#6023 09-08-2005 04:03 PM | Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 4,918 Likes: 65 OCF Founder Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) |  OCF Founder Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 4,918 Likes: 65 | I'm only going to Minneapolis after the first years freeze... They have mosquitoes there that will carry off your young! I want them dead before I come!! Tell us about the varied things to do there Mark... While I am content to hang out in a location with few venues to amuse myself since I come to smooze with my survivor compatriots, others need to be in a venue where there are lots of outside activities to occupy them. Perhaps you could organize and ice fishing expedition if it carries over into November or early spring. (Just kidding... I really like your state. I spent a week there one day.)
Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
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#6024 09-09-2005 12:48 AM | Joined: Nov 2002 Posts: 3,552 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | | Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Nov 2002 Posts: 3,552 | How some place warm like Taos NM or Sedona AZ?
Very funny Brian!
Gary Allsebrook
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Dx 11/22/02, SCC, 6 x 3 cm Polypoid tumor, rt tonsil, Stage III/IVA, T3N0M0 G1/2
Tx 1/28/03 - 3/19/03, Cisplatin ct x2, IMRT, bilateral, with boost, x35(69.96Gy)
________________________________________________________
"You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (James 4:14 NIV)
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#6025 09-09-2005 03:46 AM | Joined: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,384 Likes: 1 Patient Advocate (1000+ posts) | | Patient Advocate (1000+ posts)
Joined: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,384 Likes: 1 | Oh yes, Mark Twain said once: "The coldest winter I ever spent, was a summer in Duluth"
Duluth being my hometown, is 170 miles north of Minneapolis. Actually summer in Minnesota is quite nice (70's 80's 90's) except for the mosquitoes which, Brian is correct, have a payload rating of several pounds. The metro area is fairly well treated for mosquitoes.
I would like to suggest perhaps multiple regional get togethers so that travel is not so expensive. While I would like to see everyone, I'd rather see us donate the travel expense money to the OCF.
Mark, 21 Year survivor, SCC right tonsil, 3 nodes positive, one with extra-capsular spread. I never asked what stage (would have scared me anyway) Right side tonsillectomy, radical neck dissection right side, maximum radiation to both sides, no chemo, no PEG, age 40 when diagnosed.
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#6026 09-09-2005 08:28 AM | Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 4,918 Likes: 65 OCF Founder Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | | OCF Founder Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 4,918 Likes: 65 | As a long time resident of Santa Fe, I can highly recommend this city. Taos is great in the winter if you like to ski, just remember that it is at 8000 feet. Santa Fe is cold in the winter (7200 feet) without the snows of Taos, but I can tell you that it is a magical city at Xmas and most of the year except the modestly hot August and September. Most do not know that it is the oldest continuously occupied city in the US, an occupation that began before Columbus hit the rocks on the east coast. This is because when the Spaniards started up from what is now Mexico to look for the cities of Gold, one of the cities they founded was Santa Fe. Dripping with history and artifacts, art galleries and restaurants out the wazoo, it has a charm unique in travel destinations. For 5 years running till 2001 it was the number one tourist destination in the US according to Conde Nast. You have to fly into Albuquerque and rent a car for the one-hour drive to Santa Fe. Sedona on the other hand is lower in altitude and warm in the winter. It attracts tons of snowbirds who live there for the winter months in the motor homes etc. A new-agers Mecca, bring your crystals, learn about your chakras before you go, and be ready to embrace the many spirit guides, channelers of spirits, and the like. As far as I am concerned none of that takes away from the natural beauty of the area, and the hiking, and good restaurants are first rate.
Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
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#6027 09-09-2005 10:25 AM | Joined: Feb 2005 Posts: 2,019 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | | Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Feb 2005 Posts: 2,019 | I could go for a meeting in Santa Fe or Sedona since my hubby used to live in that neck of the woods and would be up for a vacation where we visit there--and I have never been! I have been to Minnesota, in the summer, and found the mosquitos there weren't too much worse than black flies in the Adirondacks...
Hawaii would probably be too far for us and I'd have a hard time getting my husband to go to Vegas.
SCC(T2N0M0) part.glossectomy & neck dissect 2/9/05 & 2/25/05.33 IMRT(66 Gy),2 Cisplatin ended 06/03/05.Stage I breast cancer treated 2/05-11/05.Surgery to remove esophageal stricture 07/06, still having dilatations to keep esophagus open.Dysphagia. "When you're going through hell, keep going"
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#6028 09-13-2005 05:24 AM | Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 2,606 Likes: 2 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | | Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 2,606 Likes: 2 | Minnesota in the summer?? I guess if you plan it right you might just hit that ONE WEEK of summer they have  . I spent many, many (too many to count) days and weeks in the Minnie Apple. It snows in October and that same snow is still on the side of the road in April with just 5-6 feet more on top of it. One of the fine activities includes going to Minnehaha Falls and listening the the water roaring below the several feet thick ice. It really intrigued my Malamute! I probably couldn't swing the Hawaii thing but I'm game for about anything else...even the frozen northland. We once ventured up to Hibbing to see a friend of mine in a band playing at the local Holiday Inn. He told me he hadn't gone outside for 3 weeks and asked to take him for drive. We went by Robert Zimmerman's house (aka Bob Dylan) just because it was there. When you stopped at the stop signs the cloud of smoke from the exhaust engulfed the car and you couldn't see the light change. The outside ambient temperature was over 30 degress BELOW zero. We had a cold front move through yesterday and it was only 94. We had to shut off the air conditioner at night because now it is getting down to 68. Please pick somewhere warm but we'll go just about anywhere. Ed
SCC Stage IV, BOT, T2N2bM0
Cisplatin/5FU x 3, 40 days radiation
Diagnosis 07/21/03 tx completed 10/08/03
Post Radiation Lower Motor Neuron Syndrome 3/08.
Cervical Spinal Stenosis 01/11
Cervical Myelitis 09/12
Thoracic Paraplegia 10/12
Dysautonomia 11/12
Hospice care 09/12-01/13.
COPD 01/14
Intermittent CHF 6/15
Feeding tube NPO 03/16
VFI 12/2016
ORN 12/2017
Cardiac Event 06/2018
Bilateral VFI 01/2021
Thoracotomy Bilobectomy 01/2022
Bilateral VFI 05/2022
Total Laryngectomy 01/2023
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