Round 5 Sessions 1,2 and 3

Good day and thank you for dropping in.  This entry to my blog is long over due and that has been my habit over the last year or so.  I seem to low on motivation these days and I only want to tackle smaller(read short) tasks.  Writing in this blog is a good relief for me and I am surprised that I do not make shorter entries more often.  I will work towards that.


I was laying in bed the other morning trying to piece together all that has happened to me over the last 5 plus years with regard to my Cancer challenge.  I think I got most of it right but I am going to run through it here as it is a good project for me to have this in a succinct order.  Here goes:

Date	Activity
Oct. 24, 2014	Routine Colonoscopy
Nov. 15, 2014	Diagnosed with Stage 1 Colorectal Cancer
Jan. 15, 2015	Assigned a Onologist or Record – Dr Auer for further testing
Feb. 12, 2015	Met Dr Auer after completion of several further test – Conclusion that I had Stage 4 colorectal Cancer and Cancer in my Liver
Mar. 17, 2015	Started Round 1 of Chemotherapy at TOH with 2-week cycle 6 sessions through to June 10, 2015
Aug. 28, 2015	Colorectal surgery and Liver surgery in one session (14 hours) with a stay in TOH for 17 days.  End result was loss of 20 lbs, some spare parts and the addition of an Ileostomy bag.
Sept. 15, 2015	Recovery period in the Condo in Ottawa until Sept 30
Oct.8, 2015	Started Round 2 of Chemotherapy at TOH with 2-week cycle 6 sessions through to Dec. 22.
Jan. 2016	Period of rest and recuperation. Which ended in Sept.
Sept. 20, 2016	Reversal of Ileostomy in TOH by Dr Auer. CT Scan identified some tumours in my Lungs.
Nov. 26, 2016	Started Round 3 of Chemotherapy at OCH with 2-week cycle which changed to a 3-week cycle half-way through the 14 sessions ending on Aug. 15, 2017.
Sep. 5, 2017	Dr Jonker visit resulted a reprieve from Chemo which required 3 monthly CT scans to follow the progress of tumours.  This reprieve ended Nov. 27, 2018.
Nov.27, 2018	Started Round 4 of Chemotherapy at OCH with 3-week cycle for 18 sessions ending Jan. 17, 2020.
Jan. 19, 2020	Break from Chemotherapy for as many months as the CT results are positive.
Apr. 21, 2020	Started Round 5 of Chemotherapy at OCH with 3-week cycle for several sessions with a 3- month check through CT Scan.

Updated June 3, 2020

Whew, that was more work than I ever imagined.  Fortunately, I had my Blog entries to help me as working through my appointment paperwork would have been a nightmare.  Now that I think of it almost all the seemingly simple tasks take longer than any estimate I would apply to the task.  I am happy I no longer estimate task for large projects!


The upshot of recent activity is that as of April 21 I am back on Chemotherapy and I have now had 3 sessions as of Tuesday June 2.  My mental state is spiraling slowly as the recent lockdowns and the return to Chemotherapy has not helped me.  I find myself less motivated, inspired, enthused about anything and disappointed that I am of less assistance to Freddi as she fights an ACL issue.  She is also a strong person and trying to do things for herself.  She even does things that I could help her with if she asked for help.  However, we are having lots of fun regardless of all the things that we are experiencing.


My experiences at the hospital have been very positive as the hospital has implemented new protocols around Covid and they seem to work well and provide the protection required for front line and essential workers.  They are wearing masks and shields when they are in contact with patients.  Patients are also required to wear masks in the hospital to protect the nurses, Drs and aides.my sessions take the same amount of time and my relationships with the nurse teams is strong.  After all I have been going there since Nov 2016 (thank you to the grid above).  My next session is June 23, 2020.


In other news, Bruce and I have been busying ourselves for the last 3 weeks by getting boats out to our clients as and when they ask for them.  With the opening of the borders of Quebec recently we have had more demands for boats, but we have managed to stay on top of them as we go along.  We have just endured a week + of ravenous black flies and we were forced to wear bug shirts during the heat spell we had just last week.  Hopefully the black flies will be gone by the weekend as there are rumours that the dragon flies have arrived at the lake.

During the lockout period we have maintained contact and had several visits with Tara-Lee and family.  We have watched further development of Kaia as she demonstrates a love for drawing, painting, and playing make-believe with princesses.  Logan for his part, has been growing like a weed as he is being fed by Tara-Lee.  She is tired as he is pretty demanding, and she is adjusting to having 2 kids in her life.  For Brehn’s part, he has been home quite a bit to help and to care for the kids alongside Tara-Lee but he has been doing some work with WestJet as well as taking courses to increase his offering to current and future employers.  They are a busy family with lots of laughs and love being shared around.


I am going to stop here as there is not too much more to say.  I will drop in with a shorter window and hopefully I can be more inspiring than this note has been.


Thank you for taking the time to read this and should any questions pop up, please feel free to contact me directly through my email.


Be well, be safe and try to laugh often.  It all helps.