Songbird76
Well-Known Member
Carbonara is one of the few Italian things I can make, but I'll be curious to hear how it compared to theirs! I've always wanted to go to Italy and I'm jealous she got to go without me, but I am also glad she got to go.
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Trip Report Readers Chick Chat and Guy Gabbing Thread!
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ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
I've never made carbonara but I enjoy eating it. I make a good alfredo though.
Hi all, first let me apologize to all of my magic buddies that have already heard most of this stuff via txt etc., and sorry for the very long post with no fun photos.
I've been waiting for some info before posting a Gary/life update.
Regarding Gary, in February his PET scan came back with more spread of his cancer. Lung, bone etc. His scan was on a Tuesday and his oncologist sat down with us on Wednesday. I knew it was going to be bad because he always calls me the day of to go over it. He said chemo is obviously not working any longer and he recommends stopping it. But, he had talked with an oncologist at Hillman Cancer Center in Pittsburgh and they had an investigational study they could enroll him in. They called me the next morning and asked if we could come down.
When we met with them a crazy thing happened, the Dr told us that the study she was going to enroll him in had only opened to accept patients the day before. It was not the study his Dr sent him down there for. Gary would become the first patient in the nation to be enrolled in this new one. Had we arrived even a day before he would be enrolled in the older one with more toxic meds. This one is an immunotherapy drug that has traditionally not shown promise in colorectal cancers but this one did in phase 1 trials. This is a phase 2 trial.
So after some bumps at the start, scheduling, testing etc. he was enrolled and started 6 weeks ago.
His first CT since starting treatment was Friday and while not a miracle is a little encouraging. He has a few areas that have enlarged but an equal number that have stayed the same or gotten smaller.
So the plan is he will continue with the trial because things have not significantly worsened.
Being a doctor is a pain here because I saw an area in his abdomen where the cancer is wrapped around some arteries and it annoyed me that I had to point this out to them and question it's significance. (Some doctors don't like being questioned and I have to tread lightly here.) They aren't "really worried about that right now, we'll keep an eye on it". So the next CT will happen in another 6 weeks.
Now life update unrelated to above.
I think I've mentioned that Seth and his friend wanted to leave NY and move to Orlando. Seth can work remotely and Jake got a position in the college program at Disney that he is hoping will turn into a full time position.
I need to thank @Zipadeelady and @cgersic for their help with Orlando, housing, moving advice.
The following paragraph has already been seen by them (love copy and pasting)
They found an apartment that appears much closer to Universal than Disney and I am helping Seth move and this is our
itinerary.
Our plan currently is I leave here, Pittsburgh, Wed. May 17th and drive to about an hour and half outside of NY to spend the night because I'm not staying in the rat infested parking lot hotel again. (And I forgot to mention I am driving a 9 foot clearance Budget cargo van because they couldn't assure me in NY they would have that size for me to pick up there.)
Then very early am drive to Seth's apt. where he will be all packed
and I've hired people to carry his stuff down to the van and load it. As soon as that is done, and apt. swept and wiped down of man germs we hit the road.
Trying to get out of there by 11 am will be a miracle and first stop is Fayetteville NC for the night. I wanted to drive till we dropped but Seth said he needed a pet friendly hotel for the satanish cat he has.
Next day early am (Fri), another maybe 8-9 hours to get to his apartment, on the map it looks like you could walk to the Epic Universe park form there.
He has to be there by 4ish. Unload, again with paid people. Gary isn't willing or able to go at this point so I've decided to just throw some money at the problem.
Then Sat. help him some, probably in the morning and I want to ride Tron so MK sometime that day, and then go check into OKW that I booked for Sat and Sun, I've never stayed there before.
And Sun. same with desire to ride Guardians and then have a 3:30 Rodeo reservation at HS.
Monday fly home afternoon, maybe Downtown Disney (will always be), in the am.
I've made sure Seth understands this is the last move Mom is helping with, probably! (I'm such a sucker)
In addition to wanting to share my misery of this move with others, I would also appreciate any Magicians who have traveled the east coast to Disney and see if you think my travel/time plans are reasonable.
I've been waiting for some info before posting a Gary/life update.
Regarding Gary, in February his PET scan came back with more spread of his cancer. Lung, bone etc. His scan was on a Tuesday and his oncologist sat down with us on Wednesday. I knew it was going to be bad because he always calls me the day of to go over it. He said chemo is obviously not working any longer and he recommends stopping it. But, he had talked with an oncologist at Hillman Cancer Center in Pittsburgh and they had an investigational study they could enroll him in. They called me the next morning and asked if we could come down.
