Day +873: Back to school and a big day for Keri
Lots going on these days. Keri wouldn't want me to make a big deal of it, but she and Teri turned 40 on September 9th. I felt kind of bad, because both Teri and our friend Melissa, who turns 40 today, had surprise parties. Keri told me in no uncertain terms that there was not to be a surprise party for her. We were up at Camp Mather, and her desire was to leave that day by herself and spend the evening with Melissa. So she took off that morning (Sunday) and the kids and I came back late the next day. She said it was a nice birthday, but it probably wasn't all that exciting for such a big one. Melissa's husband Casey threw her a big surprise birthday bash on Saturday at a winery in Napa, which we attended. Teri and Brent flew down for it, so we got to spend some time with them as well, which was really nice. They flew down Saturday morning and back up Monday night, so we had a couple of nice days together. We really don't see them, or their kids, often enough.
We had a great time at Camp Mather. It's kind of a luxury summer camp for the whole family. It's run by the City of San Francisco, and I'm sure its origins had to do with the construction of the Hetch Hetchy dam and reservoir just down the road, which is where San Francisco gets its drinking water. The camp is located just outside the entrance to Yosemite, about a four-hour drive from San Francisco. We slept on uncomfortable beds in a very old cabin, but the food was great for camp food: teriyaki salmon one night, tri-tip the next night, pancakes or eggs for breakfast. Even the coffee wasn't terrible. We mostly followed the same pattern: get up and do something near the main part of the camp during the morning, and then go down to the lake in the afternoon when the weather warmed up to over 80. The kids made tie-dyed shirts, rode on a burro, swam, dug in the sand and caught pollywogs all weekend. One of the parents wielded the net, so each kid caught plenty of pollywogs in his plastic bucket. But only Mina put some dried leaves on the top of the water for a roof for the pollywogs' "house".
Isaac preferred hanging out in the other section of the lake next to the lifeguards, where there was more activity. There was a little dock that people would come to jump off. He called it his boat. He enjoyed chatting up everyone who came by. It was actually kind of a nice way for me to make the acquaintance of lots of other campers. The other thing Isaac enjoyed doing was playing baseball with the grownups. I bought him a little foam rubber bat and ball for the weekend, and he was thrilled. He carried the bat with him all weekend. One day some of the other NPG dads and I were having some batting practice in the main camp area. Isaac was watching very intently, asking everyone lots of questions, and was being a "fielder". He knows that the pitcher pitches the ball, the batter hits the ball, and the fielder catches the ball when it comes down. That weekend he learned that the catcher is the one who crouches behind the batter and throws the ball to the pitcher when the batter misses it. He's still not real clear on what exactly the umpire does. He said he liked it best when he and I were both the fielders. Another exciting thing that happened was that a crew came to fix one of the outdoor lights. This was on Monday, after all of the other campers had gone home. They brought a cherry picker and a crew of four to fix the light, so of course we had to stop and watch that for 45 minutes. The men were all kind of busy to talk to Isaac as much as he is used to, but it was still quite a thrill for him to watch.
One thing that was pervasive in the camp was dust. The area doesn't really get any rain during the summer, so the dust gets pretty thick by the end of the summer, about 2-3 inches in most places. Mina refused to wear shoes all weekend, so her feet were totally black from the mid-calf down. It's crazy to think just a couple of years ago we were rubbing all of her toys with alcohol if they even touched the floor of the hospital room.
Speaking of UCSF, the pediatric oncology service had its first-ever "Celebrating Our Heroes" picnic this last Saturday. I didn't think we'd be able to attend, because we had a mandatory parents' meeting at NPG in the morning, and we were heading up to Napa for Melissa's party in the afternoon. But it worked out at the last minute for me to take Mina brought her friend Anika, whose parents were at NPG. The picnic was in a big tent at the zoo, but we unfortunately didn't have time to see the animals or ride the train or the carousel. I had to promise the girls I would take them back there. Amber and Dr. Loh were the first two people we saw, and they both gave us big hugs. We saw several other doctors and nurses, and they were all just thrilled to see how good Mina looks. Dr. Matthay, who is the director of the oncology program and was the attending physician on Mina's transplant day, got teary when she saw Mina. Mina and Anika got their faces painted with matching pink butterflies, and everyone told us they were the belles of the ball. UCSF had hired a couple of professional photographers, and they were like the paparazzi when the girls were done with the face painting. Flash bulbs going off everywhere. Dr. Loh emailed us one of the pictures, which I put as the profile picture for the blog, and we've been promised access to the others. I'm working on another album, so I hope to have some great pictures posted soon.
The other medical news is that Mina had an appointment with the endocrinologist today. This was a scheduled follow-up from her two-year transplant anniversary. Mina is at risk for all kinds of hormone and endocine problems, but the doctors said her dose of radiation wasn't really that high (compared to what, I wonder?), and that something like 75% of the problems show up in the first six months after receiving irradiation, and 15% in the next year or so. There is no reason to suspect that Mina has any problems at this point, but they ordered a bunch of blood work just to see what turns up and to get a baseline. They also ordered an X-ray of Mina's hand to test "bone age". The only thing that is a little concerning is that Mina's height and weight are now closer to the 50th percentile than the 75th, because she hasn't grown much in the last several months. Hopefully she's just waiting to have a growth spurt, but that's something we'll be watching carefully over the next couple of years. One of Mina's babysitters -- just by chance -- has an older sister who had ALL as a child, and had total body irradiation and a bone marrow transplant. Her sister is 5'2", when everyone else in the family is at least 5'8". Keri is planning to take Mina up the hill in the morning, so hopefully we'll have some results within the next week or two.
