It's Mid-March now...trying to become spring...

It's the middle of March -- the same time, more than 2000 years ago, that Julius Caesar was murdered by his colleagues in Rome. Somehow, we're not a whole lot better at dealing with issues within governments and societies. We are, however, quite a bit better at dealing with health issues, at least ones like mine. I suspect people in Roman times who acquired brain tumors for one reason or another simply passed on, without even knowledge of what was occuring. Now, I've gotten unimaginable amounts and kinds of help, at realitively modest costs. The greatest part, of course, is that they are working. March 8th I had another MRI, and the results are very positive. Just like the last couple that I've had, there is no indication of cancer. So things are going very well -- though continuing to take chemotherapy while having no cancer is a bit painful. Necessary, but painful.

We've been doing a little travelling in March, though hopefully everything but another trek to Seattle is done for us. we started on March 3rd, with a flight to Reno, NV. And no, we weren't gambling... The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which I've been involved in since 1986, held its annual "Elk Camp" in Reno again, and we had a grand time there. Faith and I have gone together most years since 1992, so we have lots of good friends there, and develop new ones every year. After three wonderful days and a number of great meals -- inside and outside -- we flew to Seattle on Sunday, March 7 -- Faith's 55th birthday! Monday was a well-filled medical day for me -- MRI at 7:30; Avastin and meeting with the Dr. and Benaroya management in the morning; then collection of Temodar from Neurology in the afternoon. The MRI, just like the last two, indicated that all is well inside my skull, with no sign of cancer there any longer. So my recovery continues on its path! It was nice to get home that night, particularly considering that with the weather there were some questions about landing anywhere near home.

Now we are home, and happy to be here. There are a couple of local events coming up that we're getting ready for now -- the first is Big Brother-Big Sister's fund-raising bowling event. That's April 3rd, and Faith has a team put together called the Tongass Forest Team. There's always room to join, of course, and we're always grateful for contributions. Go to the web site at www.bbbs.org/bowlak, select sponsor a bowler, enter Faith and then Duncan in the boxes and then click search. The hotlink to the Tongass Forest Team is on the left of the name, and you can pledge on line to help us make our goal. We bowl with our team April 3rd. The following Saturday, April 10th, is our Friends of the NRA banquet, with a 20-gun raffle at the Mall the Friday evening beforehand. On Saturday we'll be busy all day setting it up; then enjoy a great banquet and event with old and new friends.

So things are going well with us...we hope they are with you as well.

Dennis and Faith

Travelin'...travelin'...travelin'...

We've been traveling around the country, it seems, for the past couple of weeks. And we leave mid-day today, back to Seattle, and while I come home Monday night after Avastin; Faith heads on to Anchorage for work. We started with a trek to Salt Lake City, to attend the Mule Deer Foundation and present information on Sitka black-tailed deer in southeast Alaska in a beautiful booth (created by Faith, I might add). That was February 10th through 14th. Two of our friends and associates came along to help with the booth and explain SE Alaska's needs for deer habitat restoration. The booth and all our efforts were tremendously successful, from all we saw and heard. Here's a picture...

Faith then flew home on Monday the 15th, while I flew south to Houston, TX on the 14th. Yes, it was time to go help farmers and ranchers west of Houston reduce the number of feral pigs on their properties. My good friends and hunting partners Gary, Chuck and John flew in from Colorado the same day, picked me up at the airport, and headed west. It was great fun in beautiful weather, and at the end of five days happy farmers were dealing with about a hundred fewer destructive porcines, while I was happily shipping over 100 lbs of organic, free-ranging, very tasty pork north to Alaska. A pic from my first ever hunting effort with a slug-loaded 12-gauge shotgun...

Now we're both home, and headed to Seattle today and Virginia Mason Medical Center tomorrow, for my 15th Avastin infusion. Only eleven to go after tomorrow! Being more than halfway done is a very very good feeling.

So we're headed out of the house shortly -- here's hoping you're having a great week too...

Dennis and Faith

Some fun in Ketchikan, and avoiding trouble in Seattle

I'll start with the fun...Faith got us into the Wearable Arts Show in Ketchikan again this winter, February 4 through 6. She created the image of a spirit of pictographs of the rock faces deep in the canyons, while I played the role of an Alaskan cousin of archaeologist Indiana Jones. We've done this several times, play parts as different as a fisherman chasing, and failing to ever catch, a seven-foot-tall Mother Halibut, and an old, leather-garbed 18th century trapper pursuing a furry black bear that turns out to be a certain gorgeous frontier lady. The people who watched it certainly seemed to enjoy us, and of course we had a grand time.

