the hotel

the first night at the hotel went well. jessica and i spent way too long driving all over the greater seattle area to track down some elusive medications, but other than that we all had a good night. it's so much more comfortable here- not home, but more so than the hospital. dea slept well, and has more energy today. it's raining now, but we hope to get out for a walk later.

jessica spent her time here knitting a hat for ry, or so we thought...she gave it to dea before she left this morning. dea will be all rage of new style when she gets back on her tele skis. thanks to jessica for everything.


jessica modeling dea's new hat.

also, the hottest radio station i have ever heard- KEXP 90.3 here in seattle streams their shows....we can listen in fairbanks! check them out.

all for now,
ben

one step closer...

well, we leave the hospital in a couple hours! we are not out of the woods yet, or out of seattle for that matter, but we are one step closer. dea has a follow up with the doctors on thursday. we will be in a hotel until then, where dea will continue to gain her strength and recover. the doctors fully expect us to return to fairbanks after the tests on thursday. it's currently 42 degress below zero in fairbanks, roughly 100 degrees colder than it is here- believe it or not...can't wait to get home.



we will be at...

ramada inn seattle university district north
1.800.435.0754

the team

the biopsy went well yesterday from a procedurial standpoint. we will not know the results until later today, and start making future decisions then. but, for now we look forward to a day outside of the hospital tomorrow. the doctors have given dea a few hour pass to get out into the city, and we will take full advantage.


this is the team of doctors that has been taking care of dea. we see them every day at 1:00. doctor Tai (on the left) performed the biopsy yesterday, and spends a great deal of time with dea.

a day off

we get a break today from treatment. tomorrow dea will have another biopsy to get a better idea of how her situation is progressing. today though- she gets a day off from treatment.

jessica arrived last night- so good to have her here. dea was on the receiving end of lengthy back, temple, and foot rubs from jessica last night, as we listened to music and chatted. nice and relaxing.

the sun shown all day yesterday and we were able to see the cascade mountains from the hall windows. sun greeted us again this morning, just long enough to get out for a walk, but raining again now.


there is a wonderful courtyard just below our room


dea at the water garden

fresh air

the doctors told us yesterday that dea could get outside...

sunday

dea has been feeling better most days. she is up and walking, and even poked her head outside yesterday for a bit. the treatments are still long and difficult, but she is dealing beautufully.

wanda will leave tomorrow for chicago. it's been wonderful having her here, and we will certainly miss her. the timeline of dea's realeses is still hazy, but we push on. it's getting a little warmer in fairbansk, and we are anxious to get back.


dea's room is startign to look a bit like home.


dea's new good friend 'scientist bear' spent the morning reading.


all for now,
ben

thanks tark

our good frined jon (tark) came to town for a few days on a mission to chear dea up. he was a great help, and we relly appreciated him being here.

he bought a stack of magazines for her yesterday, and today we will start ripping out pictures and getting something on these walls. it's going to be our home for a while, so we might as well make it look as such.



also, we are bing accused by some of the fairbanks crew of staging this so we could avoid the recent 'cold snap' (39 degrees below zero!). we miss the cold though, and fairbanks. julie puts it all in perspective over at her blog today.

ben

update

we have great confidence in dea's doctors, but until we have several more days of treatment, her time table for recovery is unknown. currently dea is on a rough regiment of iv drugs (through her subclavian) all day every other day, and pheresis on the days in between.

we do know that we will be here in seattle much longer than we had first expected. we just continue to move forward day to day. the one thing that the doctor's have not anticipated, the thing they can't quantify, is how damn tough dea is.

of course, she refuses to let me get all sappy here, so i will close with a photo of pella from julie's blog. we are so fortunate to have such a good friend watching our little headlamp eating monster. thanks julie.

day 4

just a quick post.

dea's cousin steve lives here in seattle, and has stopped by every day. tonight he took les and wanda out for their anniversary (34 years i think).

steve, wanda, & les

Day 3

we are getting into a bit of a routine here. dea is in the midst of some very aggressive treatment, and not feeling well at all.

it's difficult, bust she is positive. she is in good hands here.

we thank you all for your calls and emails. she feels much better after talking to friends, or when i read her your emails.

this is dea after her subclavian procedure on thursday(a catheter that is fed into her neck for her daily procedures). the comforts of home- slippers and mochas...

day 1

the fun and games are over...



