Skating widower

My wife is an avid fan of figureskating and this weekend is full of scheduled CBC TV broadcasts. Since Shaw cable has not been able to provide us with the requisite digital and HD signals (they are scheduled to replace the cables running to our house next Wednesday), she is watching some of these events on the internet. CBC is streaming the skating, and one of our computers is now temporarily dedicated to that purpose. I've become a skating widower this weekend.

Derek's chemo has been postponed for a week, because his blood chemistry isn't quite up to scratch. So he has to recover from the last session some more. This means a "nausea-free" weekend for him, which he obviously welcomes. He'll probably have his next chemo session on Friday. A rescheduling of our granddaughters birthday parties and other social events is therefore necessary.

As I said in my last blog: it's a rollercoaster.

Mood swings

Derek had his most recent chemotherapy treatment on January 1st. It makes him sick, of course. The recovery period after each treatment appears to be the better part of a week. Speaking just for ourselves, Hilkka and I always feel down when Derek is dealing with the chemo effects, and our mood improves as he starts feeling better. I suppose that's true for any parent, your children will always be your children, regardless of their age.

We talked to Derek a couple of hours ago; he said he was feeling quite a bit better - so we feel quite a bit better, too. It truly is a rollercoaster.

A New Year

My wife and I wish all our family and friends a Healthy, Prosperous and Happy New Year.

Who knows what it'll bring?

Merry Christmas

Hilkka and I wish all our family and friends a Merry Christmas. We're looking forward to our traditional annual Christmas evening get-together tomorrow.


May you enjoy health, happiness and love.

Another year

Another year has gone by and today was the day for this year's Christmas piano recital and pancake breakfast arranged by Lorraine Crowe's Music Studio. The weather outside was terrible - lot's of rain - so it felt very cozy inside. Our daughter-in-law Airdrie, our granddaughters, Marina and Lauren, attended, and the music students played music, violin, and sang Christmas songs (the audience sang, too - with a lot less skill).








Santa paid a visit and Marina and Lauren must have been "nice"







Marina playing solo










And a duet with Lorraine.





Unfortunately, Derek could not attend this year, because he was dealing with the side effects of his chemo treatment. Right after the recital, I picked him up from home and drove him to the cancer clinic to have the portable chemo bottle removed, marking the end of this session. He was tired, of course, and it'll take a couple of days for the effects to wear off. The girls stayed at the Burnaby Village (the recital location was the historical ice cream parlour there) with Mom and grandma Mimi to enjoy the rides, blacksmith shop, and the other historical exhibits.

Next Round

Derek just went through his second chemo sitting in the current series. This time, he says that he feels quite a bit better than the last time. We think that there still may have been some residual effects from the Cediranib which he discontinued prior to the last chemo session.

I dropped him off this morning and picked him up just about an hour ago. His long-time friend (and ours, too), Seb - he and Derek started their first music band in our basement years ago - also visited, and we all conversed about things technical while waiting for the end of Derek's chemo session. Derek is tired now, of course, and going to bed. But so far, this session appears to have been much less troublesome for him. We're all thankful for that. Just the same, it'll likely be a lost weekend for him again, but perhaps with fewer of the side effects. He has a bottle of 5-FU attached to him for the next couple of days, and that one will be removed on Sunday.

Maybe he'll even blog or "facebook" a little.

Winter is early

This week has been colder than normal here; arctic outflow winds have frozen any standing water and cooled the surroundings to below freezing. There has been only a dusting of snow at our house so far. With the cold environent and a return of the more normal Pacific airflow, and moisture forecast to arrive, a heavier dump is expected. There has been lots of snow on the local mountains; that's where it should stay, from my point of view. It bodes well for the Olympics. There is still more than a week to go before winter arrives officially. As I write this, I see snowflakes starting to come down; they are not melting as they hit the ground. We've bought another snow shovel and about 130 pounds of road salt to keep the sidwalks clear; maybe we are prepared enough. I'm looking forward to the days getting longer again.

Derek has had lunch with us a couple of times this week. This is made easier because we live in a side-by-side duplex, and all we have to do is walk across the common back porch to get to each other's place. The granddaughters can drop in at any time, too. We can also help out quickly if required. All this makes things a little easier; at least we can help a bit in Derek's fight with cancer.

Addendum at 4:45pm

Even though we got only a centimetre or two of snow today, I went out to do the first shovelling of the season. I also added some of the salt and it is making the packed footprints melt fast. The new snowshovel has a somewhat longer handle; I found that I didn't have to bend so far down to get a good angle on the snow. The shorter standard handles have always been a bit of a problem for me(I'm 6'3").

A Better Day

Derek is feeling a lot better today. He had the attached bottle taken off late yesterday.

The granddaughters dropped by on their way to school to pick up their daily "Advent's Calendar" treat. This is a childhood tradition of mine, which gives little treats to children every day before Christmas, starting on the first day of December.

It's been a beautiful, clear week, weatherwise. But it's cold outside, and the arctic outflow wind makes it seem even colder. Prairie folks would laugh at us, of course, -7 degrees C (19 degrees F)is springlike to them.

Along with Derek, we all feel better this morning.

Recuperating

Derek had his chemo yesterday. Airdrie tells us that he spent most of the night sleeping - with the help of the anti-nausea drug, which seems to help quite a bit. He still has a bottle of chemo medicine attached until tomorrow, so he'll probably feel lousy for the whole weekend. This controlled poisoning is no fun for any of us, least of all Derek himself.


Today, our grandchildren set up our "Christmas village"

and helped with setting up the Christmas tree. It was a welcome activity for all of us.

Action

As you can imagine, we've had an anxious week. Today, Derek had an appointment with his oncologist. His chemo starts tomorrow. Understandably, he's not looking forward to the side effects, since he knows what to expect from his previous round of treatments. Apparently there is a new anti-nausea drug, though, and we're hoping that it will help diminish some of those side effects.

At least there is some action. It eases the anxieties a bit.

Thinking in the night

I am a light sleeper, and have inherited my sleeping patterns from my mother. Usually, I wake up around 2 a.m. Nowadays, at my age, nature calls me to the bathroom about three to four hours after I fall asleep anyway. I am usually awake for at least two hours after that. That's the time when I think through recent events and what I may be doing after I get up in the morning.

In the last few days, this pattern has been disrupted. The reason is obvious: Derek's cancer medication has become ineffective. Today, I was awake all morning from 2 a.m. on, thinking about Derek, Airdrie, Marina and Lauren, Airdrie's parents, us, our other family members - what is ahead? As Derek says in his blog post: Time to walk into the unknown future again.

Bad news

Today Derek and we found out that his cancer has grown substantially in his lungs.

This is devastating.

Back home

We were away in Germany for a couple of weeks and since our return, I've been catching up in my business. So today is the first chance I've had to relate some things related to the trip.



We attended the 40th wedding anniversary of close friends who live in an area not too far away from the North Sea, and had a Family meeting in Berlin as well. I have two aunts in their mid-nineties there, and we visit them as often as we can. One of them is my mother's sister - she's the last one of her siblings. She's in good shape, but unfortunately totally deaf. We communicate by writing our comments on paper. The other aunt is a former sister-in-law of my mother. Both she and my mother were widowed twice; in each case they lost their first husbands because of the second world war. She is slowly going blind, but lives in a first-class old-age home, has a friend there, and the two support each other.

I have another aunt in Vienna, also of that advanced age group. We didn't get there this time and we're hoping to see her next year, if our family situation allows.

It's important to maintain family connections.