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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 31, 2019)
SIUSLAW NEWS | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2019 | 7A Community Voices Natural Perspective — Winter Journeys By Emily J. Uhrig, Ph.D Special to Siuslaw News T he holiday sea- son is a busy travel time for many of us. Immersed in our own hectic schedules, it’s easy to overlook what’s hap- pening in nature this time of year, and, in- deed, winter is a quiet time for many species. Gray whales, howev- er, are busy with their own winter travel itin- eraries as they migrate southward along the Oregon coast to their breeding and birthing lagoons in the warm waters of Baja Califor- nia. In spring, they’ll re- turn north with their calves. Gray whales once ranged throughout the Atlantic and Pa- cific oceans, but cen- turies of intense whal- ing caused precipitous population declines and likely led to the Atlantic population’s extinction. Gray whales have since recovered rela- tively well, albeit with a less extensive range. Today, they are lim- ited mainly to North A m e r i c a’s w e s t e r n coast, although around 130 individuals still persist along the coasts of Asia. Reaching 45 feet in length and weigh- ing over 30 tons, gray whales are oceanic heavyweights. Yet, as filter feeders, they eat some of the smallest marine ani- mals. Each side of a gray whale’s upper jaw has over a hundred strips of baleen hanging like vertical window blinds. These stiff plates are made of keratin, the same substance as our fingernails, and have a fringed edge that forms an effective sieve. While other ba- leen whales feed in the water column, gray whales dive to the sea floor and suck in mouthfuls of sedi- ment, which they filter through their baleen to sift out tiny shrimp- like creatures. From studies show- ing that baleen tends to be more worn on the whale’s right, it seems whales usually roll to that side when feeding — in essence, most gray whales are “right-handed.” As they migrate, gray whales transport hitchhikers. Many bar- nacles, for instance, spend their entire lives attached to whales, a tactic that lets bar- nacles access more geographically wide- spread feeding sites. Barnacle clusters give the whale’s skin its mottled appear- ance and form unique patterns, like finger- prints, that allow sci- entists to identify in- dividual whales. Gray whales also host whale lice, a type of crusta- cean about the size of a quarter, which feed on pieces of dead skin, a service that may actu- ally benefit the whale. Although individual lice and barnacles are tiny, a whale’s entire load of these hitchhik- ers can be several hun- dred pounds! So, if you’re stressed about holiday trav- els, look out to sea this winter; you might glimpse some fellow travelers on their own winter journeys, and you can be glad you’re carrying only presents and luggage, and not a burden of barnacles. After drying in front of the fire, my shoes curled up like elf shoes. The leather resembled crackled paint. As I returned home, Mom held up my beau- tiful taffeta Christmas dress she had just fin- ished sewing. I tried it on, swishing as I danced around. Agape, Mom point- ed. “Karen Diane!” Dad looked up from his newspaper. “Maybe I can polish them.” Mom shook her head. “No pretty shoes this Christmas.” Running to my room, I licked away a tear. No punishment was neces- sary. Readying for Christ- mas Eve Service I curled my hair so’s not to hang straight like witches’ broom straw. I waltzed about in my swishy, taffeta dress ignoring my high-top clunkers. On our way out, Mom said, “Wait. Would you like to open one pres- ent?” My shoes were my big present. The rest were probably under- wear. I reached. “Not that one,” Mom jostled under the pile. “This one.” Opening the silver box, I gawked. “Mary Janes!” I wrapped my arms around her. “I love you, Mom.” “Love you, too, Hon- ey.” Ironically, that’s ex- actly the same ending as Yukiko’s story. Experiencing my own story, and the Jap- anese story, I realized how universal the chal- lenges of life are. Iden- tical tales, like this, have probably been told a thousand times, in many languages. The Moral of the Story — Snow Shoes By Karen D. Nichols Special to Siuslaw News I reminisced when I heard the “Christ- mas Shoes” song, which tells of a boy buying his dying moth- er special shoes. When I taught, I in- troduced a story re- minding me of me. With eyes brimming, I’d read with my stu- dents. The story cap- tured the flavor of a poor, rural, Japanese home, long ago. Japanese New Year’s is special. Mother and Yukiko shopped for a new kimono and geta shoes. She selected black lacquered geta shoes. The red blos- soms painted on the black wooden base matched her new ki- mono. Dancing about in her new outfit, Yukiko imagined being at the New Year’s Celebra- tion. Forbidden, Yukiko wore the geta to school. Walking home, she played “Kick the Geta” with friends. Her geta flew high then plunked hard on a large rock at the edge of the path, splitting the wood sole. Rain and snow fell. She trudged home. Sneaking in, Yuki- ko placed her geta by the fire. In the morn- ing, Mother saw the cracked, peeling geta. “Too bad. Yukiko has no pretty geta.” Father added, “May- be I can fix them.” I remember one Christmas. From age five, I wore correc- tive, high-top, brown, clunky shoes. I didn’t cry while