One week down ... one to go

I am just past the middle of a two-week misery. It's been a very real "deal-with-the real" deal! I am looking forward to relief this Friday when all my plumbing accessories and personal 5 mm kidney stone ("Ricky's Rock") are scheduled to be removed.

This has been a far more wretched experience thus far than I ever imagined. I would have to say the most miserable week of my life. Oh, true, it's not as uncomfortable as a kidney stone blocking the ureter! I'm grateful for that. But it was only yesterday that I stopped taking the tylenol w/opiods and other drugs to help relieve my suffering. And those drugs have some very nasty side effects — dry mouth, drowsy, wooziness, altered mental state, etc. I still have considerable unpleasant "discomfort", but am managing. After today, I think I may start taking the pain killers again.

I have learned more about human anatomy than I ever wanted to know. Bottom line is this: a man's tallywacker was not designed or intended to have a 1/4" rubber hose threaded through it! And a man's bladder is not intended or built to have a stent, hose and balloon in it ... all at the same time!!!

SUMMER IN LANCASTER COUNTY

Now for some lighter fare, I want to share some of the great experiences of the summer before the stone.

My first cousin Duke (Don Jr.) and Kay Harkcom from Hudson, WI, visited over the July 4 weekend.
We had a great time cooking and eating gourmet meals at home and played board games.

My brother Reed and Susan Schrag drove out to see us the first week of August. We had fun taking in much of Lancaster County. When at the Green Dragon market in Ephrata, Reed and I saw a pig stomach for sale at the New Holland Meat booth already stuffed w/potatoes, onion and sausage. And only $2.99/lb. My brother, Reed, is a master at preparing "sow magen" using our family sausage recipe. He has prepared dozens of them over the years. They require some work. We consider them a gourmet food. They are prepared for holiday meals and special occasions. Anyway, an impulse purchase was made and we took home a Lancaster County "Dutch goose", as it is also called here. The "Dutch goose" name's origin is supposedly when Amish families could not afford a real goose for Thanksgiving they would prepare a stuffed pig stomach instead. I roasted it on my Green Egg cooker/smoker. No, it didn't match up to the ones Reed prepares, but was fun.

 Sow magen ready for the Big Green Egg.

I started to cut the net. It did not burst from roasting. I forgot to take a pic of the sliced "goose".

We also went to the Leola produce auction. It was very interesting observing buyers of large quantities of produce.

 Muskmelon (here more affectionately called cantaloupes) at the Leola Produce Auction.

 Buyers (and tourists) sampled the melons.

 Produce delivered to the auction by horse or steel-wheeled tractor,

depending on your denominational niche.

Presentation is important.

Ready to do some canning?

Susan and brother Reed on the front steps of Mascot Roller Mills, a water-powered grain mill. We also toured the Ressler home. A fascinating historic place in Lancaster County.

In mid-August we enjoyed a visit by Barb's sister Becky and husband, Steve Hagenah, who drove from their home in Bemidji, MN to PA just to see us.

We went to NYC over a weekend. Stayed one night in a 4-star hotel on Time Square. Parked at St. George on Staten Island and took the ferry to Manhattan.

 We visited the National 9/11 Memorial on the site of the World Trade Center. This one of two one-acre waterfall reflecting pools; one at the footprint of each tower.

We purchased a CitySight hop on/hop off bus tour. Other than some overbearing tourguides it is a good  way to visit NYC. Ricky and Barb up close w/Lady Liberty. What happened to her flame??

Steve and Becky just before we took a boat cruise around Manhattan.

One World Trade Center (formerly called Freedom Tower?? - ambiguous?) at left is "topped out" and scheduled to open late 2013. I'm not sure what the other skyscraper at right is called. Maybe Two or Three World Trade Center.

I had to take a picture of the beautiful varieties of wild rice Becky and Steve brought from northern Minnesota. I think the color difference is largely a result of different roasting times.

On Aug. 16 Burton and Eileen Kaufman from Marion, SD, stopped by as part of a larger East Coast tour they took which included visiting their daughter and son-in-law in Harrisonburg, VA. Barb gave them a tour of the MCC office. Unfortunately I was at work and missed seeing them, but appreciate the contact. Depending on my condition, we hope to connect with Norman and Darlene Hofer of Freeman, SD, who are visiting here this week.

And those are just a few of the highlights of the summer. We are enjoying more moderate temperatures here now. Thank you for your interest in my well-being and following the blog. Any and all comments are appreciated and give the blogger added stimulus to post.

