Monthly Mom Messages\n
My mom and I touch base by e-mail every morning. I decided to \"mine\" these e-mails for notes that can provide a record of happenings, and state of mind. Here's July 2024:\n\n- July 1: It’s hard to believe it’s July 1 already. I’m so grateful that we’re having a wet and smokeless summer this year. Going through cancer treatment is not exactly how I expected to be spending this year. \n\nBrent and I are looking forward to coming to see you tomorrow (Tuesday).\n
- July 2: We’re looking forward to having a video visit with you today at 11:00. \n\nIf you haven’t found your webcam we can phone you instead. Or if you’d prefer an in-person visit, and you let me know by 8:00, we can come down in person today.\n\nJust let me know. \n
- July 3: Today I am going to go participate in a dietary study for people getting chemotherapy. It’s the first of a two-part experiment. Today is a three hour session and then in about three weeks I’ll do one that’s a 28-hour session where they put me in some kind of special hotel room. \n
- July 4: Tomorrow will be my second chemo treatment so today I have to go in to the cancer hospital for:\n
1) get my chemo port staples removed\n
2) blood test to make sure my platelets are high enough for me to get the second treatment \n
3) have a consultation with an oncology nurse. \n\n
This afternoon I’m going to see a wig lady. Brent, and our neighbor Shannon, are coming along to help me pick something. \n - July 5: I’m going in today for my second chemo treatment. I’m dreading the side effects. Hopefully they won’t be as bad this time. \n\nI’ll have my hands on ice the whole time so it may be a while before I can respond to emails. \n
- July 6: Today is the first day after my second chemotherapy. So far I’m feeling pretty good. I’ll go get my injection today that will help my body boost its white blood cell production that will hopefully keep me from catching a virus while my immune system is knocked out. \n\nThis afternoon Sharon is coming for a visit in our yard. It’s nice to be able to see folks. I’ve had to postpone visits with Tannis a couple of times because of this but hopefully we’ll see her soon.\n
- July 7: I’m doing ok so far. I have the fatigue, nausea and light-headed side effects already but they’re still fairly mild. Brent and I will try to make it out for a walk today. \n
- July 8: Yesterday was a complete write off for me because of my chemo side effects. I’m hoping things will be better today but I’m not counting on it. Ugh. \n
- July 9: Yesterday was slightly better for me side-effect wise. Hopefully today will be a little better yet again. It is extremely hot here, though, so that’s making it hard to be comfortable. \n
- July 10: I was hoping my side effects would calm down significantly by now and they have a little but not as much as I would like. I still have a lot of nausea and the heat does not help! Brent is really good at managing the heat in the house, which is good, but even his powers are limited. \n
- July 11: Yesterday I tried a different kind of anti-nausea drug and was that ever a mistake. I was curled up on the couch all day because my nausea was so bad. I’m going to have to ask them if there’s something else I can try. \n\nBrent and I have been trying to sit outside late in the evenings lately because of the heat. Tannis is going to come by this evening to join us. It will be the first time I’ve been able to see her since I started chemo. I’m looking forward to it. \n
- July 12: Tannis came over for a visit in the yard last night. Of course, it rained while she was here so we had to sit with umbrellas. Oops. \n\nMy nausea is a lot better but now I have the fast resting heart rate which is almost as bad. Hopefully within a day or two everything will calm down. \n
- July 13: I’m hoping for a better day with the nausea today because yesterday was absolutely wretched. I misremembered how long the nausea lasts after I had chemo the first time. I thought it lasted about a week but no… it’s more like 1.5 or two weeks so I think it’ll be mid to late next week before I really start to feel better. I’m taking two anti-nausea meds now that are safe to take together. I didn’t do it yesterday until the afternoon but when I did it seemed to help so I’ll be using both together moving forward \n
- July 14: Yesterday was a weird day. I was fine in the morning and ate a big breakfast. Then, before noon, the nausea came back and I ended up with pretty bad nausea for the rest of the day. The weird thing about it was that the exact same thing happened to me on the exact same day after my first round of chemo. I had a few days of bad nausea, then one morning (the Saturday after) of none, then back to nausea for another 2.5 days. So now I have my hopes up that my nausea will start to clear significantly on Tuesday because it was just so oddly similar.\n\nWish me luck!\n
- July 15: If my nausea trajectory is the same as last time, today should be my last day of bad nausea. Then it’ll clear up and I’ll start having days of my hair falling out. Or what’s left of it anyway. We’ll see. Every day is an adventure. An actress who was younger than me (Shannon Doherty, 53) died of breast cancer yesterday. It makes me sad. \n
