Happy New Year everyone. Hope you had a great holiday break.
I, on the other hand, did not have the best break. As you know, I was spending my holiday in Ottawa, mostly cooped up at home trying to rebuild my immune system and get some energy back. Luckily for me, the World Juniors Hockey tournament had started so that at least that gave me something to do. Normally, I struggle to watch the games as I am usually visiting with family and I cannot guarantee that they will be watching them while I am visiting. It was a surprising and exciting tournament this year and I was happy I could watch so much of it.
On Friday, Dec 27, Geneviève had her wisdom teeth pulled out. It was not a pleasant day for her. Her friend Pat was by to help alleviate some of the pain and ensure that she binged properly on all the Disney Princess movies to numb the pain. I, on the other hand, did very little all day. I did not even make a meal as we chose to eat leftovers instead.
Saturday, Dec 28, was pretty much the same thing. Watched WJC hockey in the morning and then did nothing for the rest of the day. I did make a tourquerre though so that was something.
There was more to do on Sunday, Dec 29. The family was heading to my buddy Rick’s place for his annual holiday party. It was an afternoon event with a bunch of his friends who I have come to know really well over the years. It was a lot of fun as always. We stayed at his place for the night while Shelly stayed at Yvette and Gilbert’s place, MA’s soccer friend. It was the most people I had seen all Christmas break so I was a bit hesitant around them as I was still not sure how well my immune system was doing.
Rick and I were up early on Monday to watch the WJC game before my family packed up to head back home in the freezing rain. The weather this year has not been the best as it was on the mild side but just to say above zero for some of the days so not much snow but lots of freezing rain. Before heading home, I needed to give blood and pick up Shelly from her sleepover. We finally were home around 3:30 and then vegged for the rest of the day.
New Year’s Eve was spent mostly watching WJC hockey. Later that evening, MA and I went to her friend Célynne’s place to celebrate the turning of the decade. It was a good time with plenty of friends and food. We forgot about the countdown and were a bit late to toast the New Year but we still made it work. I was happy to be done with 2019 as it was not a great year for me. We were home a bit later than I was expecting but I was glad to be out. Still had some worries about the immune system around everyone though.
New Year’s Day was pretty quiet. Pat came by in the early afternoon so that we could get some Bond movies in. He watched a movie with Geneviève while MA and I did some prep work for dinner. We were making cannelloni and needed to get the sauce simmering for a few hours before stuffing the pastas. We were able to get in one Bond movie before dinner and another afterwards before he headed home.
Thursday, Jan 2, was another hockey filled day. I watched the quarter final game between Canada and Slovakia, an Ottawa 67’s game and played hockey that night. However today, I was showing signs of having another cold. I was coughing a lot and had a sore throat. All this socializing over the holidays was probably the cause of my new symptoms. On the bright side though, my ankle was getting better so that I can now walk normally. Given my condition, I was worried that my immune system would be affected again, like before Christmas, so I was happy when my oncologist responded to my email and provided me with my latest blood work numbers. My immune system was lower that it should be but not so low that was causing concerns or required boosting. I had called her office in the early morning hoping to get an appointment that day to see her as I wanted to discuss my current blood results, my PET and CT scan results that came in over the holidays and just get some reassurance that all was good with me. She did not get back to me until later in the day and she did not have the scan results from Toronto yet so she could not comment. I sent them to her that evening and waited for her response.
On Friday, Jan 3, there was no hockey to watch, a rare occurrence this holiday season (which brought joy to MA ?). Another piece of news that brought joy to both of us came from my oncologist again. She had a chance to review the scans and was able to tell us that I am officially in metabolic remission! This means that the treatments were successful and my cancer is no longer growing and is basically in the process of calcifying. The PET scans showed no metabolic activity in the areas where my tumors once were (outside of the norm). This was great news but we still struggled to celebrate it. I was still suffering from this cold/cough and was still tired most of the time. Also, with our current financial situation combined with not knowing when I will be back to work, we are not able to go out or spend money. I would have thought we would be more excited to get this news but there is still so much ahead of us before my life gets back to normal that it was hard to celebrate in the moment. Early that afternoon, Gene was off to Pat’s place for the weekend as he and his cousins were getting together on Saturday. Also, Isabelle was staying at a friend’s place that night so we held off telling the family the news until everyone was home on Sunday.