The other good happening in my life recently is the signing of my 2010 contract with The Nature Conservancy in Alaska. I've been working on a regular basis with them since 2008, and I really enjoy it. They are doing great work with the Tongass National Forest and others down here in Southeast Alaska, and I'm very happy to be able to help out and make a little extra income.

Sunday Feb. 7th we flew to Seattle for my 14th Avastin infusion, in really nice weather and feeling good that we were over the top and headed toward the finish. I had a really good nurse, Mark, and met with a newly assigned doctor -- Dr. Malpass. Everything went very smoothly, on that side. So the Avastin part went fine -- but, as we were beginning to fear from having heard nothing, the Temodar supply was not good news. Normally, every other Avastin infusion in Hematology-Oncology is followed by a quick walk over to Neurology, where I pick up the five days worth of Temodar and start it that Monday evening. Michelle or Piper acquire it from Accredo by Friday, and provide it to me on Monday -- which is a truly great service on their part. Unless, of course, the company supplying it from the East Coast is having "winter weather" and and doesn't send it out to them. And doesn't tell them until they call back on Friday to see where it is. Thankfully, the crew at Virginia Mason went after it, and over the course of very hard work Friday and Monday, managed to get authority to acquire it in Seattle, and located an appropriate and sufficient supply, in time for us to pick it up and drive to the airport to fly back to Ketchikan. We were very happy, if a bit stressed, to have it work out. For certain, we cannot thank the crew at VMMC enough.

And tomorrow -- we fly to Salt Lake City to attend the Mule Deer Foundation conference, where Faith will set up and operate a booth to provide information and attract support for Sitka black-tailed deer and the Tongass National Forest. Should be great fun; then on the 14th I leave for a week of feral pig hunting in Texas!

So life is good, if occasionally stressful. Thankfully, we're getting some very good help, which makes life a lot easier. Hope your life goes well too...

Dennis & Faith

Halfway there feels really good...

I want to start this long-overdue blog post with an apology for not writing one every week, for all of you interested in how things are going for us. Things are going so well for me that I don't think about telling people how well they are doing...maybe not talking about it so much is making me feel even better. So, for the next six months I will try diligently to tell my story more frequently. I do appreciate everyone's interest, so I will work at it.

On this past Monday, January 25th, I received the 13th Avastin infusion. (OK, I know I'm supposed to say Avastin/Placebo, but I'm getting enough feelings and reactions internally during and after the infusion that I'm quite certain I'm getting Avastin, and will likely keep saying so.) Since I'll have 26 infusions during the clinical trial -- I am now halfway through! Hurrah! I'm feeling better month by month, though I certainly feel the effects of both chemotherapies -- the Avastin and the five-days-out-of-twenty-eight dose of Temodar. Since my two most recent MRI's have shown that my brain has no sign of the cancer cells from the glioblastoma that was removed in June 2009, there are no cells for my chemotherapy to attack. The inevitable result is that they are affecting other parts of my system. Killing things, after all, are the reason for taking them in. So I work my way through that, but it is infinitely preferable to still having cancer cells reproducing in my brain.

And life is moving along very nicely in other ways too. I signed my contract for working with The Nature Conservancy as a contractor, just as the past two years. Getting back into working will help in many ways, not the least of which is earning pay. I'm doing a lot of cooking, too, as my appetites seem to have fully returned, and I have a freezer filled up with mule deer, with gifts on the side of elk and mountain goat. We've taken up using our treadmill regularly, too, as it is raining a lot and Faith and I are both trying to upgrade our exercise levels. Working well so far, too.

Travelling to Seattle every other Sunday has become pretty standard, and pretty comfortable. I've become very familiar with my medical work there, and with a batch of the nurses and managers. They know us by our first names and greet us happily, and we have great visits. We also have big trips planned in February and March. We're both going to the Mule Deer Foundation annual meeting in Salt Lake City -- Faith is running a Forest Service information booth there on Sitka blacktailed deer, and I'm running for the Board of Directors. I leave the ending Sunday for Texas, for a week-long feral pig hunt with friends. In March we go to Reno for Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. So our ventures and adventures should keep us occupied and happy.

Again, I apologize for not keeping you all better informed. Things are going well, so I shall try to keep that information level up too.