Half-stoned and drowsy for two weeks

It looks like I will be pretty messed up for the next two weeks, until the Friday, August 31, procedure to remove the 5 mm uric acid kidney stone lodged half way down my right-side ureter.

I just got off the phone with a urology nurse AND the doctor that installed the ureter stent and Foley catheter. I called in to Hershey this morning about my ongoing severe pain and discomfort at the bladder since the procedure on Friday and they both said the same thing: Take the Vicadin and suck it up! Not what I wanted to hear. I am also taking Ditropan to relieve bladder spasms. Also antibiotic and FloMax. As you can surmise I have generated quite an array of pill bottles. I am somewhat anti-pill and this takes me out of my comfort zone. I took only straight acetaminophen before bed last night and woke up with pain of .... oh .... I'd say a "7" on the pain scale. Not pleasant, so the call to Hershey was made.

So... here are the trade-offs of Pills vs. Pain (no pills)

Vicadin: altered mental state — Whoopee! So now I'm half-stoned.
               dizziness — I can't drive the car or operate machinery.
               dry mouth — Yup, got that.
               dizziness — Yah, that too.

Ditropan: drowsiness — Oh yeh! I might as well sleep through most of the next 12 days.
                blurred vision — at first I thought my eyeglass prescription needed to be updated.
                dry mouth — This is not fun.
                dizziness — Double my fun.

[One would think that with all those characteristics I am now fully qualified to work in the billing office at Smilebuilderz as most of my billing department colleagues exhibit these traits!!!!!]  (Just kidding.)

That's enough to deal with for now; along with taking care of the Foley catheter and urine bags: Measuring, straining, cleaning, sanitizing.

So, unless I can get off these pills, I will not be able to perform my duties at work. Work has been an important part of my life since the cancer diagnosis. It give me a sense of purpose and well-being. This hanging around home blazed and blitzed is depressing.

In fact, I am falling asleep in front the computer RIGHT NOWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwww.

It's an absolutely gorgeous day here in PA. Temp 79°F and low humidity. Windows and doors are open and the air is clean. My enjoyment of the nice air is not impaired by the fact that I am half-wasted.

I'm going to lay down .... again. Later.....

A new, very real, side show

Hi everyone,

I'm finally back. It's been a great summer. After three 21-day cycles, I took my last chemo pill a week ago. But I did hit a bump in the road Thursday afternoon and night when a pain in my lower right quadrant steadily increased to an excruciating level requiring a trip to the emergency room in Hershey.

We arrived at the ER about 9 pm and I was miserable. On the famous pain scale of 1 to 10, I told therm "12". The ER was packed and they put Barb and me in an ER psych room which offered some peace compared to the hallways filled with ER patients and all the commotion that goes with that. A CTscan was taken and indicated a 5 mm kidney stone lodged about half way down my right side ureter (the tube connecting the kidney to the bladder). I was very happy to hear that. We know what the problem is. It isn't spreading cancer. It isn't appendicitis. There is peace in knowing what ails you no matter how much it hurts.

While I was in a narrow bed in the ER and caught occasional naps, Barb was not so fortunate as the chairs in the room are too high, hard and had useless contours. After a short sleep on a makeshift bed using two chairs, she drove home around 4:30 am. I was given heavy artillery pain killer and checked into a hospital room at 5 am Friday morning.

A urologist stopped by and said uric acid stones are common among cancer patients taking chemo and is quite certain that is what I have. Apparently the kidneys can not keep up with the onslaught of uric acid resulting from the death of so many fast-dividing cells the chemo kills. So the acid crystalizes and turn into "stones".

The stone plugged the ureter which then distended or ballooned when the pee couldn't get through the roadblock on its way to the bladder. That ballooning ureter was my source of pain. So I can add this to my list of chemo side shows.

They said the best way to get rid of the stone is to place a stent in the ureter and catheter into the bladder for a two weeks to allow the inflammation to subside and "clean up" any infection with antibiotics. They said it is too big to pass. They plan to remove the stone in two weeks Aug. 30-31.

I was dismissed at about 1 pm on Saturday after a short tutorial on bagging urine. I was still very uncomfortable but now it was the sensation of having to urinate real badly. I was told that would subside.

When I woke up this morning I was in worse pain than Saturday night. I noticed there was no urine going into the bag so it was obvious there was a urinary retention problem. I called the urologist on call at Penn State Hershey and he said come to the ER to have the catheter irrigated. So at noon today Barb chauffeured me to the ER again as I had buckled over in pain with bladder spasms much like the waves of pain that occur during child birth labor. This wasn't on my wish list either.

