School's Out for Summer

June 2, 2008

I found myself thinking about Alice Cooper over the weekend. Not that I ever cared too much for his music (or cosmetic choices), but who among you of a certain age can ever let the end of the school year pass without channeling his [excerpted] lyrics:

School's out for summer
School's out forever

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks

Erin brought the end of her own school year (an incidentally her entire elementary experience) to a close in true "Erin Style." Between Erin and Davis, the Buenger family has had a close association with Mary Branch Elementary for fifteen years. How could we afford to thank everyone who had influenced, cared for, nurtured (and in some instances) provided some needed smack down? Truman's Chocolates, of course (I recommend a little side trip to this link. You can roll your cursor over each piece of chocolate, see what it is, and imagine yourself savoring it). Really, who can resist giving art, tasty art as a gift? Erin and I ordered 32 small boxes of Truman's to pass out to everyone who had anything to do with our family over the last decade and a half. This included cafeteria ladies, custodians, secretaries, teachers, the nurse (of course), and practically anyone who had smiled at Erin or Davis or made their days. She really enjoyed passing out the goodies and hearing the wows and woohoos that came along with the thank you hugs.

Erin continued the race to the end of school by garnering a number of small recognitions (a math award, good grades award, etc.) and doing some of the introductions at the graduation ceremony. Both she and the person responsible for reminding her (note bene: not her parental units) forgot to take her scripted comments to the ceremony. Unfortunately, the teleprompter was also on the fritz. Thus, she winged it. . . successfully, of course. No problem for the next president of the United States.


The ceremony rolled into the reception with much hugging and many goodbyes (mostly to people we are destined to see over and over again over the next days, weeks, and years). We then took an impromptu lunch with many of our friends and ended the day with a grade-wide pool party.

Erin has hit the pool or lake every day since.

We ended the second week of chemo early on Saturday morning (week two requires a little less coordination because the Rhino is served sans Temador). I have to say that irinotecan/temador is more trouble to administer and has a few more niggling side effects than popping the cyclophosphomide tablet with the breakfast vitamin every morning. Erin has taken Imodium every other day or so, but usually only one dose. I wish the rest of the time wase normal, but in fact, she seems to have to pass through a constipation stage before she can get to diarrhea. Intermittently, she actually has normal digestion. I think she prefers the diarrhea to the constipation because of the accompanying stomach pain and bloating. When she has a lot to do, she doesn't notice the discomfort of either end of the spectrum, but if I slow down the party to get her some rest, she really focuses on it. What to do? Keep the party rolling.

Today she headed out to First Pres Music Camp for the morning, followed by PT at 2:00, and tryouts for next year's Mystic team at 6:00. Tomorrow, she'll do a short day at camp, then we load up for a quick trip to clinic in Houston. Wednesday is more camp and more tryouts with a Credit by Exam test for 6th grade Science sandwiched in between. Thursday will be an easy day, just camp and Credit by Exam testing. . .oh and playing with her buddy Jackson Ross afterwards. Friday is just camp, plus the Camp finale performance. Maybe it will be enough to keep her mind off her digestion.

Wild Life

May 22, 2008

The Wild Life--Part 1

Willie tried his hardest to entertain us at dinner last night. He played rope toy with Teddy, and although she never actually became airborne, he did swing her around impressively. He also attempted to break the sound barrier while running circles in the living room, but left us contemplating a quick trip to the vet as he failed to reach Mach 1. (Really, why tolerate a dog like Willie if he can't even create a good sonic boom at mealtime?) Finally, near the end of dinner right before Erin started on her evening pill swallowing extravaganza, he settled down with what looked like a tasty stick or perhaps a purloined bit of table scrap. The look on his face and his seriousness of purpose said it all: "How much delight would my audience have with a mere stick? Wouldn't a smallish lizard, entrails exposed, create a much bigger sensation?"

I wrestled the lizard corpse away from him and settled back down to keep Erin company as she popped pills.

Erin: "The tail."

Mom: "What tail?"

Erin: "The tail."

Mom: "What tail?"

Erin (more loudly): "THE TAIL."

Mom (no glasses) scans the floor: "Walter, I don't see a tail, but Erin thinks she sees one."

Dad (walking to the spot, napkin in hand): "Oh, that's just a leaf."

Erin (insistently stomping over to the spot and pointing): "The black and green and brown thing, right there! That tail."

Dad: "Got it."

Erin (returning to the table): "Pass my pills."

The Wild Life--Part 2

Our neighbor, Ed, doesn't like animals. No pets at his house. No fondness for other folks' pets. No kind pat on the head for Luke. No kind word for Teddy or Uma. Needless to say, Willie is an abomination. He wanted no part of the matter when Baby Bun took up residence under his propane tank.

Perhaps the goat that jumped through his (closed) bedroom window yesterday morning didn't get the memo.

Across the fence from our neighborhood, a new family has taken up residence. They brought with them a few children and four assorted goats. Willie found the goats the first morning after their arrival and immediately took it upon himself to provide them with aerobic exercise, extreme aerobic exercise. Since then, the poor boy has not left the house unleashed. I'm not exactly sure what happened yesterday morning. I just know that it didn't involve Willie.

I think one of the goats found a way through the sieve-like fence meant to contain them and was shopping the neighborhood, sampling the various garden offerings. I suspect that Jade (weimaraner) and Buster (golden retriever) caught a whiff of goat and offered to escort her home. Startled by their friendly offer, she may have dashed toward Ed's bedroom window, much like the birds in the Windex commercial. Jade's owner was fairly certain that she had not contributed to the incident by chasing the goat, although the goat hair in Jade's mouth may suggest otherwise.

