In Memorium

Wallace A. "Mike" Kulczyk, Jr.

March 26, 1931 - June 27, 2014

 

You haven't heard from me in a while because I've been with my dad 3 days a week as he had Dr. appointments and was also getting blood and platelets.  We really felt like we were getting a handle on this and then were hit with the news that his kidneys were failing.   We thought that we'd have more time....a lot more time and then it was over.                                                                              

                                              

 



I'm saddened beyond belief and I don't know what to do with myself.  My life has revolved around taking care of him for so long and now that everyone has gone home and family that came in from out of town are gone as well, I'm just out of sorts.  I know that these feelings will pass with time but right now I just need to be sad. 

 

 

 

At 40 minutes past midnight June 27, 2014 Wallace Anthony "Mike" Kulczyk Jr. (Retired Lt. Col. USAF) slipped peacefully from this world and onto his last duty assignment.

 

The only child of Wallace A and Eleanor Kulczyk was born in Worcester, MA on March 26, 1931.

 

From his youngest memory he loved airplanes and made it his life's mission to fly.  A dream he achieved by applying for and being accepted for pilot training with the United States Air Force.

 

Mike married his high school sweetheart, Nancy L. Hartigan, in March of 1953 and they enjoyed a wide variety of duty assignments across both oceans before she preceded him in death in June 2012.

 

Mike lived, breathed and loved everything about airplanes and flying.  He was also a model airplane builder and one of the early pioneers of the ducted fan technology in model airplanes.  His other loves beside his family and flying were gathering the gang together at Lynnies, ice cold beer, mexican food and soup of all kinds.

 

Left to mourn his passing are his four children and spouses; Mark Kulczyk and wife Sheila, Lyn Pool and husband Bob, Chris Kulczyk and wife Laurie and Chickie Shields and husband Mike; and four grandchildren, Christine and Hannah Shields, Sean Kulczyk and Stephanie Del Rio.  He also leaves behind many cherished friends from all over the world.

 

 



Be a Hero!

Sometimes it takes being in the middle of something to realize that there is a real need.  Some of us are born with a need to help those less fortunate, some of us are not.  It’s not a good or bad thing it’s just how it is.  Then there are those who it seems are born with a cause from the womb.  I am not one of those people.  I have not struggled to find a cause, my life is busy enough without taking on something extra.  But if I might just take a moment to address those who would like to do something for someone else but haven’t a clue as to what to do or even know if they have the time to take on something else.  Go donate Blood. 

 It seems like such a simple thing to do but believe me its so much more.  It’s far more complex and literally a lifesaver in more ways than you’ll probably ever realize.  It doesn’t take a lot of time…is relatively painless, you get cookies and juice as a reward and you’ll not miss the blood that you give. 

 My father has become in the last few months...."platelet dependent".  Which means that he needs platelets at least 3 times a week.  Sometimes he gets blood along with the platelets but most of the time it's just platelets.

As I have continued to accompany him I can see just how much blood and platelets are distributed during a day...and that's just 1 day.  So I have to imagine all the infusion rooms in Austin alone, on just one day and it will certainly make your head swim. 

I have given blood in the past when our small community held blood drives but they have not done that in a while now and I haven’t gone out of my way to try and get into Austin to give.  But now that I am in Austin on a weekly basis for my father’s treatment I am going to start giving every time that I can.  Think about it and then go donate, you’ll never regret it and the countless number of people you help will also thank you and I thank you. 

