The Rollercoaster Ride of Bladder Cancer Comes with A Ticket This Week for a Radical Cystectomy

Life has been an emotional rollercoaster for my family these last 7 weeks, with periods of joy, tremendous stress, sorrow, hope, solemn remembrance, fear, encouragement, and gratitude.

 

The Oncology Team gave us encouraging news in early September.   As a result of the CT scans and a subsequent concurrence by the members of the Baylor College of Medicine Tumor Review Board (of which Dad’s oncologist and urologist are both members), Dad’s tumor and metastasized lymph nodes had shrunk (though neither of the members of the Oncology Team to which we spoke provided an answer to Mom’s question:  to what are they comparing the results of the recent CT scans:  the CT scans from the ER in Arizona in March, the PET scans prior to the first TURBT in April, or some other means of measurement?)  Dad could now cease chemo/immuno treatments, and he could move on to the next step in his cancer journey: surgical removal of his bladder (radical cystectomy).

 

We remembered all those who were killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  We shared the sorrow for those families that we know personally who suffered the loss of a loved one on that tragic day 25 years ago.  We honored our first responders, who put themselves in harm’s way every day to protect and serve.   And we paid tribute to those heroes of September 11 who lost their lives saving others or who have succumbed to illnesses attributed to their efforts that day.

We attended the 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony held in Livingston...

...and our hearts were touched to see this flag display on an I-69 overpass enroute to Dad's treatment later that morning.

Dad is a huge fan and has been engrossed in University of Texas (UT) football.  But I guess you can surmise that by the array of team gear, from shirts, baseball caps, and even cowboy boots, that Mom/I purchased for him for his birthday.

It required a major withdrawal from my cheese bank, but seeing Dad so happy with his team gear, was priceless.  I can't take credit for purchasing the stuffed BEVO--that was a gift from friend Willi.

For Dad's birthday dinner, Mom served up some Italian food at the convertible dinette/seating bench Dad built for Mom last year.

Rotate that cake and balloons one-turn to the left and you will see a remarkable likeness to yours truly, the Rambling RV Rat!

We enjoyed lightheartedness and constant laughter by viewing the movie, Wile E. Coyote VS Acme at the Lufkin Cinemark Theater.  The film has a “cameo” appearance from just about every Warner Brothers cartoon character, from Foghorn Leghorn to Porky Pig, from Yosemite Sam to Tweety Bird and Sylvester.  The film evoked many fond memories of Saturday morning cartoons.  (Mom always said that watching Warner Brothers cartoons introduced her to classical music!).  A definite Rambling RV Rat 5-cheese award-winning film!

 

We attended the Texas State Forest Festival in Lufkin, one of the festivals highlighted in the exhibit at the Bullock Texas State Museum when we visited Austin.  This was a comparatively small event, but we enjoyed the musical entertainment, the petting zoo, and the animal performances, though I kept my distance from the big cat!  Since we don't eat fast foods, fried foods, or foods that are generally sold at festivals, we stopped to eat at Napoli's Italian Restaurant in downtown Lufkin.  Though it is in the basement of an older office building, it has lovely decor, excellent service, and the best Italian food we have experienced yet within Texas.

Chicken piccata and chicken parmigiana at Napoli's!  Delizioso!

We were ecstatic that the lovebugs ended their flying frenzy of fornication and that the Meteorologist in the sky finally produced some weather with low-humidity and tolerable temperatures.

We even had a rainbow!

We still volunteer at the Mannafest Food Pantry, with Dad helping in a reduced capacity.  And he remains active with his Masonic Lodge while Mom continues to assemble care packages once monthly with the FAITH (Families and Individuals Thanking Heroes) Military Support Group.  We played pickleball several times with our group at the Coldspring Methodist Church.  They are such a nice bunch of folks who welcome all skill sets to join in the fun and fellowship.

We were blessed to be visited by/spend time with some wonderful friends.  Though we may not be blood relations, the RV community is our true “family”.

 

Tia Juanita Fish Camp is a new restaurant in town, and we have enjoyed it immensely.  This dish is called "The Ricky" and can easily feed 2-3 people.