A nurse irrigated the catheter and some fairly large blood clots came out. They were blocking the opening into the catheter in the bladder. Whew .... relief. They sent me home w/an irrigation kit in case this happens again.

There is good news in this story. My oncologist, Dr. Nelson Yee, looked at the CT scan and called Barb Friday evening to report that the tumor on the pancreas has not changed since the last CTscan in April. That's fantastic. It's still localized. Barb and I are so glad, happy, ecstatic, overjoyed, about this. I wish to keep it that way, or of course wouldn't complain if it got smaller.

My next oncology appointment is Sept. 7.

This post is way to long and technical but I don't feel like editing it. I'm sure many of you blog followers will find this boring/too much information/too technical/repugnant. I will try to be more philosophic and share some of my deepest innermost feelings in future posts.

My parting wisdom: Be glad for effective pain killers and wonderful anesthetic drugs.

Thanks for your tireless thoughts and prayers for Barb's and my well-being. I believe I am proof they make a real difference ... a "real" I really like and can joyously deal with.

those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer ...

Yes, it's long past time to dust off the computer keyboard and hit some of those buttons w/characters on them! I hope you can forgive my blogging laxity as I've been using my time rather selfishly so far this summer. Like the heading says: lazy days. Finally, after more than a month without adding anything new to this blog, guilt has overtaken me in that I have not reciprocated your desire for my well-being. Shame on me.

Anyway, I am having a fabulous summer. I saw my oncologist Friday and started the last of three cycles of oral chemo yesterday. I will be swallowing 10 Xeloda® pills a day for the next 14 days and suffering some mild side effects. Thankfully, so far they are mild and manageable. I'm still going to work full time.

I am scheduled to have a CTscan August 24 and am anxious to know how what the mass on the pancreas is doing. Hopefully, it will stay sleeping, allowing me more time here on top of earth — as opposed to six feet under the earth — 'cause... so far.. I like it here.

I had a great bucket list weekend July-6-8 in Boston w/friend and fellow cancer fighter (prostate) H.A. Penner. We both agreed that we should spend some of our wive's money and take in a major league baseball game at Fenway Park. H.A. is a Phillies fan and I follow the Minnesota Twinkies, so we didn't have anything big at stake at a Boston vs Yankees game. We both favored the home team of course, and wearing the authentic Dustin Pedroia (second base, on DL) jersey, generously given to me by the office manager at Smilebuilderz where I work, I fit in nicely except for my Midwestern accent!!

It was a very nice day. No rain. Not too hot. The game itself was a bit lackluster. The RedSox played rather poorly, fell behind early in the game, and lost to the Yankees. But the stadium, ambience and community feeling were great! We did witness an historic event when during the pre-game activities a plaque was presented by the National Park Service big wigs from Washington designating Fenway Park on the list of National Register of Historic Places. The park ball park opened April 1912, and commemorated its 100th anniversary in April. H.A. and I we wondering if Fenway would be torn down like so many other stadiums, but after this honor it should be around for many decades to come.
I was very impressed with its condition. Owners, or whoever, have done a fabulous job keeping it in great shape. Crowd flows, restrooms and overall space was pretty amazing considering how much more room we seem to need than they did in 1912!

We had excellent seats about 20 rows up.

This iPhone photo makes the game appear much farther away than it was to my eyes.

H.A. and I soaking it in.

Self-portrait. Notice the special "first game" button.

The commemorative patch on my jersey.

H.A. Penner is released from Lancaster County Prison???

Other highlights of the Boston trip include:

   • Dinner at the Union Oyster House — America's oldest continuously open restaurant, established 1826.

   • Asking Siri on my iPhone for eating and parking places and some other challenging questions like "how many prime numbers between 1 and 100?" and getting dumb answers.

   • Looking for public toilets in Boston city.

   • Walking around Harvard Square and visiting the Harvard Bookstore.

   • Late afternoon unplanned snack at Boehringer’s Drive-in in Adamstown, Pennsylvania on the way home.

OTHER SUMMER FUN:

We have been privileged to have some visitors this summer with more coming to visit in the next few weeks.

-- Over July 4 my first cousin Don Harkcom and his wife Kay came from Hudson, Wisc. We had a great time just hanging out, preparing home-cooked meals and playing board games.

-- July 10-12 we were honored to have Renee Neufeld of Hurley, SD, take time off her incredible thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Barb picked her up and dropped her off the trail at Port Clinton, PA. What a remarkable woman hiking an amazing trail! I, most likely as most of you, can not fully appreciate and get a grasp of this tremendous challenge. This trail is 2184 miles long! It stretches from Georgia to Maine. And it is nothing like the terrain we flatlanders of eastern South Dakota know.  I recommend all of you to follow her awe-inspiring journey here.