Miracles Happen Here Every Day

This is a not very good picture of where my father, brother and I have been for the past couple of days.  The famous MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas.
As you know my father was diagnosed with Mantel Cell Lymphoma in late December of 2010.  He underwent chemotherapy which put him into remission until December of 2013.  It didn't look like the cancer had returned full blown but there were scans taken and it show a small increase in growth of the lymph nodes in the groin area.  15 rounds of radiation therapy were prescribed and undertaken. 
And it did in fact shrink the areas that they were concerned about.  But the cancer was active and so a new chemo drug was prescribed and my father began to take it.  Unfortunately my father's platelet count also did a nose dive so more tests were ordered and a bone marrow test showed that my father was now suffering with a whole new cancer. 
It's called MDS or Myeodysplastic Syndrome.  It is also a pre-leukemia condition.  The question was...is the Mantel Cell mutating or was this a whole new cancer.    So my father's oncologist suggested that we go see a specialist in Leukemia at MD Anderson.  She paved the way on Monday and they called on Tuesday and we were on the road to Houston on Wednesday with an appointment on Thursday and Friday.
We arrived at our hotel around 6:30 and called my niece to meet us for dinner.  We didn't realize that Wednesday night was also the night for an NBA playoff game and all the restaurants would be crowded.  But we managed to find a nice seafood place and ate and talked and had a great time. 
We got back to the hotel around 10:30 and we all went to sleep...well if you can call it that.  I had a very hard time sleeping just because I was so wound up.  Thinking of all the what if's etc.  And about the time that I think I fell asleep it was time to get up and get going.
We ate breakfast and caught the shuttle that ferries people back and forth to the hospital. 
My first glance at MD Anderson was one of awe.  It's not just one or two buildings.....it's a small city of high rises and complexes dedicated to this cancer and that.  Children, women, you name it and they have a place for it.  It is AMAZING. 
As I walked through the front doors with the hundreds of other people that morning I said to myself, "Miracles Happen Here Every Day".  Not that we were expecting a miracle, but there is hope that there will be a treatment and that we will have bought time and comfort.  
We got checked in and filled out lots of forms and answered the same questions over and over again.  It's all about being thorough.  In due time we were seen by a registered nurse who works directly with our Dr.  She asked a lot of the same questions, filled out more forms and looked over my dads records. 
From then on we went from one floor to the next, getting a chest X-ray, giving blood and finally having them check out his port so that they could give him platelets and blood if necessary.  It was a very long day.  Our last appointment of the day was supposed to be at 4:30 and daddy was supposed to get 2 units of blood and 2 units of platelets.  We know that 1 unit of blood takes 2 hours to infuse.  So that's 4 hours...that would take us to 8:30...if he started on time.  But then there was still the platelets.  Platelets go faster but that would still be a least an hour so that would be 9:30..if he started on time.  Wellll.......we didn't get called until 8:30 p.m....our day started at 7 a.m. and we're still at the hospital at 8:30!  Long story short my father didn't get out of the hospital till around 3:30 a.m. 
My father ordered us to go get something to eat and to bring him back something later on.  So my brother and I left, got some pizza and beer and I stayed at the hotel while my brother went back and stayed with my dad until it was time to leave.  My dad was pretty tuckered out...even if he did not have cancer....he's 83 years old and that's a long day. 
Our appointment with the Dr. wasn't until 11 a.m. but he had to get his vitals taken before he saw the Dr. and we weren't sure how long that was going to take. 
As it turned out it didn't take long and so we ended up sitting in the waiting room for about an hour. 
We were finally called back and we got our time with the Dr.  He physically examined my dad, listened to his heart and lungs, physically touched him to see if he could feel the swollen lymph glands and then re-read his records.
Here is what the plan is....Daddy will stay the course with the new chemo that he was on before we left for MD Anderson.  It takes several months for the results to become apparent and my father has only had 3 treatments so we will stay the course.  The Dr. wants to see him back in a couple of weeks but he also wants him to see a Mantel Cell Expert at the same time.  We asked lots of questions and they were all answered.  We never felt rushed or that any question was stupid or dumb.  You could see the relief in my fathers eyes that he had been given a reprieve of sorts.  He has time to correct his current situation and he will be able to attend some very important family events that are coming up. 

 

This picture just shows a very small portion of the MD Anderson complex, but you can see from just this small portion just how massive the system is.  Every single building in this picture belongs to MD Anderson.                                   

