Homeward Stretch

The first leg of the JC Farewell Tour (pre prequel) is drawing to a close. Within minutes I will be leaving the fair environs of Public Landing, NB, bound for Halifax. I fly home tomorrow. To extend the "holiday" experience a wee bit longer, Phil, Ellen and I will be approaching Nova Scotia via the Saint John to Digby ferry. It will mark my first time crossing the Bay of Fundy (sorry, Dan. Ile Haute was only half-way.). Very excited about the alternative route. Not so excited about leaving Phil and Ellen, but looking forward to reconnecting with my own pillow. And Momzy, of course.

Cure for Gout

So, here I am on my happy little holiday terrorizing relatives and friends in the Maritimes. Energy level has been great. Until yesterday. Slept all day and night - a common thing for me to do at least one day per week now that chemo has kicked in. I also seem to have acquired a mild case of gout. Gout. The malady I associate with overweight old men. Well, I fit two of those three criteria, so I guess that's what it is. Woke up with a very swollen big toe - couldn't even touch it without pain. Ellen insists the remedy is cherries. The only ones in the house were chocolate-coated Ganong variety. Miracle of miracles, the swelling is down considerably this morning. Who says chocolate isn't good for you?

I'm also managed to down a large quanity of fiddleheads, devoured more than a couple of scallops, and a couple lobster. Washed it all down with a large pot of baked beans? Pity the food at this end of the country wasn't more palatable.

Needed all this nourishment as I've been mighty busy since landing in Halifax on May 20. Had a wonderful couple of days adventuring around that city with Dan and his dear wife Pat. Great hosts. Dan gave a guided tour of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic complete with behind-the-scenes peeks. Fascinating stuff. I brought along a few things of Dad's and his father's to add to the museum's collection. Another Halifax highlight was a visit to Maud Lewis's house which is currently located in the art museum. It's like a very colourful doll's house. Amazing how the more you look at it the more you see. Sampled some of the local beers. Did a lot of touring around the city, viewed other tourist highlights, and ooo'd and aw'd over many an old house.

Have been in greater Saint John area since Sat. Fiddlehead central. Lots of seafood. Had my first experience in a kayak (something else to strike off the old bucket list). Great time just kicking back and visiting with Phil and Ellen, as well as the Kennedy clan. Wish I had more time to spend with Susan, but she's working. She had yesterday off, but that was my "off" day so missed her. Good excuse to make a return visit again next year.

I'll write more later. Have some photos to share, too. Hope all is well with the rest of you.

The Great Grape

Momzy really likes the Grape...

... especially the easy entry/exit feature. No fear, I'll scrounge up a wind-proof umbrella when the weather changes. Or find her a spiffy sou'wester.

Calvin Understood

Anyone who believes that comic strips are simplistic entertainment that appeals to none but the lowest common denominator, take note: Calvin and Hobbes has much to teach us about life. Here are some of my favourite quotes (in no particular order), many of which seem especially insightful given recent events in my life:

Hobbes : "Do you think there's a God?
Calvin : "Well somebody's out to get me!"

Calvin: "I wonder where we go when we die?"
Hobbes: "...Pittsburgh?"
Calvin: "You mean if we're good or if we're bad?"  

Calvin:     Hobbes, what do you think happens to us when we die?
Hobbes:   I think we play saxophone for an all-girl cabaret in New Orleans.
Calvin:     So you believe in heaven?
Hobbes:   Call it what you like.

Calvin: "Since September it's just gotten colder and colder. There's less daylight now, I've noticed too. This can only mean one thing - the sun is going out. In a few more months the Earth will be a dark and lifeless ball of ice. Dad says the sun isn't going out. He says it’s colder because the earth's orbit is taking us farther from the sun. He says winter will be here soon.  Isn't it sad how some people's grip on their lives is so precarious that they'll embrace any preposterous delusion rather than face an occasional bleak truth?"

 

From the mouth of Hobbes:

“To make a bad day worse, spend it wishing for the impossible.”

"I say, when life gives you a lemon, wing it right back and add some lemons of your own!"

“I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each others dreams, we can play together all night!”

Some favourite Calvinisms:

“I love the culture of victimhood.”

 “That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!”

"It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end."

"The secret to happiness is short-term, stupid self-interest!"
"The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference."

"I don't need to compromise my principles, because they don't have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway."

“I was put on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I'm so far behind I will never die.” 

“It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept.”

“Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend.”

“Reality continues to ruin my life.” 

“Life's disappointments are harder to take when you don't know any swear words.” 

“You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help.”

