FLIP + CHING

Brian’s Health Journey

Posted on December 4, 2024 by Ching under Health.

Where to begin? I guess let’s start from the very beginning. Earlier this year Brian was having some dental issues. These issues were partly because of poor dental hygiene and taking things for granted. After at least three root canals, the endodontist decided Brian needed to see an oral surgeon to get a cyst removed from the front of his mouth. He originally had oral surgery scheduled shortly after our Colorado trip but the week that he was to have surgery he was suffering sore throat due to some kind of tonsil infection.

Brian’s oral surgeon, Dr. Christopher Harris, determined that the oral surgery should be postponed until Brian had his throat and tonsil issues looked at. The concern was that if they were to proceed with surgery the infection from the tonsil could infect the surgery area. So then Brian went to see Dr. Aaron Thiessen, an ear, nose, and throat specialist, about his issues. Brian ended up taking antibiotics which didn’t really do much so he and Dr. Thiessen agreed that the best course of action would be to simply remove his tonsils. Brian’s tonsillectomy was then scheduled for Thursday, October 3. However, the doctor noticed that Brian’s lymph node was swollen so, as a precautionary measure, he also scheduled a lymph node biopsy on September 30. This was the Monday before the tonsil surgery.

Brian’s lymph node biopsy revealed cancer. The ENT doc theorized that the cancer in Brian’s lymph node probably came from his infected tonsil but needed to confirm this. Instead of doing a tonsillectomy that following Thursday, Dr. Thiessen changed the procedure to a laryngoscopy and tonsil biopsy.

The biggest reason for not moving forward with the tonsillectomy being that, if the cancer needed to be treated, the doctor did not want treatment to be delayed by the post-tonsillectomy recovery. At the point, the greater priority would be to treat the cancer as quickly as possible.

Here are some pics of Brian I took during surgery day — actually it was laryngoscopy and tonsil biopsy day.

The following week it was confirmed that Brian did in fact have cancer in his tonsil which has spread to his lymph node. The next step was to complete a PET scan to find if the cancer had spread to other parts of his body. In the meantime, there was the matter of the cyst in his mouth that still needed to be removed. There was a delay in PET scans and he couldn’t get an appointment until October 24 and he couldn’t start any cancer treatments until the PET scan was done so we figured that he would have enough time to go through the oral surgery and recover from it before cancer treatments would begin. Otherwise, then he would have to wait until sometime the following year to do oral surgery because it wouldn’t be idea to do it in the middle of cancer treatments. It basically had to be done now or it would have to wait until the following year.

We chose the NOW option and, thankfully, one of our friends just happens to be the godmother of Brian’s oral surgeon. She pulled some strings and they were able to get him in right away. Speaking of which, what we thought was a cyst was actually not a cyst. It turned out to be a massive dental infection that had gotten so bad that it started to form a cyst-like substance in Brian’s mouth.

Because of Brian’s cancer diagnosis, we thought he would be in the middle cancer treatments (radiation and chemo) during the Mexico trip so we ended up canceling his flight (more on this later). However, due to delays with insurance approvals, Brian’s cancer treatments actually didn’t begin until a couple of week ago — after I got back from Mexico — so he totally could have gone on the trip.

Brian’s treatment consists of 35 days of daily (Monday through Friday) radiation treatments spread over 8 weeks and weekly chemotherapy over 6 weeks. Radiation would only have been 7 weeks but due to skipping treatments on the holidays — Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year’s Day — it comes out to 8 weeks total. His last radiation treatment is on January 9 and his last chemo treatment is on January 2.

I went with Brian to his first radiation appointment and got this video:

So far, to date, Brian has completed two chemo treatments (just four left to go) and is two and a half weeks into radiation. He is doing well so far but the radiation is definitely starting to take a toll. We have been posting updates on our Flip + Ching Facebook page so feel free to follow us there if you want to keep up with his progess.

In the meantime, we are super grateful for everyone’s support and prayers. Brian is lucky to have such wonderful people who care about him wishing him well and praying for his recovery. Thank you all!

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Fall Pickleball Round Up

Posted on November 19, 2024 by Ching under Pickleball.

A couple of months ago, I had the privilege of participating in a super fun Chicken N Pickle ambassador event in Overland Park, Kansas. We had 20 CNP ambassadors from Wichita compete against 20 CNP ambassadors from the Kansas City area in a team challenge. It was wonderful meeting fellow ambassadors and competing alongside my Wichita comrades. I think everyone had a great time.

The Wichita team ended up winning so that made it even better!