 

I know that we don't have a miracle but we do have the possibiltiy of hope that things are going to get a bit better and my father is going to feel better in a little while.  And that in a way is miracle enough for us.

Trying hard to make Lemonade

Just as we thought we were getting a handle on my father's condition we were hit with yet another stumbling block. 
A simple nose bleed turned into the discovery of a pre-luekemic condition.
We had a Dr. appointment 2 weeks ago on Wednesday or so I thought.  I normally meet my dad at the hospital and because we are out right about lunch time I stay with him and we have lunch together and then I head on home.
Most of our appointments have been on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  But this week they were on Monday, Thursday and Friday.  I however got it stuck in my head that we still had the  appointment on Wed and went in.  When my father did not show up at the appropriate time I re-checked my schedule that I keep on my phone and saw that I was a day early.  So I called my dad to see if he was up and about and I thought that I'd go over and visit with him for a bit and help me to run some errands if necessary.  When I called him he casually mentioned that he woke up with a nose bleed.  He doesn't get nose bleeds.  So I told him that I would be right over.
I arrived a few minutes later and although it wasn't pouring out of his nose...every time he put a handkerchief up to his nose there was about a quarter sized spot of blood.  I told him that if it didn't stop by 11:30 then we were going to call the Dr. to see what to do. 
It didn't stop and we called the Dr. and were told to go to the Emergency Room.  I called both siblings that are in town to alert them to the condition and we were where we needed to be so there wasn't much else to do except to wait for the Dr.
To make a long story short my dad was admitted for blood transfusion, platelets and a bone marrow biopsy.  He had to stay the night and we all waited together until he was released the next day.
We got the prelim results of the bone marrow biopsy which told us that he had this pre-luekemic condition. 
A new chemo regime was started and he had another nose bleed, he's had 6 or 7 sessions of platelets and 2 more blood transfusions.  Dr. told us yesterday that he needed to see a specialist and so we are off this week to Houston to M.D. Anderson. 
I'm trying very hard to make lemonade with this.  His current Dr. although very competent is just an oncologist.  At M.D. Anderson he will be meeting with a specialist of Leukemia.  He is willing to see us this week and my dad is willing to go seek treatment. 
I know that my father is going to die.  That's a fact.  I hate that but it's the truth and the sooner that I make peace with that the better I'm going to be able to cope when it happens.  What I'm having trouble with is that there are so many family "events" coming up that he really wants to be here for and because my mother isn't here to attend I would like one grandparent who was so much a part of their lives to be able to be present at these life events.  Next month we have 2 graduations....one grandchild is graduating and becoming a Dr. of Veterinary Medicine.  Then 2 weeks later another grandchild will be graduating with his BA in Teaching.  Another grandchild will be getting married in early December.  So I'm thinking positive thoughts and trying very hard to make lemonade out of the lemons that  I've been getting.

Apple Crisp

This just happens to be my fathers favorite desserts, along with ice cream.  I call it Apple Crisp but I've heard it called Apple Betty, Apple Brown Betty and "woe oh Black Betty sham ba lam"...just kidding on that last one.  So we've established that this dessert has several names but I prefer to call it Apple Crisp so for the sake of argument we'll just call it that for this recipe.  And it couldn't be simpler to make so let's get started. 

First off you are going to need some apples.

O.K. so thats 2 apples and a lemon but there is a method to the madness.  Choose 2 different apples to make this dessert.  One should be a cooking apple (I tend to favor Granny Smith but choose what you like) and the other should be an eating apple (I tend to favor a Golden Delicious).  The idea here is that you want some texture to the dish so you have some firm and some soft apple pieces.  I use the lemon to keep the apples from turning brown once you have peeled and sliced them.  See how that works. 

Then you want to peel and slice up the apples and then toss all the slices in lemon juice to keep them from turning brown.  The possoms are gonna be happy, happy, happy tonight.   Fresh apple cores and peels in the compost pile....yummy!!!!

So once the apples are all sliced and put into a bowl and a little lemon juice is squeezed over them, you want to put together the dry ingredients. 

