High tunnels

Hi there

We have had a busy week, gastroscopy on Wednesday and trip to hyperbaric unit in Portland on Thursday. Gastroscopy showed I had NERD, I guess it is a new term for computer savvy people who develop heartburn..... NOT

It stands for Non Erosive Reflux disease. I gather that they have made this distinction from erosive reflux disease, because erosive reflux disease needs to be followed more closely.

You see people with reflux who have erosive signs at their lower esophagus, can develop a precursor to cancer called barretts esophagus. These people need to be followed more closely and biopsied to ensure that there are no signs of cancer.

Anyways mine looked great and he has suggested a different proton pump inhibitor, Protonix, instead of Prilosec.

Onwards to Portland on Thursday to see the doctor at the hyperbaric unit. That went GREAT, in fact they even had me scheduled for a treatment Thursday and Friday, but Dylan, our son was on his way to spend a few days with us in Eugene, so we decided to wait until Monday.

It was quite reassuring to meet with a doctor at the unit who clearly knew a lot about radiation injuries. She talked about many different types of injuries that she had seen benefit from the hyperbarics. It was interesting how she came to the same conclusion that I had about the bleeding I have now. You see this bleeding started the second to last week of my hyperbarics in the spring. She said it was likely that the hyperbarics HAD worked and started healing via angioneogenesis (new blood vessel growth), but it had only just started. So likely needed a few more weeks....

She said it was always hard to tell who would benefit, but she felt certain that I would and that I would likely also see improvement with the vaginal scarring that is now starting to bleed all the time as well. I will be treated with 2.5 atmospheres. Since this is a higher dose it does run a higher risk of seizures (because the oxygen level is so high, the seizures are from oxygen toxicity), you have to have an air breathing break half way through the treatments. Since the chamber is 100 percent oxygen, you breath regular air (usually about 21% oxygen) for 10 minutes half way through your treatment to decrease your risk of seizures.

Ken is not working too much this next month, so he will be able to come up with me for much of the month. They are quite flexible with the scheduling right now, so we will likely go up one day and have a late appt, and then an early appt the next day and home that day etc etc.

Well my peppers FINALLy started turning red. Well one of them did. The rest are actually looking pretty healthy, so hopefully the next few weeks will see some action. I have been researching "high tunnels" for the past several months as a way to extend my gardening year. Ken and I decided that the cattle panels we have been using would make for a very good support system, so I have included some pictures of the tunnel under construction.

I am going to drag all of my tomatoes and peppers that are in pots into this structure so we can have them longer into the fall, I have also started peas, cabbage, broccoli, beets and mustard, as fall crops, some of which will be also grown in the tunnel. I have started them all in the greenhouse to give them a head start, because this is a little late for starting fall crops.

bye for now love janet