O Canada

Here's to our closest neighbor and ally, Canada. What a great country and a great host to the Winter Olympics.

Following is from The Oregonian columnist David Sarasohn:

"Canadians, says the proverb, are Americans with health care and no gun. Vancouverites, you could say, are Portlanders with even more rain and much better Chinese food."

J. P. Parisé was an NHL hockey player who played for the Minnesota North Stars when we lived in the Twin Cities. After his retirement, Parisé returned to Minnesota where he coached and was hockey director at Shattuck-Saint Mary's, where his son Zach Parise, Olympic hockey player for Team USA, and Sidney Crosby, Olympic hero for Team Canada, played.

Ryan Miller, goaltender for Team USA, was named MVP of the tournament despite losing to Canada in the Gold Medal game. He grew up in East Lansing and attended Michigan State University, where it is possible he was in a class taught by my sister Marilyn. (Or maybe Sparty hockey players didn't take Linguistics.)

Family health update

Sofie had RSV, both girls now have "pink eye," Ali has a bad back, and Marge has a Pseudomonas kidney infection. I might just be the healthiest of the bunch. I am enjoying the completion of my radiation therapy and a break from chemotherapy.

Marge and I just returned from 3 days and nights at the Cannon Beach Hallmark Resort. Very nice and relaxing, but it is always good to be back home. Larue (Lulu, Lue, LueBug, LuluBelle) stayed with our neighbors, Pat and Carl Bartruff. Pat spoils her even more than I do.

Pete and Tracy 5-year wedding anniversary Feb. 19

Congratulations, you two. The weather on that magical day was like it has been this week, warm and sunny. They met up at their Sunset High 10-year class reunion, married 5 years ago yesterday, spent two years in Bulgaria, two years in Hong Kong, and had two daughters born in Hong Kong. It is great to have them back in the USA in Eugene.

Don't worry about a thing, 'cause ev'ry little thing gonna be alright

Three Little Birds

(Bob Marley)

Don't worry about a thing

'Cause ev'ry little thing gonna be alright.

Singin', "Don't worry about a thing,

'Cause ev'ry little thing gonna be alright."

Rise up this morning,

Smiled with the rising sun

Three little birds pitch by my doorstep

Singin' sweet songs of melodies pure and true

Sayin', "This is my message to you-u-u."

Singin', "Don't worry about a thing,

'Cause ev'ry little thing gonna be alright."

Graduation from Kaiser Radiation Oncology

It has been about 12 weeks since my life was turned upside down on Thanksgiving morning. I had a brainstem stroke, a malignant brain tumor, a craniotomy, 30 sessions of radiation therapy, and 42 days of oral chemotherapy. Now I get a month's vacation before resuming the chemotherapy, and I deserve it.

We celebrated the completion of radiation by going out to eat at Salar's Mediterranean Grill, thanks to a gift card from Rachel and Tom Flath. Judy J. brought over a balloon, some pastry, and a book. Then we topped off the day by going to the Sunset-Aloha boys basketball game, which Sunset won. Todd Sherwood has some young talent on that team.

I'm going back to work tomorrow for a couple of hours to fill up another dumpster with my office detritus.

Therapy dog to Aqua Dog

We took our grand-pug Larue to Aqua Dog, a self-service dog wash, this afternoon. Quite an experience for us and for Larue as well. Basic shampoo, rinse, oatmeal shampoo, oatmeal rinse, towel dry, blow dry, brush, clean ears.... Somewhat more involved than taking a car through a car wash.

Today will be my last regular radiation therapy treatment, and then I have five more "boost" treatments where the beam is focused down to a smaller area. At the completion, I will have had 30 treatments. So far, no major problems, just some hair loss and minor fatigue. After a one month hiatus, oral chemotherapy (temozolomide) will continue at a higher dose on a pulse schedule, 5 days on, 23 days off.

40 and 3

Today is our 40th wedding anniversary, which also happens to be No. One Grandchild Brady's 3rd birthday. Since the 40th anniversary gemstone is the ruby, which coincides with Marge's July birthstone, I had to get her a ruby pendant, which we bought together. Trip to Hawaii has been postponed. We (M&N, Andy, Ali, Pete, Tracy) will be celebrating sans grandkids at Decarli Restaurant in Beaverton. Birthday brunch for Brady is in the morning. Congratulations to us and Happy Birthday to Brady!

