Progress is Underway!!!

Okay, tomorrow I start Chemo 6 of 8.  I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Today I saw my chemo doctor and she confirmed two good things: that I had finished Chemo 5 even though I still had five days of pills left AND that my dose would now be reduced from 4,000 mg daily to 3,000 mg.  That's three pills at breakfast and three at supper instead of four pills each.  I'm confident that there will be no side effects with the dosage now reduced another 25%.

First day of school today for both Kate and Maggie.

And if there are side effects, I'll just grin and bear it because I want this all to end.

When I got home, I pencilled in on the calendar when my chemo will end and, barring any schedule interruptions, it will be over October 23rd.  My family doctor has told me he wants to give me booster shots about a month after chemo is over.  This might have me back at work in early December.  I would love that.  As odd as it sounds, I want to return to a normal lifestyle and going back to work is part of that.  I've been off work since January and, although it's always been a dream of mine to take a year off work, doing it when you don't have your health really sucks.  Plus, not working really makes a financial dent.

Another Setback

I had another setback on Friday. 

But first, Thursday was the end of our cottage vacation and it was great.  Unfortunately, I started getting sick on Thursday and my feet were killing me from the chemo.  By the time we got home Thursday evening, I had to go straight to bed and I left Erinn to unpack the car and put the kids to bed.  It was painful even to walk into the house.

I got a really bad sore throat at the cottage from our 5 year old and my fever hit 99 F.  I called my chemo doctor the next day to say my feet were on fire and I had to stop taking the chemo pills.  The nurse called back and agreed that I need to take 7 days of rest from the pills.  By the way, I have a fever of 99 F and my throat is sore.  I was hoping to spend the day in bed.

"Get to the hospital."
"Can't I just rest in bed?  I'm sure I'll be better tomorrow."
"You might die."
"Okay, you've got my attention."

Boy, let me tell you, you don't wait in Emergency at all when you have a Cancer Gold Card.  It's like Elite status with Air Canada but better because you not only get immediate service but you get a private room complete with a double glass door airlock system.  And a gorgeous blonde nurse.  She took blood from both my arms.  I didn't mind.

After the nurse was done my saint of a gorgeous wife showed up.  And she truly deserves saint status as I talked her into parking the car for free about a 15 minute walk away from where we were.  For the record, she also dropped me off at the door AND moved the car twice during our six hour stay.  What a saint!

They sent me home with antibiotics, likely as a precaution.  The antibiotics have a note saying one of the side effects is they may cause diarrhea.  I'd like to rewrite that to "They will cause you to shit your brains out!!!"

My fever subsided the next day and my coughing is almost gone.  This is another setback on the chemo schedule.  With five more days I would have completed Chemo 5 out of 8 but now it'll be another week and a half before I'm done Chemo 5.

Summer Vacation

This is our summer holidays.  We had a gap of no medical appointments or other obligations so we went to the cottage for nine interrupted days of relaxation.  I left two days earlier than Erinn hours after my chemo doctor appointment so I took the kids and my mom came up with our niece and nephew the next day.  It was great playtime for all four kids.

Ironically, we've been experiencing drought conditions in the Ottawa Valley and we've had about 80 days of no rain.  Brown front lawns in my neighbourhood have only been overshadowed by the dying crops the farmers are experiencing.  It's all doom and gloom as crops are failing and prices are sky rocketing.  Including the price of gasoline which floats around $1.25 per litre.  That'll be funny to read in a few years where, heaven forbid, we may actually be paying what Europeans are paying for gas which is closer to $2 per litre.

Oh, yes, the irony is that we got rained out at the cottage.  We're back in town to get a break from being indoors at the cottage for six days in a row of rain.  I'd say the drought is officially over in this part of the world.

This one sunny day is when all the fun happened.

My hands are often pins and needles from the chemo and whenever I use them for opening jars, putting on my clothes or attaching my wristwatch, my fingers go numb.  The more intensely I use my fingers, the quicker they go numb.  My feet aren't doing much better as I'm walking around barefoot in the summer and I like to be on carpet or they go numb.



This blue heron got the hell out of Dodge only a few hours before the rain started for six days straight.  We went back home on the third day of rain.  We'll go back tomorrow to finish our vacation, rain or shine!



I rode a bicycle a couple of times.  That was good progress.  Before we went to the cottage, I went for a 20 km ride and my ass didn't really complain.  Just my heart.  Man, I'm outta shape!  Of course, I realize the chemo knocks the life out of me but I'll have to do this more often to get my conditioning back up.  This was far better than my 18 km ride the week before where I pretty much passed out at the side of the bicycle path at 9 kms and rode home the same 9 kms at a much slower pace.

It felt good to exercise.  It's my first exercise since I got the life sucked out of me at my April surgery.  I'll do more of it in the future.

Chemo HALFWAY Point

Yep, I finally swallowed  the rest of Chemo 4 pills.  Phew!  I also am nearing the end of my seven days off. In two days I'll consult with my chemo doctor and then sneak away for cottage time with Erinn and the kids.  We just finished a week at the in-law's rental cottage.  A nice break. 

My left hand goes pins and needles and numb when I use it, otherwise the side effects of the pills are minimal.  Well, aside from the odd bout of diarrhea.  Of course, that just keeps things exciting. 

My feet also go numb sometimes but no more pain in the feet and they don't get as numb as my hands, particularly the left hand.  The feeling on my left fingertips has not returned yet but now that I'm off the ox, I suppose I should finish these chemo pills that also affect my hands before I can determine if I've suffered permanent nerve damage.

This is WAY better than being on the bottle.  When I was on the chemo bottle, I couldn't eat or drink any cold food let alone touch them without wearing gloves.  If I reached into the fridge to grab something for the kids, I had to wrap my hand in a towel.  Plus, I had that PICC line going into my right bicep.  What a pain.  It's been so good to remove that.  I think I've had it out for a month now and I've been swimming regularly with the kids either in the backyard or at the cottage.  I'm starting to feel like a normal person.

My hair loss has started but that doesn't bother me as I know it'll grow back.

My appetite is good.  Maybe a little too good.  I've been porking up and enjoying summer eating.  Watermelon is good but I like to wash it down with potato chips.

I'm a big reader but usually just magazines, newspapers and websites.  This year, however, has been a little easier to set time aside to read more books and I found this in our collection.  My wife graduated from an American high school in Germany and now I see why this book was required reading.  It should be required for Canadians too.

Although, hard to get through the southern drawl dialect, it was a reminder of the hell of the Depression. 

My grandfather used to talk about riding the rails (roof of the boxcars) from Blind River, Ontario (near Sudbury) into the Prairies looking for work.  He always laughed when he spoke about it so I'm guessing he didn't have any friends or family starve to death.  I'm glad we now have social programs in place to ensure nobody has to be that destitute anymore.