Another low energy week has slowed down my blog writing. Sorry about that. Here are the latest updates.
Friday, June 21 (Dad’s birthday, miss you Dad) was the last day of chemo. I finished off my 24h of the one chemo early afternoon and squeezed in the final ones before heading home. This chemo round was hitting me harder than previous ones as I was very tired on Friday. Chemo finished around 4:00 PM so MA went to get the car from the parking lot and then picked me up to head home. This would be the start of 2 weeks at home, which I am going to appreciate after spending so much time in Toronto lately. Getting out of Toronto was very slow so we decided to stop in Whitby to have dinner. There was no need to rush home and this way traffic could lighten up. After dinner, we continued on our way. MA stopped for gas before Belleville and I was already nodding off. After the pitstop, I pretty much slept the rest of the way home. We arrived around 11:30PM.
Saturday, June 22, was pretty much a rest day. I was still really tired so I vegged most of the day. I did however make it to my friend, Yves, 50th birthday party. Yves is one of my old bandmates and his birthday party was centered around a makeshift band of musicians coming together that night to toast him. Many of musicians did not know each other but were all friends with Phil as he was organizing the band and the music. My original plan was to sing a few songs during the night and I was really hoping to however it did not happen for two reasons. Though my clogged ear got better during the previous week, by Saturday it was clogging up again. Also, this chemo round really did a number on me so my energy levels were quite low that day so I thought it would be best to simply enjoy the music. MA joined me that evening however she did not spend much time in the venue itself as the music was too loud for her still concussed brain. I was not able to stay long but at least I got to say hi to everyone and wish Yves a happy birthday. I did really miss playing though as it has been too long since I have played and been on stage.
Sunday proved to be a very rough but good day. By this time, the chemo hangover was setting in so I felt like crap all day. I pretty much laid on the couch the whole day and had symptoms of depression and no energy to even move. However, the day was made much better with a visit from Richard and Li in the morning. We shared coffee together and chatted for a while. Later in the afternoon, I had a visit from my old friend Marc and his wife Stephanie who we had not seen in a very long time. They brought with them a rhubarb coffee cake that was very good, especially since I am not usually a big fan of rhubarb. The rest of the day was spent dealing with the after effects of chemo, peeing and reminding myself that my current feelings were due to the chemo and that they would go away soon enough. I was surprised by how much fluid my body had retained and it was made very evident when I weighed myself on Sunday and again on Monday and realized I had lost over 5 lbs. in one day! I have not seen the scale read this low since I was in university. Unfortunately, it seems that most of my weight loss is muscle mass so I am going to need to lift some weights once this is all over to get back what I lost.
The rest of the week can be pretty much summed up with me having no energy to do anything. On Monday, June 24, I sat around doing nothing but feeling depressed because I could not move from lack of stamina. I had to bail on both my baseball game and my league hockey game, both of which I had not played in a few weeks. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent lounging around trying to get the motivation to move but not being able to. I had a very quick dentist appointment on Wednesday that gave me a lot of anxiety due to how tired I was. Though I was able to drive to it on my own, once I got there, I did not feel well and was struggling to catch my breath. I know it is the anxiety that was causing it but I could not get myself relaxed enough to get rid of it. I am learning that my anxiety increases when I am really tired and need to do even simple tasks. Luckily, I did not need to wait too long to see the dentist even though it felt like an eternity. The dental assistant rushed the dentist in and he did a quick check and was able to clear me quickly. I was out of there within 30 minutes but it was really mentally tough on me given how tired I was and my anxiety levels. That morning, I was craving danishes so I stopped at the grocery store to pick some up. I started to feel a bit better on the trek home and was able to fully recover once home and really enjoyed the danishes. This battle with cancer has really brought out the cravings as I find myself longing for foods I enjoyed when I was young. Later in the afternoon, I got a visit from Pat, Geneviève’s friend, who was dropping of a book for her. Even though she was not going to be home until late evening, we still chatted for several hours before he headed out. It was a great chat and probably the most I spoke with him to date.
