Today is a sunny frosty day at Lake Bernard. This year’s early winter has certainly taken
me by surprise. The lake managed to
freeze in during the third week of November which is as early as I have ever
seen such a thing happen. Under normal
circumstances we do not get ice in the lake before the third week in
December. As a result I was fooled into
believing I had time to get my docks ready for the winter even though we had an
early freeze. I was wrong! The ice has settled in and has thickened with
our docks in place. We will have to
detach the walkways to the docks and leave them there for the winter. I will have to address my tardiness in the
spring and secure the docks well before the thaw.
What that says to me is that winter is here and it has a
grip on us. I just returned from a fresh
walk with Bailey in the frozen fields around us. It was invigorating as the sun is also
shining and there is a wind from the North.
The last few days I have been staying close to home venturing out only
to walk the dog and fetching firewood. I
have been spending the best part of the last week doing that as I spent last
Tuesday at the Queensway Carleton Hospital undergoing a fresh Round of
Chemotherapy.
Tuesday morning I arrived at QCH at the prescribed time
(early) and met with my nurse team for the morning. They were two relatively new nurses in the
Chemotherapy Unit but both skilled and prepared to make the time the best they could. It has been some time since I undertook a
Chemo treatment so I needed some reminders of the process, order of things,
drugs etc. They were kind and helped me
pull my proverbial shit together and get my head around the process. Nothing really changed but I had forgotten
(conveniently) some of the details. I
went through the elevated blood pressure routine and Dr Jonker prescribed an
increase in my Amlodipine to 10mg from 7.5. That is not the direction I would like to see
this medication go in. However, with
some relaxation methods and little conversation my BP dropped low enough to
start the process. It has to be below
150 to start.
I was given the appropriate drugs and shots to prepare for
the chemo. The bags finally arrived and
I was plugged in with Avastin and Folfiri drugs for the next two hours. I read, slept, chatted a little but generally
just succumbed to the drugs for the duration of the treatment. All reactions were predictable and in control
throughout. I started feeling nausea
almost immediately and was encouraged to drink lots of water to reduce the
effects on my body. Well I tried but
even water tasted poorly in that scenario.
I managed to get away about 11:30 am and headed downtown for a lunch
meeting with Ben and Nil (business partners).
The lunch was productive but I had little in the way of
appetite. After lunch I went to my
follow-up appointment with my eye Dr. I
had cataract surgery the week before and this was a follow-up appointment to see
how things were going. Apparently all
was good and we set a new appt date for the next surgery on the other eye. Dec 20th will be that appointment
and then I will have a complete set of new lenses in my eyes. I look forward to that as having one good eye
and one “unrepaired” eye is inconvenient at best. I returned to Lake Bernard after that
appointment.
As usual sleep did not come easily after treatment. It has to do with the steroids they inject
into you prior to treatment. I stayed up
late and watched some TV and then decided to tough it out in bed. I did not sleep until early the next morning. My day at home was very restful as I read,
slept, watched a little TV and generally tried my best not to succumb to the
nausea and ill effects I was feeling. I
managed to drink some water and eat small amounts of food. I managed to take the dog for a couple of
short walks but I was certainly not very perky.
On Thursday I managed to get to CCAC on schedule to have my bottle
removed. The 48 hours of drip treatment
was over and the bottle was empty. Once the
bottle was removed, I went and visited Tara-Lee for a short visit and then went
to work at WestJet. I had a 6 hours
shift and had no idea how I was going to do when I was feeling so weak. The shift went by and I sent most of the time
doing my work by myself. I did not feel
social and I was trying to forget how badly I was feeling. The shift ended and I drove to the lake at 9
pm. The drive was horrible as I was
tired, not focused and feeling like hell.
I managed to get home even though I had some sleep sessions along the
way.
Friday morning I stayed at home as long as I could. I had another 3 pm shift so I spent 6 hours
at the airport. I was feeling better
than the day before and the effects of chemo were reduced considerably. I completed my shift and returned to the lake
at the end of the day. Generally
speaking I was not feeling as bad as I thought I might be. Perhaps it was because this was my first
session since Aug 2017. My Saturday shift
was a 5 hour shift and I managed quite well. I proved to myself that I could manage both
chemo and work although I am unsure why I want to do both. In the days that followed my strength returned
slowly, my nausea diminished slowly and my appetite started to come back. I continued to lay low but that was to build strength
more than anything. Today I am feeling pretty
well and we are 1 week out from the treatment.
I now only have one week before we start Session 2.
So goes the cycle of things for me for the foreseeable future. I see Dr Jonker every second Monday before
treatment to make sure all systems are go.
The shift to two weeks instead of the old three week turnaround will be gauged
by the Dr and we will see if that can continue.
It is my belief that he is set me up to cause the most discomfort for
the Cancer cells in hopes that we can either stabilize or reduce the
growth. I am with him on that outcome at
this time.
Thank you for dropping in and please feel free to comment to
me directly if you have any questions. I
appreciate hearing from you.
In the mean time be well and enjoy every minute.......
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