The plan for Saturday, Jan 4, was to go to a band practice with my new band. It would be the first time we get together and jam. Unfortunately, our drummer (who I have yet to meet) thought he was coming down with the flu. With my situation, that pretty much kyboshed the practice. So, instead, I spent most of the day watching hockey again. I watched the two WJC semifinal games and taped the Ottawa Senators game that night so that I could spend some quality time with MA.
I was up early on Sunday, Jan 5. And I watched my Sens game that I taped from the night before while I had my coffee. Later in the morning, Rick called and asked if I wanted to watch the Gold Metal game with him. Though he lives in Barrhaven (basically other side of Ottawa from where I am), it worked out well as Gene could meet me there and I could drive her home after the game and save her the hassle of taking the 1.5h long bus ride home from Pat’s place. I met up with Rick and Cash (Marc Cashman) at Boston Pizza, their local hangout, to watch the game with others at the bar. It was a very close and exciting game and, in the end, Canada won Gold! Gene and Pat showed up shortly after the game was over and G and I headed home. It was nice to have her there now that she can drive on her own. I finally have my DD ?!
Monday, Jan 6, was a long day with not much activity. I got up a bit later than usual and did my usual routine of coffee and paper. Afterwards, I got ready to go out so that I could give blood again and do a bit of shopping while MA was giving massages. I put a roast in the crock pot for dinner and lounged for the rest of the afternoon while I waited for the kids to come home from their first day back to school after the holidays. We had an early dinner because G was coaching that night at 5:30. After dinner, I read for a while before my 10:45 league hockey game. It had be a while since I played with them so it was good to be on the ice with them even if it was such a late game. It was another very close game for us. I scored my first league game goal with only a couple of minutes left in the game to take the lead 2-1. I was sure it would be a game winning goal. With only 6.9 seconds left in the game, we had a faceoff in our zone. The other team had six players on the ice with their goalie on the bench. All we needed to do was stop them from scoring. Just a couple of milliseconds before the buzzer sounded, they tied the game so we went into a shootout to decide a winner. It took three shooters on each side before someone was able to score and, lucky for us, it was our player who scored the only goal in the shootout to win the game!
I finally got to bed around 1:30 AM, Tuesday, Jan 7, and did not fall asleep until around 2. I needed to get up by 6:00 AM for another hockey game, which I did make it to surprisingly. Lucky I do not need to work as I will probably will be in bed by early afternoon to catch up on some of the lost sleep from the night before. Though I tried to nap, I was not able. When G got home from school, she asked if she could go to the movies with Pat to see the new Star Wars movie. Pat has asked MA and I if we wanted to go earlier in the day but the family schedules did not allow us to do so, or so we thought. In the end, I decided I was going to go with G and Pat. We knew that Isa had a girl guide meeting at 6:45 PM and Cassy was still at school with a volleyball game so they would not be able to go. We rushed to see the 3:20 showing and, in the end, MA joined us just as the movie was starting and the typical Star Wars text was scrolling on the screen. After the movie, we headed home where the kids did their thing, MA massaged and I watched the Sens lose another game. It was an early night for me as I was pretty tired from only getting about 4h sleep the night before.
With all the holiday festivities done for the season, there is not much planned for the coming days/weeks. I will continue to do weekly blood work to monitor my progress and try to occupy my time during the days. There will be hockey, both watching and playing, that will take up some of this time. I am hoping to get back to working on my living room renos that I had put off a year ago due to an unknown leak coming from the chimney area that I have yet to reproduce or source since the last event in March last year. Now that I am in remission, I can focus on getting better, building my energy levels so that I can get back to normal and get back to work. I was a long year and now that it is behind me, I can start building again a new life, post cancer. I will continue to update you on my progress throughout this journey. So far, so good!