-- We also visited with Amy Kaufman, a Marion, SD, native who was here for orientation at Mennonite Central Committee, here in Akron. She has accepted a 3-year term serving w/MCC in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma).

-- The week of July 18 we had the honor of taking three returning SALTers (Serving and Learning Together) with common North Church (Salem-Zion Mennonite, Freeman, SD) connections out for dessert at Café Chocolate in Lititz. All three have or had grandparents and parents who attended North Church, which is also my home church. They are:

• Neah Ortman of Seattle, WA, returned from a year in Burkina Faso. She is the granddaughter of Delmar and Maxine Ortman of Marion, SD.

• Ben Stucky of near Pittsburgh, PA, returned from a year in Kenya, is the grandson of LaNae and Laverne Waltner (rest in peace) of Freeman, SD.

• Michael Linscheid of Reedley, CA, returned from Honduras, He is the grandson of Hilbert and Erna Graber (both rest in peace) of Freeman, SD.

These are very mature, bright young people. We were impressed hearing about some of their experiences and are very proud of them. We wish them the very best in whatever their future holds. 

-- Last Sunday Torrie Martin, Jim King, Barb and I took a fun, relaxing and enjoyable road trip to the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA. They had a special large and impressive display of works by Renaissance artists that was remarkable, especially the condition of the works was hard to believe.

-- This past week we had a delightful evening in Gretna, including eating at the Jigger shop and relaxing in rockers on a veranda with Leroy and Janette Epp of Marion, SD, and H.A. and Barb Penner. It was valuable time together catching up on the South Dakota news and each others lives.

-- This coming week we look forward to having my brother, Reed and wife, Susan, from Marion, SD, visit us. I think it will be their first time to Lancaster County and we anticipate exploring the area together.

 -- The following week Barb's sister, Becky and husband, Steve, will be visiting from Bemidji, Minn. Again, looking forward to good times.

And of course I am in heaven with all this fresh garden produce. Especially fresh tomatoes, sweet corn, green beans, watermelon, muskmelons, etc. I have Barb to thank for some of it as she has kept a nice couple of garden patches here on MCC grounds. What a great time of the year! I hope all of you are able to enjoy it as much as I am.

Seeking inner peace

Greetings blog followers,

I have completed my first two-week round of chemo and look forward to this coming week not having to swallow those pills. Upon further reflection I must update you to say that my dislike for taking those pills is not physical as I had intimated, but psychological. No need to send me your old ball guns to inject the pills in my gut. They went down easily with water. But it is the thought of taking pills that give you headaches, diarrhea, dizziness and possibly other undesirable stuff that is hard to "swallow".

Overall, I would say so far I am handling this chemo quite well. I have issues, but no red hand-foot syndrome, serious nausea, vomiting, etc. I just take it day by day and try to stay positive as best I can.

At our church, Pilgrims Mennonite in Akron, church small groups are asked to lead worship during the summer months. Last Sunday our small group put together the worship service. The suggested theme for the summer is peace. We decided to make "seeking inner peace" our sub theme. Barb did a super job of putting together the worship service in which each of us (we number seven) did a short "This I believe" (idea stolen from a public radio program) sharing personal reflections about inner peace. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but a light went on this week: Why not put my short personal reflection in the blog? It is after all about dealing with the real. So here it is:

This I believe …

by Rick Schrag for Pilgrims Mennonite Church worship 6/18/12

When you learn that you have a mass on your pancreas, like I did last November, it stirs up and threatens any inner peace you may have had at the time… at least for a while. Fear, stress and anger take over. Gradually I started coping with my situation. I almost felt forced to slowly adapt to my new prognosis. Now, seven months later, I feel like I have a good portion of inner peace, although it has taken a different form that is difficult to explain. Whatever inner peace I had before was strong enough to survive that jolting news. But it didn’t survive and transform because of just me, but because of external sources. Because of you and many others out there who have given me countless prayers and tremendous encouragement.

When I started trying to put some thoughts together I wondered … what is inner peace? I had MY idea of what it means for me. Is it different things for different people? I think so.

The 14^th Dalai Lama emphasized the importance of inner peace: He said: “The question of real, lasting world peace concerns human beings, so basic human feelings are also at its roots. Through inner peace, genuine world peace can be achieved. In this the importance of individual responsibility is quite clear; an atmosphere of peace must first be created within ourselves, then gradually expanded to include our families, our communities, and ultimately the whole planet.”