When we met with them a crazy thing happened, the Dr told us that the study she was going to enroll him in had only opened to accept patients the day before. It was not the study his Dr sent him down there for. Gary would become the first patient in the nation to be enrolled in this new one. Had we arrived even a day before he would be enrolled in the older one with more toxic meds. This one is an immunotherapy drug that has traditionally not shown promise in colorectal cancers but this one did in phase 1 trials. This is a phase 2 trial.
So after some bumps at the start, scheduling, testing etc. he was enrolled and started 6 weeks ago.
His first CT since starting treatment was Friday and while not a miracle is a little encouraging. He has a few areas that have enlarged but an equal number that have stayed the same or gotten smaller.
So the plan is he will continue with the trial because things have not significantly worsened.
Being a doctor is a pain here because I saw an area in his abdomen where the cancer is wrapped around some arteries and it annoyed me that I had to point this out to them and question it's significance. (Some doctors don't like being questioned and I have to tread lightly here.) They aren't "really worried about that right now, we'll keep an eye on it". So the next CT will happen in another 6 weeks.
Now life update unrelated to above.
I think I've mentioned that Seth and his friend wanted to leave NY and move to Orlando. Seth can work remotely and Jake got a position in the college program at Disney that he is hoping will turn into a full time position.
I need to thank @Zipadeelady and @cgersic for their help with Orlando, housing, moving advice.
The following paragraph has already been seen by them (love copy and pasting)
They found an apartment that appears much closer to Universal than Disney and I am helping Seth move and this is our
itinerary.Our plan currently is I leave here, Pittsburgh, Wed. May 17th and drive to about an hour and half outside of NY to spend the night because I'm not staying in the rat infested parking lot hotel again. (And I forgot to mention I am driving a 9 foot clearance Budget cargo van because they couldn't assure me in NY they would have that size for me to pick up there.)
Then very early am drive to Seth's apt. where he will be all packed
and I've hired people to carry his stuff down to the van and load it. As soon as that is done, and apt. swept and wiped down of man germs we hit the road.Trying to get out of there by 11 am will be a miracle and first stop is Fayetteville NC for the night. I wanted to drive till we dropped but Seth said he needed a pet friendly hotel for the satanish cat he has.
Next day early am (Fri), another maybe 8-9 hours to get to his apartment, on the map it looks like you could walk to the Epic Universe park form there.
He has to be there by 4ish. Unload, again with paid people. Gary isn't willing or able to go at this point so I've decided to just throw some money at the problem.
Then Sat. help him some, probably in the morning and I want to ride Tron so MK sometime that day, and then go check into OKW that I booked for Sat and Sun, I've never stayed there before.
And Sun. same with desire to ride Guardians and then have a 3:30 Rodeo reservation at HS.
Monday fly home afternoon, maybe Downtown Disney (will always be), in the am.
I've made sure Seth understands this is the last move Mom is helping with, probably! (I'm such a sucker)
In addition to wanting to share my misery of this move with others, I would also appreciate any Magicians who have traveled the east coast to Disney and see if you think my travel/time plans are reasonable.
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
Goodness! That's some update! I hope the new treatment continues to show some progress. That's tough! Sending prayers and pixie dust!!Hi all, first let me apologize to all of my magic buddies that have already heard most of this stuff via txt etc., and sorry for the very long post with no fun photos.
I've been waiting for some info before posting a Gary/life update.
Regarding Gary, in February his PET scan came back with more spread of his cancer. Lung, bone etc. His scan was on a Tuesday and his oncologist sat down with us on Wednesday. I knew it was going to be bad because he always calls me the day of to go over it. He said chemo is obviously not working any longer and he recommends stopping it. But, he had talked with an oncologist at Hillman Cancer Center in Pittsburgh and they had an investigational study they could enroll him in. They called me the next morning and asked if we could come down.
When we met with them a crazy thing happened, the Dr told us that the study she was going to enroll him in had only opened to accept patients the day before. It was not the study his Dr sent him down there for. Gary would become the first patient in the nation to be enrolled in this new one. Had we arrived even a day before he would be enrolled in the older one with more toxic meds. This one is an immunotherapy drug that has traditionally not shown promise in colorectal cancers but this one did in phase 1 trials. This is a phase 2 trial.
So after some bumps at the start, scheduling, testing etc. he was enrolled and started 6 weeks ago.
His first CT since starting treatment was Friday and while not a miracle is a little encouraging. He has a few areas that have enlarged but an equal number that have stayed the same or gotten smaller.
So the plan is he will continue with the trial because things have not significantly worsened.
Being a doctor is a pain here because I saw an area in his abdomen where the cancer is wrapped around some arteries and it annoyed me that I had to point this out to them and question it's significance. (Some doctors don't like being questioned and I have to tread lightly here.) They aren't "really worried about that right now, we'll keep an eye on it". So the next CT will happen in another 6 weeks.
