Another month has slipped by and today I decided to address
my blog as some good things have happened in the last month. In my last blog I spoke to the three week
cycle which proved to be great after session 7.
My period of illness, discomfort and dealing with my irregular bowel
lasted for a little over a week. Things
settled down to the judicious use of Imodium (for the bowel) and some nausea
meds to bring peace to my system. That left
me almost 2 full weeks between sessions when I was feeling pretty normal and able
to conduct myself in a normal fashion.
I had the opportunity to “fix” things at WestJet as I handed
in a Dr letter to give me relief on the schedule for my treatments. Oddly enough the folks in Calgary set up an
agreement that was just until June 3 which is a day after my new schedule comes
into effect. Interesting timing but we
will see if this makes any difference when I get my schedule. I am to be scheduled for some training t
WestJet as I have agreed to take a step up to Customer Service Agent (CSA) which
entails being able to help guests with their ticketing as well as all of the
other things I currently do. That
training should fall into the next scheduling period. The training is to teach me the computer
processes so the 4 days will likely be sitting on my butt trying to remember a gazillion
commands and situations. It will be a
trial for an old guy like me.
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| April 30 |
Session 9 started yesterday and I thought I might share that
day with you. On Monday I did my blood work
and picked up my meds for this session.
I arrived at the QCH on time and settled in for my 3.5 session
yesterday. Being there at 8:00 am I am a
start-up patient and we have time to talk and get going slowly. It is a pleasant and informative time. Yesterday we talked about the impact of the
unit implementing EPIC (an integrated patient record system for Dr departments and
patients alike) and the effect it will have on working procedures for all who
work with it. In my discussion with Dr
Jonker a few weeks ago he indicated that a moratorium on vacations was being implemented
for the first month of EPIC implementation.
The nurse I spoke with yesterday has been trained as a super user so no
vacation for the summer for her. I
enjoyed probing to understand the Change Management aspects that were being
implemented to support the users through the transition. We shall see how all of that goes. We then back to business at hand and she
prepared me with the poke in my port to deliver the chemo. I take two pills for nausea right off the bat
as well a shot of steroid (the cause of sleeplessness for 24 hours) as well as
the three bags of chemo. All of that
gives the system a good shake and makes one feel a bit off kilter as well
feeling a bit ill. My bottle did not arrive
in the morning shipment (for some reason) so I had to leave without it and
return at 2:00 pm to have it installed.
The bottle provides a measured amount of chemo to be pumped into my
system for 48 hours. It is an
inconvenience as one has to deal with it sleeping, bathing and generally work
around its presence during normal daily functions. This morning I was quite nauseous until after
my meds took effect. I sometimes wonder
how the body deals with and sorts through the myriad of drugs that one takes
for such a procedure. Once my bottle was
attached I was on my way. So far all
seems to be well and my bowel is operating normally (you really wanted to know
that didn’t you?) however I am pretty confident that will change in the next
few hours.
Upon arriving at the cottage I took Bailey for a walk and
started to put away some things I brought home and thought about the ice and the
dock. I went down to the water to see
that I was just a bit too late. The
first thing I noticed was that east side dock was on top of my shore dock and
the
bridge to connect the two was upside down and under the floater and it was floating away. The ice has incredible strength when it moves
and that demonstrated to me that the ice had indeed been on the move in my
absence. The next task to lasso and pull
the shore dock into shore as it was floating well away from the shore. Finally, after many attempts and some good
cussing, I managed to get the dock secured to a tree. I went after some more rope to better secure the
second floated and secured it from the west side. I then re-attached the bubbler and broke u
some of the ice that was encroaching on the west floater. It did not take long for the bubbler to clear
that area of ice. All of that exercise took
about 2 hours and I was exhausted once it was done. That type of activity is supposed to be
during my better weeks and not right after starting the chemo process.
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| Free floating dock April 30 |
Later in the day I turned my attention to the weather and
was delighted to hear that we were in a weather
warning for Wednesday afternoon and evening with 30 to 50km winds from the
east and snow rain and freezing rain, in no particular order. That means I need to secure the second floater
to support it for an east wind. I will
seek out some more rope and secure it early in the afternoon. So far we do not have any wind but it is
seriously overcast.
So having a quiet dinner with Freddi in front of the TV last
night was well received. I stayed up
late as the steroid does that and I caught up on some late night TV. I did manage to get some sleep though and I
am feeling less queasy and tired today.
Thank you for dropping in and I hope that things are well in
your world. I am always happy to respond
to your individual inquiries so feel free to drop a line or respond herein.
Namaste
