The Traveling Ducheks

We moved back to Tall Chief to be closer to Ed’s surgeon.  We are so grateful to have 3 full weeks here, so we will be able to relax both before and after the surgery.  Those who don’t know or use the Thousand Trails system, 3 weeks is a max stay at each campground (at least on our membership).  You must leave the park for 7 days before coming back again, so our time at Paradise reset our counter for Tall Chief.  We got another really nice spot here and settled in quite nicely.  The tree cover is nice for the heat wave the PNW is experiencing.  I know my Texas family/friends are laughing at the mention of heat wave, but it is pretty unusual for this area and like us in the winter storms, these folks are not at all prepared for the heat. Luckily it is supposed to be short-lived and we will be back to cooler temperatures soon.

One of the things I have been doing to keep myself busy and my mind occupied is painting the remaining sand dollars (yes, I had lots of them)

I plan to leave this one at my campsite when we move on.  I am going to start a tradition of leaving some form of art on the picnic tables of my sites when I leave.  I will make them either camp themed or something to do with the area.  Hopefully people will enjoy it.  I belong to a group called Art Abandonment on Facebook and have dropped some of my work in some of the places we visit.  I am very eco-responsible when I drop, I make sure it is in a very visible spot for someone to find easily, I leave a card with the drop that explains that it is a gift for the finder (who can keep it, move it to another location for someone to find or they can simply leave it for another), I don’t hang strings off of the art and I put them in clear bags so that the finder can clearly see what is inside.

Ed took me out to lunch on my birthday and we stopped by a couple of F.L.A.G.’s to drop off some of my sand dollars.

We stopped and picked up this funny little cake to celebrate, I mean, is it really even a birthday if you don’t have CAKE?

When we were walking around the campground one day I saw this tree growing from a fallen tree.  Mother Nature is truly amazing and I just think this is a beautiful representation of Her shear strength and ability to survive.

The Monday following my birthday, Ed took me on a whale watching tour.  I was SO excited!  There are Orcas (Killer Whales) in the area right now and I have never seen Orcas in the wild.  The tour is half a day, so we packed our lunch and headed out.  The seats were very nice and Ed booked mine right by the window!  We saw a grey whale quite close to Seattle and then saw two separate pods of Killer Whales further south.  I got some pretty good photos, but they are on my Canon in RAW format, so I need to get time to process them and I will put them up.  It’s been a bit of a whirlwind of a week.  The tour was amazing and we saw lots of beauty, not only the whales, but the scenery here is just gorgeous.

While in Seattle for the Whale Cruise, I took the opportunity to drop by a few more F.L.A.G.’s.

Ed’s Mohs surgery was July 27th, a Wednesday.  We drove into Seattle early because Ed wanted to have breakfast.  He was not required to fast, as the procedures are done under local anesthesia.  I was a nervous wreck and can’t say Ed felt any better.  The fear of the unknown is just something that can’t be contained.  We arrived for his surgery and they took him back pretty quickly.  The way MOHS is done (in the most simplistic way I can describe), they cut away a section of the cancer, hopefully enough to get it all.  They put a pressure bandage on the site and send the patient out to the waiting room for about 45 minutes.  As a patient, you are ok to go for a walk, have a coffee, get a snack…etc.  They will call/text you when it is time to come back.  During that time, they are looking at the cut away portion to see if it has ‘clear fields’, meaning that all the edges of the piece are clear of cancer cells.  If it is not clear and any cancer cells are present in the edges, they must repeat the process.  Ed didn’t feel like leaving the waiting area, so we sat and chatted and kept ourselves as busy on our phones as possible to keep from overthinking.  The doctor had told Ed when she first cut into his wound, the area collapsed ‘like a rotten apple’.  This did not sit well with me, as with my limited knowledge, I knew that was not a good sign.  The nurse came and took Ed back into the procedure room, which let us both know that they did not get clear fields.  I was not allowed back in the procedure area, of course.  Ed texted me after about 15 minutes and he told me that the doctor had cut away a bigger area and she wanted him to stay in the procedure area while they ran a STAT biopsy.  She said they had to remove much more than they initially thought, so the wound would have to be closed by a plastic surgeon.  We knew this was a possibility going into the surgery, but we didn’t really expect it.  I think that may have been the longest 20-30 minutes of my life.  The biopsy came back with clear fields, which was outstanding!  They ended up putting a pressure bandage on the wound and sending us home, as they tried to see if the plastic surgeon could fit Ed in.  We went home and waited.  The nurse called and let us know that the surgery was set up for the next day, Thursday, at 4pm.  Again with the waiting!! 

