There is not much to report on the cancer front. Last week would have been my chemo week had I needed to do more rounds. It was very nice to not have to go through it again and finally start feeling like I am getting some energy back. It was certainly needed last week as we had a very busy end to the week.
If you have been following the blog you will know that, over the weekend, Geneviève competed in the Ontario Summer Games for fencing. It was a great weekend with lots of highlights. The weekend started early as we headed to Mississauga on Wednesday as she needed to check in with her team early Thursday. We picked up her friend and fencing mate, Hannah, and headed to my brother’s place for the night. It was an uneventful drive to Bolton (the way I like it) and we arrived around 3:00 PM. We took it easy that evening and got some rest (I slept until 11:00 AM!) before we needed to drop off Hannah and Geneviève at the hotel they would be staying at for three nights. The check-in time was between 1-2 on Thursday and we arrived at the same time as everyone else. We waited for them to check-in with the OSG Fencing organizing committee in a very hot room. We had hoped they could get into their rooms so that they could get some showers and change before the opening ceremonies that evening. Unfortunately, their rooms were not ready so they left their bags in a hotel conference room and we headed back to Marc’s place leaving G and Hannah behind with the rest of the fencing team.
That evening, the family headed to the Hershey Centre in Mississauga to watch the opening ceremonies. If you were following me on Facebook you would have seen a link to the live stream of this event which, for some, it did not work. This was very indicative of the ceremonies in general. There were a lot of glitches from microphones not working, athletes taking 3x long to sit than was anticipated, performers’ cymbals falling down during their songs, and some very long speeches from politicians. I felt bad for the main attraction as, by the time the crew got them setup, most of the athletes had left along with many of their families leaving this band with less than half of the expected crowd. To add to their frustrations, Tyler Shaw, the lead singer’s microphone (it was his band) was not working and we could not hear his guitar for the first few songs. We did not stay until the end either as we were tired and needed to get up really early the next day.
On Friday, G competed in the Foil event for both the U15 and the Cadet (U17) categories. Ironicaly, the same 11 athletes competed in both categories. G finished with a record of 3w-7l in the U15 and 2w-8l in the Cadet pooles. Her last match of the day would be against the same foilist she would need to compete against in both elimination rounds the following day. This last match was close and she almost won. On Saturday, she still could not beat her and finished in 9th in both categories. It was a great experience for her especially since she has only been fencing for 1.5 years and most of her opponents have been doing it for much longer. Her friend Hannah was competing in the Epee event in both categories and picked up a Bronze medal in one of them. Congratulations Hannah! It was nice that their matches were indoors that weekend. We had met Cassy’s head soccer coach at the event as he was there to coach the U15 boys from her club. They had to deal with a heat wave on Friday, with temperatures as high as 35C plus the humidex and no shade, and then torrential downpours on Saturday for their games. We were treated to cover and AC all weekend. One of the few times where I was glad that G fences and does not play soccer!
On Sunday, it was the team event where they take one foilist, one epeeist and one sabrist to create a team of 3. The teams were setup so that they were balanced based on the previous day’s results. Being that G finished 9th, she was paired with an epeeist and sabrist who was ranked in the high middle of the pack (4th and 5th). They all fenced really well and finished with a Silver medal. G was really excited to get a medal. It was a very long weekend for all of us. Though we just watched, we were all exhausted by the end of it. We drove back Sunday and got home by 11:30 PM. I have posted a bunch of pictures on Facebook but here are some of them. We would like to thank our fans for coming out to cheer G on: Colette, Lisa and Kirk (thanks for some of the photos below), Mike and Richard.
I am just now starting to get some of my energy back from the busy weekend. I played baseball on Monday and could not run well. I felt very sluggish and did not make it on base at all. There is no hockey for me this week as my Tuesday morning slot is done for the summer and I am off to the Tragically Hip concert with MA on Thursday. I just found out today that a cancellation came up that is allowing me to get my PET scan sooner. I will be heading in for it on Thursday morning instead of next week. On Friday, I will be meeting up with my golfmates for our annual charity tournament. I think there will be a band practice that night but not sure how I will feel after golfing all day. At this point, there is nothing planned for the weekend and very little for next week as there is no Tuesday hockey and no baseball (it is a rainout week and we did not have any this year so far).
Everyday I feel that my energy level is getting better. I am still pushing myself too quickly and forget that I need to wait longer before I can do all the things I used to. In any event, I can see the end and am looking forward to getting to “normal” and putting this all behind me.