Homeward Bound!

Things have been good the last two weeks.  Yesterday I had an appointment with my Chemo doctor and she confirmed that I'll just stay on this lowered dose of Xeloda for my last two treatments.  This morning I downed the pills for the start of Chemo 7.  I took them on my bicycle ride as I picked them up at Shopper's Drug Mart on the start of a 20 km pedal this morning.  It felt good to be out as I've been lazy and not exercising but I vow to change that despite the cold, windy pedal this morning.  I can do that more often and I'll try for every second day now that my hands and feet don't hurt so much from the chemo.

So now, I have just over a month and a half left then I have to recover for a few weeks before I get booster shots to return to work.  I'm looking forward to returning to work part time and I hope it's in mid to late November.

The new normal is becoming okay.  I've been wearing slippers in the house all summer to make it softer on my painful feet.  I know the pain and numbness in my feet and hands will be a thing of the past once I stop the chemo and dealing with my colostomy has been frustrating at times but, on the whole, it's easy to forget I have one.  I just wish I didn't have one.  That's a permanent souvenir of this cancer but in view of the fact that a lot of people die of cancer, I'll consider myself lucky.

I keep getting e-mails from the Colorectal Cancer Support Group.  I only went to one meeting.  I didn't find it very helpful or cheery.  I was by far the youngest person there.  I may attend in the future but I think I'd rather go to Photography Club instead.  Or rewatch all the Rocky movies.  The obituaries from this Support Group have been flying in regularly and the one last week was for a 47 year old Colorectal patient.  Yikes.  I didn't meet any of the people who have passed away but it's a rip-off to bite the dust well before your time.  Lord knows I've raced motorcycles enough (eleven years) to make everyone around me think that I'll meet my maker at warp speed on the racetrack but I see a cancer recurrence as the big risk.  Plus, I've sold my racebike just last summer.  I told my wife I want to be the 2014 American Motorcross Champion.  She told me that as soon as I can beat one of those 12 year olds in a foot race then she'll buy me a dirt bike.  Hmm, so there's hope...

Ahh, the Orleans Sinkhole.  I have to document this...

On Sept 5th, 2012 a hole appeared in Highway 174 eastbound that feeds Orleans.  It swallowed this car and shut down the entire eastbound highway until Monday, Sept 17th.  That's the main artery that feeds Orleans.  When I was twelve, my buddy Mike and I walked about 2 kms inside the trunk sewer line that swallowed this car as we slithered behind the outlet grating at the Ottawa River.  I was tempted to return and liberate the battery and tires from this car since they were removing the car in pieces.  Mike now lives six doors down from me but I figured it would be no fun as adults and I'd probably catch scurvy in the sewer or we'd both get stuck trying to squeeze behind the grating as portly grown men and die a very undignified death.