I arrived at PAWS at 8:30am yesterday as preparations were being made to dart the bear with anesthetic so he could be brought out of his enclosure safely.  Dr. Huckabee and 2 other veterinarians were there, and about 10 other interested people who were looking at the bears x rays to see how his badly broken leg had healed.  The bear weighed only 16 pounds when he first came to PAWS, only 23 pounds when I first saw him (pictures on the photo page).  
The veterinarian darted the bear by putting a long metal tube into the enclosure, aiming for a muscle in the thigh, and using an air compressor to shoot the dart.  The medicine takes affect in 5-15 minutes.  After 11 minutes the bear was sitting down but his head was still up, so the decison was made to give a second dose of medication.  I got to look in on him and was amazed at how big he looked.  I felt compasion for him because he was making a little moaning sound and he has been through so much.  The second dose of medicing was delivered by putting a syringe on the end of a metal estension pole that had a plunger on the end of it.  The veterianarian put the pole into the enclosure and gave the bear the injection in the thigh muscle.  He layed down flat on his belly and was placed on a strecher.  They brought him to weigh him (126 ponds!) the into the x ray room to take images of his hip joint for the last time to see how well the bone had healed.  Then they brought him into another room where they took a blood sample and put a tag on his ear.  The tag had a number but would not allow him to be tracked.  The many people who came to see the bear got to come into the room to pet him, look at his beautiful feet and paws, and say goodbye.  A videographer was there taking video for PAWS and interviewing Dr. Huckabee.  Everyone agreed that this was a real success story since many doubted that the bear would survive and thrive to be released.
He was put back on the strecher and carried out to a metal "box" in the back of a pick up truck with a canopy on it.  There was hay in the box and he layed flat on his belly.  He had a tube in his throat to help keep his airway open.  A group of about 12 people stood there and talked with the box open for people to take pictures while they monitored the bear because he had to swallow on his own before they could remove the tube.  The stimulated him to wake up by spanking his butt a few times, and Dr. Huckabee touched his tongue which was hanging out.  They test the jaw for tension and listen to the heart rate with a stethescope as other signs of level of consciousness.  It took about 20 minutes until the tube could come out.  By then, the bear was trying to raise his head.  The box was closed (there are air holes in it and the canopy windows were open). 
3 carloads of people took off with radios for communication and a map of where we were going.  We drove north to exit 230 (Anacortes exit), turned right onto highway 20, then went on highway 9 toward mount Baker.  We stopped at a fire station just inside of a town called Acme where 2 Fish and Wildlife agency officers met us.  There were about 8 other people there too-many had been involved in the rescue of the bear and had been the ones who contacted PAWS to come and get the bear last December when he was first picked up by someone.  That person had kept the bear in their bathroom for a week while they tried to find out who to call to help-they didn't know what to do.  From the fire station, a caravan of cars went up a forest service road to the release site-about a 45 minute drive.  The Fish and Wildlife agency has authority to decide where, when and how a bear will be released.  Since the bear came from the Acme area, it was released in that vicinity because they don't  want to tamper with gene pools.
The metal box was set facing a wooded area and a rope pulley used to open the door.  The bear came out slowly and ran into the bushes when the wildlife officer fired a rifle to make noise to scare him.  That was it.  I got one picture of him as he came out of the box looking confused.  He may grow to be 250-300 pounds.  I put pictures on the photo page.  Our group of 12 stopped for Mexican food in Berlington on the way home and it was quite interesting to hear the stories of these wildlife veterinarians and biologist, and the mrmorable releases they had been involved in (everything from 500 pound sea lions to deer, bears, and raptors).  A very unique and cool day I feel priveldged to be a part of. 

