A New Year and I feel great.....
Today is Wednesday and it is cold and grey outside. It is exactly these types of days that make
me think about find warmth in the sun and think about doing some travel –
somewhere. We are preparing for a
vacation, starting Friday, that will take us to Barbados with Mark, Joan and
Lucy. I am ready for this break as are
the others. We will be staying at a
beachside Hotel with a small kitchenette in each room. There will be others from the VanDusen clan
in Barbados at the same time but they will be staying in a different
Hotel. I expect we will see some of them
over the period.
I have not addressed this blog for 6 weeks for a couple of
reasons. The first reason for not
writing is that I have been occupied with work and getting my preverbal “house”
in order. I have been dissatisfied with
the state of my desk for quite some time and resolved to get it under control
and catch up on many small tasks that have been outstanding. That included many follow-u items, paying of
bills, wrapping up Bernard Holdings financial year, and generally cleaning up
the piles of paper and books that have collected over the past wee while. I can now state that I feel better as the papers
on my desk as fewer and only require follow-up sometime in the future. On the work front I have had a busy time with
my 3 days a week at the airport. 3 days
a week sound like a small amount of time but for some reason it takes up a
chunk of my life. I have to include a
couple of hours for each shift in transit as well as maintenance of the uniform
by washing and ironing shirts, vests and pants to ensure that I look “crisp”
when I go to work. This ironing thing
has grown and it is a new acquired skill for me as when I worked full time I
had all of my shirts laundered and hung on hangers by someone else. Now it is me who does that and I find it time
consuming. I had to buy a new iron as
the old one did not survive a 3 foot fall to the floor one day in December. Regardless, I am enjoying the work, the folks
I work with and am accepting the fact that I am now a worker who has a boss,
requires a uniform, works on shifts, provides a public service to our clients,
works within the bounds of a policy and procedure guideline and am paid a small
amount of money for these services.
My health is the purported subject of this blog so I will
provide an update on how things are going.
It now has been 5 months since my last Chemo treatment (Aug 15th)
and I can quite persuasively communicate that I do not miss that
experience. I feel great! I am told frequently
that I look good (see July 19th 2017 blog entry on that subject) and
my appetite and physical and bodily functions are regulated – not perfect but
regulated. The important thing is I feel
great. I do not have any symptoms of my
disease other than tests show that I am living with some active Cancer in my
liver and lungs. By “active” I mean that
it is present, it is or at least has been growing but it does not seem to debilitating
me in any way. That was not the case
when I was in Chemo treatments where I was listless, sick, could not sleep,
fatigue and involuntary bowel reactions, etc happening almost daily. To be rid of those incidents in my life has
been very rewarding.
You might well have read that I will be having new tests in
late February and then meeting with my Dr again to review those tests. I am not looking forward to the tests and the
Dr. visit as the results, if bad, may well result in me going back to the Chemo
days. I am of very mixed feelings right
now because I feel great and do not have any symptoms. This is a bit of a conundrum as one is more
acceptant of invasive treatments when one is sick and the treatments make them
feel better. Being on the reverse side
of that comments provides me with some serious angst about my future.
So I ask myself, what have you done to change the future or
your fate in this respect? The only
thing I have done is to change my eating habits a bit by reducing intake
(limiting portions and sometimes missing meals) and I have added a new food supplement
to my diet. Each morning I ingest a
concentration of berry seeds ( Rain Soul) from a pouch when I take my vitamins
and other meds. This product was
introduced to me by a friend from my past.
She is a person who is interested in good health through natural sources
and she happened to mention this product to me as it builds the immune system,
helps to prevent infections, cancer, helps to replenish energy and increase
body endurance and provides some elements
that improve internal organ operations including the heart. If you know me, you know that I am skeptical
about these claims to better health but for some reason I decided to try this
for a period of time to see what effect it has on me and my situation. It could not hurt as it is not a drug but a
collection and concentration of natural seeds and their oils. I have been taking this for a few weeks so
far and I have no negative effects from its use. I am hoping that the ultimate effects will be
the slowing of any growth of Cancer in the affected areas. I do not expect that this product will “save”
me but its use combined with some sensible and well thought out strategies and
behaviours for better health will not worsen my state of “feeling great”. Only time will tell what happens but I
thought I would share with you some of the things that have been happening
around the subject of my health. Be
content to know that I feel great and I am trying to make sense of what I can
do to better this situation.
With that, I will take my leave and continue my day, and
wish you nothing but happiness and good health as you go about your individual
and interesting lives.
Love to all of you who find the time to visit and share in
my experiences... Please feel free to
reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns or just want to say
hello.
Paul
