Mule Deer Quest

Gus is leaving tonight at 10:00 pm or later with Scott, April and friends. April doesn’t get off work until then. They are driving to a ranch northeast of Great Falls to hunt pheasants and Gus is hunting a BIG mule deer buck. Shooting a large buck has been on Gus’ bucket list for over a year. They should be home Sunday evening very late.

Gus and I want to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary doing something special. I was thinking of a 3 day trip to some resort. Gus was thinking much BIGGER. His idea is to go on a 5 day trip to the Mayan Ruins 80 miles south of Cancun, Mexico. Gus loves the water and those beaches are calling to him. In reality, we are going with some dear friends so we are not quite as adventurous as we sound. They were already planning the trip and we just invited ourselves. We will leave February 28th and return March 8th.

When Gus starts chemo after a longer than normal break, there are several things that always seem to occur. He loses weight, his platelet count drops quite low, his appetite disappears and he feels his worse. He has lost about six pounds since November 3rd. Gus has really struggled these last three weeks with feeling so poor.

To Mr. Anonymous that commented on the blog update dated November 2, bear in mind that if “Gus wants it, Gus gets it”. Mr. sounded like he was an authority concerning recliners not being allowed in hunting camp. How would he know considering he has never seen one there yet. Watch the blog for further updates on Gus’ search for a blow-up recliner. Gus is open to any help from others in his search.

Apricot

Gus has now had 2 infusions since coming home from hunting camp. He never did feel very good last week, but we know we are dealing with the mental and emotional as well as physical. It is very hard to get excited about driving to Bozeman weekly.

Gus informed the doctors that we would not be doing any CT scan until after the first of the year. They should have been scheduling one in November/ December. The oncologist did say having a CT scan every three months is more aggressive than we need right now. Overall Gus is doing very well.

The CA 19-9 taken Tuesday November 3rd had risen slightly since having no treatment for three weeks. It was 43 as compared to 37 taken September 15th. It is still within the normal range so there is no concern. The count steadily decreases while Gus is on chemo, but starts to rise when he is not in treatment.

Gus and I cherish “Fun” moments more than ever. We focus on them during our low times. We had a fun moment last Saturday evening. We were in the car coming home from Butte and the conversation centered on how some parents combine their names when they name their children. Each of us shared our thoughts, but all conversation stopped when Scott stole the show with his spontaneous idea. Their first child could be named “Apricot”, the combination of April and Scott.

Gus and I now know what our grandchild’s nickname will be. The child (boy or girl) will be known as Apricot Wuelfing to us.

Hunting 2009

The guys came home last Saturday night. It took them 2 1/2 hours to go 1/2 mile trying to get through the snow with their trucks coming home. That was just part of the fun. Deep snow, big rocks, no whining wives, beautiful day, laughter and great memories.

They got 2 cow elk between the four of them. The fellowship amongst them is the reason they go . . . to bring home meat is a bonus. They had a wonderful week. Gus only had one morning where he felt a little worse for wear and went back to bed.

Scott, Gus, Les and Dennis.

The "grinning genius" figured out how to set his camera so he could be included in the picture.

Gus has always wanted a picture of what the tent looks like at nighttime with only the glow from the lanterns making the tent visible.

He made sure he came back with his picture this year.

Snow . . . Snow . . . Snow

This is Scott on his tall horse leading a pack horse who was pushing snow with its belly. This is the meadow where Scott proposed to April.

Stonehouse is the mountain in the background. Its elevation is approximately 10,000 feet. As you can tell by the angle, Gus was quite high up when he took this picture west of camp. Gus had gone for a walk Wednesday evening after the weather broke. The camp is down over the hill on the left edge of this picture.

With Scott on duty, Gus felt he was safe to catch up on a little sleep. This is Gus' same favorite meadow as last year, only this year the meadow provided seating.

Last year Gus only had a stump to sit on.

He's hoping next year there will be a recliner waiting!

Gus' joy

Gus wants the world to know he now can officially introduce April as his future daughter-in-law. Scott proposed to April 10 days ago as the two of them were riding horses through a mountaintop meadow called Honeymoon Park.

Claiming April as a part of Gus’ immediate family has been his heart’s desire for over two years. Once he got sick, it became a passion. Gus gets overwhelmed just talking about his son and future daughter-in-law.

The wedding will be next fall when April has completed most of her schooling. She is studying to be a secondary education teacher.

Gus is now on his three week vacation from treatment so he can build his strength up for hunting camp. He will not start chemo again until the morning he is leaving hunting camp to come home. He will just take his chemo tablets with him. The chemo infusion in Bozeman will then follow on November 3rd.

Gus’ CA 19-9 is once again incredible. It was 37 on October 6th. The only time we have seen it lower was last April when he was feeling so good.

Gus did try to jeopardize his ability to walk last night. He was splitting firewood and dropped a large chunk of firewood on his foot smashing his big toe. Because his feet are so tender, he was wearing his tennis shoes and had very little protection. Gus spent the rest of the evening with his foot on ice.

Gus and LT 10-5-09

Gus and LT are inseparable unless you take into consideration the moment when Gus realized the puppy was inside the car with the keys and he was outside the car looking in. At that moment there was a huge separation between them. LT had locked the car! Gus knew how happy she was with her accomplishment by her dancing up and down on the seat.

This scenario had happened to us earlier this summer, so Gus had taken precautions. He now kept a key in his wallet. For a moment, he panicked until he remembered the key outside the car.

We could not be happier with our puppy. She is everything we ever hoped for. Quiet, smart, and so much fun. She has brought so much laughter into our home. Gus spends hours on the floor playing with her and just loving her. Once again God knew what we needed.

Gus is Doing So Good

Gus is doing great right now. This is his week of no-chemo and he is living life to the fullest . . . golfing, horseback riding, taking walks with his puppy, splitting firewood, and repairing buildings at my fathers. He loves going to bed at night exhausted from accomplishing things instead of exhaustion from treatment and cancer.

Gus’ sister, Mary, spent 5 days with us and left last Monday. Those two had so much fun reminiscing, watching golf on the TV, and laughing.

He golfed yesterday in Dillon with a friend, Lonnie, and really had a great time. Gus even had a 69 foot putt.

Gus is in the mountains on horseback today. It started raining last night, but even nasty weather couldn’t dampen his excitement. He has so looked forward to another ride in the mountains. Especially since his last opportunity to ride in the mountains ended instead in Dillon redoing a CT scan.

Gus and I are amazed he feels so good 15 months into this cancer walk. It just shows you that it is God's time frame we live in, not the statistics of this world.

Doctor's Appointment 9-15-09

Gus’ CT scan was clear. No signs that the cancer is spreading to other organs. We felt confident before meeting with the oncologist that the scan would be fine, but you still love to hear the doctor’s words confirming that.

Gus’ CA 19-9 is continually dropping. Last Tuesday it was 44, well within the normal range again.

Gus refuses to have anything new to take to hunting camp the 24th of October, so putting the port in his chest will be scheduled after Gus gets home. My fear is if he has too many negatives to come back to after hunting camp, he might just continue walking into the sunset and not come home.

Gus will have to start his chemo tablets his last day of camp to stay on schedule. There really is nothing to look forward to once he comes home except endless treatments. Gus wants to add to this that he does look forward to coming back to his wife, family, puppy, friends and hunting camp next year!