The Blanding Bugle

Volume 18 Issue 10

Oct  2009

Stephen Paul Blanding

This year we celebrated Doreen's birthday a little differently. We had come home from church and I was downstairs working on my computer when the phone rang. It was my mother and I could tell right away that she was very upset about something. "Steve," she said, "I think your father has just had a massive heart attack. He's not responding. We're on our way to the hospital. Please call your brothers and sisters." It wasn't long after that before I got the call from my sister, Tricia: "He didn't make it." It was such a shock that I didn't even know how to react at first. I packed a bag and drove three hours to my parent's house in Ridgefield. I spent the next week there, helping my mother and brothers and sisters prepare for the funeral. That was a very hard week but the sadness was tempered by the fact that all of my brothers and sisters were able to be there for the funeral.

We were also very blessed to have just spent a week with him at our family reunion in Long Beach, Washington. Nearly all of my siblings were able to attend and the one who wasn't had just spent time with him the week before. So in a way, we all had ample time to say our goodbyes, we just didn't realize at the time that we were doing it.

Let me tell you a bit about my father.

Stephen Paul Blanding was born in Michigan in January, 1941. His parents were poor but very active in their community. His father ran a milk dairy before the supermarket chains put most small dairies out of business. By the time I knew my grandfather he was working in a magnet factory. He was a founder of his local Rotary Club and active in his local protestant church. My father came from humble beginnings but he was always very proud of his heritage and he made sure that we knew it.

In 1964 my father married my mother and began a family that would eventually grow to include four boys and three girls. (I'm the oldest.) Shortly after marrying my mother, he graduated from the University of Michigan and began a career as an accountant. That career would take us to the San Francisco Bay Area where he spent most of his life.

In Alamo (a small town in Contra Costa County, CA) my father started his own accounting practice which would eventually grow to become one of the most successful and well-respected accounting firms in the East Bay. He was an excellent businessman and he soon leveraged his talent, his reputation for honest dealing, and his considerable business contacts into a career that reached way beyond the accounting firm. He served on many boards, charitable and otherwise. He was president of the California Symphony. He was the CEO of Allied Exhaust Systems, the largest independent warehouse distributor of automotive exhaust products in the country. To use Kray's favorite word, he was AMAZING!

My father was an extremely generous man. Anywhere I ever went with him, he always insisted on paying. It took years before he would ever let me pay for anything. He provided employment for hundreds of people, some of whom probably didn't deserve it.

I learned so much from my father. I can't imagine a world without him. He left such an immense legacy that I don't know that I could ever measure up to his example.

Rest in peace, dad. I can't wait to see you again someday.

Steve & Mayno

Curt & Ron
Curt is Steve P's brother and Ron is Steve P's best friend and business partner.

Steve & Mayno

Rob, Rich, Curt, Steve
Dan, Paul & Jon

At the ready.
What a fitting tribute to their grandfather.

Jason, Matt, Chris
Kray, Mike & Jessie

Steve & Mayno

He will always be in our hearts!

Late Breaking News:

Jason is an Eagle!  After a summer of fixing a date, a signature, hunting down the right email addresses etc. all while going to scout camp, family reunions and high adventure trips, Jason was able to have an Eagle Board of Review and pass!  This has been a very long process for Jason with more twists and turns than ever before. 

We are so grateful that it is finally done.  YEAH JASON!

A Soft Glow & a Celebration of Life!

That soft glow you saw on the night time maps of the Seattle area was Doreen. After 12 radiation appointments she had a distinct soft glow about her. 

No! Not really. She didn't glow but she did have 12 radiation appointments.  The appointments themselves only lasted about 10 minutes.  It truly took longer to drive to the appointment than to have the radiation shot at her back. 

They put five tattoos on her tummy and side so they could line her up just right so the radiation would hit the tumor.  They radiated from the T12 to the L4 vertebra. After the first three appointments Doreen noticed that her back pain was just about gone.  She was getting a little nauseated but the pain that had plagued her for the past two months was almost gone.  They told her that the tumor was aggressive and it was upon division that the cancer cells would die.  They weren't joking! 

Of course cancer is about trade-offs and so she traded the pain of the tumor in her muscle for the pain of an injured muscle.  Doctor Hunter equated it to a strained muscle. It had the tumor in it and when it melted it left a small hole to be repaired.  Also the radiation was destroying the muscle tissue and would have to be rebuilt.  The nausea was just because radiating your gut will do wonders to the digestive system.

Doreen was also very fatigued.  Thirty percent of a bodies blood supply is being made in the backbone and Doreen was having 25% of her backbone radiated every day (she got weekends off for good behavior).  It also would effect the other blood production through out her body as well.  Doreen describes the fatigue as walking through almost set Jell-O.  "Your eyes and brain aren't tired but your body feels like it can't push forward anymore." 