The deputy came out and assessed the situation. He told Ed that you have to expect these things when you live in the country. He then loaded the goat into the back of the cruiser and took her home.

The Wild Life--Part 3

No story. Just two photos of the wild life in the country. The first is a bee clan that set up shop in the water meter. (You got to feel sorry for the meter reader. We had a apiary come out and move the bees to a bee box. Luckily, they were not Africanized. Unfortunately for the meter reader, the poison ivy remains.) The second is a stalk of bamboo that grew up through a pair of bags of pine bark mulch. We moved one of the bags to take this picture, but this Japanese-style grass poked through them both like a spear and just kept growing.



Now, on with the stuff you visit for: an Erin update.

Erin does not have diarrhea yet. In fact, as of 8:00 this morning she is still tending the other way. Increasing gas production gives us hope that we will have a break through, so to speak, soon. The lack of movement doesn't appear to have made her uncomfortable. I have given her zofran as a pre-med for the chemo and so far no nausea or vomiting, but her appetite is not as hearty as usual. She slept soundly through the night both Tuesday and Wednesday and had a romping good time at school.

Giving temador and irinotecan has gone remarkably smoothly. I get up and give the zofran at 5:00 and go back to bed. Walter gives her the four temador capsules about twenty minutes later. At 6:20, I slip her the irinotecan with a cranberry juice chaser. Erin just sits up each time, downs the meds, and snuggles back under the covers. She's back sawing z's before we leave the room. We had considered pursuing an alternative delivery systems, like repackaging the irinotecan into empty gel caps each morning. So far we're holding off. Erin doesn't protest taking the Rhino. She doesn't even grimace when she swallows. This is a big relief.

Erin refused tylenol at breakfast both yesterday and this morning and headed out to school. I checked on her around noon yesterday and had to talk her into taking tylenol. I'm not really sure that the chemo has worked this fast to relieve the pressure on her spine, but she's definitely more comfortable. We swam for an hour after school yesterday before PT.

Yesterday I called Erin's nurse to ask if we could deviate from the protocol by serving the irinotecan with Cranberry Pomegranate. We used to serve Erin's accutane with blueberry yogurt, forever ruining Erin's taste for blueberry yogurt. I figured if she was going to develop an aversion to something by associating it with irinotecan, CranPomegranate was a better choice than CranGrape or even regular cranberry juice.

While I had the nurse on the phone, I mentioned that Erin was having such an easy time with the irinotecan, which I was barely covering with juice, that maybe I should just squirt the 3.2 milliliters straight into her mouth and down her throat, thus guaranteeing no spillage or leftover Rhino in the Dixie cup. The nurse advised against it.

Nurse: "That stuff really tastes nasty. I doubt she would drink it."

Mom: "How bad could it be? I can't imagine the small amount of juice I'm using would do much to mask the taste if it were horrendous."

Nurse: "Really nasty. I wouldn't recommend giving it without juice."

Mom: "I think I'll taste a drop just to see how bad it is."

Nurse (practically screeching into the phone): "No! Don't do that! Don't you know that stuff is toxic?"

Mom (to herself): "I can squirt 3.2 mls into Erin every morning, but can't take a drop on my tongue to see what it tastes like?"

So, my van's still in the shop. The tow truck dragged it in Tuesday evening. The mechanic called Wednesday morning. I had lost all compression in one of the cylinders. Not good. The spring on the valve had broken. He's going to replace the spring and see how much I damaged the cylinder before I got the car off the road and stopped. If I'm lucky it's not ruined. My luck has not run so well lately. Until then, I'll drive Davis's van. He doesn't need it. He has a Pittsburgh bus pass. I think those busses are air conditioned. Davis's van isn't.

Mystic 97 Captures the Bronze

May 18, 2008

Erin's team's roster this spring wasn't large to begin with. Fifteen players dwindled to fourteen when Abigail moved to England for a semester (hurry back, Abigail!) and shrunk a second time when Kaitlyn had an ankle injury that wouldn't improve without complete rest (come back as soon as you can, Kaitlyn!). Then, Marla had a chance to go with her cousin on a make-A-Wish trip, and we all knew that's what she needed to do.

So, the Mystic started the state tournament with twelve (although two actually arrived late, so the first game they began a player down 10 v. 11), including Erin. The first day, she played about fifty out of sixty minutes each game. We beat the number one seed, 2-0, and left so much on the field that we lost our second game to the eventual state champion Lady Rapids from New Braunsfels.

Sydney, already nursing the croup on Saturday ran up a 102 degree fever overnight (get well soon, Syd!) and her mom took her home, leaving us with a squad of eleven (no substitutes) playing against a team with seven extra players. The Stingers scored first, but instead of backing down and feeling sorry for ourselves, we battled back, eventually playing the ball past their keeper and holding on to a tie. I don't know if there is a metaphor here, but find one if you'd like. Here's our Mystic, tired, but happy.


Medical Outlook: Erin started a specialized antibiotic on Friday to combat the main side effect of her new treatment: diarrhea (which I suppose I am going to have to learn how to spell if it's going to become an intimate part of our lives). Tuesday, we will drive to Houston to pick up the irinotecan and temador combo that we hope will bring that tumor to its knees, crying for mercy (at which point we will say, "No, no mercy for NB."). Dr. Russell wants to give the first dose in clinic that day, just to see how Erin tolerates it and to make sure there aren't any unanticipated, wonky side effects. After that she will take three or four temador capsules each morning, wait an hour, then take 3.2 mls of irinotecan mixed in Crangrape juice. Each three-week cycle we will do this for five days in a row, take two days off. Do it for another five days. Then take nine days off. Repeat. We will scan during the sixth week and hope for measured improvement.
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