Once again it has been far too long since I have addressed
this blog. For that I apologize but do
feel that I am allowed to have busy times in my life regardless of the disease
that I am hosting inside me. I have had
a good period of relief with no Chemo and that allowed me to step up and stride
down some new paths that required more energy and precision than my body and
brain can sustain when in the grips of the medicine that I have been exposed
to. That being said I am happy to be
here, in this place and time and exhilarated by what has transpired since I
last wrote in this blog. Let’s go back a
bit and put some perspective to what I am feeling today.
 |
| Evening outside of Fort Lauderdale |
To position us today, I have started this note on Flight
WJ1232 from YYZ to FLL (Fort Lauderdale) and I am traveling with Freddi to join
a Caribbean cruise on Holland America for a short week. Outside the window the heavy overcast sky
over Toronto has given way to spotty sun filled puffy bursts of cloud that
stand between our airplane and sunny land below. We are somewhere over the south east states
and it makes me feel warmer already as we left a cold damp environment in
Ontario.
In my last blog note I indicated that I would be having a CT
Scan on Nov 7th but due to new responsibilities I would have to
change that date due to work schedules.
I managed to find another date for the CT Scan (morning of Nov 9th)
as my work on that day did not start until 3 pm. I went to that appointment and sat there for
2 hours consuming the foul tasting liquid that light up the body for the CT
Scanner. The actual test is painless and
not very demanding as the only participation is to breathe deeply and hold my
breath while they take the images. This
test is only about 5 minutes long and the inconvenience is the 2 hour prep and
the insertion and removal of an IV that allows a dye to be injected during the
test. All of that to say, that the
appointment was an easy one but a long one.
My original date of Nov 14th to meet with Dr. Jonker for the result
of the scan was also moved. That was not by my doing as the Dr.s’ office
contacted me to move the appointment by one week as Dr. Jonker was not going to
be available. However, that change put
me into the week I would be on vacation.
We agreed to move the appointment to Nov 28th after I am back
from this mini-vacation. Although I am
anxious to see what effect the break had on me I am OK with not knowing the
results during my vacation. That way I
can enjoy whatever I will be doing and not having to dread having to get back
on track with my Chemo treatments. I can
still be hopeful that the break did not cause any significant cancer growth in
any area of my body which would result in immediate return to the treatment
program. I still secretly hope that I
will be able to continue my no chemo state for another 6 week period or until
my next CT Scan.
What did I do with my time between Oct 23 and today? As I have already mentioned I felt stronger
and more capable of coping with daily pressures and pleasures during the no
chemo period. And I mentioned that I had
a new endeavour to learn about and start in the Ottawa Airport with
WestJet. During the last period I have
been pretty much full time committed to learning about the job. On the 30th I was in Toronto for a
5 day training session. The first day
was all about Culture of the company and group of about 60 of us were ushered
in by two very capable young women. Some
were starting as CSA’s, some were GSA’s and some were for the technical side of
operations. The specific training that
we did for GSA’s was held in the training centre near the YYZ Airport and it
was 4 days long. The last day we were
tested on the training material and our entire group of YOW trainees (7) were
successful. That meant we could proceed
to the next level of “in station” training and then several shifts of “shadowing”
an experienced GSA. All of the local
training took 2 weeks with lots of learning and assimilation of
information. In addition it meant
getting our uniforms and trying the different components out in a real
environment. The fun part of this
training was that I went to school with Tara-Lee as she has transferred from “in
flight” to “airport” so she can be closer to home and Kaia. We had lots of laughs and learned the
operations during the training. It is
quite amazing that so much goes on in and around the airport. In our routine day we walked about 10 km each
day. I am thinking that this will keep
the weight off as I help people inside the airport.
In other areas, we finalized the clothing order for our
consultants for Christmas and established a reservation at Beckta for the
dinner. My only complication is that my WestJet
shift schedule for Dec does not come out until Nov 21 at which time I will have
to see if I am scheduled with a conflict on the dinner night. I am hoping that our consultants will enjoy
the dinner and the gift. This year we
have more consultants than any other year at this celebration. I am pleased about that stat.
Just the other day we finished with our boats for the
year. We resolved the issue we had with
a new boat and we pulled it from the lake on Nov 10th and we managed
to get that boat shrink-wrapped last Wednesday.
The only outstanding boat at this time is my own as I left it loosely covered
until we get back when we will wrap it under the garage open space. It was a full fall and it seems that we have
maxed out on numbers of boats that we deal with each year. We have had incremental growth each year of
operation. All that is left for this year
is the accounting and the financial statement.
I will get to that before year end.
Today is now Sunday and we are getting ready to board the
Holland America Eurodam which is the cruise ship we will be on for the next 7 days. We will cruise to Half Moon Bay (Bahamas),
Cayman Islands (Georgetown), Cozumel (MX) and then to the Keyes before
returning to FLL. We have never cruised
with Holland America so that will be a new experience. I am ready for a restful period on board. We will be meeting lake friends in Cayman as
they own a winter retreat property on the island. It will be our second visit with them in this
environment.
Yesterday afternoon we drove about the FLL area and managed
to do some retail therapy at Freddi’s favorite store – Ross. We found a nice little restaurant/bar on the
inland waterway and we sat and watched the pleasure boats come and go. There are some very big and expensive boats
floating along that waterway. We stayed for
dinner and had a very nice meal. We returned
to the hotel and crashed as we were both very tired. This morning we found a cool old style diner for
our breakfast. They have a great
collection of vintage signs and brag about their VIP birthday club where they
comp a burger and shake on your birthday.
It was a fun place to enjoy breakfast.
We are now about to venture over to the cruise-port to start
our 7 day cruise. Thank you for dropping
in and catching up. I am looking forward
to chatting with Dr Jonker on the 28th but in the interim I will
enjoy all that comes along with no-chemo or effects of same to draw away from
the experience.
Be well and happy and love to you all.