Calvin:     Wow, it really snowed last night! Isn't it wonderful?
Hobbes:   Everything familiar has disappeared! The world looks brand-new!
Calvin:     A new year, a fresh clean start!
Hobbes:   It's like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on!
Calvin:     A day full of possibilities. It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy... Let's go exploring.  

Wonder-full Week

Perhaps magic-filled week is a more apt description. After having spent a fun weekend with Mom (a very happy Mother's Day celebration overflowing with love and laughter - amazing how each day seems to bring us more of each even in the absence of Hallmark holidays) I thought life was pretty good. And then it got better!

The first magical moment occurred while I was tending the back garden. Two hummingbirds felt compelled to zoom around my head - they are very loud when very close. This flurry of activity caused me to look up and subsequently notice a most unusual sight overhead. Two pairs of herons passed over my house and landed in one of the trees behind my neighbour's lot. Now, herons aren't particularly rare in these parts, but they tend to prefer the areas closer to water than the agricultural belt here on the West Sechelt bluff. When they are spotted in the 'hood, they are simply passing through en route between the Georgia Strait and Porpoise Bay. Not only have I never seen one alight on trees in this area, pairs or groups of pairs are even more rare in my experience. In the past couple of days, several neighbours have also mentioned sightings of the throwbacks to prehistoric winged creatures floating overhead at all hours. Seems the ultimate destination might be on the far side of the back neighbour's land rather than the adjacent neighbour's tree, however, as that is where several folks have seen heron transporting twigs and other nest-building materials. How wonderful that I don't have to travel all the way to Stanley Park to enjoy a rookery! Better still, unlike the close proximity of the massive urban rookery to the former condo of friends Don and Gerald, there is enough distance between my bedroom window and the local rookery for everyone to have a fairly quiet night. Unless the owls get going - in recent nights they have rivaled the coyotes with their after dark songs. One more note re wildlife: the goldfinches have finally returned as has a rather annoying woodpecker (way can't birds wait until a reasonable hour for breakfast?).

The next bit of wonder hit even closer to home. When I went for chemo on Wed, Brenda managed to access Cath without any trouble! No repeated poking, not bruising, no pain, lots of relief all 'round. Seems the nurse who helped me out last week (Cathy) left detailed instructions complete with diagrams so Brenda's job was much easier.

That news was a great relief for everyone. Felt good enough to spend Sat with Penny at the studio on Granville Island. It's been several months since I was there. Really miss the place. The market, the other studios, the shops, the tourists, the seagulls trying to steal my lunch, the buskers, the scenery ... It was nice having so much time with Penny, a rare thing these days. Ran into several friends on the ferry. All in all, a very nice day. And I wasn't overly tired when I got home. In fact, I've gone several days now without the need for a daily nap. When I do nap, it is only for an hour or so rather than the four+ hours of recent weeks.

Regaining my energy helped convince me that I can get on with something closer to a normal life. My medical team agrees, and has given me the thumbs up to travel. Maritime residents be warned, the JC Farewell Tour could be coming to a location near you! (When I say Farewell Tour, I mean it in the Cher-like sense of the phrase - only I haven't had as much surgery nor do I plan to. I do, however, plan to have a minimum six-years of "farewell" followed by a prequel, a sequel, and a trilogy just like Cher. In other words, screw the two-year prognosis - or, if the experts do have it right, who cares? This girl is going to have fun, fun, fun 'til the Grim Reaper takes me away! But I digress.) I'm set to fly out to Halifax on Wed where I'll spend some time with Dan and Pat before heading up to St John to hang out with family. It's a trip that is long overdue. Pity that it took a few dudes with stethoscopes to convince me to buy a plane ticket. That and an excellent seat sale - thanks Westjet.

Speaking of travels, Momzy and I are riding in style these days. The last bit of excitement for the week comes in the form of a purple 2001 PT Cruiser. We've dubbed it The Grape. Unlike the '92 Ciera, we don't have to climb out of the seats to climb out of the car, all seat belts fasten as designed, the power steering and breaks truly are, the sunroof rocks ...  I'll post a photo first chance I have.

Yup, life is good.

Dr Llewellyn's Amazing Ride

Anyone questioning the tenacity of the medical system need only duplicate my chemo experience of last week to be reassured that doctors and nurses go above and beyond to help their patients. Once again, the nurses at St Mary's failed to access my port-a-cath on the first three attempts. As luck would have it, a new (at least new to me) nurse on the Ambulatory Care Unit looked upon my case as something of a challenge. I soon learned that Cathy (a most appropriate name given that my Cath was acting up) had just completed her own regime of chemotherapy and had her port removed the week prior by the same surgeon who inserted my device. Cathy offered to take me downstairs to St Mary's x-ray department to confirm whether or not the inserted needle had entered the port or simply found a place alongside.