So in a seperate bowl or actually you can put your apple slices into the pan that you are going to cook them in and used the bowl that you previously had the apples in.  That way you have less dishes to do in the end.  See how that works. 

 So you take flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix them all up together

 Cut the butter into the mixture until it's in about pea sized.

Once you've done that then just put the whole mess over the apples making sure that it gets all the way down into the bottom of the bowl.

Now just throw the whole mess into the oven and bake it for about 45 minutes.  It all depends on your oven.  The most important thing is for it to brown up a bit so it might take a few minutes more or less.

Hard to tell the difference between these last two photos but there is a difference.  Here's the recipe.

APPLE CRISP

4 cups sliced and peeled apples..use two different kinds

1\4 cup orange juice or lemon juice

1cup sugar

3\4 cup all purpose flour

1\2 teaspoon cinnamon

1\4 nutmeg..fresh is best

1\2  cup butter

 

Peel and slice apples and sprinkle with the orange or lemon juice.  Then mound the apples in a buttered 9 inch pie plate or 9 x 11 baking dish.  Combine sugar, flour, spices and dash salt: cut in butter till mixture is crumbly; sprinkle over dapples.  Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or till apples are tender and topping is crisp.  Serve with ice cream.  Serves about 6.  This recipe is easily doubled.

 

Update on my Father

I realized a few weeks ago that I had not written an update on my father's health in a while and because it is taking up so much of my time right now I think that I'll post an update. 

Sometime in November my father through a series of Dr. appointments found out that he was no longer in remission.  We also found out that his oncologist was going to be leaving our hospital and going to another city and another hospital system.   We sure were disappointed but the Dr. has to do what he has to do and so we have to be open to welcoming a new Dr. into the fold. 

The new plan was for my father to do radiation.  There were no more additional tumors but the ones in his groin area were showing up again and they were a little bigger than they were before.  The radiation would be only to the groin area and the treatment would be 15 sessions (a session every day) and then they would re-evaluate.  But he could start after the holidays.  So he could drive to Vegas to see my little brother and family for Thanksgiving and enjoy Christmas here after that.

So first part of January we went back to the Dr.'s to schedule his radiation.  Which he did and it did, in fact shrink the tumors that he was experiencing growth in. 

So then a PET scan was ordered.  I know that many of you have heard of a PET Scan but may not know what it is exactly.  

"A positron emission tomography (PET) scan is an imaging test that allows doctors to check for disease in your body.
The scan uses radioactive tracers in a special dye. These tracers are injected into a vein in your arm and are then absorbed by your organs and tissues. When highlighted under a PET scanner, the tracers allow doctors to see how well your organs and tissues are working. The PET scan is able to measure blood flow, oxygen use, glucose metabolism (how your body uses sugar), and much more."

So when we got the results back from the PET scan we were pretty disappointed.  We were thinking that things were really going well except for the little flair up in his groin area.  Unfortunately there were a LOT of things going on.  Belly, neck and lungs were showing signs of "activity".  Especially since we had had such a long period of time where there was nothing to report.  But that is how it is with cancer.  At least in my experience. 

The new oncologist (who is a woman and who we like very much) decided that my father needed to have a colonoscopy to see what was going on in his gut.  But she also felt that because of the new activity he should not go back on the Retuxan.  It was only for maintenance and his cancer seemed to be on the upswing.  She had a plan...there is a new drug that was just approved in November for the treatment of this particular type of cancer.  It was once a third line approach but the results have been so good that they have moved it up to the front line of defense in this type of cancer.  It's called Imbrutinib and it's in pill form.  He would take 4 pills every day at the same time and if all goes well we may see results as early as a month.  Really exciting as it's much better than my dad going back on chemo with all it's harsh effects and I'm not so sure at this point whether he wants to go back on chemo. 