I was feeling much better on Thursday, June 27. I seemed like I was starting to get some energy back. Unfortunately, I may have done a bit much. I needed to give blood to fulfill a rec from the Toronto doctors so I did that in the morning. In the early afternoon, I had an appointment at the hospital with my urologist (it was nice having an appt in Ottawa for a change!) It was a long wait to see him but it was productive. We still agreed that it would be best to take a “wait and see” approach to my restricted kidney and see how my upcoming treatments go in shrinking the tumor with the hopes that it unblocks my ureter so that I do not need any additional procedures to fix it. I spent the rest of the afternoon resting and contemplating if I should go to my Thursday night hockey. In the end, I decided to go as I had not seen the boys in a very long time and the outing would do me some good. I experienced a great reception at hockey from the boys. All were very happy to see me and I really appreciated their welcoming. Though I did not play as well as I wished, I did still really enjoy being on the ice and got a bit of a high from it. I also had a lot of fun chatting with the boys after the game and getting some wings at the bar.
Well, Friday proved to be a tough day. Looks like I may have done too much on Thursday and now I am paying for it. I was really tired all day and could not do much as I did not have any energy to move. Most of the day was spent sitting on a couch resting however I did take some time to do some late afternoon shopping. I was in need for a new hockey bag and was told I could go buy one as my Father’s Day gift. I went to 5 different stores before I found the one I purchased. Knowing that I will not be home much for July and August, I wanted to have a meal with the family out at a restaurant. It turns out that the only day we could during my two weeks off was tonight. As such, we all gathered for sushi dinner at the local sushi restaurant. It was a good meal until just near the end when a couple of issues happened to Isabelle. As the waitress was dropping off one of our last plates before dessert, the bowl of soy sauce she had on her tray spilled onto Isabelle’s shoe. We flagged down the manager to let him know of the incident as the waitress did not acknowledge it even though we could see she was aware it happened. Then, once our ice cream came, Isabelle was eating hers when she discovered a long black straight hair stuck in it. This put a huge damper on the meal and again we needed to call over the manager to discuss the issue. This time, he again apologized but offered a discount on our meal. Good for me but not so for Isabelle. Thanks Isabelle for taking one for the team!
I was still feeling the effects of all that I did on Thursday going into Saturday morning, June 29th. However, I needed to get over them so that I could pack up as we decided we were going to Richard’s cottage for the weekend. I was able to gather enough energy to get done what I needed to pack and get ready to go in the morning. Lucky for me that MA is such a wonderful wife as she was able to get everything else ready such as pack all the food and the dog’s stuff for the weekend and get it all in the van. This time, it was not going to be a family trip as Cassandra was not coming as she is leaving for the week to volunteer at a girl guide camp and Geneviève was going to her friend Pat’s place for a family party. As such, Isabelle brought a friend along, Nina, and we all headed to the cottage in the early afternoon. We met up with Richard and Li along with Richard’s daughter Alex and her husband Pat #2. When we arrived, I was still feeling tired so I parked myself on the couch for a few hours while the others settled in. MA made us some lunch and I got up for that and was able to pretty much stay up for the rest of the day. Late afternoon a storm strolled in with very high winds to start and then lots of rain. It knocked out the power for about an hour so we all retreated to the “Redneck Café” which is our new name for Richard’s garage where we hang out for coffees in the morning. Once the storm blew over, the sun came out and so we started to prepare for dinner. After dinner, Isabelle and Nina decided to take the paddle boat out for a stroll on the lake while the rest of us stayed in the gazebo to chat and watch the sunset. Unfortunately, as Isabelle and Nina were getting the paddle boat ready, Nina’s phone slipped into the lake. This caused a major panic and we all worked to help find it with MA and Li helping Isabelle and Nina look for the phone in the water, while Pat #2 was coming up with ideas on how to find and retrieve it. I did my part by getting the fishing net out of the shed and passing it to Pat #2 who brought it to the girls. It took some time but luckily Nina was able to feel it with her feet and fish it out of the water. Pat #2 rushed it up to the cottage while the girls dried off. Pat #2 and I got it into a bag of rice immediately. It seemed that the phone had a chance to survive as it was still alive before we shut it off prior to resting it in the bag of rice. That relieved the stress of the evening and potentially saved the weekend. With all this excitement done, we all retired to the fire and ate smores and wiener octopuses before heading to bed.