Here's hoping 2010 goes very well for all of us...

Dennis & Faith

Near the end of the old year, and coming to the beginning ofthe new year...

One final time in 2009 we are back in Seattle, for my final Avastin treatment this year. It's been just over six months since this medical mystery began for me, and I have at least seven months of Avastin and Temodar to go in 2010. My MRI's in 2009 have continously shown improvements in my brain's healing and conditions, so I am looking forward to the rest of the work. We can call the timing now close enough to halfway to look forward to the finish, that is for sure.

While some of it may never be known or understood, quite a bit has become clear to me. At the top of the list is the simple reality that people are a whole lot nicer and more helpful than I ever expected. I never thought of my outlook as negative; I simply didn't expect much of anything from much of anyone, and never worried about it much. The amount and types of love, support, caring, financial aid and other pure gifts provided to us can't be expressed adequately, but I will say that they came largely as a complete surprise to me. The fact that lots of people I've never even met wanted to help me when they heard about my glioblastoma multiforme issue continues to leave me staggered, though in a positive way. My friends and family I was not surprised by, though I am also greatly pleased there, because my connections and relationships have grown a great deal.

At the end of 2009, one thing is clear to me. While I will continue to do battle with the remote possibility of cancer within my skull, I will face it with a level of support from friend and relatives -- and people I don't even know yet -- that would have never occurred to me to even remotely exist before this past year.

To each and every one of you...thank you, and the best of 2010 for each of you.

Our deepest appreciation,

Dennis and Faith

Back home in Southeast Alaska for the winter, and a big change in our lives...

While the bulk of information in these blogs has been about me and the recent medical course of my life, today is focused around a different event. This morning we took our loving and wondrous 14 1/2-year-old chocolate Lab to our veterinarian and held with her while he released her from her terminal pains. Kona and I had just returned from Montana and other points south; returning on the AMHS Malaspina To Ketchikan on Sunday morning. While she, I and all our friends had greatly enjoyed her presence down south, it was clear that the last few days had become much less pleasant to her. It was time for her to go, and she has gone on to a new version of the Happy Hunting Grounds. It is my hope and belief that when it is my time to cross over the Great Line, she will be there, restored in health, waiting for me.

Here are some happier pics...








































































She has been a grand joy to our lives for the past 14 and a half years, and being without her is already difficult. I missed her for two months this summer, while I was being treated at Virginia Mason; then had the joy of taking her the same length of time to Montana, South Dakota and Idaho to go hunting and visit our friends -- both two and four-legged ones. She only began going physically downhill toward the end of the trip, as we headed home...almost as if she knew her time was coming to an end. Aand now it has, for her. We are moving forward, knowing we will always miss her and remember her for the joy she gave us.

Here's hoping your moments with your pets, family and friends have bright moments the next few weeks...

Dennis and Faith

Closing out November; getting ready to head home.

Tomorrow is the last day of November, and Faith and I are in Seattle for an Avastin infusion tomorrow. This morning we were in Fort Benton, Montana, after celebrating Thanksgiving on Friday with our grand friends Laurie, Jack, Bentley and Johnna. The delayed Thanksgiving dinner plan turned out to be a really good one, when Erin harvested her mule deer buck on Thursday afternoon -- a really nice one, I might add! Here they are, after we got it back to camp and hung it from the tripod. I took a "B" tag doe the day before, to go with the doe I took in South Dakota and the buck I took earlier in November. This has been a grand hunting trip, and not taking an elk or antelope is just part of the events. We all have plenty of meat now -- Erin, Heather and Faith and I -- and we had a wonderful time at various points and events. Erin and Heather got a good break from southern California, where they live, work, play, teach and learn...and Faith came here from a professional conference where she was honored with a national Forest Service award!

Tomorrow, after my various medical events, Faith and I will return to Missoula, MT. She will be there for one more day, and I will stay butcher, grind, vacuum-seal and freeze the two remaining deer at the home of our great friends Orville and Olleka -- who have provided me far more help than I can ever describe -- then head for Bellingham for Friday afternoon's rendevous with the AMHS ferry headed back to Ketchikan. This has been a great seven weeks, though I should probably apologize for not reporting events all that regularly during my adventures. I feel ever so much better than I did in October when I headed south, both physically and emotionally. Now being home in Alaska will be wonderful too, and I will continue to improve my health.

Thanks again for all your help and support...

Dennis and Faith