Of course, some of my good friends are furry or feathered!

 

Halloween is fast approaching!   

 

We were happy to participate with our line dance group in performances that brought smiles and good cheer to the residents at two area nursing facilities. 

I love seeing all the Halloween yard ornaments. 

I picked out what I think is a perfect Halloween costume for my Mom and Dad.  What do you think?

Mom has been screaming and howling, but it isn't because of Halloween.  On top of worrying about Dad’s health and being his home healthcare aide post TURBT procedures, she has been stressed to the max dealing with medical billing issues.  For instance, Dad’s 10 chemo- and 5 immuno- therapy treatments that failed to shrink the bladder tumor cost over $1 million.   Our faith-based plan paid one-third of the cost, at a rate 40% higher than what Medicare would pay out.  Yet, Baylor-CHI (Catholic Healthcare Initiatives)-St. Luke’s is balance billing us!  Thankfully, Mom had familiarized herself with the processes and nuances of our faith-based plan.   She contacted the Patient Advocacy Group associated with our plan, and they will handle negotiating the bill down.  Hopefully, they will reach agreement with the provider for a zero balance.  It is quite evident how more than half of all U.S. bankruptcies are attributed to medical debt.

 

Making matters worse, we felt confused and deflated after a meeting with Dad’s urologist.  We left his office quite apprehensive and with more unanswered questions than when we arrived.   Apparently, prior to the radical cystectomy, Dad would be required to undergo another TURBT (transurethral resection of bladder tissue) procedure to confirm the size of the tumor.  Despite the Oncology Team telling us that the tumor and lymph nodes shrunk in response to the chemo/immuno treatments, the urologist said he couldn’t make any definitive determinations until after the TURBT.

 

Sadly, the results of the TURBT, which occurred in mid-October, were disappointing and discouraging.  The treatments failed to cause any measurable shrinkage of the bladder tumor.  (Clearly, the Oncology Team painted a more optimistic picture than the reality of the results, although Dad’s quality of life improved vastly from receiving treatments). Therefore, the bladder will be removed surgically along with the cancerous pelvic lymph nodes.  We don’t know whether the affected peritoneal lymph nodes will be removed.  The urologist said there will be many “game day decisions.” However, Dad has decided not to pursue a neobladder.  Instead, he will get a more traditional ileal conduit.   After further research and following the bladder cancer journey of NFL player Deion Sanders, Dad learned that the neobladder comes with higher risk factors/complications and longer recovery time.  The neobladder requires training the surrounding muscles and comes with the possible need to self-catharize (that thought has Dad completely traumatized!).  Not to mention that Dad could suffer from long-term incontinence because of the neobladder not functioning properly (Deion Sanders is 16 months post-neobladder creation.  Yet, he still suffers from incontinence.  At least he parlayed that into a spokesperson gig for Depends!).

 

With surgery occurring on Monday, October 26, I am calling on my army of prayer warriors!  My family is so appreciative of the public and private outpouring of support!

 

Beneath a poster of Bryan Cranston's character Walter White/Heisenburg (Breaking Bad), Dad was doing his best impersonation.  "SAY MY NAME!"

 

Visiting Corpus Christi, Texas to Escape the Frenzied Flying Fornicators (A.K.A. Love Bugs) in East Texas

Incoming, incoming!  We are being invaded!   Known to most folks as “love bugs”, but I call them frenzied, flying fornicators (Triple Fs), these insects have been driving me crazy for the last 6 weeks!  It is an insult to Herbie, that adorable Volkswagen Beetle, to share his nickname “love bug” with these pesky insects!

 

After finding a pair doing their mating ritual on this stuffed rat’s shorts, I petitioned Mom and Dad to take another road trip to escape the madness of these Triple Fs.  Thankfully, my parents readily agreed.  

 

So, off we went to Corpus Christi.  I noticed refineries were abundant in the Corpus Christi area, yet fuel was more expensive there than anywhere else along our route.  Though much of Texas needed rainfall at the time, the cotton fields looked like they were thriving.

