This blog has been dormant since Jan 27, 2020 when I last updated you on my time without treatment and what I had been thinking at that time. From then to now we have all seen a significant change in our lives as we are amid The Pandemic of 2020 – Covid-19. I do not intend to use this blog to hypothesize on the processes, the outcomes or the impacts of this on our lives. You are all aware of what it is doing to our lives and there are scores of reliable sources of prognostications. As a result I will just report on life as we know it from here. Having said that, some of the things I will report here will be influenced or caused by the pandemic so there is no getting away from it. I will resist the temptation to editorialize as I go forward here.
To be blunt, I am well and happy that I have now been three months off Chemo. The only real change is that I feel better and am less concerned about my body and my mind. I am staying physically active and my job continues to be a priority in my life. My bodily functions seem to be working as they should and I have fewer “isolated situations” which cause bodily functions to operate abnormally under normal conditions. In short form – my bowel is operating as it should. I am pleased with how well I feel and I am becoming a master of good nights sleep. I find myself going to bed at 9:30 because I am tired and getting up the next morning at 8:30 am. During that time I might have a few short periods of awareness but mostly the time is spent in sleep states. This is very unusual for me and I am just enjoying it.
On April 8th I will be having a discussion with my Dr to get the results of my March 27th CT Scan. In the interim I will get some blood tests so the Dr can see how my results compare to the time when I was on Chemo.
Our vacation in Hawaii ended on Feb 1 and Freddi and I returned to Ottawa as planned. We picked up our normal routines where Freddi left for work at 5:30 am and my shifts were a couple a week at some ungodly hour in the morning at the airport. I usually worked Thursday and Saturday and I picked up some other shifts from time to time to help others who had other things to do. All was going well and the routine was working well. In February, Freddi was notified that she was going to retire from Sporting Life. Through discussions Freddi agreed that would happen on March 6th. That gave her time to do the proper amount of training of others and leaving her position clear of backlog issues. So that happened as planned and Freddi started a significant change from her 23-year employment period in the sporting goods retail industry to staying at home with me. Yikes what a change for sure! What was she to do with her time? To distract her I had arranged a “Day at the Spa” at the Nordique Spa. So we spent most on her first Monday relaxing, sweating, dipping and eating while relaxing at the Spa. This was a first for me and I found it to be a little cult-like with everybody walking around in house coats and whispering to each other. However, I relaxed and enjoyed the time there with Freddi. She slept well that night, as did I.
It did not last long until she had a whole new agenda to work with. On March 10th in the mid-morning timeframe, Tara-Lee let us know that she was in labour and was on her way to hospital to have her second child. We had been invited to participate in the birth as we had when Kaia was born. We arrived at the hospital about 1:30 pm and she was in full labour. It has started around 12:30. She was a trooper and gave a clinic on childbirth to all who were around. By 3:09 she had a beautiful little boy and he was on her chest for the first time shortly thereafter. All were well and happy and Brehn stayed with her most of the first night while she was in hospital. He had done something to his back and was in full agony, but he pulled his weight through the birth and the support period after the birth. Somewhere during the late afternoon, baby boy became Logan Makai as he settled in with his new Mum and Dad. Freddi and I returned to the house in the late afternoon to take care of Kaia overnight but Kaia wanted to stay with Anna for a sleep-over that night. Kaia had been with friends while TL was in labour so Freddi and I spent the evening at TL’s place by ourselves. We had transported the animals to the house as we knew we would be staying for a while to help where we could. It was a busy second day of retirement for Freddi.
On Wednesday Freddi and I went to pick up Kaia and take her to the hospital to meet her little Brother. It was fun to watch interact with Logan and Mum and Dad. They returned to their home late that afternoon and we helped with dinner and such duties to try to make the house somewhat normal in operation. We managed to do that for 7 days and enjoying all of the time we spent there.
Then came Covid-19! This interjected several issues in our lives as it did for all Canadians. I stopped going to work on March 19th as my compromised immune system was an issue with work at the airport. This was welcomed by the airline as they were trying to find ways to deal with the impact of the pandemic on airline operations. Eventually they decided to reduce operations which resulted in a reduction of aircraft, schedules and people. They offered several options to employees for voluntary departures from the company and 90 % of the required reduction of employee level was fulfilled by those voluntary departures. As a result, on April 1 I was laid-off for 3 months or until operations picked up again. The LOA may extend to 6 months. I was quite happy as I still have an employee number with hope to return to my job once life starts to re-establish a new norm.
Freddi and I are currently home at Lake Bernard doing our duty as a self-isolation family. Her retirement and WestJet’s determinations have thrown us together in our small house for the foreseeable future. I wonder what that will look like after a few weeks. We are two weeks in and we are both still breathing. That is encouraging.
On a more serious note, I am hoping that you and yours are all safe and practicing good isolation habits and learning new things about yourselves, your families and new skills in technology (like zoom) to keep abreast of all your favourite families through technology. Please feel free to communicate with me directly if you feel you have questions that I can answer.
Be well and safe ......
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