Monday, Nov 23

Had an appointment to see the surgeon, Dr. Erin Kennedy. She was ecstatic. Have never seen her so amazingly cheerful. You look great she says. Have you seen your CT Scan report? Yes, we say, met with Dr. Hedley. Don’t pay any attention to it, she says. The increased size of the tumours is minor and to be expected. Ignore it and move on. She was positively bubbly over this.

We told her about the blood results that I posted earlier. Oh my God! The news gets better and better. She looked at my scar, which I must say looks remarkably good to me, and was even more excited. I have my hair, my scar is beautiful, my blood results positive. All is good with the world. She gets extra points.

Discussed the longer lasting effects of the last chemo. She is not surprised and mentions casually that the F5 chemo drug is cumulative. We should expect the effects to last longer. Great.

Next appointment on January. We will be seeing her for a long time.

Tuesday, Nov 24

Nothing really remarkable happened. I am tired, more so than usual. Slowly getting psyched up for the chemo on Thursday. Hopping that this week, the effects will not be so long lasting, in spite of what Dr. Kennedy says.

Wednesday, Nov 25

You have read all about that fateful day in my Art Therapy page. Devin picks me up from the Art Therapy session and we sometimes go out for lunch or something. I am too tired to go anywhere. We come home. I eventually do what I do every day, take a nap in the afternoon. Devin has to go to work. He plays the piano, plays on the computer, and finally goes. I spend the rest of the day reading articles, and doing my Word Searches.

Thursday, Nov 26

Drive Janet to work and myself to the hospital for blood work. Chemo is at 1:30. Doing my blood work at 9:00 means they will get it on time for the chemo session.

Drive over to Paulee’s house to pick up her dead computer to take to Steve’s. Her hard drive has crashed. It is fatal.

Go to the pharmacy to pick up my drugs. They do not have a renewable prescription. Call the Doctor and leave a message with the wonderful Susan, his assistant. She faxes the renewal over to the pharmacist, the equally wonderful Farrah who fills it right away. I go to Dash kitchens to grab a bite to eat while all this is going on. I am beginning to shake a bit from lack of food.

I call the Chemo Daycare unit before taking my drugs to see if chemo is a go or not. The nurse gives me a bit of a hard time until she recognises my name. Everything changes, and she is sweet as pie. No chemo this week. My white blood cell count has gone from 6.7 to 0.8 in one week. Too low for chemo.

I am very disappointed. You psyche yourself up for the drugs only to have them canceled. I have to go in to the daycare to have the pin removed from the Porta-Cath. The nurses are as cheerful as always.

On my way out, I run into an East European couple we met on our very first chemo session. She also has colon cancer and the requisite bag. She was waiting for her blood results. Her chemo was postponed the week before because of a low white cell count. I sat and talked with her for a while. She does not appear to have anyone to talk to about her cancer. We talked about the headaches that we get that feel like migraines. Tylenol has no effect on them. Only sleep seems to cure them. We talked about our continual exhaustion. She did not know that she could get her blood work done earlier in the morning, so she does not have to wait in chemo daycare for the results. She sounded tired. I hope I run into her again. Her husband is always with her.

Friday, Nov 27

This is my date day with Devin. He asked me what I wanted to do. I slept, virtually the whole day. I was exhausted. Not sure if it was the let down of not getting chemo or what. He went out to his club and ran a couple of errands. I stayed home. It was a truly bad day for me.

The only thing that happened to cheer me up was hearing from one of the participants of the Art Therapy session. We are now exchanging regular eMails. This is fantastic.

Nothing more to say about Friday.

Saturday, Nov 28

Miraculous recovery. Janet forced me out of bed. She did not have to try very hard. We decided that I have to force myself to get out of bed and do things. We went to the market and bought some food. It was great to see some of the merchants who know me. Big air hugs all around. Murray and his son Allen are particularly attached.

Came home and took a nap.

Went out later in the afternoon with Judy and Arlin to the Mercer Gallery to see an exhibit on advertising in magazines of the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s. It was very cool. Had coffee after and came home totally exhausted, but in a very positive way.

I cooked supper. Spaghetti with my patented tomato sauce. Delicious. Sorry for not inviting any of you. Maybe next time.

Sunday, Nov 29

Fetneh came for a visit. Always a welcome sight. We had a great time. And yes, I had to take a nap in the afternoon. I was exhausted by the time she left. I think I may have a recurring theme in my life. But again, a good and healthy feeling. We talked about all kinds of things.

Carys, my four year old niece was dropped off to spend the day with us. Paulee was going to a healthy living show. Carys is very shy and it her virtually the whole day to warm up to Fetneh. It was a delightful day. I played with Carys for a while, but could not keep up with her. Damn.

Janet spent a major part of the day with her Dad. Good thing. Glad Fetneh was here to keep me company.

All-in-all the weekend ended on a high note.

3 Responses to “The Week That Was – Ended Nov 29”

  1. Sorry to hear about your "downs". You are a very lucky man to have so many family and friends around you who love and care about you.Your caring personality and wellbeing reflects on to others who surround you so gracefully, guess that's why they call is Karma!

    Wish you luck for next weeks chemo.

    I haven't tasted your tomato sauce, but I think mine might beat you to the challange. We decided to do some canning this year and made some good old italian tomato sauce, now there's some patent for you!!

  2. What a week. Sounds like an elevator. Hope you are taking pictures, and that you are still seeing them, even if through a haze.
    Nice to hear the Art Therapy saga lead to extended goodness.
    You and your wonderful wife are in my heart.
    My sister must be very jealous that you went to the Mercer Gallery without her!
    Hope you had a good day today.

  3. This sounds funny, but I really think it is a good thing you are losing your hair. But I have to give it to your hair for literally hanging in there for so long. Your hair probably realized it was an icon and wasn’t about to give up its status so easily. It is a testament to the man.

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