Now life update unrelated to above.
I think I've mentioned that Seth and his friend wanted to leave NY and move to Orlando. Seth can work remotely and Jake got a position in the college program at Disney that he is hoping will turn into a full time position.
I need to thank @Zipadeelady and @cgersic for their help with Orlando, housing, moving advice.
The following paragraph has already been seen by them (love copy and pasting)
They found an apartment that appears much closer to Universal than Disney and I am helping Seth move and this is our
Our plan currently is I leave here, Pittsburgh, Wed. May 17th and drive to about an hour and half outside of NY to spend the night because I'm not staying in the rat infested parking lot hotel again. (And I forgot to mention I am driving a 9 foot clearance Budget cargo van because they couldn't assure me in NY they would have that size for me to pick up there.)
Then very early am drive to Seth's apt. where he will be all packed
Trying to get out of there by 11 am will be a miracle and first stop is Fayetteville NC for the night. I wanted to drive till we dropped but Seth said he needed a pet friendly hotel for the satanish cat he has.
Next day early am (Fri), another maybe 8-9 hours to get to his apartment, on the map it looks like you could walk to the Epic Universe park form there.
He has to be there by 4ish. Unload, again with paid people. Gary isn't willing or able to go at this point so I've decided to just throw some money at the problem.
Then Sat. help him some, probably in the morning and I want to ride Tron so MK sometime that day, and then go check into OKW that I booked for Sat and Sun, I've never stayed there before.
And Sun. same with desire to ride Guardians and then have a 3:30 Rodeo reservation at HS.
Monday fly home afternoon, maybe Downtown Disney (will always be), in the am.
I've made sure Seth understands this is the last move Mom is helping with, probably! (I'm such a sucker)
In addition to wanting to share my misery of this move with others, I would also appreciate any Magicians who have traveled the east coast to Disney and see if you think my travel/time plans are reasonable.
And UGH! I hate moving! So do you have to have a CDL license to drive that moving truck? I had to drive a van once, and that thing was so hard to tell where I was on the road. It takes up SO much more space than any car I'd ever driven. Not my thing! Good luck and I hope it all goes according to plan, or better than!
Thank you, and I will definitely keep that time in mind.
I just gps'd it at 3pm eastern time and it lists Fayetteville to his address at 8 hours (no stops).
Thanks appreciate your thoughts.
It's a cargo van (the smallest they had available) and it doesn't need a CDL.
But, I am going to take out the higher insurance because as the guy I rented it from told me "you'll need the more expensive insurance if you side swipe a Mercedes in Brooklyn"!!
LSV
Well-Known Member
@MickeyCB
Keeping good positive thoughts for Gary.
Also sharing your moving misery - We have assisted with 6 moves in 4years, 5 local-ish and one from FL to VA, with one more local-ish this summer! Loading always takes longer than we thought/planned for. The drive time really depends on traffic volume and no accidents, hopefully both will be in your favor.
FL is a hot mess to live in though.
Keeping good positive thoughts for Gary.
Also sharing your moving misery - We have assisted with 6 moves in 4years, 5 local-ish and one from FL to VA, with one more local-ish this summer! Loading always takes longer than we thought/planned for. The drive time really depends on traffic volume and no accidents, hopefully both will be in your favor.
FL is a hot mess to live in though.
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MinnieM123
Premium Member
sheriffwoody
Well-Known Member
Thanks for updating us on Gary! I hope this treatment improves things for him. Sounds like the move will be a pain, but maybe you'll have no issues with the trip down. How fun for Seth to be so close to the parks!!
ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
Zipadeelady
Well-Known Member
Cindy, I don't know about the East and driving through it but what I forgot to tell you was that since my daughter has lived in Orlando I have never seen more reckless crazy drivers than the ones on I4 when I go down there and drive from her apartment to the Disney area. I dare say the drivers are even worse then any Atlanta experience I've had.
Thank your for your thoughts.
I will keep the driving time recs in mind and we'll pull out earlier on Fri am.
Thurs is going to be a, it is what it is kind of day, sadly.
And yes I keep asking why they want to move there!
@MickeyCB prayers ALL around...Gary's health....Seth's move....safe travels...sanity through it all for you!!
And a hug:
Thank you all and I will keep everyone updated regarding Gary.
And maybe I'll get a mini trip report out of the travel part!
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rshell68
Well-Known Member
Amen sister! It is crazy town down here on the roads. Try I-75 sometime.....yikes!
cgersic
Well-Known Member
I-95 is the one that gives me nightmares. I think the biggest issue is that the drivers down here have zero patience. I've been an insurance agent in Florida for 22 years and I could tell you some stories!
Aww come on you guys!