Hear Dunava sing!

Here it Dunava's fall performance calendar!

Sunday, September 18, noon (yes, that's this Sunday):
We're part of the Seattle Symphony Day of Music, a grand showcase of all kinds of local groups, all genres. We sing from 12:00 - 12:30 PM in the Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall (200 University Street, Downtown Seattle). Admission is free! Click on the link for a full schedule. 

Saturday, September 24, 7 PM: 

This may be our smallest venue yet: We'll sing at the variety show "Muhabbet" at Cafe Paloma in Pioneer Square. This is a lovely intimate evening with delicious food and an eclectic variety of entertainment. The restaurant is small, so we recommend making reservations well in advance. Admission is basically the cost of your dinner. Cafe Paloma is located at 93 Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98104-2530, telephone (206) 405-1920.

Sunday, October 23, 3:50 PM:

CroatiaFest at Seattle Center! We will perform the Ladarke song cycle with Vela Luka Croatian Dance Ensemble and Dave and the Dalmatians. Estimated time is 3:50 PM in the Exhibition Hall. Admission, again, is free! (Read here for more about Ladarke.)

And, finally, save the date:

Saturday, December 10, 7 PM: 

Dunava in concert at MOHAI! I'll let you know when tickets are available, but I wanted to get this date on your calendar soonest. We'll sing songs from our CD, new Bulgarian songs we learned this year, and as always will have a special guest! (Not telling who!)

Thank you for your patronage, and we hope to see you in the audience soon!

The ladies of Dunava

(Christi, Dina, Hila, Jill, Jody, Meg, Meredith, Ramona, Tedy, and Val)

Chemo Monday

After three weeks off treatment, today I started another round of Abraxane and Avastin. According to Dr G's plan, I will have several rounds of this chemo combo, until my tumor marker reaches normal (30). Right now it's at 85. Then I'll get a PET/CT scan. If all looks good, then two more rounds of treatment before I get a "vacation."

A round of this combo lasts four weeks and looks like this:
Day 1: Abraxane/Avastin
Day 8: Abraxane only
(Day 9: usually a Neulasta shot to boost white blood cell count)
Day 15: Abraxane/Avastin
Day 22: no treatment; recuperate and get ready to start it all over again the next week

Today I also received a monthly injection of Xgeva to strengthen my bones. This is the third such drug I've been on in the past nine years. For the first few years I had a four-hour monthly infusion of Aredia. Next was a one-hour infusion of Zometa. In comparison, the once monthly shot of Xgeva is a huge improvement, at least in terms of time!

Today's treatment went slowly but smoothly. I checked in at 8 AM and after a few minutes' wait, got my lab orders. I walked down to the lab, where I had a short wait until a nurse could access my port and draw blood. Then back upstairs, was called back quickly into a chemo chair but had to wait another 90 minutes until the lab came through with my test results and Dr G could approve my orders. Around 10:00 I finally started the treatment, which lasted until just past noon. Thankfully my good friend G was there to chat the whole time. I STILL cannot wrap my head around the fact that it takes four hours to get through this whole thing every week.

G and I had a delicious lunch at Cafe Presse. (G: zucchini soup with dill and green olive tapenade garnish and baguette. It smelled heavenly. Me: chicken liver pate with mustard, cornichons and dried cherries, butter lettuce salad with hazelnuts and vinaigrette, plus baguette. YUMMY.) I do prefer, on chemo days, to not limit my diet and I eat anything I want.

This lunch might have been a smidge too rich, because I experienced a bit of a queasy tummy while napping this afternoon. However, all was resolved with a bit of dry cracker. I never know if a queasy tummy is due to food intake or chemo but am always prepared at home with ginger ale, crackers, and of course, ondonsetron (anti-nausea medicine).

Because I'd woken up at 6:15 this morning in order to get to treatment on time, I took a marathon two hour nap this afternoon. I awoke slowly, ate that cracker, then fed and walked the dog. Poor Bob, he was short-changed on the walk front today.

Rik is at an evening meeting and after my enormous lunch, I don't feel hungry for dinner. I believe I will take it easy and watch another in the "Harry Potter" movie series. I'm slowly working my way through all seven movies and then will see the last one a second time.

Which would you prefer?

I parked our all-electric Nissan Leaf next to a golf cart the other day. Which electric car would you rather drive?

Tomatoes!

Today's garden haul includes the FIRST ripe slicing tomato, an Early Girl variety that has finally ripened on the vine in September. I hear Best Food's (Hellman's east of the Rocky Mountains) olive oil mayo, kosher beef fry and some lettuce calling my name....

And here are tomorrow's tomatoes, still getting red.

