Ding Dong...the drains are gone
On June 5, I danced in a procedure room. The last drain was pulled, and I'm officially free to move about without consideration of yanking, kinking, or otherwise interfering with the critical work this last drain had to do. My body was rejecting the thing - it turns out that my great healing powers were annoyed to be thwarted in scar recovery by a plastic tube. So much so that the prior week, my body pulled the suture into itself. That explained the excruciating pain every time the tube moved, and with extensive lidocaine and a light touch, the Nurse practitioner was able to re-situate the suture.
June 5 - the suture and the tube it was securing are gone. I even got Stephanie, today's Nurse Practitioner, to dance with me. Share the joy - right?
Untethered from drains and weekly chemotherapy, it was time to embrace life further. We are fortunate that our work and our finances afforded us the option to indulge in a celebration of being cancer-free.
The cancer-free world tour
Our tour started separately. It had been a financially more challenging year because I was working less, and we had extra expenses from my treatment. Because my husband and I traveled often for work, we could use miles and points to offset the cost of our trip. Furthermore, we both can work remotely, so we continued working for multiple weeks away from home.
Neal left first to join one of his best friends from high school to go to her 55th birthday party in New Jersey. Ariel and I joined the day after I had a 6-week Keytruda infusion. My UCSF team worked with me to time my immunotherapy so that I didn’t need any infusions on the world tour. Excellent - and the infusion center cares for patients on Sundays. Who knew? I had my last infusion after Ariel, Sivana, and I cheered and danced at the San Francisco Pride Parade.
Ariel and I got caught in a travel Armageddon when our Newark-bound flight was diverted to DC (Dulles). After 9.5 hours of trying to travel by plane, Rebecca (who talked to me from Hong Kong because she wasn’t in DC that weekend) suggested the train. Off Ariel and I went for a 2:30 am Lyft tour of Washington, DC, en route to the train station. It was her first time seeing our capital since COVID deprived her of an 8th-grade Washington, DC, trip that both her brothers experienced. She was mesmerized. And Amtrak between DC and Penn Station is a breeze.
Our NYC leg of the trip included the Tenement Museum, Shucked, delicious dinners, visiting with Neal’s mother, Connee, and her partner, Michael, sending Ariel off on her teen tour summer travel adventure, seeing Alex Edelman’s Just for Us with my friends Julie and Sven, more eating and picking up the muscle car (Dodge Challenger) that transported us to upstate NY. Spending time with Ariel and watching her connect with her camp friends, with eyes pointed forward, and eagerly embracing her adventure this summer was uplifting.
We went to Utica, NY, and stayed in a small Sylvan Beach Airbnb so that we could cook and work. Neal’s brother and niece joined on their way to move her into Duke (playing lacrosse for them with her two extra years of eligibility). New friends from the Hamilton baseball team joined us in Sylvan Beach. Mostly, we watched baseball. Watching our son play is a joy. We were there for the start of their winning streak - winning is more fun. We were disappointed by the rain cancellations. We learned about the best restaurants in and around Utica from the fans who came to game after game. We were there when Taylor was named Player of the Game. We watched pridefully as kids asked him to sign their baseballs, BlueSox programs, and mini-bats. We got to know his teammates as they played and watched one of them come out of a batting slump into being Player of the Game (and sent a video to his dad). It was so much fun.
As we left Utica, we headed to France. We didn’t spend time in Paris - instead, we headed to Burgundy. We found a self-guided bike tour that led us through vineyards and into different towns to wine and dine. Our indulgence was a Michelin 1-star restaurant three doors down from our hostelliere. We watched the church and hospice of Beaune be lit up with images in a beautiful and magical presentation. I rented an eBike on the advice of Dr. Piper and Neal, who have determined his spirit animal is the ox, powered through all the ups and downs. A metaphor for the year, no?
We left Beaune and drove to Nice, where, using Airbnb, we embarked on a 10m sailboat amid a heat wave. At 90 degrees plus at night, even a sheet on your body makes you sweat. We were glad for the new day spent on the water and, mostly, in the water! But even there, we found delicious food on the coast and enjoyed a delightful French lunch on the water. A quick adjustment put us in an air-conditioned AirBNB for the evening, and we cooked the food we would make for dinner on the sailboat. One has to be flexible.
Our friends, Christian and Angela, welcomed us to Corsica and their stunning home. We had views of the Mediterranean and surrounding islands. Captain Christian skillfully navigated us on his speedboat to Port de Cavalo, where we enjoyed…you got it…a fabulous meal and then a hidden beach and cove. Corsica's language sounds a lot like Italian (Corsica was part of Genoa before becoming part of France - Napoleon is from Corsica). It was a treat to meet their children and friends and explore a new place.
From Corsica, we flew through Paris to Austin, Texas, to spend time with Ben and stay with my cousin’s family. Once again, the highlight was eating - every night was a treat with Ben. My cousin Jennifer and her husband Trent were gracious hosts in their beautiful Lake Austin riverfront home. We saw other friends in Texas when we socialized at night and worked during the day. After a hot day with Ben, I flew to San Francisco to reunite with Ariel.