Fortunately, Dr Llewellyn (the radiologist) and his team were between patients when Cathy and I arrived on their doorstep. While Cathy suggested a conventional x-ray, Dr Llewellyn convinced us that a fluroscopic procedure would better suit our purpose. Minutes later, I found myself standing on a small raised platform with my back against a high support attached to an x-ray machine. On Dr Llewellyn's command, I rotated my torso and shoulder so he could view the port and access needle from various angles. Sure enough, the needle was inserted adjacent to the device. It was then that the good doctor suggested an x-ray from a horizontal position, with me lying down. Thinking I had to move to another room to accommodate the change in position (as there was only the vertically positioned x-ray machine in the room in which we were working), I stepped off the small platform, ready to go to the location of the other machine. But Dr Llewellyn told me to stay standing on the platform. I soon learned why. Within seconds, my feet we rising while my head was being gently lowered backwards - turned out I was standing on the footboard of an x-ray table all along and said table was being slowly realigned into its typical horizontal configuration. How cool is that!?! I enthusiastically informed Dr Llewellyn that his x-ray machine trumps the PNE any day. He appeared to be mildly amused.

It was then that Cathy realized what was wrong. She saw the position I was lying in atop the x-ray table and noted that it was quite different from the position the surgeon had us in when inserting our respective port-a-caths. During surgery, our heads were tilted rather far back and lay quite far to one side, and our backs were slightly arched. The resulting posture tightened the upper chest, especially in the region where the port was inserted. As a result, when this posture was taken, the port sat up and flat. In any other position, the port tilted. Cathy had me adjust my position, and she was able to access the port without a problem. Dr Llewellyn marked the access point with indelible ink, and Cathy and I headed back to the ACU for the chemo.

The added stress and strain of the x-ray session heightened my fatigue. I slept for the better part of two days. I did manage to stay awake long enough to check out a new-to-me car (Mom's old car is showing its age too much for even my mechanic's liking). Also took time over the weekend to fete Momzy in the style to which she deserves. Am certainly feeling all that activity and fine dining catching up with me now. Oh, to sleep, perchance to dream.

Hair to Stay

Seems my hair is going to hang around for this series of chemo treatments. I greet the realization with mixed feelings. On the up side, the shiny pate I sported during my first bout of cancer highlighted the familial connection between me and dear cousin Phil. On the downside, it was mighty cold when the wind blew and no squirrel perched atop my head. Problem? Opportunity! What better time to see if blondes really do have more fun or if the red hair of my long-ago youth was more flattering than the mousy brown it had become pre grey highlights. And so it was that, when my hair fell out during those first rounds of chemo two years ago, I was determined to forego wigs in favour of a series of hats that resembled various hairstyles and hair colours. The hats, fashioned by yours truly, would set millinery tradition on its ear and spark more than a touch of envy in the heart of anyone catching an eyeful of the tasteful toppers. Or so I thought. As luck would have it, my energy level flagged to the point that this was the best I could come up with. (It would have been so much more romantic to say that exposure/ingestion of large quantities of mercury were to blame for such mad musings of this hapless hat-designer hopeful, but I don't think any of the metallic liquid existed in any of my chemo cocktails. Still, it's hard to explain that "deer in the headlights" gaze.)

Far from the Gidgit-inspired do I envisioned, the project ended up looking more like a mullet with serious comb-over issues. Yet, I was very comfortable wearing the failed effort. In fact, I donned the hat in public on several occasions largely because it was the same colour as a polar fleece vest I often wore at the time and I was under the delusion that the hat would be mistaken for a vest hood by any passerby brave enough to cast an eye in my direction. A young neighbour wasn't so easily taken in, it seems. Two years after my fashion faux pas, Hilary (now 14) is learning to knit and felt compelled to create a more tasteful chapeau in case my hairs fall out as a result of this latest chemo. Her hat is much more flattering, me thinks:

Seems Hilary isn't the only one hoping I have tasteful hats should a need for head cover arise. While attending a knitting conference in California, Penny and Roz purchased a gorgeous skein of yarn for my purpose. The thick-thin nature of the yarn screamed "dreadlocks!!", but the bright accent fibre (which looked like flowers when knitted) had me dreaming of something more exuberant. The resulting hat took every inch of the available yarn. Nothing was cut, nothing was wasted. It fits like a dream, is very cozy, and makes me smile every time I look at it. Too bad we're in for warmer weather as this is really a hat for the winter months. I'm willing to wait. Am anxious to see what the tassel-bits look like when they encounter freezing rain or snow.