HANGING AROUND IN LOMA LINDA

I got an email from Sydney today commenting on my lapse in blogging. I know we've been busy... but, doing what??

Last Monday morning, reading email delivered to one of our online email addresses from several of the Yahoo groups we belong to, I realized I was reading spam messages from Laurie Brown! It took quite awhile for me to figure out what had happened, but I found that the online address book of our Yahoo email address had been hacked and stolen - it was completely gone, not an address left.

Fortunately, we use that address for low-priority stuff, so most of the contacts in the address book were businesses or old email addresses - but it still was an inconvenience to recipients and a hassle to me to figure out what happened (the account hacked) and how (never DID figure that out!) and what to do about it (change the password, send an apology to those who received the spam, and hope it doesn't happen again). So far, so good.

We go to the Drayson center, the great gym at LLUMC, 5 days a week. It is closed on Saturday, so we have been using that day to explore. Last Saturday we went to Big Bear and Arrowhead; yesterday we went back up to the higher elevations -this time, in the other direction.

Idyllwild, a little town in the mountains west of Palm Springs, has a reputation as a mellow, art-y place. I have been curious to visit there when we have stayed in Indio (to the east) and Aguanga (to the west) - but we've never made it until yesterday. Our day started with a visit to the newly opened Banning branch of a favorite restaurant, the Fisherman's Market and Grill (that's Odel's catfish-n-chips plate you see above). From there, we drove a designated "Scenic Loop" up from the valley floor, stopped in Idyllwild for an easy hike, then continued the loop, ending up back at home around 5 pm, just as the sun set. You can see from the collage above that "Scenic" was an accurate description, and we had a perfect day for it.

When we got home from our sightseeing yesterday, we joined another proton patient here at Mission RV Park, Joe, and his sister (Ruth) and brother in law (Frank) for dinner at a nearby (and good) Thai restaurant. That's Joe, Odel and Frank in the photo to the left.

One of the reasons Frank and Ruth were visiting now is that today was a big day for PBT patients. A very well-known early advocate and PBT patient, Bob Marckini, was the main speaker at a special brunch meeting on the LLUMC campus. Attendees were current and past proton patients and their caregivers, many of whom had first heard of PBT through Bob Marckini's book about his experience and treatment here at LLUMC (hardly anyone, including us, learns about PBT from their doctor).

Also on hand was the first man to undergo proton beam therapy for prostate cancer (in 1955, I think), who was a physicist who worked on the proton treatment center. Several men in the audience had amazing stories of treatment and cure - one man with a PSA of 436 (with normal being around 2), another with a PSA in the 60's and a "Gleason score" of 10 (the highest and worst possible). At the end of the brunch, Bob Marckini pointed out that the 5 proton treatment centers in the U.S. are able to treat only 1/10th of 1% of men who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, so the men in the room were part of a very small group. I know Odel feels lucky.