The News

Been a while since there was an update. It's not as easy to share bad news, especially when the information comes in slowly and always feels uncertain. We took our planned month-long trip back to the US, where we had an incredible time visiting family and friends in Florida and California. Mid-December to mid-January. But just before we left Menorca, I (Ramona) went to the doctor for the annual lady visit. And before we came back all plans were changed again.

The doctor knew we were going to be in the US, so he said he would send test results to us by email rather than waiting for us to get back to Menorca - because further testing and treatment would happen elsewhere. And he sent that email between Christmas and New Years, while we were watching the rain on Redwoods, taking long, misty walks among the big trees, listening to crashing Pacific coast waves wearing down the coastline, working our way through jigsaw puzzles, and laughing to tears over family jokes and board games. I can still make myself laugh out loud when I think back on some of those moments. The test came back positive for carcinoma - the scary "C" word became part of life. Just a little bit of cancer.

The doctor said that there was no reason to rush for treatment, so we kept our flight and basked in the joy of reuniting with good friends. Our trip back to Menorca was punctuated by a stopover in London, so we went directly from London to Berlin. With German residence last year came mandated health insurance and challenging monthly premiums, so we started down the path toward a treatment plan in the cheapest city in the country. Berlin rent is 33% cheaper than Frankfurt, 35% cheaper than Hamburg or Munich. We are paying rent for the first time in two and a half years, in a lovely, airy flat that is nearly empty. Everything has worked out as well as it could, considering.

The hope is that this is early, that those devilishly clever, mutated cells are just hanging out in one place. And actually, that place is now a lab, because last week I had surgery to remove the tissue (tumor). My incredible doctor (oncologist) happens to be one of the only people in Berlin who also moves ovaries laparoscopically, upward and out of the way in case radiation becomes part of the treatment plan. The radiation decision was to be based on the lymph nodes that he also removed during surgery. One little bugger tested positive, so we go back on Tuesday to discuss radiation. One out of about 30. Good news and bad news.

view from the hospital bed after a snow

Cancer is no longer the death sentence it used to be, thank goodness, but treatment is no picnic. Recovering from surgery takes patience and tolerance. They kept me well drugged in the hospital, a ten day stay, but now that I'm home I'm taking much less. I trust pain and I want to hear what it has to say. I'm taking things very slowly, but feeling better, stronger every day.

and when the sun was shining

I read The Emperor of All Maladies with a hunger for clear information, and it did not disappoint. Treatments are getting more precise, less invasive, more successful. I have been doing the right things. I don't mind the treatment, as long as I keep living. I think most people diagnosed with cancer feel the same way - do your worst, doc, but keep me alive, okay? There may be some trade-offs, some non-negotiable deals, but the goal is clear.

What a coin toss. Both being diagnosed and undergoing successful treatment feel random, especially with a form of cancer that is unusual and relatively un-studied. Mine is a case of vaginal carcinoma - usually metastasized from cervical carcinoma, but in my case the cervix is clear. Good news, very good news. It's fairly likely that I will recover from treatment and cancer will not have gotten the better of me. There's no guarantee, but it's worthwhile to be hopeful and to make plans. Prepare for the worst, expect the best.

I want to write a longer, more in depth ramble about the experience, but instead of doing it as a post I'll create a side page, kind of like the broken foot page. There has been a lot of uncertainty, an unprecedented amount of humor, and surprises of all kinds. In the meantime, know that there will be more information soon. And don't worry. And don't be shy about being in touch.

Your hopes and thoughts help. At every step, I've had to share this information with more and more people, in an ever widening circle - starting with Joshua with tears, my parents and sister, extended family and friend-family. At first it was just: I have some cancer, sorry that's all I know. We had way more questions than answers. Each step of the way it has felt like I am pushing a burden on the people that I love, and it has been hard. But each piece of the burden that I pass along makes it a little lighter for me to carry, so I hope you don't mind.

Thank you to those of you who have already offered support. We are doing okay.

For future updates, visit the And Cancer page.

