Last night we had people over to finish some more details of the kitchen renovations. Mel and I had slid the mini fridge into the space, but it was tight and not perfectly aligned. As I have the strength of a 5 year old I could not help out much. Our floors are slightly tilted towards the wall so the backend is a bit lower than the front. After some adjustments they got the fridge in and everything is in place. The trim above the kitchen sink and lights have been installed and there are only a few things that need to be added now. It looks great. I am grateful for all of the help we have had with this. When the fridge was not fitting I was not sure exactly how to resolve that, but luckily we have a lot of experts helping out that can come up with solutions and make it work. It should not surprise me when they come over and can fix it like it is nothing. I guess that is how others feel when I help them with their problems. Normally I can see the solution pretty quickly. Except when I am going through treatment and then mentally I am a bit slower.
Today my appointment was a bit later in the day and it really messed up with my feeding schedule. I normally drink my coffee in the morning and then eat around 9am, 10am, and then again between 11 and 11:30. This morning it was cold here. -21 and -29 with the wind chill. Olivier is always warm and figured that he could go out with just his hoodie and he had a thin jacket in his hand. My dear child went to the bus stop and was freezing and sent messages to Mel wondering how he was going to survive recess because he was so cold. Our child who is always too hot, walked out the door and thought, this seems like great weather for just a hoodie. I ended up driving to the school and dropping off snow pants for him so that he would have them for recesses and hopefully he will be ok. When I told the story at the office, dropping off the pants they laughed at the story. It would be typical behaviour of a child. That detour distracted me and i forgot to eat this morning. I arrived for my appointment and I was supposed to see the oncologist first, but they were ahead on my machine so I was up next. I went and had my treatment and then went and waited for my appointment. While waiting a friend of mine dropped by to keep me company. When I told her that I had not eaten and that my schedule was messed up, she offered to go get me something from Tim Horton’s. I knew that I was going to be next to see the oncologist and mentioned that I might not be when she got back. She told me that she would find me. As she left I was called into the office.
Mel had some questions that she wanted me to ask. As I sat in the appointment for 10-15 minutes, most of the time was spent talking about our kids and random things. I then mentioned that Mel wanted me to ask about medication for nausea and he wrote me a prescription. The other thing that Mel wanted me to ask about was scheduling for Ottawa. I will be able to go to Ottawa and will make up that one session the week after. He did not seem to think that it would be that big of a deal. We will go down on New Year’s Eve and then go see the game on the 1st. They are going to drive down on the 1st to go see the Sens game and he mentioned that it would probably be a better idea for us to go the night before. After the game we will go out to dinner with them, I just need to make some arrangements with his wife. They enjoy eating at good restaurants so it will be nice to go eat with them again. I walked out of the appointment and my friend had the muffin for me which I ate quickly. I went to the pharmacy where my friend works and had my prescription filled within seconds. When I first registered for my appointment there were quite a bit of people going in for treatment. Most people had 1 or 2 people for support. I think that most people probably do not have the same experience that I do. I saw some people when talking to staff tell them how they are struggling with different aspects of their treatment. The place is not necessarily one of happiness as people are in rough shape going through some of these treatments. That is not to say that everyone is like that, but smiles were not common amongst the patients. Going through this treatment I can understand the difficulties associated with it, but you need to try and not let it define you. A benefit that I have is that if I have any setbacks I have an incredible support system. My oncologist is a personal friend. I know the managers of the treatment center. If I have any issues with my prescriptions I have my pharmacist friends on call. When my friend saw the script for my prescription he altered it a bit. Instead of giving me a pill I have something that dissolved on my tongue. That way if i throw up then the medicine will still be effective. It is small details like this where I think that my care will differ from others. I get much more personalized care from people that care for me and look out for me. I am grateful that I am surrounded by a community that makes sure that I am fed and that I am taken care of.
I am lucky that I am surrounded by knowledgeable people with easy solutions to any problem I have. Whether it is home renovations, my illness, drugs or the best way to convince Mel to stop ordering things for the house. We have had at least 1 to 2 deliveries every day for the last week. I am assuming that soon we will have someone call hopefully to schedule delivery of the Smith machine. If it just shows up one day, hopefully they can put it into the garage, if not then it will be in the driveway and I will need to get some people to help us bring it into the house. I will make sure people know so that they have ample time to come up with an excuse to not come. Mel can get a workout that day with Xavier bringing all the pieces in 25lbs at a time. We also ordered 300lbs of extra weights and I think that there is at least two 45lb weights and maybe a couple of 55lbs as well. I of course will be playing the most important role of middle management and watching them bring it in and giving them suggestions like use your legs not your back. It is important to have someone telling them everything that they are doing wrong. Good prep for Xavier in the real world.
My fatigue is much more manageable today as I just need something to focus on to get over the small period where I am tired. If I try and rest then my body knows that I should rest and it shuts down a bit. I can guarantee that if I tried to nap right now I could do it easily, but I could also push it off by doing work. Why rest when I can work? I can rest at night during my scheduled sleep period. Now that we have door handles installed on our doors, the thicker doors do very well for preventing sound from entering. The only issue now is when Mel comes to bed later then I do with her phone flashlight on and shines it into my eyes to make sure that I am sleeping. She will deny that she does this. I am going to have to set up a camera to verify if this happens or not.
Quoc Hao