It's All Happening

Cancer really sucks! It sucks the energy out of you and those around you. Willie and I are super lucky to be surrounded by many good friends and famiily. For that, we are grateful. 

Cherry harvest began on Sunday, 6/29 and we were both up bright and early to greet the crew. It's been hard to find pickers but Pablo came through for us again this year with a small but professional group. It was super exhausting for Willie (and me too) and emotionally draining as well. Tuesday was so hard, they went long, it was 100 degrees out, and the warehouse took 45 minutes to unload the truck while cherries were boiling in the bins on the back of it. Yesterday we called it quits, with 103 bins total (about 32,000 pounds) which is approximately half the orchard. The rest of the fruit will hang on the trees and rot unless anyone comes to take them for free. We will pull the trees out this year and just mow grass from here on out. We have learned that growing cherries costs us so much more than we make so that's just dumb to keep paying money to grow them. We are done. Both of us are at peace with that outcome.  

Moving on, it's time to report the schedule for next weeks surgery, chemo and doctors visits. On Tuesday, July 8, Willie will get a port put in via surgery. Then on the 10th he will have labs done and a treatment teach class. July 11th chemo will begin. That day he will be at the Hospital for 4 hours. I'll fill you in more about that when I know more. July 24th he'll get some more labs done which is the end of round 1 of chemo. Three more rounds after that. Each round 14 days, for a total of 2 months. Hopeful this will shrink the tumors. If all goes well with that, then he'll need to recover for a month or so before he is scheduled for surgery.  

It's all happening. It's been a month (almost) since his endoscopy on 6/10 which found the tumors in his esophagus. It's been frustrating and alarming to have him choke down food sometimes. Super scary. For the most part, as long as he chews it up really really really small before swallowing, he's okay. It's just painful for him to eat certain things. As a result, he has lost 10 - 15 pounds since March or April. Meat, bread, are the worst so we try to avoid. He's supposed to eat all protein and fat and avoid rice, noodles and stuff like that.  

Today is our 44th wedding anniversary. We are celebrating by working, and tonight, just relaxing. That's the plan for this weekend and the 4th too, relax, hang out, swim in the pool at the Rixey resort at RNR. This emotional rollercoaster of the past 24 days has been tough but we are strong and can do this together.