Wind Storms and Work Days

Things have quieted down for us. The weather changed to fall-like, at least for Menorca, and we haven't been snorkeling since Oct 23rd. Yeah, I know. This place is great. We've had a couple of really big storms, where it gets crazy windy and we close all the shudders to keep out the sideways rain. The tortoises are all mostly hibernating, although we had a hot sunny day about a week ago and the little guys were all out getting some sun and eating the fresh grass that's grown up quickly. The big tortoises are still wandering around on warm, sunny days.

We're both back in work mode, so not a lot of exploring. We had thought to go kayaking and horseback riding and even sailing, but when the weather got a bit cooler, we stopped trying. Plus, now is the time for saving, not spending. We go for walks with Trixie, the 15 year old Terrier type who lives here and presides over the doorways. She is fantastic, and almost completely deaf. At first we would talk to her and she'd just ignore us. ("Hey Trixie! Hey girl!" and she just walks by - us, feeling ignored.) So we've gotten used to that. Chocolate, the 15 year old cat, started off as suspicious and flighty as a cat can be, but now he comes meowing around, asking to be allowed to sit on my lap while I work at the computer. We make fires in the wood stove. It is quite cozy.

I'm also knitting again, so don't be shy about checking out the shop. It's always nice to make a bit of extra spending money with a hobby. Joshua is jealous. His hobbies tend to cost more than they make, so he can't justify them like I can justify knitting. So thanks for that, team!

Right now the wind is absolutely howling. I'm expecting the power to go out at any moment, which it has done a number of times over the past few weeks. I've got a row of candles nearby, just in case.

Here are more sunset and pool images for you, but remember the pool is freezing now. We went in after a run not too long ago and it was stunningly cold. Stunned, I was. Last time for the season.

Snorkeling Trip #2

Okay, so we headed back to Alcalfar, the tight little cove, this time armed with snorkel gear and the camera. We were rewarded with a gorgeous day, great light, and even an octopus that changed color. A huge thunder cloud loomed and threatened, but we were spared until after we got home. Phew!

looked stormy, heard thunder

but the beach was looking ready for us

just wanna reach out and grab one - mmm, tasty

couple raindrops, but still no cloudiness

I swear the octopus in the next two pictures is the same guy, moments apart. He slowly crept toward the rocks and ducked underneath, eye-balling us the whole time.

Riding home through town... just a bit of a climb, nothing to fret over.

Menorca pretty much looks like this:

Snorkeling Trip #1

There are two beaches which are within a few kilometers, as far as we know. The first is a tiny, narrow cove which will be snorkeling trip #2. The other is at Punta Prima - a beautiful, beautiful beach. The road down the hill to the coast looks like this:

Ugh. Yeah, it sucks here. See the rock walls? Every rock wall is like that. I feel like they deserve a post of their own.

Anyway, the beach.

 Not a lot to see in the water. It's kelp die-off time, so it looked like this close to shore:

 Oh well.

 A fish!

The first time we went out we kinda tested the waters and went back to the beach. Then we were like, yeah, let's go back in and try to go farther out. And we found some rocks and stuff. And a few fishes.

It was great. Punta Prima? Thumbs up all the way.

The ride home? A few kilometers. This was a triathlon day - and by that I mean we did some running in the morning, then rode our bikes to the beach and snorkeled around, then rode our bikes home. Pretty sure we didn't make the distances a triathlete makes, but whatever.

In the picture below you can just see the little white-washed town of Sant Lluis. Looks like the Mediterranean.

Tiny Menorcan Tortoise Eating Poop

Yeah, I couldn't resist. He was going after it like it was his lunch - and it was! Ugh, gross.

To clear your mind, here's a baby tortoise trucking across the back yard.

And another one, doing the same. Of course, this one barely looks like a rock making it's way across the distance, but never mind.

Menorca Arrival

This post is going to be about tortoises and sunsets, because that's all I took pictures of the first few weeks we were here. Okay, that's not entirely true. But to introduce you to this magical little island, these are my topics.

First, the capital, Mahon (or Mao in Menorcan - Catalan but with the Menorca accent/dialect, depending on who you talk to).