I took these photos from the waiting room of the Mohs surgery center.  It’s hard to see the beauty of the rooftop garden, but it was stunning.  It always seems strange to me that there is constantly construction going on around hospitals.  Every time I have been stuck in a waiting room away from my loved ones, I tend to get fixated on watching a crane.  Weird, huh? 

Well, Thursday afternoon came as slow as molasses.  Poor Ed had to fast all day and have nothing to drink.  I was so paranoid that he would accidentally drink something and have to reschedule the surgery!  He managed to make it through.  We got to the hospital a bit early and it seemed like forever before they took him to pre-op.  I was very upset to find out that they would not allow me into the pre-op area or in recovery due to COVID.  So, out in the waiting area I was banished again!  I brought a book with me and amazingly, I was able to read it.  As she was the previous day, Mama was constantly checking on me and was chatting with me to help me stay calm.  Man, there is nothing like this kind of situation to affirm how much you love someone.  The nurse finally called me and she said Ed was out of surgery and in the recovery area, she reminded me that it could still be another 2 hours before he would be ready to go.  No more than 5 minutes later, the recovery room nurse called and said “Ed woke right up from the anesthesia and is very alert.  Would you like to come back?”  I almost crawled through the phone to get to him! LOL!  She came immediately and got me, explaining that since it was so late in the evening and they only had 3 patients in the large recovery area, I was allowed to go back.  When I saw Ed, he looked great.  A little spaced out, his eyes were wide open like saucers…and he had tons of food wrappers on his tray.  He had told me before he went back for surgery that he was starving and wanted to go straight to McDonald’s when he was released.  I figured he would not hold to that post-op, but the first thing he did was remind me that he wanted to go to McDonalds.  LOL!  He had already been to the restroom and he had eaten a cup of applesauce, several packages of crackers and a chunk of cheese.  I was amazed…I am always so nauseated after anesthesia!  Anywho, after about 15 minutes, the nurse stated we were ready to go home.  I expressed my concern about some bleeding Ed was having and she told me to just change out the gauze.  I told her I wasn’t thrilled with the bleeding, but she assured me several times that it would stop.  So, we headed out.  I stopped off at the pharmacy to drop off Ed’s prescriptions to be filled and headed straight to McDonald’s.  Then after Ed ate his tiny bites of burger and fries, I went back to the pharmacy.  When I got back into the truck with Ed, he had bled through several wads of tissue…so back to the ER we went!  Of course, by the time we were back at the ER, the bleeding had stopped.  The surgeon met us there and took off his bandages and cleaned him up. Ed and I both were stunned at the size of his wound. The surgeon explained that the Mohs surgery left Ed with very little tissue left between his nose and lip…they had to excise so much during Mohs that he had a silver dollar sized ‘hole’ under the edge of his nose.  Fortunately, they didn’t have to remove any further tissue, but he did explain that much of the muscle tissue was excised.  The cut runs from the edge of his nose, down the cheek, past the edge of his lip and back up his cheek in a teardrop shape.  There are about 60 or so sutures.  Now, let me state here, we are so very thankful that ALL of the cancer is gone and that Ed did so well throughout all the surgery.  We realize that whatever we face now with his recovery is manageable. I just relay this information so that all our friends/family understand what he has been through and why we have been and may still be a bit radio silent.  We are both focusing all our energy into his recovery and his healing now.  I updated the blog with Ed’s permission to be fully transparent…anyone who is concerned that they were not ‘included’ in this journey up until now…I am sorry you feel that way, but I will not apologize for it.  Ed is a very private man and he wanted to be on the other side of this journey before he allowed me to share it.  He doesn’t like a fuss made over him and I will continue to make sure that I do what is best for Ed.

 

Today is August 2, so I will update this a bit down the road.  I doubt there will be much update, as we are just chilling as much as possible and Ed is spending his time healing.  Thank you for all the love and support we know that you all are sending.