- July 16: Today is the day that I expect my chemo nausea to finally start lightening up. Wish me luck!\n\nI have some exciting news. My friend, Janet, is buying my apartment. We’ve agreed on Nov 7 as a possession date. Eeeek!!\n
- July 17: My nausea was pretty mild yesterday and hopefully today will be even better. It’s following an eerily similar trajectory this time as it did after my first chemo. One good thing about that, I guess, is that I’ll have a good idea of what to expect for the remaining four sessions. \n\nToday we’re going to go out to a pub with Nancy, Shannon, and our new-ish friends, Don and John. \n
- July 18: I think the nausea is all done for this round. So now I know. I have the nausea for a week and a half and then no nausea for a week and a half. We have no plans for today, and with it being so hot we’ll have to get out for a walk early. We’ll probably go out at around 6:00. \n
- July 19: So far today is a very good day for me with the nausea (or lack thereof). Also, I've been expecting my scalp to hurt and my hair to start falling out again, like it did on my first round of chemo, but that hasn't happened so far. Maybe that won't happen again, although it looks like the nausea will happen every single time.\n
- July 20: Yesterday we went up to St Albert. We went for a walk with our friend, Rob, then for breakfast with him and our other friend, Ken. Then we met our friend, Sheila, for coffee. This is something we do fairly regularly. Since we know multiple people in St Albert we try to see more than one at a time. Today we have no plans on the calendar, and since the forest fire smoke is here now we probably won’t even go outside. Sigh. \n
- July 21: Well it looks like our summer of clean air is over. The smoke came in two days ago and we have no idea when it might clear. I was already stuck inside most of the time because of the heat but now we can’t even go for our 6am walks or have our evening sits in the garden. It’s very depressing. \n
- July 22: The heat and smoke continue up here, stopping me from spending any time outdoors, which is really depressing for my one week of feeling good before my next chemo. At least I can still go out. Went out for pizza last night and going out for sushi today for lunch. \n
- July 23: Today I go in for the second part of the dietary study I’m participating in. I’ll be there for 28 hours letting them measure my oxygen and carbon dioxide. It’s to help them calculate the caloric needs of people getting chemotherapy. It’s interesting and I like to feel useful.\n
- July 24: I’m waking up this morning in the special room from the dietary study that I’m in. It’s been a long boring time in here for me but at least the air is cool and clean. I’ll be leaving late this morning.\n
- July 25: Today I start the next chemo cycle. I have to get blood tests and see my oncologist. Then I go for the chemo tomorrow. The air quality here is so bad and the town of Jasper is on fire. I’m sad. \n
- July 26: Today is chemo day for me. I’m dreading it, but I’m not dreading it as much since I saw the lovely nurse yesterday who gave me more meds to control the nausea, and to prevent heart damage. \n
- July 27: I have had to phone an ambulance and may be going in to the hospital for some chest pain. I think it’s related to my chemotherapy and I think it’s nothing but you have to always phone an ambulance if you get chest pain. \n\nDon’t worry about me. I’ll keep you posted as much as I can but I just wanted to let you know in case I can’t make my usual ‘good morning’ email in the morning. \n
- July 28: Well I had quite the adventure at the hospital yesterday. They didn’t find anything wrong though so that’s good.\n\nThis will be my first round of chemo trying out the new meds - one to prevent heart damage from one of them chemos and two to manage the nausea. Wish me luck. :)\n
- July 29: I am glad i wasn’t in the hospital yesterday but I had a bad day with fatigue and some nausea from my chemo, and probably also just some holdover exhaustion from being in the ER all night and day from Friday through Saturday. Hoping for a better day today. \n
- July 30: I’m still participating in the dietary study for people with breast cancer. I’m wearing an activity monitor every day and collecting pee samples every day that I have to put in the freezer and then deliver to the study. Yesterday was my first delivery of pee-sickles to the team. I’ll be finished all that on August 8th and then after they’ve processed my results they’re going to share my data with me, which I find really interesting. \n
- July 31: Yesterday started out good with a walk and breakfast in the yard but then the nausea from my chemo hit me really hard and I slept through the rest of the day. Chemo is awful. I wish I was going to be done soon. \n
Monthly Gratitude Posts:\n\n- July 1: I'm grateful for a full week of feeling good before next chemo\n
- July 2: I'm grateful that my SIL was away from home when Hurricane Beryl hit Bequia\n
- July 3: I'm grateful to feel well enough today to go participate in the nutrition during chemotherapy study today, and grateful that I have the baseline level of fitness to qualify for it in the first place.\n
