It seems like such a long time ago that all of this began. I have been going through treatment for 45 days now and my last treatment is next week. The doctor suggested I keep the PICC line in for the duration in the event that I can handle the chemo afterwards. I do not see why not. They are just going to remove anywhere from 1/2 to 7/8ths of my stomach, with the possibility of all of it. If I am too weak then I will not continue the chemo afterwards and he said not to worry too about it.
When I write about gratitude, it is not in any particular order or importance. Most of the time it is whatever comes to my mind at the moment. There are so many instances that it will not be hard to identify any.
1.) I am a big fan of blankets and would buy a lot of them whenever I would get the opportunity, because you can never have enough blankets. My wife disagrees with me as she does not let me buy random blankets. What if there is an emergency and we had to hand out blankets to hundreds of blanketless people? She does not consider things like this….it happens all the time and we are not prepared to do our part in handing out blankets. One of the gifts I received was a hand knit blanket. I am assuming it was hand knit as I was told someone personally made it for me. I love this blanket. The team asked Mel what my favorite colours were, and she told them Purple, Red and Silver. Now normally I would not choose to have all of those colours at once. Either Purple & Silver or Red & Silver (Go the Ohio State University). Whomever made the blanket was awesome and combined all three colours to be beautiful. The blanket is soft, comfortable and heavy. It is so awesome that Melanie spends time in my nook in the chair with the blanket. I am pretty sure the intent of the blanket was for me and not sharing. Luckily she is cute and she can get away with this behaviour. I am grateful for the thoughtfulness of this gift and love the thought that the team went through.
2.) I do not talk about my family much, but they are wonderful. My sister whom I love dearly ever since she and I do not have to live together anymore was willing to move back to Sudbury to help out if required. The fact that she would take a leave from work and come help out with the kids is fantastic. During the lockdown last year she would spend time with the kids online every day and help them out with their school work. Out of all my sisters, she is by far my favourite. Not even comparable to my other sisters. It would have been fun to see her implement some of her rules here such as rotating all dinnerware, utensils and glassware for even wear on everything. Olivier prefers to use only two utensils…a golden spork and the titanium spork.
3.) My youngest son Olivier offered to teach me how to build LEGO, because I am a grownup now and I may not have built LEGO for a long time. I am grateful for his approach to life. There are a lot of little things that he appreciates and he will come give me a hug and say I love you. I am grateful for all of those little day to day moments where you make him something that he wants to eat and he will come up to you, thank you for making food he likes and say I love you. It makes me appreciate all that I have and how we have raised a child that is empathetic and shows his love. If you had to guess whether this trait is from either Mel or myself, for the record I tell everyone in the family that I love them far more than Melanie. She seems to think that I am a bit too liberal with it.
❤️