   The ultrasound equipment that is made at SonoSite is used to scan humans as well as animals.  Veterinarians are learning to use ultrasound because it is a quick, painless way to "look" into an animal to get information to help them decide what needs to be done to treat the animal.  
   Last year I took some classes and subjected my own cats and the neighbor puppy to me scanning them because I was optimizing a transducer that is used by veterinarians on small animals, and I needed to learn the appearance of animal anatomy so I could get the settings correct. Ultrasound is not well established in the veterinary market, so there are only a few people who are good at it, and I was begining to learn. 
   PAWS is a non profit organization dedicated to animal welfare.  A veterinarian at PAWS, Dr. Huckabee, contacted SonoSite and requested a donation of an ultrasound system for use in his practice.  When I called Dr. Huckabee, he was eager to learn about ultrasound and I was eager to learn what he could teach me, so it was a win/win relationship, and we set up a meeting.  I oriented Dr. Huckabee to the ultrasound machine, and he showed me what his needs were.  He works in wildlife, not companion animals (like dogs and cats).  He sees a lot of birds that people bring in injured, squirrels, bears, deer, racoons, cyotes,and any wild animal that lives in the northwest.  The first day we scanned a bird and a squirrel that were already dead.  It was hard to orient to the anatomy because the beating heart is a landmark, plus birds anatomy is VERY different than humans!  Dr. Huckabee did a necropsy on the bird after we scanned to "open him up" to show me where the anatomy was located.  This was a very unique experience, very cool.  
   My objective was to learn what I could, and to convince SonoSite to donate a system to PAWS.  Dr. Huckabee and I agreed that it would be easier for SonoSite to justify a donation if they could get some valuable publicity from it and some pictures to put on our veterinary web site that show the ultrasound system being used to treat animals.
    When Dr. Huckabee contacted me again, he had a baby bear that had been brought in with a severe leg injury.  The bear had been brought in by a motorist who found him by the roadside and caught him in a net.  He was dangerously underweight at 23 pounds (Dr. Huckabee said he should have weighed 80 pounds) and the bones were sticking out of his infected leg wound.  The bears leg joint was not moving and if he didn't get better, he could not survive in the wild and would have to be euthanized. Dr. Huckabee wondered if I could bring an ultrasound machine in because they were going to anesthetise the bear and try to clean out the wound and free up the hip joint so it could heal and move freely. The local news channel 4 was contacted, and a short story about the bear aired that night on the 5:00 news.  Dr. Huckabee worked long and hard and after 3 hours of surgery, removed a bone fragment that was stuck in the bear's hip joint.
   The bear has been growing and healing, and is now ready to be released into the wild.  Dr. Huckabee called me last week to invite me to take one of the few spots available on the caravan that will transport the bear to the release site.  I am thrilled to be able to witness this special event and will take pictures if they are allowed.  Next Wednesday at 9:00 I will be at PAWS to prepare for the crating of the bear.  I hear he is very big now.  
   My most recent visit to PAWS was a couple of months ago when Dr. Huckabee called to say he had a pregnant racoon brought in.  She had been hit by a car and was in a coma.  He wanted to know if her babies were alive inside, because if they were, he was thinking of delivering them by c-section if they were close enough to full term.  I got an ultrasound system and went right over.  We scanned the racoon mama and saw 3 living babies.  Dr. Huckabee delivered all 3 healthy babies (2 boys and a girl).  The Mama lived for several weeks and nursed the babies, but she did not improve because of a severe head injury.  She had to be euthanized, but the babies are still thriving and will also be released when they are ready.  I will get to see them on Wednesday too.
   These are some of the unique and wonderful experiences I have been lucky enough to have.  I wish I could continue building relationships with the wonderful people I have known.  They have made my life so interesting and fun.   
   

   I have decided not to go back to work at SonoSite because of the pain I am having.  I had hoped that chemotherapy would reduce that pain, but so far it does not seem to be working that way.  The workplace at SonoSite is such an exciting and  positive atmosphere with so much innovation and so many bright people with great ideas.  It is not a place for someone who is in pain or not functioning at 100%.  Perhaps that is one reason it has been hard for me to reveal this illness to my coworkers there.  I have always presented my profesional persona at the workplace-confident, professionally dressed, and proud to be one of the healthy, capable people working at the company.  I don't think I could maintain composure with my coworkers now that they know what is happening to me, and I don't want to be tearful at work.  I want them to remember the person they worked with when I delivered all I had, not the ailing person people feel they have to "tiptoe" around.  The sadness of the changes I am going through have no place at work.
   I hope to meet with human resources next week to start applying for short term disability.  That lasts 12 weeks and pays 66% of my wage.  My doctor filled out his portion of the paperwork, but my employer and I also have a portion to fill out.  I don't think I can contribute and perform my job duties which is hard to admit because I have loved working at SonoSite and  I was building up my contacts and learning how to do my job more efficiently.  There are so many good people  I respect working there with so much expertise,.  I consider myself very fortunate for having the experience of working with them.  It is a high point in my ultrasound career, though I am very proud of the 15 years I spent working in the clinical aspect of ultrasound for Group Health Hospital.  Ultrasound has been a fantastic career for me and has provided my girls and I a comfortable lifestyle and job that has been very fulfilling to me.  Getting my ultrasound education is one of my greatest accomplishments (bringing Shalia and Hillary into this world are my two proudest accomplishments) and every struggle it took to make it through those years was worth it!

