I felt the quake... you?

1:41pm a quake hit 53 km from Ottawa today. I felt my couch shake in the basement and was wondering who was behind it shaking it. No one. By the time I looked for fluid to see if I was imagining it, the tremor had stopped. Radio confirmed it happened though.

Anyone else feel it? I hear Ottawa and Toronto buildings were evacuated.

-- Shane

Chemo - Days [44-48/63], (Thu-Mon) Jun 17-21 [/w event dates update]

Man, this time was worse than the last one. I think I'm over the worst though. Should be fairly straight forwards from here. Only 15 days of chemo left.

Dates of note:

• Last day of chemo Tue July 6th
• CT scan scheduled for Wed July 7th, early
• Follow up with main surgeon, Dr. John Miller, July 13th @ 11:15am at St. Josephs hospital. This will determine when and what surgery is required.
• General follow-up July 19th with the 3 doctor team from the Juravinski cancer center that have been monitoring my progress as a joint effort (chemo, radiation and surgeon) @ 2 pm (lab/blood work) and @ 2:30pm (meeting).
• Stage cancer was at will be unknown until visible by surgeon. (So I'm told).

Surgery date is complicated. They said I need about two weeks after chemo before surgery.  But, Dr. John Miller goes on vacation for 3 weeks starting around Fri July 23rd. So timing is critical. Surgury before is good, but may be hard to book. Too soon, and I'll still be weak from chemo. Too late and I have to wait until after his vacation or get another surgeon. After the vacation could cause recovery of the cancer and would definitely lead me towards long term disability instead of the up to 17 weeks of short term disability I can claim. Which has financial implications.

So we're hoping it can happen before the vacation. But we'll see.

-- Shane

Chemo - Days [42-43/63], (Tue-Wed) Jun 15-16

[Sorry for the re-email for people auto-notified, fixed some spelling -- Shane]

Well, its Wed. and first day of round 3 and 66% done. So far, black belt training hurt more and was more stressful and took longer. But, black belt training I came out of it with strength and endurance. I'm going to come out of this with fatigue and muscles eaten away by my body to feed myself. Both of them having me losing about the same amount of weight, though that really depends on the next 7 days. Personally, since I've taken a distinct dislike to nausea, probably more than pain, I prefer the black belt training.

I.V. drips of chemo SUCK. I feel like crap. But I've learned a bunch so I've kept my meals down (I should be cautious saying this, last time I did (round 1 of chemo) I chucked mid typing. lol.) But I'll get through this.

Surgery in approx 5 weeks. That will likely cause pain. I may revise my opinion then and choose nausea over pain. We'll see. Here's hoping. Definitely not looking forward to a catheter. This will be my first surgery.

-- Shane

Chemo - Days [36-41/63], (Wed-Mon) Jun 09-14

Hmm, time flew bye. Forgot to blog.

Not much going on. No new news. Everyone is well again (no migraines or sickness).

Was bored so helped out a bit with work today (computer stuff).

Upcoming Schedule:

• Tomorrow (Tue) @ 9am will be a doctor's consult and lab-work (blood sample). My parents will be getting the children to school. 
• Wed @ 10am will be the full day of the last day/round of chemo injections and Kaye's parents will be watching the kids return from school as we'll be there some time between 5 and 7pm depending on when we get called out of the waiting area.

Thanks for everyone's support over the last 2/3rds of this chemo therapy. :-)
-- Shane

Chemo - Days [32-35/63], (Sat-Tue) Jun 05-08

...
Next (third and final) chemo day is Wed June 16th (next week, not this week). I show up in the waiting room for 10am and don't usually get to leave until somewhere between 4 to 6pm depending on when I get admitted into the injection/drip area from the waiting room (can take a few hours depending on the lineup).

Kids are so happy to be homework free! They were computer-less for a couple of weeks and suffering from game withdrawal. lol. They did a great job on their projects, but we forgot to take photos. Hopefully the projects survive until they get home and then we'll take photos.

I'm ok. I have good and rough moments. Mostly good lately. But some days (like Mon) I just have to do nothing and sleep most of the day. The rinses are helping with the mouth sores. They are mostly gone now, but I'll probably be living with them in some form until the chemo is done.

That curry dish last week was a bad idea. Tasted great, but gave me a bloody hemorrhoid (literally) from the spices that won't go away. I hate being afraid to go. It really hurts. I'm also concerned how much it bleeds. I have a low cell count as it is. I have a cream, so hopefully it will go away soon. (Fingers crossed). Oh, FYI, I have not yet caught the fever that Kaye and Tao had, hopefully I won't.

Kaye's doing well, she says there is a storm moving in tomorrow though, the pressure change is triggering a migraine tonight. I guess that's her version of the weather foretelling bunions you hear about with some people down south.

Shane

Chemo - Days [29-31/63], (Wed-Fri) Jun 02-04

About the half way point now. Tomorrow will be day 32 of 63.

Today, Fri, was a good day. Managed a curry noodle dish, and a hearty helping of it too! About time too, I've lost another 6 or 7 pounds this week so I have to start making it up now before round 3.

I was also able to help the girls with homework today. Talking too long has been a problem recently because of the throat problem, so I've left it to them and Kaye to work on their projects. I helped with Zoe's Mayan research, next will be ancient Greek and Chinese and a medieval keep for Nia. The weekend will be full of their school project work. They are large projects, and there is much left to be done. Lets hope they have the ability to focus, or they won't be ready by their due date, Monday.

Shane

Chemo - Days 26-28, (Sun-Tue) May 30-Jun 01

Well, 4 weeks done, 5 weeks left of chemo.
Note: I want to thank my folks who've been helping for the last two days manage the kids. Kaye's been running a high fever and been out of commission for Mon and Tue.

Last few days have been recovery for me, from Sat's party and from a new symptom, mouth sores. They are common to most high dosage chemo treatments. They are like little canker sores at the back of the mouth near the uvula and tonsils (in other words, back of mouth near gag area), sometimes inside the mouth too. My first thought was that food was stuck to the back of my mouth as they were white and I had just been eating white corn tortillas chips. It doesn't hurt a lot, it is more like an irritating feeling like something is stuck back there (like food) that makes you want to keep swallowing to get rid of it.

According to the doctors, once they appear in a chemo patient (they don't always) then I likely have to live with them until the end of chemo. So I just have to keep them clean, rinse/gargle with salt water and/or baking soda. I also have an antiseptic/antipain perscription wash that I can mix with Mallox to gargle with in case they get out of hand. So once again, I'll survive, just another piller to climb in the battle.

PS: Thanks to all who posted happy birthday emails and facebook postings! I plan to enjoy my BD by sleeping and possibly more this evening (depending on the kids homework level).

Shane