Random thoughts

• Attention Toyota owners: In the rare event of your gas pedal sticking for more than 4 hours, seek immediate medical help to avoid long-term injury. (David Letterman)
• Three weeks after the earthquake in Haiti.... Haven't those poor people suffered enough? What they need now are the basics: clean water, food, medical supplies, clothing, shelter, sanitation.... But most of all what they need is high-level coordination and organization to get the supplies to the people.
• Don't ever confuse a radiation therapy table with a tanning bed, although both produce the same results (a sort of tan).
• Don't use the word "perky" in the same sentence as "radiation therapy."
• My head looks like someone (i.e., my neurosurgeon) used a can opener in the back and someone else (i.e., my radiation oncologist) cut some fancy crop circles on the sides. Pretty cool as a conversation piece.

Retirement

As you know by now I retired at the end of January after 20+ years at Kaiser Permanente, the 20 best years of my pharmacy career. I had planned to cut back to half time at the beginning of 2010 as a way to ease into retirement, but some health issues accelerated the retirement process a bit.

I love Kaiser Permanente as a health system, and I love the people that work for KP; now I get to experience it from the side of the patient. I loved drug information and formulary management, and I will miss it dearly. It was my privilege to work with many of you over the years, even if we only met over the phone. I will miss the talented and dedicated pharmacists, technicians, and clinicians that I was able to serve. A special thanks to the close-knit team in DIF (Emily, Diane, Pontus, Sunshine, Roy, Jennifer) who were my partners.

Emily threw a wonderful retirement party for me on January 28 at the World Trade Center in downtown Portland. About 90 folks attended, and I am grateful for the opportunity to see you all once again. I cannot thank Emily, Dean, and Nancy enough for making this happen. Among those in attendance were my sons, Andy from Redmond and Pete from Eugene, and of course, my wife Marge. Colleagues who I worked with at Good Sam (1973-83) and St. V (1984-89) also came, some of whom I worked with at multiple stops in my Portland pharmacy career. I've worked with Diane Ditmer since the early days at Good Sam, and then we both had the good sense to end up at KPNW. Emily went the extra mile, ordering cake, flowers, and a guest book for the occasion. Emily also prepared the "tribute" flier that was at the entrance. She gave me credit for some things that I played only a small part in, which points out the collaborative approach used in Clinical Pharmacy Services amongst the DIF, DUIT, FAST, Pharmacy Systems, Purchasing, and MMP folks. And while I'm throwing out acronyms, I can't forget my wonderful RFTC colleagues. Emily ran interference for me, stripping away the politics and allowing me to do my job the way I wanted it done. She was truly a great and trusted supervisor, and I love her for all that she did for me.

Thanks to all the specialty department folks I was privileged to work with: Neurology, Rheumatology, Addiction Medicine, Physiatry, Mental Health, Anesthesiology, Orthopedics.... And good luck to Laura DeSimone, who takes over my Pain and Mental Health responsibilities. She is well qualified and will do a super job. Thanks also to all the folks who sent me cards expressing well wishes regarding my health and on my retirement. Much appreciated, just sorry that I don't have the time to answer each one individually. You can follow my progress on my blog, http://normmuilenburg.blogspot.com/

Best regards, and thrive!

Norm

Attitude is everything

Following is posted in Radiation Oncology at Kaiser Permanente on Interstate Avenue. I liked it, so thought I'd share it:

"One morning I looked in the mirror and saw I had only 3 hairs left.

Ah! Today I will braid them, and I had a pigtail.

"The next morning I looked in the mirror & saw I had only 2 hairs left.

Ah! Today I will part them down the middle.

"Yesterday I looked in the mirror and saw I had only 1 hair left.

Ah! Today I will have a ponytail.

"This morning I looked in the mirror and I had no hair.

Ah! Today I don't have to do my hair."

Disclaimer: Hair loss is the least of my worries, since I had no hair to begin with. 19 radiation therapy sessions down, 11 to go. So far, so good. A little paresthesia in my right hand, but it is tolerable. Management strategy? Add another medication (dexamethasone). And so it goes.