girls pranced in shiny, black, Mary Janes and ridiculed mine. This was a major ex- pense for my parents, but walking was pain- ful without them. Exer- cising daily, walking on toes and heels, at age 11, the doctor allowed me regular shoes on occasion. Yeah! Shiny Mary Janes! I needed diffi- cult to find AAA nar- row shoes so as not to fall off. After an all-day shop-a-thon, I think we bought the last pair anywhere. Then came the church mountain trip to Forest home. Even though forbidden, I snuck my new shoes from under the Christ- mas tree and changed into them on the porch before I left. My Mary Jane’s were the only shoes I took. The rugged Forest Home log cabins, nes- tled among fir trees, seemed more beautiful because Roger flirted with me. Roger and I held hands as we stepped out of the dinner hall. Huge snowflakes swirled. A crystal sheen glazed the landscape. “Snow!” Having nev- er seen snow, I twirled around, arms out- stretched, catching a giant flake on my tongue. “Come on! Let’s go sledding!” Roger pulled me toward the cabins. “Yeah!” filled the frosty air. Everyone raced for jackets. My shoes! Stay inside or play and face the consequences. With triple socks stuffed into my Mary Janes, I sledded, threw snowballs, made snow angels for two days. The Moral: Some- times when you’re a bad girl there’s a good moth- er. Us TOO Florence — My Prostate Cancer Journey (Part 2) By Henry Azevedo Prostate Cancer Survivor W ith Dr. Koll- morgen hav- ing me stable except for a rising PSA, it was time to hand me off to Dr. Bryan Mehl- haff for the next phase — dealing with my ad- vanced prostate cancer. As my PSA contin- ued to slowly rise, I was scheduled to have a CT scan and an MRI to see what was going on in- side. On Sept. 27, 2016, the scans indicated there were two small anom- alies in my right lung and two small anoma- lies about midway on my spine. Dr. Mehlhaff indi- cated they were not big enough to determine exactly what they were or to remove. He said they will continue to monitor them in the fu- ture. (Very scary)! Dr. Mehlhaff sug- gested I should try an immunotherapy called Provenge. I agreed, and the entire process was handled by Dr. Forsythe at the Oregon Urolo- gy Institute’s Radiation Center. Fortunately, I only had to travel to the OUI Radiation Center for the leukapheresis and infusion. Thank you, OUI! Since leukapheresis takes about four hours as the blood circulates out of my body through a centrifuge removing the needed T-cells with the remaining blood continuing to circu- late back into my body, it requires good sized needles that don’t in- hibit the flow. It is hard to extract blood from my veins, so I chose to have two ports installed (out- go and intake). This shortened the process from six weeks to three weeks as the week be- tween each treatment to heal from the needles in drawings was eliminat- ed by the port. I began the Provenge treatment on Nov. 4, 2016. The procedure went as follows: • Monday — Off to Springfield to the hos- pital to clean the port and make sure it is ready to go, • Tuesday — Back to Springfield for the leu- kapheresis and gather- ing of T-cells. They are then couriered to Port- land (PDX) and flown to a lab in Seal Beach, Calif., where they are incubated and treated, training the T-cells to recognize the cancer. • Wednesday — They are couriered back to LAX, then to PDX, and finally back to Spring- field. • Friday — Back to Springfield to infuse the treated T-cells back into my body. This only takes about two hours. This process repeats for three weeks. A spe- cial bonus is the treated T-cells teach the exist- ing T-cells to recognize and go after the cancer cells. It was now time to have another round of scans to determine if the previous spots are growing and/or multi- plying. Guess what? They are gone! They have all dis- appeared. There might be something to that Provenge after all! At the time of this writing, my PSA has been non-detectable for about two years. I have surpassed the initial prognosis of five years and feel pretty positive about the future, thanks to Dr. Kollmorgen, Dr. Forsythe and my guard- ian angel, Dr. Mehlhaff. They are amazing doctors and I would recommend them to anybody. I also would like to give thanks to Bob Horney for his unyield- ing dedication to get- ting the word out and helping so many of us through these journeys. PS: I can’t stress enough the importance of PSA testing. It is a simple blood test that can enable early detec- tion and provide for a much simpler and bet- ter outcome than my story. Note from (Bob Hor- ney: If you were in Flor- ence back in 2012, you may recall that a local teacher with advanced prostate cancer, Tim Daugherty, was the first member of Us TOO Florence to receive this immunotherapy. In his case, he (and his wife, Debbie) had to travel to the Red Cross Center in Vancouver, Wash., for harvesting the T-cells from his blood (leukapheresis). The leukapheresis process started at 6 a.m., which meant Tim and Debbie had to stay in a nearby motel the night before. It also meant dealing with snow, ice and car trou- ble during the three trips to Vancouver. See- ing that and knowing many more men would need to make that trip to Vancouver, OUI was quick to set up its own leukapheresis facility in its Radiation Center. What a blessing! VOICE YOUR OPINION! — Write a Letter to the Editor today: Editor@TheSiuslawNews.com