Her first radiation appointment was the most interesting of all.  Because the tumor was aggressive they had to wait a few days before starting radiation so they could do another tissue biopsy.  The first biopsy back in August let the team of doctors know  it was Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma but Doreen's tissue was being stubborn (imagine that) and not giving them a clean sub-type of NHL.  So a new biopsy was scheduled for Sept 9th.  It was also her first day of radiation.  Because she was in so much pain from having more needles stuck in her back pulling out tissue she had to have two very handsome young men lie her down so gently on the small table in the radiation room.  They then had to pick her up once the buzzing stopped and wheel her to the curb for Kray to come pick her up.

That biopsy came back with mixed results as well so they ordered a bone marrow biopsy--nothing more conclusive.  So on the 16th of September Doreen had her left hip bone marrow sucked out.  That is exactly what they do.  Doreen's bone is so strong it bend Doctor Kraemer's bone needle.  He later said that he has never bent a needle before. 

Doreen went from that appointment to her daughter soccer game and coach a complete game.  She only fainted once.

 Upon completion of radiation Doreen met with Dr. Kraemer to go over her chemo schedule. It was at that appointment that Dr. Kraemer went over the results of the bone marrow biopsy. The test was clean. Even though she has cancer in her t12 vertebra there is none in her other bones.  What the doctor said next rocked Doreen's world.  He said, "We are going to put chemo on hold for right now." 

Doreen's eyes could only grow larger and her mouth could only gap open.  She asked him to repeat what he said.  Her eyes grew even larger and she picked her chin out of her lap.  If she wasn't so tired she would have danced a jig (she did that upon exiting the office and didn't care who in the parking lot saw her). She looked at his nurse, his wonderful nurse who held her hand through the bone biopsy and she confirmed exactly what Dr. Kraemer had said.  NO CHEMO!

The treatment plan is to let the radiation finish its work (she still has some of the stuff in her working) and then they will do a blood draw (count the white blood cells and hope to see a change for the better) and then do another PET scan and see if there are any "hot spots."  The last PET scan showed the cancer only in the T12-L4 region of the spine and since that is the spot they radiated it is the doctors' belief that they got it all and pouring chemo chemicals into her body will just kill good stuff since the believe there is no cancer left in her body. 

If the PET scan shows nothing then they will repeat with another scan (probably not a PET scan) in three months and then another three month then they will spread them out until she hits five years or until they have to do radiation and chemo; which ever comes first.  Of course she and her family are hoping for the five year mark--REMISSION!

Doreen is still in shock as she cannot believe the turn of events.  Twelve doses of radiation and to be sleeping, walking, standing, sitting, doing everything without pain and then to have her doctor say, "We are going to put chemo on hold," is astounding. 

"I believe in the power of prayer," says Doreen. "I believe in miracles.  This is a miracle.  On August 17th my life changed forever and on September 28th I was born again. What a month.  From the deepest of despair with tears rolling non-stop down my cheeks and pain that kept me from enjoying life to the highest of high with tears of joy rolling non-stop down my cheeks and a relatively pain free body in weeks is just a miracle.  A miracle."

Here is hoping that each test shows improvement and that her appointments are always at least three months from each other until the doctor says, "You are in remission."  Oh how sweet those words will be to Doreen and her family.

This is truly a miracle.  The family thanks all those who have prayed, fasted and place her name (and the rest of the family) on the prayer rolls of the temples across the nation.  Prayers are answered. Miracles happen.  It is their prayer that miracles continue in their family.   

Fall means SOCCER!

Kray and Jason are referees earning lots of money for their mission funds.  Mike and Steve are chief cheerleaders. (Mike was at our family reunion when the referee clinic was so he missed this fall season.) Kray is playing on a open league on Tuesday nights.  He usually plays goalie. 

Matt is still on the Thundercats and they are holding their own. They aren't the best but they aren't the worst either.  They are actually putting some winning games together.

Chris is still on the Champions and they are hanging tough.  They are in a very difficult division and are in the middle of the pack just waiting to break out.

Jessie is still on the Sunshine and loving it.  They have added a few very good strong players who have added some great skill.  They are actually putting some points in the win column.

Doreen is coaching in some capacity each of the teams.  She has had only a few conflicts.  This schedule has kept her busy.  Somehow she has managed to balance cancer treatments, practices, scouts and all the other stuff!

Sorry no picture of Mike. He is the one usually taking the photos this year and cheering his siblings along.

Snap shots!

The kids didn't have the camera this time, Doreen did.  Here are some shots of the family.

Jessie, Chris & Matt
playing with Grandma's costumes.

Steve
It seems like he is never around when I have the camera.  This was taken at his mother's home.

Giving the kids the camera is sometimes a dangerous thing to do.  Two hundred photos later I found some keepers.

Happy Birthday!

Steve is so kind to Doreen.  For her 40th birthday he got her a wig. Don't you think it becomes her?

Of course Alex has a birthday just after Doreen and he got some head wearing gear as well. He didn't like it so well, but he poised for a picture or two. Alex is now a five years old.