We woke up after our all-night ferry to a peaceful sea and an island coming into view. It took about an hour to get all the way into the port, a place that was thought to be of great value in the days of battle by ships. We learned that this island is actually fed with fresh water coming from the Pyrenees - the mountains that divide France and Spain. We've got a direct feed that goes way under the Mediterranean and they have no fresh water problems on Menorca. Mallorca cannot claim the same. 

Anyway, Mahon is very pretty by sunrise from a ship arriving in port. We were stunned, a little bit. 

We were met by our new friend and owner of the home we'd be house sitting, Sandy. She grew up in Spain, but her parents were from San Francisco, so she sounds like a Californian. But really, she's Spanish. She took all our bags so we were free to fly up the hill and towards Sant Lluis on our bikes. We told her that if we didn't show up in an hour she should consider looking to see if we got lost - but it only took us about 20 minutes. There's a bike path almost all the way from Mahon to Sant Lluis, and then past it to the house we're staying in now.  Bike paths. All over this island. Many of them are really only comfortable or reasonable if you've got a mountain bike, but plenty are these wide sidewalks along the main roads.

Not that riding on the roads is a big deal. This is a small island with a small population. We hear that in summer it gets crowded with tourists, but it's been absolutely dreamy since we've arrived. Speaking of dreamy...

So that's the house and above it the view from the sunny days work desk. We are not suffering. Our experience as house sitters is paying off - Sandy explicitly selected us because we have experience. And we are really hoping to live up to her expectations. So far, so good.

The grounds are beautiful. The pool is not heated, which is a dream on hot hot days. We did some swimming in the pool and it was a bit cold. This is back in mid-October, and the top temps were probably in the very low 80s or high 70s. Not suffering.

The tortoises. So the Menorcan tortoise was almost extinct and has now been brought back to thriving. Sandy herself estimates that over the years she's been here (17) she has saved about 1000 young tortoises and helped them reach maturity. This big guy is probably one of them.

Two things about tortoises: 1.) They are not that slow, and 2.) They're not fast enough to get away either.

The little guys hatch in September. There were a ton out and about in early October. All we had to do was walk outside and stand still for few minutes and they'd start moving again. You look out over the back yard and it seems nothing is there. But a tortoise has two defense mechanisms: 1.) freeze, and 2.) get in shell.

So they freeze before you see them, because they saw you coming. And then if you stand still they go about their business. Then you can pick them up and pretend to cuddle them.

Yup. They are so cute. The vast landscape of my palm. Actually the guy in the upper picture is a big baby. Look what happens when I put them down next to a slice of apple.

Walnut sized I tell you! Oh man. I just wanted to stand out in the yard all afternoon and scare away birds of prey. They're pretty incognito when they hold still or dig under a clump of grass. But you know they don't all make it to adulthood. We talked about saving one and keeping it while we are here, but it seems like they might actually be better off hibernating in the fallen foliage. 

So, I said something about sunsets.

Yeah, sunsets reflected in pools and stuff. Also, walnut sized tortoise babies.

and caterpillars! anyone recognize these?

how many tortoises do you see? at least 4...

the backyard, kinda

We are back to cooking in a kitchen, and the local supermarket has all kinds of exotic ingredients. Which means we're eating well.

salad, bread, pickles, padron peppers

Vietnamese fresh spring rolls, and padron peppers

sushi and TV on the computer

There are also geckos, and so there are gecko babies. This little gecko was in the kitchen. It's a miracle I didn't step on it, blending right into the floor.

That's two different occasions - not sure if it's two different geckos or just the same one twice. 

Of course it's not all tortoises, geckos, pools, and sunsets. We're back to running. Woo hoo!

There's a path a few minutes walk from the house that goes out to the ocean. We went for a walk out there and made it down to the coast, which is steeply down. Probably not more than 70 meters in altitude - I mean that's probably an over-estimate - but it really goes down quickly. Now we run out that path, where it's not paved. It's part of the bike route system, and when the hill goes down sharply, it is paved. That's where we turn and run back, usually. We've also run through some of the smaller roads between rock-wall lined properties. Menorcans have their own style of rock wall that is incredible. They also have their own style of gate. I'll take some pictures of those, promise. 

But for now... 

 We can't really believe it either.