Round 4 Session 14 and 15 - plugging away

Today is day 2 of my 15^th session of this round of Chemo to defend against cancer activity in my liver and my lungs.  During day 2 I am, as usual, feeling listless, tired, uncomfortable, with little appetite and a lot of frustration with the process.  It is tiring and sometimes I feel that this is a good time to not take Chemo for a while.  The last time I did that I had a full 12-month break and in the end the cancer went from a group of small nodes to a few bigger nodes and lab results took a turn from bad to worse.   That was the beginning of Round 4 in November 2018.  Since that time, I have clocked 15 sessions in the 11 months.  I am tired and a bit grumpy about all of this and I am wondering where this is going.  However, I did get a CT scan done on Sept 26^th and saw dr Jonker for the results.  The only thing he indicated to me was that the lung spots were smaller by a tiny bit – what ever that means.   I am assuming that the whole 4^th Round has been successful in reducing the size of the Cancer spots in both my liver and lungs.  That is a good thing!   I managed to have the 14^th session on Oct 01 and was delayed again because of low WBC counts on the two-week window that would have gotten me back on track for my planned three-week cycle.  The 15^th session was also delayed, and I managed to have that on Tuesday of this week (Oct 22) and that is where we are today.

During the month since my last blog note I have been busy again with Lightning Tree work, the boats and of course the WestJet shifts that start in the night-time and end in early morning timeframe.  The Lightning Tree work has been around getting organized for our new FY that started on Aug 01.  We are bit behind in that planning, but we are looking at scheduling a Partner meeting in the next two weeks to tie down a plan.  The company is doing well to date and I believe we are looking to increase our count of Consultants in the short term.  

The boats have been coming in at intervals during September and October and we have been able to keep up with the flow.  WestJet work got in the way of doing boats on some of the sunny and warm days we have been experiencing.  But we plowed ahead and last Monday we finished the last of our client boats.  Our final count was as expected and at the same level as last year.  We are also well set up for next season as we have some inventory of materials already for the work next fall.  The only boats in the lake, that I care about, are our own boats.  I believe we will pull our 2 boats out of the lake on the weekend.

WestJet shift a have been a bit of a challenge recently as my regular shifts have been cut to accommodate Chemo periods.  As a result, I have been picking up some shifts to fill in some blanks and to increase the revenue or pay cheque to the expected level.  The work is sometimes challenging as I am working at the counter more and having to deal with the full cross-section of our guests.  Some are patient and prepared and some are impatient and not prepared to travel in Canada with its irregular weather patterns.  Some parts of Canada have had snow delays already and that tends to put a bit of crimp in traveller’s plans.  It also increases the workload at the counter.  I do enjoy dealing with the guests and the clunky computer systems that are available to the airline to connect with other airlines and maintain our schedules as closely as we can.  I must thank my peers for being so generous with advice, tactics, sharing their practices etc. while I continue to learn about working with the systems for reservation, ticketing, baggage, special circumstance, schedules and of course ensuring I take a break on some of the longer shifts.  They are a good group to work with.  We are entering a season high for WestJet as the winter also moves closer.  The migration south for our snowbirds has already begun at the airport.  Our next shift schedule release will encompass the Christmas and New Year breaks and we are guaranteed to have 2 consecutive days off on one of the holidays. 

Kaia enjoying the fall ritual of gathering up the leaves

Our next tasks at hand are to ready the buildings for winter, pull the water for the lower cottage, clean up the docks and finish the gardens.  Oh, I that all?  We will be venturing to Toronto to meet up with our Toronto clan and the clan from Nevada as my brother and sister-in-law will be in TO for a week.  We will then carry on to Puerto Vallarta for a week of down time with a good book or two.  I am looking forward to the break from all of this.  Freddi is very happy to be having a break in November too.

It is blustery night out there and I am going to put on a fire to remove the chill and dampness in the house and then put on a movie to continue my restful day.

Thank you for your interest and as ever, if you have questions or comments, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Be well ……