tomorrow will be a big day for dea. some pretty invasive procedures and a lot of drugs. we will concentrate on getting dea better, and will most likely not blog for some time. we are settled into our permanent room now at university hospital- the # is 206.598.6276.

we are looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight. dea's mom will be in town in the morning also, and it will be good to see her.

ben

old racing pic

wow, I found this pic from back in the racing days. this laying in bed having the internet is not so bad. off to have more tests. we wil be here at least 7-10 days, so I plan to blog my time away if able.take care-dea

we're in seattle.

it's been a long day, but we are moving forward. we have spoken to two of our three doctors already, and have a fairly clear path as to what dea will be encountering over the next several days. dea has some very aggressive treatments on the horizon, that will be difficult, but we are optimistic.

it feels good to be here, and anxious to get this getting well stuff under way.

dea is in good spirits, and we have laughed more today than one would think we should.

we may raise some feathers here...but we think the coffee is better in alaska.

it hasn't stopped raining since we've been here, but it's calming. and we've got interenet access in her room...let the mindless surfing commence.

ben

more bad news...

we got dea's biopsy results tonight, and they were not good. long story short - we have to fly to Seattle tonight for treatment.

(but great thanks to our rockin' alaska friends that generously donated two free round trip frequent flyer tickets-Thanks so much Dan and Randy- Dea)

i don't have time to go into great detail here, but it seems the blog is our main mode of getting word out.

we will keep everyone posted- please keep dea in your thoughts.

ben

it's good to be home...

..to our cozy little cabin on the tundra- it's 20 degrees below zero. it's good to be home.

dea is feeling better, but she's got a ways to go. we will get the biopsy results tomorrow night or thursday, she's on more meds, and a few more blood test on the horizon. she is on the path to recovery.

we will try to keep her progress posted here, but dea's excited to begin posting more 'glamorous' fairbanks shots - not sure if there is such a thing:)

thank you to everyone for their concern- we are blessed with wonderful friends and family.




ben

back in anchorage

dea is sick, so we are back in anchorage at providence hospital getting her back on track. i typed a long detailed post last night, but dea was having none of it. it's not her style- she's mucher tougher than me.

anyway, long story short, we are spending the night here after many tests, an ultra sound, and a kidney biopsy. she is feeling better and we will know more in the morning on her situation. hopefull we will be going home tomorrow.


dea livin' large in room 392.

we will be back to our regularly scheduled program of skiing photos and pella storis soon.

ben

we're home

dea and i rolled into fairbanks late last night. we had a great weekend, capped off with a wonderful drive home yesterday. instead of coming home the same way (hwy 3) we decided to go up through palmer, ski at hatcher pass, and go around through glennallen. neither of us had driven this stretch before, and it turned out to be the most spectacular scenery yet.

15 miles out of Palmer into the Talkeetna Mountains sits Hatcher pass- a popular backcountry ski area. they are lacking a little snow for this time of year, but undaunted, we got in a few turns before heading home. bluebird skies, the sun sitting boldly above the horizon, and glaring snow...


dea hiking into the sunrise.


fresh turns.


my pack was full of camera gear, so dea stuffed her skins in her coat. alaska weight.


dea enjoying the day.


every time i stop to shoot, pella is there to help.

the drive out of palmer cuts through two mountain ranges- the Chugach to the South, and the Talkeetna to the north. much of the road is a narrow affair sans guard rails, much like Red Mountain pass in Colorado, and plunges hundreds of feet to the Matanusaka River below.


the view of Matanusaka Glacier from the road.

the upside of the lack of light this time of year is that the sunrise, and sunset, last forever. we basked in the glow of the pinkish skies for what seemed like hours. for me, the greatest sight of the trip was the stretch through the Eureka Creek valley. the temps dropped from 20 in Palmer to -20 in the valley. the valley has gotten drilled with heavy snow the last few weeks, making unimaginably vast landscape look surreal.



it's good to be home. hope you all have a wonderful 2006.

be well,
ben

greetings from anchorage

happy new year everyone. dea and i are in achorage- taking in the sights and enjoying the coastal weather. we took a walk down by the ocean today. the city does a good job of grooming all of the bike paths for skiing. we walked to the trail just off downtown, and yo can ski from there eight miles to Kingcaid Park where there are extensive nordic trails. we are off to skate ski.