We settled into our room at the Comfort Inn Suites, then we went to dinner at Doc’s Seafood and Steaks.  It offers two floors of dining options, glorious sunset views, musical entertainment, and delicious fresh seafood.  For these reasons, we made this our “go to” place for our daily evening meals, alternating between the casual downstairs bar set-up and the full-service upstairs dining room.

Bands played on the lower level, while upstairs dining featured solo artists.

We enjoyed the "boils" of shrimp, hushpuppies, sausage, and corn at the downstairs bar.

One of our delicious dinners at the upper level.

Doc's offered magnificent sunset views every night of our visit.

We started touring the next morning, putting our Texas State Park Pass to good use by visiting Mustang State Park.  Being a weekday morning, there were few human visitors, so we enjoyed peace and serenity as we walked the beach.

 

We explored Port Aransas, too.

I could have bought a “genuine” shark tooth for a mere 99 cents here at The Islander.  Dad finally convinced me it wasn’t a good investment of my cheese money.

I considered grabbing a shark tooth from this guy, but Mom put the kibosh on it.

Then we utilized our National Park Pass at Padre Island National Seashore. I learned that all 5 species of sea turtles found here are on the extinct list.  Native dwellers used the area to fish seasonally, early Anglo-Saxon settlers farmed here, and the island was used for open range ranching in the late 1800s.   

We walked about a half mile down this road to visit the Novillo Line Camp, one of the areas used for open range ranching.

We learned the ranch is still occupied—by a herd of deer.

Based upon the sign, I thought I would see lots of wildflowers along the Grasslands Nature Trail...

...but there was little in bloom.

I earned another Junior Ranger badge!

You can drive along the beach at Padre Island National Seashore, though after a certain point you require 4-wheel drive.  We did a couple of miles with the Rambling RV Rat Pack Rubicon, but if you know Mom, she prefers to explore by hoofing it.  The winds gusted at about 25 miles per hour, which made Mom’s hair frizz and space out so much on the sides that it looked like she had wings.  Give her a white robe and a set of rosary beads and she could pass for The Flying Nun.  Despite the crazy hair and micro-derm abrasion treatment she received from the sand pounding at her skin, Mom insisted she participate in the UP2U cleanup program sponsored by the Park Service.  

By watching these youngsters, I learned a valuable lesson on why you should NEVER feed a seagull--he brings all his friends and family to dinner with him!

It took less than 15 minutes for Mom to fill up the biodegradable bag provided at the Visitor Center with unwanted beach trash.

We spent several hours one day touring the USS Lexington Museum.  Though general admission tickets are a bit steep at $25/person, discounts are offered for children, seniors, and military personnel.  And the museum is so interesting, it is worth every penny.

 

Commissioned in 1943, the USS Lexington aircraft carrier served in the Pacific Theater of World War II.  Though decommissioned in 1947, it was brought back into service in 1955 and remained in service until 1991, after which it came to Corpus Christi to become a tourist attraction.

 

The USS Lexington holds the distinction of being the first ever US Navy aircraft carrier to have women crew members onboard.  Interestingly, today’s aircraft carriers carry 5,000 people—4 times the capacity of the USS Lexington.  Today’s carriers can be at sea for months at a time and can go 20 years without refueling.

 

The USS Lexington Museum offers a weekend of camping onboard.  No thanks, this stuffed rat likes his life of luxury RV living.

I decided Dad needed a "time out." 

This art piece demonstrates all different types of knots!

My favorite part of the ship was the mess hall!  Looks like they ate pretty well onboard, but I guess you had to give the crew something to keep 'em happy in confined quarters for months at a time.

I should buy this book for my Mom!  Although being of Italian heritage, she seems to know how to cook for an army anyway.

 

Apparently, my brethren were not welcomed onboard the USS Lexington--rat guards were installed on all the lines leading from the ship to the pier. 

View of the harbor from the USS Lexington, including the longest cable-stayed bridge in the US.

On another day we drove to Kingsville, about an hour West of Corpus Christi.  We traveled alongside wind turbine farms that were so ginormous, the big boy cranes next to them looked like Tonka toys.