Hello, 
   Eileen has made it possible for me to write entries of any lenght on this blog format.  I am testing it to see if it works.  
   Our friends Brandon and Carolyn called this morning and offered to take us out tonight for Tai food, so I am going to do some housework and have that to look forward to tonight.  We layed around and watched old black and white movies this morning as a relaxing way to spend some time together.  Normally we would be working on remodel projects, but that doesn't seem as important to us now.
   I feel well today and actually look forward to vacuming my house and cleaning the bathrooms.  The more normal routines I can do, the more normal things seem.  
   Hillary drove to Lake Chelan this weekend to go wild with some of her friends.  I will feel relieved when she calls to tell me she is safely back at home.  She did call to let me know they had arrived safely in Chelan.  They were going out to breakfast at The Apple Cup Cafe.  On of the friends she is with is my friend Keith's son, Chris.  He is also very ill with cancer and is enjoying the time he has left.  He is only 23 years old!  
   Well, I need to get my house cleaned up, so I hope everyone is spending this day with loved ones.  Maybe the good that can come from this is people examining priorities and letting those who really matter in our lives know that.  Also, choosing to do things that we might have been waiting for "some day" to do.  I am so glad that I did chose to take my girls on the cruises that we have taken.  I never wanted to take a trip because I was sick.  I wanted to go when we were all healthy, and we did that.  Those memories are in all of our minds and will live on.

If you have any questions (like this one) I am happy to answer them and this is the place to ask any question that may come to mind.


Hi Cynthia. Three years ago, when you had a melanoma removed, where on your body was it located, and could you tell by looking at it that it was a melanoma?

Three years ago I noticed a light colored mole about 3 inches under my right breast that had a darker (redbrown) area on one side of it. What I noticed the most was that it itched. I did not know if that mole had always looked that way or if it had changed, so I started noticing it more, and it kept itching. When I made the appointment to have it looked at, the doctor who saw me was immediately suspiscious and sent me over to a doctor who took a "punch" biopsy of it. The biopsy came back as melanoma, Breslow thickness 1mm (that means how far it has grown down into your skin) Clarks Level III (another indication of how far it has invaded into the tissue). It had a low mitotic rate (was not multiplying very quickly) and was not ulcerated (had not broken out of it's "capsule." It never occured to me that it would be melanoma, and I did not know how dangerous it was. It is still hard to believe that a tiny mole could kill me. I have always thought that skin cancer is cured once you take the abnormal area off. I asked the plastic surgeon who removed the original mole and the skin around it what caused it and he said that it was from sun exposure as a child.

Hi Cynthia. Today is Tuesday 5/15/07 and I would like to know how you are feeling, if you are in any pain?Can you feel anything different in your body?

At this moment I feel pretty well. I have a constant ache which flares up to be more like a burnig feeling in my left shoulder blade. I keep it at bay with aspirin. That is the first symptom I noticed-I kept having Dan rub my back there, thinking it was a sore muscle. As far as my body feeling different, my right arm deffinetly feels odd. I have a large mass bellow my right collar bone which I am aware of, and you can see it bulging a little if you look. I don't lift or put weight on my right arm, and I don't put my purse on that shoulder. I am worried that this mass will prevent blood from getting in and out of my arm, but for now I can live with the way it feels.

Today my left shoulder has been hurting more than it had been the past few days.
I wonder what the PET scan will show in that area. That is what keeps me taking aspirin every 4 hours.
I did get a perscription for pain medicine but I don't want to take it unless I have to because I imagine much worse pain will be coming in the future, and so far, this is manageable.

I enjoyed the time I spent riding in the car with Hillary today. We talked about a lot of things.

Tomorrow my girls are taking Dan and I out to a dinner show (like Cirque De Solei) in Seattle. We plan to get dressed up and I hope to take some pictures.

Hope I am able to sleep well tonight.

Hi Cynthia,