A Scrapbook of Denver Memories part 1

Bob shows off his "diploma" for completing his radiation.

Bob relaxes outside before going in for his treatment.

 Bob has finished his radiation treatments and we are back home!  The 7 weeks really went by much faster than I thought they would and I do have lots of memories of the new friends we made, the interesting people we met and the adventures we had.  If we had to be away from home and go through this experience, Denver was a great place to do it!  I can't say enough good things about the "Blue Mesa Beauties" and the rest of the staff at The Urology Center of Colorado and the staff of the VQ Hotel down the street from there!  They all took great care of us.

Bob's certificate is signed by the ladies that operated the machine

Bob drinks his water before heading over to get his daily dose of radiation!  As one man said, " I need to get recharged so I can glow tonight!

From the first day we met Bob's radiologist, Dr. Gross and his crew, I knew it was the right thing for Bob to do.  They all have been so caring, reassuring, and lots of fun.  Their upbeat attitude is hard to resist.  The first day of treatments was the hardest due to the unknown, but they all kept it light and set the tone for the rest of the time.  The actual radiation treatments were not difficult--as they put it, the patient just lays there (some even take a nap, they claim)  while the girls do all the work.  There is no pain, nausea, or hair loss as there was in the past.  The after effects are very minimal.

The Blue Mesa Beauties.  Arrow points to the newest one--Iris the receptionist.  Nice stick figure, Iris!  They are posing next to the radiation machine.

The Crew (Blue Mesa Beauties) keeps the men of the Gentlemen's Club in line.  The have a special waiting room furnished with snacks, juice, coffee, and Chocolate! there is a TV, magazines and several books on living with prostate cancer.  The wives are also allowed in the Gentlemen's Club and I went every day with Bob.  I met some very interesting men and women in that room.  The people who went before and after Bob visited with me and we became quite good friends.  The girls had special names for each patient.  and teased some (who could take it) unmercifully.  There was a teacher for the DOD that was going to be 3 weeks late going to South Korea to teach math.  He had a new Ipad and we all gave him a ribbing.  His nickname was Mr. Trouble!  There was a Mr. Potato
Chip and Bob was the Favorite Cowboy.  The men were very interesting to chat with and offered a lot of suggestions for things to do while we were in Denver.  Bob even sold some of Danny and Kathi's chickens and beef to some of them!  Jean actually drove up to their farm to tour it and pick up the meat!  She has become a good friend of us all.

Blue shoe run to benefit prostate cancer research.

While we were in Denver we stayed at the VQ Hotel about a half block down the street from the Urology Center.  They gave us a big break on the price of our room and worked with the Urology Center's Foundation to help us with some of our expenses.  I need to mention the Foundation because they helped us out and I hope to help them as well.  They do free prostate cancer screenings around the Denver area, support reseach and education, help patients and employees when necessary.  They are having The Blue Shoe 5 K run/walk on September 25 at 8 AM and it sounds like it will be a very fun event with a post run beer garden, live music, an inflatable slide and other activities for kids, survivor recognition with channel 7's Mike Landess and free pasta among the events.  I'm guessing they'll also have free prostate cancer screenings there too.  It will be at the Urology Center of Colorado Just north of Invesco Field on Mile High Stadium Circle if anyone is interested.  They have a web sight as well. It is theblueshoerun.com.

The pool at the VQ.  I spent many hours here and got the best tan I ever had!  I also got a lot of reading done!

Back to the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised at the friendliness and care we received during our stay.  Everyone bent over backwards to see that we got the room we wanted, a refrigerator and microwave, shuttle rides and even several complementary meals!  Thanks to Cory, Chris, Gerald, Daniel and the others who were working at the desk and working with the Urology Center. Your cheerful greetings and help were greatly appreciated.  Tammy, marketing, and the catering coordinator, thank you so much for all you've done and especially for the free meals--they were great!  Bill, I had fun picking the crabapples and making jelly and crabapple butter from them.  Your flowers have been beautiful and I especially loved the hollyhocks!  Matthew, Israel, the rest of the wait staff and of course the chef, we enjoyed every meal we had in the Skybox, thanks! Juan, Norma and the other shuttle drivers, you helped us to have some enjoyable experiences while in Denver without having to try to find parking or driving in downtown traffic.  Norma, I loved that you had bananas and sandwiches for the homeless on your route and that you waited for us in front of the convention center while we took pictures of each other with the big blue bear.  Juan , your friendly concern and interesting conversation while shuttling us to and fro to the Rockies games, La Loma, Spaghetti Factory and the Aquarium are greatly appreciated.

Crabapple butter made with Splenda brown sugar for Bob and Juan our favorite shuttle driver.

Crabapple jelly I made from the trees out in front of the hotel.  This one was for Bill, the gardener and pool man.

Here I am picking crabapples.  there sure were a lot of them!

About 10 pounds of crabapples are in that bag.  I picked 2 batches of them.  There's my kindle, too!

These are just a few of the memories we will have.  I still have lots of pictures and memories of people we met and experiences we had but I will save them for later blogs!