Sunday, June 30th, was another relaxing day but it started very cold. We needed to bundle up inside the Redneck Café and decided to make breakfast there as well to help heat the place. It started to warm up by midafternoon, around the time we all decided to take a siesta. However, I was not able to sleep as I was being attacked by multiple mosquitos that would not let me relax. Once Richard fired up the chainsaw, I knew my nap was done so I headed to the Redneck Café to join some of the others that were up. We sat around and had a snack while we watched Pat #2 mow the lawn while Richard built a new table for the Café. Geneviève and Pat #1 arrived later in the afternoon for a quick visit before they headed back into town for a preplanned dinner with friends. Late in the afternoon, many of us took a second nap while I stayed up relaxing while Isabelle and Nina played volleyball. We had a really late dinner this evening and then huddled around the fire while the neighbor a few cottages down had a humongous fireworks show that would envy the one at Parliament Hill. Geneviève and Pat #1 showed up late evening and we all went to bed shortly thereafter.
Being that the cottage was in Quebec, we were doing like the locals and treating Canada Day like “Moving Day”. We spent the morning having our coffees and after breakfast we spent some time on Richard’s Slip and Slide. Everyone was having fun until Geneviève went down on the kayak and hit a small tree off the track that flipped her and she hit her head on the ground. This brought back her concussion symptoms and put a damper on the festivities. Afterwards, we started to pack up to move out of the cottage and clean it up before heading back into town. Geneviève and Pat #1 left early while we finished cleaning the cottage before heading home and dropping off Nina. Once home, MA and I took a nap before heading to Blackburn Hamlet’s community Canada Day festivities to see our friends playing in a band at the party. We arrived later than I hoped but stayed for a few hours and had a chance to chat with the band before heading back home around 9:00 PM.
Tuesday, July 2 was spent at home resting to ensure that I had enough energy to play both baseball and hockey. I spent a bit of time editing the photos I had taken of the band at the Canada Day celebration so that I could send them to the band. I went to my ball game and played very well defensively but could not hit the ball well as I was struggling to read the pitches and hit them correctly. Normally when I play first base, it is not too demanding on my energy level however tonight this was not the case. This team seem to have a lot of batters that hit my way and there was a number of plays at first that, combined with the high heat and humidity, took the energy out of me. As such, I decided that I could not play hockey afterwards but decided to show up anyway to see the gang. I put my jersey on and coached the team to an almost victory against a very strong team. We ended up tied at the end of regulation and needed 4 shooters to decide it when the other team scored to take the victory.
The plan for the rest of the week is to continue my recovery from the last chemo round before heading back to Toronto for the next 5-6 weeks. I suspect that Wednesday will be a right off as I recover from the previous night and get enough energy to then play again on Thursday. Cassy should be back on Saturday just after Isabelle goes on her girl guide camp. At some point during the weekend, I will pack up so that I am ready to leave on Sunday to head to Toronto for the week. Next week will be a busy one in Toronto as I have a PET and CT scan scheduled along with a visit with Dr Kuruvilla, a PICC line insertion, an ENT appointment and then 3 days of chemo. The good news with this chemo round is that it should not be too intense as its goal is not to shrink the cancer tumor but to make room for my new T Cells to be put back into my body the following week. By Friday, we should be done early so the plan is to head back to Ottawa during our 48h weekend pass to repack the suitcases before I stay in Toronto for the next 5 weeks straight. It will be a very interesting 5 weeks as I will be getting my cells back and don’t know how I will react to them. Also, it will be the longest that I, and possibly MA, will be away from the family. During that time, I cannot guaranty that I will be able to provide updates but will do my best to keep you all informed of my progress. Wish me luck!