- July 4: I’m grateful that some buffets came back post-pandemic. The Indian buffet at Royal Bistro, and the breakfast buffet at Mayfield Theatre are two of my favorite things. Brent and I had pre-second-chemo lunch at Royal Bistro yesterday. YUM!\n
- July 5: I’m grateful for lovely nurse practitioner, Susan, hereafter known as Lovely NP, who kicks ass over Obnoxious D. Most of the time I’ll get to deal with Lovely NP, except the follow-up just before chemo 3 will be with Obnoxious D because Lovely NP will be in Nova Scotia eating fish.\n
- July 6: I’m grateful for my chemo port. It was so much better than getting an IV, especially after my disastrous blood draw on Thursday, which involved two different nurses ‘chasing’ my vein with their needle and ultimately having to pull it out and use a different vein. My left arm is fed up. I’m glad I didn’t need to get an IV in it for the chemo. \n\nThanks to Stephanie Miller for suggesting it. I should have just gotten it to start with. \n
- July 7: I'm grateful for my curious mind and willingness to try different things. \n\nAfter Mexico, I bought an \"air cut\", which is supposed to provide an even hair cut easily. I've always cut my own hair, but it's harder to do short, especially on the back, so I thought I'd give it a go. It was an absolute disaster, which is why I buzzed my hair off shortly after Mexico. \n\nToday I decided to try it on my 20% (if I'm being generous) hair. Seemed to work fine with a reduced amount of hair, and when I go back into a new hair-loss phase with the chemotherapy, I'm hoping it'll easily remove the hair that's ready to come out. \n
- July 8: I’m grateful that the forest fire smoke appears to be traveling around, and away from, Edmonton (so far).\n
- July 9: I'm grateful for the photos, memes, jokes, videos, etc, that you all send. It truly is making this easier.\n
- July 10: I’m grateful for the Wifi that brings you all (plus the Flix of Net, and other streaming services) into my space on the daily. I’d feel way more isolated otherwise.\n
- July 11: I'm grateful for letters from folks who don't use FB, and for those of you who have \"looped them in\" to my situation. I've gotten great letters from Jane (thanks, Doug) and Veronique (thanks, Wendy). \n
- July 12: I am grateful to know Jane Cawthorne. She's an amazing person, and she has articulated what it was like for me to be diagnosed with cancer... perfectly. Cancer is Not a Journey.\n
- July 13: I'm grateful for anti-nausea drugs. I haven't got mine sorted out yet, and I've had a couple of terrible \"failures\" of said drugs, but I'm grateful that they exist at all and I trust that I will get it figured out since nausea seems to be my side-effect of choice.\n
- July 14: I'm grateful for flowers and bees in Brent's garden. \n
- July 15: I'm grateful for Spriggy. Spriggy is our happy, thriving Cuban Oregano who came into our life as a piece of garnish on a plate of brownies at Beth Gardner's tea party a few weeks ago. Spriggy rode home with us in my water bottle, sprouted in a small dish, and now has been about two weeks in his pot of dirt. I'm overly invested in Spriggy's well-being. \n
- July 16: I’m grateful that Janet is buying my apartment. It makes everything so easy and low-stress, and my apartment gets to stay ‘in the family’ so to speak.\n
- July 17: I’m grateful for authentic Mexican flags for Puerto Backyarda. I’m also grateful for a silly meme that introduced me to the name Puerto Backyarda.\n
- July 18: I’m grateful to have been able to go out to the pub yesterday. Yay!\n
- July 19: I’m grateful I’m not that guy at CrowdStrike… yikes!\n
- July 20: I'm grateful for things to look forward to\n
- July 21: I’m grateful that the smoke-free air lasted as long as it did.\n
- July 22: I’m grateful that Brent gets a break from my problems with an awesome getaway to see good friends.\n
- July 23: I'm grateful for an opportunity to be useful to science. Going in for the 28-hour \"meat locker\" portion of the dietary study that I'm participating in.\n
- July 24: I’m grateful for cool, clean air in the ‘meat locker’\n
- July 25: I’m struggling a bit with it this morning, but I guess I will say I’m grateful that I visited Jasper a number of times and I’m grateful for the firefighters and first responders who risked their lives trying to save it.\n
- July 26: It’s chemo day and I’m so grateful for Lovely NP2 who, not only gave me the med to prevent heart damage, but also gave me two additional meds to help with the nausea, which is my absolute worse side effect.\n
- July 27: I’m grateful for the Sturgeon Hospital and its healthcare workers. And, once again, I’m grateful to be Canadian and not American through this heath situation.\n
- July 28: I’m so grateful to not be going through all of this alone. I don’t know what I would do without Brent. I’m very fortunate.\n
- July 29: I’m grateful for Star Trek reruns that are interesting enough for when I’m awake but not so interesting that they keep me awake when I’m able to sleep.\n
- July 30: I'm grateful for a safe and comfortable home.\n
- July 31: I’m grateful again for clean air quality.\n
- Spriggy
- Puerto Backyarda
- Pub with Friends July 17
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