 

Our destination was the famous King Ranch, which today is recognized as the largest ranch within the US of A.  I learned on our bus tour that the ranch founder, Richard King, parlayed 2 Spanish land grants totaling 68,500 acres that he purchased along the Santa Gertrudis Creek in 1853 into about 3 quarters of a million acres at the time of his death in 1885 at the age of 60.  He transformed the entire cattle industry along the way.  In fact, his Santa Gertrudis cattle was the first beef breed developed in America, recognized by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1940.  And the Quarter Horse breed was developed here, too.

The "Running W" brand seen in the right foreground of this photo has been in use over 100 years.

King's backstory is intriguing.  After his parents died when he was 9 years old, his aunt sold him into servitude to a jeweler in Manhattan.  He abandoned his position, ran to the docks in NY Harbor, and stowed away on a steamboat.  When discovered aboard, the captain and crew of the ship realized immediately that he was an extremely bright boy, and they taught him everything about navigation.  By the age of 16 in 1840, he became a steamboat pilot.  Two years later, he and a friend were running their own successful steamboat company.

 

King helped the Confederates during the Civil War since the main causeway to transport cotton was on his property.

King Ranch is still an operating cattle ranch, but with fewer cattle and cowboys than in its heyday.  But the promises King made to his ranch hands back in 1853 are still in existence today: the Ranch still feeds and houses the cowboys and their families, offers free education to their children, and promises a job for life.

I learned that in addition to the cattle and horse operations, the ranch property contains a huge natural gas deposit.  So, this place is a proverbial gold mine for the King family.

 

Sadly, of the 220 current descendants of Richard King, none live on the premises or are involved with the daily operation of the ranch.  It is all handled by a management company.

The 37,000-square-foot, 17-bedroom home with 26 fireplaces, built in 1913 for $375,000, has not had anyone reside in it since 1974...

...except this peacock, who appears to be a squatter living on the porch. 

This building, once a guest quarters, is now used as an event center.  Wish we could have toured the interior of the residential property buildings, but that is off limits.

We only viewed a small fraction of the ranch’s acreage.  And although I couldn’t get many good photos from the moving bus, we were blessed to see lots of wildlife including javelinas, herons, waterfowl, and several different birds of prey.  In fact, 326 species of birds have been identified on the premises, which is no surprise since 400,000 acres are designated as a Wildlife Conservation Area.

 

Some of the original machines used on the ranch are still found on the property.

The Santa Gertrudis Creek runs through the ranch acreage.  In fact, the property was originally called Santa Gertrudis Ranch.  However, Richard King's widow renamed it King Ranch in homage to her deceased husband.

Recognize this barn?  Ford features this iconic structure in its commercials/advertisements for its F-150 King Ranch Edition pickup truck. 

The tour was a steal for the $12/adult ticket.  And how fascinating it was to learn that the only other tour guests once worked on this ranch in the 1990s and currently raise St. Gertrudis cattle in their homeland of Australia!

 

We purchased an additional $10/adult ticket for the museum in town, which was once an icehouse and now is a gorgeous event center.  However, no photos were permitted. 

 

Going to the Corpus Christi area was a wonderful diversion and a good way to celebrate the start of our 15^th year “houseless”, enjoying the fulltime, mostly traveling (except when Dad has medical problems) RV lifestyle.   Ironically, with diesel prices so high these days, it proved more economical for us to take this mini getaway by driving the Rambling RV Rat Pack Rubicon, stay in a hotel, and take all our meals at restaurants than to tow our home on wheels.  Plus by leaving the RV setup at home, we were able to fit into the parking lot at Buc-ees in Wharton to visit my beaver buddy!

 

We were so thrilled when RV friends David/Carol made a detour along their route home from a cross-country trip to come visit us in Texas!  A grand time was had by all.

 

Mom cooked a family-style dinner for David/Carol one night...

...and then Jim/Lisa joined us all for dinner at a local Mexican joint.

I can’t believe that Dad has been getting his chemo/immuno therapies for nearly 3 months.  He is scheduled for CT scans in September, which will determine the next steps in his battle with cancer.  We thank you all for your moral support and your prayers!