We went right from the oncologists' office to the Gastro guys office.  Fortunately for us....all his Dr.s' are in the same building/Hospital.  Makes it very easy for them to confer with once another as well so that everyone is on board when my father has to have some kind of test.  The gastro guy told us that the colon area was particularly troubling as he saw some thickening and a few other spots that had him concerned.  Procedure would be the next day. 

So here is what was found...there is a small colon cancer.  Very small and apparently not growing (fingers crossed) very quickly.  It needs to come out but his blood levels are not good enough for him to go through surgery.  So plan is...he immediately begins his new medication and keep retesting his blood so that we can see if the medication is working.  If his levels come up enough then they will take him into surgery, take out the small cancer....get in, get out and continue on.  This would be an ideal scenario and I would love that it would happen in just that way.  I'm not a person of prayer because I believe that things are going to be what they are going to be no matter how much you pray for them to be different.  My life, my thoughts.


I hope that things work out ideally and that my father lives to be at least 85.  He will turn 83 next week and just the fact that he has survived this long is pretty surprising.  But there are a few milestones coming up this year that would make his survival all the more sweet because my mother is not here to celebrate them.  We have a graduation from Vet school so we'll have a DVM in the family.  Another child (young woman) will be getting married.  Such milestones that my mother wanted to be here for. 

I'm hoping for the best but I am also knowing that the worst could also happen. 

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Sweets for the Sweet

 

 

 

 

 

Friday is Valentines Day and although many women like to be wined and dined I prefer to stay at home and fix my husbands favorite meal and dessert.  After all it was just last week that we went out to dinner twice because of my birthday and call me crazy but I think that Valentine's Day is also for him. 

So here is a recipe for Cheesecake that I adapted to make into a Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake that my husband adores and my hips grow another 3 inches just looking at. 

This Cheesecake is also a non-baking cheesecake so if you've any fear about cracks in your cheesecake this will aleve all those fears.  There is some cooking involved but it involves on top of the stove rather than in the stove.  So let's get cooking.......

First you will want to make a graham cracker crust and you'll also want to have a 9-inch spring form pan. 

So to make the graham cracker crust you'll need....wait for it....graham crackers. 

There a few schools of thought on the graham crackers...some people do somewhat of a cookie base by baking something like a sugar cookie base or some people do vanilla wafers and some people do something that resembles an actual cake base.  Me, I like the graham cracker crust...but you are free to do what ever crust you desire.                                                                                                           

As you can see in the above picture I have put 1 sleeve of the graham crackers in a bag and I have used a rolling pin to smash them into teeny tiny pieces.  You can also use a food processor to do this and I have done it that way in the past but sometimes I just like the act of smashing all those graham crackers the old fashioned way. 

I've also found that 1 sleeve of crackers adds up to about 1 1/4 cups of graham crackers which is just perfect for a 9 inch spring form pan with enough to go about 1/2 way up the sides.  So add a little sugar to your mixture and some melted butter and put it in your pan.

 Evenly distribute it as well as you can.

 Here's how I like to get it nice and smooth and even.  I use one of my metal measuring cups....the 1 cup measure to be exact.  It fits nicely into the curved surface of the pan and does a fine job of taking the extra crumbs up the side as well. 

See...all finished and a nice job to boot.  Now put this in the fridge and lets get to the best part of this dessert and that's the cheesecake mixture. 

So here we have the beginnings of the only "cooked" part of this recipe.  You need 2 envelopes of unflavored gelatin, some sugar, some salt, 3 egg yolks and a cup of whole milk. 

You want to beat the milk and egg yolks together really, really well.  Then you want to put the envelopes of gelatin, the sugar and the salt in a saucepan. 

When the egg yolks and milk are mixed really well together,add it to the dry ingredients in the saucepan and mix it really well.   

Then put it on the stove over medium heat and cook until it thickens and it coats a spoon so that you can draw a line through it and the line stays there. 

Yep, that's ready....now set that aside to cool and lets get to the other part.  

