Mike Glassow Updates

 Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment HBOT After Mike enjoyed his visit with Brian, currently in Anthropology at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum, he went out to Goleta Cottage Hospital for his daily dose of the HBOT.  On his way in he ran into John Johnson, the recently retired curator  in Anthropology at the Museum! While there was little time, he learned that John was leaving his wife off for PT and got the recent status of his book that will soon be published with the Musuem. Maria is here helping him get settled All that before he got to the HBOT clinic.  At the clinic,  Mike  gets into the designated robe and is laid prone into a "chamber" where he is exposed to 100% oxygen for a minimum of 2 hours.   The dose is measured in minutes: 142 or 138.   They will pressurize the chamber to the equivalent to 45 feet under water.  They refer to the first stage of some 20-30 minutes and "going down."  The final stage is called trave...

 Daily tasks, Doctors' appointment, and Inspiring Visitors Mike does his exercise and daily retrieval of the mail and has a chance to catch up with visitors. Our mail comes very late in the day so we wait until the next day to fetch it.  We used to have a ordinary mailbox, but we are near the high school and the county bowl, and we found a certain level of security would be helpful.   We sometimes walk all the way down the hill to discover we forgot the key! Extra excercize! Because the recovery from the cancer treatments has been difficult, we have begun to try different remedies.  I have found that Probiotics are recommended (he has had to take so many Antibiotics!). We were recently referred to an acupuncturist. Mike has found it all very relaxing. Brian Barbier recently joined  Mike for lunch.  He works in the Anthropology Department of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History . As you can imagine, they have much to share.  Brian knows the ...

 Can you believe it? Beth Rogers visited Mike this afternoon and reflected that they met some 68 years ago!   Beth drove in her vehicle, which apparently has some autonomous driving abilities, and stopped so fast that she spilled her coffee.  She said it was AI.   I think I like my simple vehicle! Mike and Beth sharing memories in our living room They talked about many things, yet reminiscing seemed the main theme. Beth is a remarkable intellect and we have enjoyed or eccletic discussions.  Mike looks forward to her next visit.

  Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Friday, Mike started the first of 40 sessions to help in wound healing. The hyperbaric chamber is a sealed environment where the patient breathes 100% oxygen at pressures higher than the normal atmosphere..  The therapy is known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).  The increased oxygen supply should promote healing by enhancing tissue repair and regeneration.  We hope that it will help Mike's bladder, which is said to be friable, where the interior sloughs off, causing bleeding.  The trek from the Goleta Hospital entrance is long, but at least on the first floor! His first experience caused ear pressure discomfort, yet it did make him feel better.  We hope that it will be successful, but we will have to discuss the ear changes.  We do not want any damage. You enter the chamber and lie prone, and when the chamber is sealed, the pressure is established at a high level.  Mike stayed in the chamber for 2 hours.  He co...

 Mike is Getting Around!! Mike is going to doctor appointments and learning how  to deal with the vagaries of his health.... Walking into the Sansum Clinic and around the block! He is going up and down our stairs from the living room to the bedroom! Always wearing his sweater against the cold.... And with visits with wonderful friends...     Lunch with Patricia Chidlaw, the remarkable artist.  Check out her work: http://www.patriciachidlaw.com/ Patricia Chidlaw in our collections! Chidlaw's view of the winery on Santa Cruz Is. And her view of the Pasadena Freeway on the day of the Rose Bowl! Patricia and Mike are enjoying  her tasty curry lunch Life is taking on new perspectives and all with a little help from our friends!!

 Mike has been doing regular daily things --- getting the mail! Checking his email. And even working on profiles of El Pilar! Getting the mail means walking down the long drive The first days home, Mike went to get the mail, he found it hard work and had to make rest stops. Only a week later, but now he can do the driveway down and up as needed.  With his interest in graphics, Mike has been working on profiles of the 1986 field season at El Pilar to understand the depth of deposits at the site. We are developing the full list of excavations with plans and profiles. Drawing test pits from Plaza Imix  Maneuvering on steps back from the Pain Management appointment Kitty keeps him company  Kitty on the Two Gey HIlls Navajo Rug And he takes time outside too, his right leg has a blood clot, and he has to raise it. It was sunny that day!

  Mike is getting visitors!  And he is enjoying the conversations and the change from the daily effort of getting well!  Short walks, loads of water, and rest. Rob and Allison shared lunch last Thursday, and they talked of art and Santa Cruz Island. Today, Michael and Phillip spent time with subjects all over the place...  Sunburst Farms (remember?), Dia de Sta Cruz (need to pay for that), and yes, we slipped a little into that subject that need not be named! Mike with Michael, Phillip, and Kitty who was making herself a nuisance!

The Background....   Mike was diagnosed with bladder cancer on his birthday, May 2nd of last year. We had been planning a camping trip in our wonderful VW Vanagon and had got it all ready to go when this news came. This certainly changed our plans.  There were 2 surgeries in anticipation of 8.5 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy that initiated in September and completed in mid-October. Overlapping the treatments were trips to ER and most initiated hospitalizations. On one occasion, he was in ICU for 4 days. This was rough.  There had been more ER and hospitalizations than months since his treatments. The infections and sepsis, bleeding bladder all have made us frequent visitors to ER, familiar with the team there and on the hospital floor. Both Mike and I are grateful to the staff and have been reassured that we are not abusing the system.  Most recently, Mike was in for a major infection for 5 days, and we got out for only a week and a half. Mike went back to ...

We are all thinking of Mike! Mike in his early days of California Archaeological Survey