MBC survey

I came across this survey of women living with metastatic breast cancer. If you are a reader who is living mets, you might want to complete it or spread the word to others.

Living Beyond Breast Cancer is partnering with Metastatic Breast Cancer Network, MetaVivor and Genentech as a follow-up to the 2010 Faces of MBC program.
If you are living with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), we encourage you to share your voice via a short 11-question survey by Friday, September 16 at www.facesofmbc.org to explore how women living with MBC want to connect and share with others. For each survey completed, Genentech will donate $5 for programs and services specifically designed for women living with MBC.
Help Us Spread the Word
Please help us spread the word about this survey. Everyone can help!

1. Forward this e-mail to anyone you know who has metastatic breast cancer and might be interested in participating or visit www.facesofmbc.org and select the “tell a friend” link
2. If you are on Facebook, consider sharing a post like the one below as a status update
   • If you are living with metastatic breast cancer, please share your voice by Friday, Sept. 16: www.facesofmbc.org. Genentech will donate $5 per survey completed for programs and services for women living with MBC.
   • I shared my voice about metastatic breast cancer at www.facesofmbc.org. If you are living with MBC, I hope you will, too.
3. If you are on Twitter, share a tweet like the one below with all of your followers
   • If you are living with MBC, please share your voice by Fri. Sept. 16: facesofmbc.org Genentech will donate $5/survey #FacesofMBC

Thanks for completing the survey and spreading the word.

I've been working in the garden....

All the live-long day!

Well, not quite. But yesterday I managed two full hours of weeding and putting down weed-prevention "paper," and the day before I got in about an hour's work. I find it curiously satisfying to yank out the weeds. In a way, it's like ironing or polishing the silver. You start off with an untidy mess and when done, voila! Looks like new.

I hope to finish weeding the strawberry bed today or tomorrow (it's about an eight hour job, total) and maybe get to some of the other side of the house while we still have so much sunshine.

Yes, folks, the sun has been shining in Seattle for a week straight and we have hopes for continuing sunshine through the weekend. At last we're having summer! If this continues, not only will the rest of the cherry tomatoes and Chester berries ripen, my six green Early Girl tomatoes may even get red! Already a couple are showing a bit of orange blush. I might still get a vegetarian "bacon," lettuce and tomato sandwich this year!

More hair?

Because I go without a head covering at home much of the time  (and all of the time in this hot weather), Rik and I have both noticed that I appear to have more peach fuzz-type hair than earlier this summer. I don't know if this is because of being off chemo for the past three weeks. Things may change when I start treatment again, scheduled for next Monday. But for the moment I have dark fuzz all over my head.

And I still have eyelashes. (That I attribute to daily use of Physican's Formula Eye Booster 2-in-1 Day & Night Lash Boosting Serum, because the last time I lost my hair, my eyelashes all fell out too.)

Another good article on breast cancer mets

I came across this today in my weekly Google Alert for metastatic breast cancer:

Search for the Cure May Leave Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer in the Dust

Thank you Heather for writing about this in the public. There are too many women living with mets and we rarely have our story told.

If you read the story, be sure to scroll down to the insightful comments at the end.

Fruitful garden

Here's what we harvested from our garden today:


Chester berries
(a thornless blackberry)

September-bearing raspberries

and cherry tomatoes!

And here is the final product -- blackberry cobbler, recipe courtesy Gourmet Magazine. I made ours with blackberries only (no peaches) and made cookies out of the extra biscuit dough.

"There’s only two things that money can’t buy. And that’s true love and home grown tomatoes.”  (Guy Clark)

Sunny Seattle

When the sun shines in Seattle, it's a good time to work in the garden. Our recent house-sitter S is an expert gardener and did a lot of weeding while she was here, especially in our vastly overgrown herb garden. It's basically bare ground now, with a large rosemary bush remaining in the center and a few other items that have been given a "haircut." I've invited several local friends who have lovely gardens to come over and give me the benefit of their expertise. Who knows what I will decide to plant there now that it's no longer crowded with weedy mint, shasta daisies and other unwanted plants?

I have been able to weed the strawberry patch myself. Working slowly over several days, I've been able to get rid of about half the grass and weeds growing among the strawberry plants. My aim is to finish this week while we have good weather, working in the mornings when the strawberry patch is in some shade. Then I need to seriously mulch this bed so that I'm not repeating so much of this work again in the spring.

Rik has uprooted some unwanted plants for me, taken away my weeding remains, and done a lot of outdoor house maintenance today. It's his last day before returning to school and I think he feels the pressure of a self-imposed, unfinished summer to-do list. His last project, after a lunch break, will be to cut back the laurel hedge lining our driveway.

It might be Labor Day, but we're working hard!