Take 3 packages of cream cheese...that's 3 - 8 oz. packages and put them in the bowl of a standing mixer.  It's best to let the cream cheese come to room temperature and I actually let it sit out over night to make sure that it stays nice and creamy. 

Then add 1 teaspoon of almond extract and mix that in really well.  Then add about 1/3 of Amaretto Liquore.  This just happens to be my favorite brand of Amaretto and I really think that it tastes better than the one that is advertised on the T.V.  and cheaper as well.  But taste is subjective so use what you like to drink.  Mix this very well scraping down the sides of the bowl often.   

Once all is mixed together you want to put this in the fridge until the mixture begins to mound up. 

Now remember that you had 3 egg yolks....well there were 3 egg whites that went with them and you are going to take a mixer and start beating them till they get frothy.  Then you will slowly add 1/4 cup of sugar very slowly and beat until you get stiff peaks. 

Once the egg whites are stiff and the mixture that's in the fridge has begun to mound you can add the egg whites and 1 cup of sour cream to the mixture until it's all incorporated.  And you are ready to begin assembling. 

 

 

I take a small bowl and fill it with some chocolate chips...semi-sweet, bittersweet, milk chocolate...what ever floats your boat.  The above picture did not turn out as well as I had intended....I think the flash went off and so it's a little hard to tell that that is a small bowl with chocolate chips in it.  I'm using semi-sweet chips here. 

I carefully microwave them and then put the small bowl in a larger bowl of boiling hot water to keep them melted and dripable (is that a real word?).

Anyway, start by putting as much or as little of chocolate on the base of the crust.  Then put your cheesecake mixture.  

Continue to layer the chocolate in drips and drabs with either a spoon or a fork in between the layers of the cheesecake mixture.  So you have graham cracker crust, some chocolate dribbles, cheesecake mixture, chocolate dribbles, cheesecake mixture until you are done.  This particular recipe will completely fill up a 9 inch spring form pan.  You can put it in a larger pan if you like it will just not be as thick.  It's all in how you want the dessert to look. 

 

So here's the recipe:

Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake

GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST

1 sleeve of graham crackers pulverized

2 `1/2 tablespoons sugar

6 1/2 to 6 3/4 tablespoons butter melted

 

CHEESECAKE FILLING

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 teaspoon salt

3 egg yolks

1 cup milk

3 pkg. (8 oz. size) cream cheese (at room temp.)

2 teaspoon almond extract

1/3 cup Ammaretto Liquore

3 egg whites (at room temp.)

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream (8 oz.)

semi-sweet chocolate chips...or bittersweet or milk chocolate

 

Make graham cracker crust: in a small bowl, combine crumbs, 2 tablespoons sugar and the butter; mix well with fork.  With back of spoon or measuring cup press the mixture evenly on the bottom of and up the sides of a 9 inch spring form pan.  Put into the refrigerator.

 

In a small heavy saucepan, combine gelatin, 3/4 cup sugar and the salt.  n small bowl, with wire whisk, beat egg yolks with milk until smooth, gradually stir into gelatin mixture, mix well.  Cook over medium heat, stirring until gelatin is dissolved and custard is thickened slightly (should form a coating on metal spoon) about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool for about 10 minutes.  In large bowl, with electric mixer at medium speed, beat cream cheese, almond extract and the Amaretto.  Beat until smooth about 3 minutes.  Slowly add cooled custard, beating at low speed just to blend. 

 

Set mixture in the fridge or in a bowl of ice to chill, stirring occasionally, until mixture mounds when lifted with spoon.  Meanwhile, at medium speed and using clean beaters, beat egg whites until soft peaks form when beater is slowly raised.  Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.  Add beaten egg whites and sour cream to cheese mixture; beat at low speed just until smooth.   

Pour some semi-sweet chocolate chips in a small bowl and microwave in 10 second increments until completely melted.

 

Now drizzle melted chocolate on crust, layer the cheesecake mixture then chocolate until done. 

Refrigerate until firm and well chilled at least 4 hours or overnight. 

Enjoy.