Ok, yes, I’m a day or two late with my blog this week, but trust me when I say it was worth the wait. We ventured off the beaten path…and rewarded ourselves with a day in San Francisco and a ball game. The Giants were playing the Dodgers, and C is a huge Dodgers fan so we decided to have a little fun for a change after my appointments. While we were there we took full advantage of the delicious eats the city by the bay has to offer. We asked the concierge at our hotel for a few recommendations and after walking around a bit we landed at a little microbrewery called The 21st Amendment Brewery. What a cute little pub, it had a great bar, nice atmosphere in the restaurant, with an open kitchen, and a great little outdoor patio. It would’ve been nice to sit outside on the patio, but it was a little chilly plus all the tables seemed to be taken out there. Inside was pretty cool though, and we had a great waiter – Alejandro.
Naturally we started with a couple of craft beers that went down pretty smooth with our fried calamari, which was also delicious. Let me just back up a bit here: we had had a couple of not so delicious meals on this trip. Sunday night we ended up in some little Mexican restaurant that should never be remembered. Ever. And then our lunch on Monday – well, we actually got our money back because it was so bad. Thankfully everything we ordered at The 21st Amendment more than made up for the not so delicious food we had at those other restaurants. The beer and calamari were a great combination to start off the afternoon.
We weren’t even sure if we were going to order dinner, until we saw the menu. First I wanted to try the Fish and Chips, then I thought maybe pizza…. But when I saw that they had baby back ribs on the menu I was sold. C ordered the thin crust pizza, with pepperoni, sausage, tomatoes and basil. Oh my goodness! I thought for sure the ribs I ordered would be way better than the pizza, but I was wrong…. The pizza was the bomb! I don’t know if it was the cheese or the sauce that was so delicious, maybe it was just the combination of it all. I’m so glad the hubs likes to share.
I can’t wait to try the Fish and Chips next time.
So…where to next?
Bonus review: Coffee shop right near our hotel called Bravado. Bravado indeed. This little place was so cool. It was a coffee/breakfast place in the morning, and beer/wine/tapas bar in the afternoons and evenings. We just sort of stumbled into the place in search of morning cup of joe, but when I saw they had avocado toast, I had to try it. Oh man, am I ever glad I did. De-licious! So I upgraded my coffee to a cappuccino, and C had some sort of egg scramble with a latte. Good way to start the day for sure.
The Cancer update
Well, obviously I’m feeling well enough to be eating like an olympic swimmer. After all the meetings and discussions with the doctors I/we chose to be brave and try the clinical trial. I’ve heard so many good things about immunotherapy, and it seemed like the only way I was going to get to try it was through a clinical trial. I had two options, of which I don’t really know the difference. For one of them (named trial #1) they wanted to do some genetic testing, and it could potentially take a little longer before I could start treatment, and I didn’t want to wait a minute longer. That’s how I made the decision to go with trial #2, an immunotherapy drug called Cerdulatinib. I started taking it on Monday the 15th of April, and that evening was the first time in months that I didn’t turn all red and itchy. It went to work pretty quickly.
At this point, we are tired. Fighting cancer is exhausting, and I’m one of the lucky ones, because I don’t even feel sick. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to do all this while feeling nauseous all the time. Right now it’s the weekly visits to Stanford that are wearing me out. I feel bad for even saying that though, because Stanford is saving my life. And in such a wonderful way – immunotherapy is definitely working for me. In June I’ll have another PET scan, so the Doctors can actually see what’s going on with the lymph nodes, but for now they seem pretty confident in the treatment just based on the fact that my skin and other symptoms have vastly improved.
Yes, every Sunday, we wake up, pack up and head to Stanford for appointments early Monday morning, and sometimes Tuesdays, appointments that can take up to 6 hours. When we’re done we head home (after we eat of course), always hoping to get out of there before rush hour. Four hours of driving is so much better than 5 or 6. The we get home, unpack, do laundry, and just try to get caught up with the chores around the house. Poor C heads in to work exhausted for the rest of the week – I don’t think he ever gets caught up on sleep….sorry honey. I’m starting to think the doctor who told me ‘no’ when I asked about going back to work was right. I want to get back to a ‘normal’ (what’s normal? I don’t even know) life so badly it hurts. So I asked the Doctors if I could go back to work, and that was a no. Dr. Kim told me to ‘take it easy’ right now. I feel like I’ve been ‘taking it eas’y for a really long time already, and I thought I was ready to go back to work. However, gyms and a compromised immune system dont’ mix very well, so they said no.
The treatments are working, and I’m so very thankful about that. What an answer to prayer! And what a relief that the rash and itching have gone away. I have noticed that when I eat too much sugar or get too tired the rash returns, so I try to stay away from sugar – and ‘take it easy’. I also had a low platelet count at one of my check ups so that next week I made sure to eat foods that would get that up – steak, lots of dairy, bacon, sausages, and lots of green leafy veggies. Basically a keto diet. I’m not complaining about that.
Actually, I’m just so thankful that God has blessed me so much with an army of prayer warriors, and these great doctors at Stanford. What a blessing!
to be continued…..
Adventures in Food 