But he was a Buddhist. This and Hinduism are where transcendentalism and meditation come in. What is a Christian concept of inner peace?

For the Amish it’s called gellasenheit — that’s a German word meaning yieldedness, letting be, tranquility, serenity. This concept comes from the Bible in Luke 22:42, when Jesus said, "not my will but thine be done," thereby making individuality, selfishness, and pride, abhorrent.

I think for me inner peace falls somewhere between these two concepts. While I probably mostly identify with gellasenheit and its tenet of submitting to God and developing a modest, reserved, calm and quiet personality, I can also understand meditation. Lately I’ve found a profound inner peace comes over me when watching a baseball game. For me it’s meditation. It’s good we don’t live in India where cricket is the national sport. Barb would lose me for entire days instead of just a couple of hours if I were a cricket fan!

Don’t be misled; I still have a full share of anxiety and “inner turmoil”. When thoughts turn to your mortality and predicted numbered days, it causes some sleeplessness and restlessness. I’m finding that when I should be thinking about the positives in my life, I keep stumbling back reflecting on the unfulfilled dreams, the regrets, you know, those “shoulda”, “coulda”, “woulda” issues. Then there is the question “What is my legacy?” Can I quickly do something that will get a bridge or building named after me?!  I feel guilty that I don’t have the compulsion to go out and get things done, do something extra special. You know - some grandiose idea that will leave a mark in the world. I can relate to the feeling expressed by Palmer Graber of Freeman, SD, who, while living with brain cancer circa 1980, said: “Sometimes I think I am too much at peace with myself.”

There are lots of questions, but no easy answers. I just try to keep on living, taking things as they come. It is a step-by-step process. There are things worse than cancer and I’ve learned that facing death doesn’t need to be a time of total despair. There are times for rejoicing and blessing. I am glad to be able to keep working. It gives me inner peace.  I was happy with my “bucket list” before cancer. It hasn’t changed since learning that my train will likely stop at the station earlier than I previously thought. I haven’t added anything new or big.

One of those bucket list items has been to see a baseball game in Fenway Park in Boston. Opened in 1912, it’s the oldest major league ballpark still in use and one of only a few that isn’t named after a bank, cell phone co. or other business. I plan to realize that dream in a few weeks on July 7 when the Yankees visit the Red Sox. I have tickets behind home plate and plan to be in deep meditation during that game.

This could be a cure for pancreatic cancer ....

When learning you have pancreatic cancer you soon discover there are a wide variety of ideas for effective treatment out there and loving suggestions offered. Some are traditional (insurance pays) and there have been numerous non-traditional (self pay) treatments mentioned. These include everything from thermotherapy (exposure to far infrared rays) to coffee enemas (I haven't been successful in finding a partner or assistant for this??).


Until now, I have taken the "conventional" treatment path, but am very excited to announce that I am thinking about starting a new non-traditional treatment — sticky buns. That's right. Sticky buns. But not just any sticky buns. Oh no, they must be Mr. Sticky homemade sticky buns. The dosage is one Mr. Sticky's sticky bun a day. Who knows? It could cure my cancer. And if it doesn't ... so what? ... what do I have to lose? 


No matter what image you may conjure up of Mr. Sticky, I must profess his homemade sticky buns are to "die for" (sorry for the indelicate double-entendre). As the ad says, they are "extremely addictive". I know what I'll do ..... I'll start my own cancer clinical trial with sticky buns as the potential elixir. What a grand idea! A new, never-done-before clinical trial to treat cancer.

This Mr. Sticky's ad has been running in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era in recent weeks. Notice that they are cheaper by the dozen. I highly recommend them whether you have cancer or not.

They ship FedEx.

The other more conventional cancer treatment I started last Friday is a new chemo regimen. For seven days now I have been swallowing five pills in the morning and five in the evening (pictured with a quarter below). The drug is Xeloda and after one week I am starting to feel some side effects - most notable are a mild headache and dizziness. After two weeks I can expect other side effects. It's a long depressing list. I accept your well wishes and prayers for minimal side effects AND effective tumor reduction or at least growth stoppage.

The five Xeloda pills I have to take twice a day. At first I thought I would like Barb to give them to me with a balling gun like we used on young calves on the farm, but I haven't had too much trouble gulping them down with water. I'm sure I have thoroughly bored you readers with this insight into chemo pills, but it's what I'm doing and inquiring minds want to know. Thanks for reading and sharing your love.