We had a great time at Camp Mather. It's kind of a luxury summer camp for the whole family. It's run by the City of San Francisco, and I'm sure its origins had to do with the construction of the Hetch Hetchy dam and reservoir just down the road, which is where San Francisco gets its drinking water. The camp is located just outside the entrance to Yosemite, about a four-hour drive from San Francisco. We slept on uncomfortable beds in a very old cabin, but the food was great for camp food: teriyaki salmon one night, tri-tip the next night, pancakes or eggs for breakfast. Even the coffee wasn't terrible. We mostly followed the same pattern: get up and do something near the main part of the camp during the morning, and then go down to the lake in the afternoon when the weather warmed up to over 80. The kids made tie-dyed shirts, rode on a burro, swam, dug in the sand and caught pollywogs all weekend. One of the parents wielded the net, so each kid caught plenty of pollywogs in his plastic bucket. But only Mina put some dried leaves on the top of the water for a roof for the pollywogs' "house".
Isaac preferred hanging out in the other section of the lake next to the lifeguards, where there was more activity. There was a little dock that people would come to jump off. He called it his boat. He enjoyed chatting up everyone who came by. It was actually kind of a nice way for me to make the acquaintance of lots of other campers. The other thing Isaac enjoyed doing was playing baseball with the grownups. I bought him a little foam rubber bat and ball for the weekend, and he was thrilled. He carried the bat with him all weekend. One day some of the other NPG dads and I were having some batting practice in the main camp area. Isaac was watching very intently, asking everyone lots of questions, and was being a "fielder". He knows that the pitcher pitches the ball, the batter hits the ball, and the fielder catches the ball when it comes down. That weekend he learned that the catcher is the one who crouches behind the batter and throws the ball to the pitcher when the batter misses it. He's still not real clear on what exactly the umpire does. He said he liked it best when he and I were both the fielders. Another exciting thing that happened was that a crew came to fix one of the outdoor lights. This was on Monday, after all of the other campers had gone home. They brought a cherry picker and a crew of four to fix the light, so of course we had to stop and watch that for 45 minutes. The men were all kind of busy to talk to Isaac as much as he is used to, but it was still quite a thrill for him to watch.
One thing that was pervasive in the camp was dust. The area doesn't really get any rain during the summer, so the dust gets pretty thick by the end of the summer, about 2-3 inches in most places. Mina refused to wear shoes all weekend, so her feet were totally black from the mid-calf down. It's crazy to think just a couple of years ago we were rubbing all of her toys with alcohol if they even touched the floor of the hospital room.
Speaking of UCSF, the pediatric oncology service had its first-ever "Celebrating Our Heroes" picnic this last Saturday. I didn't think we'd be able to attend, because we had a mandatory parents' meeting at NPG in the morning, and we were heading up to Napa for Melissa's party in the afternoon. But it worked out at the last minute for me to take Mina brought her friend Anika, whose parents were at NPG. The picnic was in a big tent at the zoo, but we unfortunately didn't have time to see the animals or ride the train or the carousel. I had to promise the girls I would take them back there. Amber and Dr. Loh were the first two people we saw, and they both gave us big hugs. We saw several other doctors and nurses, and they were all just thrilled to see how good Mina looks. Dr. Matthay, who is the director of the oncology program and was the attending physician on Mina's transplant day, got teary when she saw Mina. Mina and Anika got their faces painted with matching pink butterflies, and everyone told us they were the belles of the ball. UCSF had hired a couple of professional photographers, and they were like the paparazzi when the girls were done with the face painting. Flash bulbs going off everywhere. Dr. Loh emailed us one of the pictures, which I put as the profile picture for the blog, and we've been promised access to the others. I'm working on another album, so I hope to have some great pictures posted soon.
The other medical news is that Mina had an appointment with the endocrinologist today. This was a scheduled follow-up from her two-year transplant anniversary. Mina is at risk for all kinds of hormone and endocine problems, but the doctors said her dose of radiation wasn't really that high (compared to what, I wonder?), and that something like 75% of the problems show up in the first six months after receiving irradiation, and 15% in the next year or so. There is no reason to suspect that Mina has any problems at this point, but they ordered a bunch of blood work just to see what turns up and to get a baseline. They also ordered an X-ray of Mina's hand to test "bone age". The only thing that is a little concerning is that Mina's height and weight are now closer to the 50th percentile than the 75th, because she hasn't grown much in the last several months. Hopefully she's just waiting to have a growth spurt, but that's something we'll be watching carefully over the next couple of years. One of Mina's babysitters -- just by chance -- has an older sister who had ALL as a child, and had total body irradiation and a bone marrow transplant. Her sister is 5'2", when everyone else in the family is at least 5'8". Keri is planning to take Mina up the hill in the morning, so hopefully we'll have some results within the next week or two.
posted by Arne Olson @ 9:35 PM
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