About a month later, we celebrated Janelle’s birthday at the Pickle Club. Pickleball birthdays are the best!

And then I took a short respite from my pickleball sabbatical to sneak in the Shangri-la tournament. Funny story about this. I made the exception for Shangri-la because I agreed to play in it with Colby right after the tournament last year — before I decided to go on sabbatical. Anyway, Colby and I were originally registered for 4.5 women’s doubles but there weren’t any teams so we decided to withdraw. The same day that we withdrew, I texted Kumar Krishnan to personally let him know that we had withdrawn so he didn’t just see it on the computer. Brian and I normally stay at Kumar’s lake house for this tournament so Kumar asked if we would still be coming down if I wasn’t playing. I told him, probably not — which is kind of a bummer because I really do like the location and the tournament itself.

Kumar was like, “Karen Taylor is waitlisted for women’s 4.0 if you still want to come down and play.” I told Kumar I would text Karen and if she’s willing to play with me then I would contact him to figure out how to “unwithdraw” myself from the tournament. LOL.

Fast forward to the tournament, I had a blast playing with Karen and we earned bronze in women’s 4.0 for our efforts. I just love the Shangri-la tournament. Actually, all of Kumar’s tournaments are fabulous and that has been the main thing that I’ve missed this year during my sabbatical.

Here are a few pics from that weekend…

After Shangri-la, we were hot and heavy into planning the Wichita Moneyball event with these fine folks.

But before Moneyball, I hosted a Super DUPR Mixed Doubles mini tournament at the Pickle Club. The competition was intense!

And our monthly CNP ambassador play was absolute fire in October.

Then we had the second annual Dink Minor Leagues team tournament at Crestview Country Club presented by InPickle Nation and Just Paddles.

And then finally, Moneyball. Honestly, all of these events deserve their own individual write up but I am so far behind in this blog. You’ll just have to settle for this crash recap. Follow this link to see all the pictures and videos from the Moneyball event and to learn about upcoming events. Till the next update!

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Stearman Field

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Stearman Field is one of our new favorite brunch spots. Brian still likes Homegrown the best but we both definitely like Stearman for the unique setting. On a good day, you can get a little fly in action from people flying in to have breakfast or lunch and then flying back out.

Here are some pics from when we were there back in August.

They also have made to order pancakes.

Anyway, this place has become our “go to” spot to take out of town visitors so when Tom Grace came to visit a couple of weeks ago (at the beginning of November) we decided we would go to brunch there. Well, the weather was yucky that weekend and so there were no planes. What a bummer.

At least we got to enjoy some good food.

And also take a selfie.

Until next time!

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FioRito Restaurante

Posted on November 4, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.

I don’t think I’ve posted about FioRito yet but it’s quickly becoming one of our faves. It’s on the corner of Douglas and Hillside, which really isn’t the best location and, thus, a lot of restaurants have come and gone in that spot. FioRito is sticking around though, and I think it’s because their food is actually good. If you have good food and great service, people are going to come and they will return and continue to support your establishment.

They have a lovely patio which would be perfect if it weren’t for the traffic noise. Unfortunately, Douglas and Hillside is a pretty busy corner.

These are some pictures of the food we enjoyed when Brian and I had dinner there a couple of months ago.

One of the best things about FioRito is they have happy hour twice. There’s an early happy hour from 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM Tuesday through Thursday and a late night happy hour everyday from 8:00 PM to close. You can’t beat cheap food and drinks!

We liked it so much that we recently returned with some friends a few weeks ago. However, I forgot that there’s no early happy hour on Fridays so we missed out on the deals. The food prices are pretty reasonable but the drinks are quite expensive so I may not be drinking there going forward if it’s not happy hour.

We did all of the dipping sauces for the bread this time.

Here are some more pictures of food.

If you’ve never been to FioRito, we highly recommend checking it out.

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First Time at Pho KC

Posted on November 1, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Tried a new Vietnamese restaurant a couple of months ago. The blog is super behind so I’m only now posting about it.

I’ve seen some negative reviews (mostly about cleanliness, not as much the quality of the food and the service) on Facebook but, when my coworker Chris and I went (the two times we’d been recently), we really didn’t have any issues. I think we need to be more observant, I guess. I had pho and it was really good.

I would go there more frequently but it’s just not in a part of town that is convenient for me and Brian. We don’t venture out to the South side of Wichita much, as we really have no reason to. And, when I’m craving pho, we have Kim’s Noodles which is super close to our house. In fact, we took mom and dad there the other day for dinner. They’d never been before and I think they liked it.

Here are some pics of our Kim’s Noodle dinner for comparison: