the walk to campus today, -20 below and ice crystals. definetly not the coldest it has been...


from the chemistry building overlooking fairbanks, you can not see much today.

Ben is liking his new job at ABC, we have some poster swag and Alex Tribec from Jepordary is coming to Fairbanks. He even wears a tie everyday, pictures to follow today!!
Dea

gettin' dumped on

faribanks has been getting pounded with snow this weekend, and we are loving it. Stacia came over for omlets this morning (Kimberly gave me a dozen fresh eggs from her chickens yesterday!). we got out for a hike and some photos ar Creamer's Field this morning, and did a quick skijor with pella on the slough behind the condo later in the day. we are lookign forward to getting a run in at the Moose later in the week.


breakfast


pella and i cruisin' the slough


dea walking at Creamer's Field

ben

Good Luck Party at Stacia's!

Martin's big race is this weekend. 350 mile ski race from Knik to McGrath, Alaska. This is one tough race, when setting the trail a guy died in an avalanche! We all wish you the best of luck Martin! I know you'll be fast as heck, because after all your are a Nitrate Radical!


Martin relaxing before the big race.


Stacia and Julie cooking moose steak spagetti, it was great. Julie is eating a bacon cookie that Stacia made for Martin, all the rage in food for endurance sports!


the gang, also watching the olympics, theater seating style in Stacia's cabin.

You can keep up with Martin on his adventure at :
http://sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_id=2458

Things are going great in Fairbanks, just finished a mid-term and looking forward to some skate skiing this weekend!
dea

skijor with Pella

I have finally been able to get out, Pella and I did the 1/2 mile loop twice (yes only 1 mile total, but I have to start somewhere!) and she did great. Ben skate skied to other trails at Creamers field, there is a 13.8 mile loop he went to check out. We are excited to have a new set of skate ski/skijor trails so close to the new condo.


skijoring


Ben headed out to check out the loops

It is snowing like crazy today and maybe the Moose will have some new powder to tele ski this week!
Take care,
Dea

the blender question

Hi all. I am back to studying on campus today. Among the Dan, Ted, Dea conversations at work (which usually revolve around dogs, skiing and running) was Dan asking if he could borrow our blender. when I ask what for- he said to blend carbou brains to tan the hide of his caribou! Wow, you don't get that question everyday. I said no.


Ben ran with Pella today on the slough(secondary river) behind our condo. It is a great area and the slough leads to the Chena River that flow through downtown- he can ski to his new job. There is also Creamers Field across College with a ton of skate skiing and skijoring. We are both enjoying the new area.
Dea

the new condo

a few quick pics of the new condo. of course our favorite new room is the bathroom.
We are not totally moved in, we are headed out to finish unloading the shed once Dan butchers the caribou that is in there.


I even bought rusk calm blue shampoo to match the blue in the shower curtain....



running water in the kitchen too and even a dishwasher!


Pella loves her new Fido Fleece bed, she sleeps in it all the time. maybe it was her week outside at 40 below?

back to the books, a long 3 1/2 weeks of school to catch up on!
Dea

Yukon Quest 2006

Ben and I were able to make it to the start of the Yukon Quest 1,000 mile long dog sled race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse in the Yukon. It was so cool to see the dog teams take off, the start and first 100miles is on the Chena River. The start is downtown Fairbanks and we live pretty close now.

good to be home

i'm not sure what happen to our last post in seattle- mystery blogger delete.

we are back in fairbanks, and it feels good to be home. we are slowly moving in to our new place, and it's looking great. it's much more like our old place in boulder, and much less like our little cabin in the woods. we will miss the quiet nights, aurora sightings, and letting pella run free though. living in town has it's high points too- um...crapping inside is cool.

dea is making progress, but still has a long way to go. she was able to teach lab this week, and is happy to be getting back in a routine. we have been busy, but we are getting things more under control.

all for now.


mike and sara make another guest appearence.

dinner on the Puget Sound

Jen took us out for a fabulous seafood dinner on the Puget Sound at Ray's Cafe on Shilshole Bay. Ben had some crazy crab leg thing and they gave us this bib! Thanks Jen and Brad for everything!(brad made the reservations from Boulder)(check out my new jacket, retail therapy today)dea

Seattle

Hi all. It has been awhile. The hospital was a very big deal and very scary, BUT I am on the road to a full recovery. I have some new meds and some new lifestyle changes, but nothing that Ben and I can't handle. Thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers, email and gifts. They meant so much to me. Our good friend Jen is visiting from Boulder, she used to live here and the tour has been awesome. We are finally able to enjoy Seattle today, our last day here.

jen and I at Pikes Market Place, fish store, original starbucks and chocolate shopping

Jen eating a huge coffee cake at Phinney Ridge Cafe, in the Phinney ridge area where they used to live, cool place. they micro fresh roast mae's coffee beans.

ben getting his cut across the street at this barber shop, fixing my lame haircut job.

Ben has finished designing his new photo site! he wanted to create it all himself and I think it is pretty cool, I have no idea how to do html stuff. i don't think it's totally finished yet, but check it out...www.huffphoto.com

we will be home by friday to fairbanks!! take care dea

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