We were out all day today and I made quite the mistake. I forgot to take any of my medication but it seemed to be ok. I felt some nausea throughout the day but I managed it seems. I did not sleep well last night and got up in the middle of the night and had difficulty falling back asleep. I stayed up for a bit and then Mel and I left early to go get some food for breakfast as neither Xavier or I am fond of hotel buffets. I managed to eat that food and Mel dropped off Xavier at his game 2 hours early. She came back and we went to the game closer to game time. Xavier has been playing well lately and we ended up with in a 1 to 1 tie, where we were outshot close to 4 to 1. Our team was in the box for most of the game so he ended up quite tired. When we discussed the goal he let in, he said that he did not see it and it went off his mask. It was expected as by that time we had been short handed for most of the period and were down 2 players. He ended up starting the second game as well and he was quite tired. He had the same amount of shots and we had even less shots and we ended up with a loss. Reflecting on the second game he said he was super tired going into it as we had a short turn around and he did not know that he was going to play until right before the game. He finished today with over 80 shots and saved approximately 93% today. It is interesting to watch him come out at times because he does not like to lose. Even when the shots are so lopsided he does not blame his team. With the lopsided loss he focused on what went well and understands that a lot of the goals occurred because of fatigue. He was a touch slower in some back door passes compared to if he was fresh. If our team was not pinned down in our zone for most of the game he would have been ok and managed it a bit better. Xavier also told me why we did not do well the second game. It is his grandmother’s fault. She only told him to do well in the first game and not the second game. If someone does not tell him to play well then clearly it is not his fault. A close friend of mine showed up to watch the second game and we had told her that Xavier was not playing and he ended up playing. If she would have brought her husband and kids there would have been more pressure on Xavier and it would have been implied that he does well.
When he is playing well it is much easier to watch the game and I tend to forget about my discomfort. In the morning I did not wear my snow pants and it was cold. Second game I did and it was much better. Foodwise it was fantastic today and I did not dip into any of my emergency reserves which was nice. Mel managed my fatigue and energy levels and made sure I did not do too much. The key is to try and limit my steps to below 3000. She sometimes carries me like a baby to help me conserve energy.
I love my siblings and even though my brother is very poor at communicating he is exemplary whenever we go out of town. As soon as he knows that we are going out of town he always asks if he needs to take out the garbage and take it in at the end of the day. He has consistently always done this for us and I appreciate that we can always count on him for this. He will always have Olivier over and hang out with him when we leave him at home for some games where we need to travel. We give Olivier the option of what he wants to do and his first choice is to see if he can hang out with his uncle. I suspect it is because he lets him do what he wants which is generally play video games all day long and then go to my parents for food or order food in. My brother has always been reliable for domestic things. He would go to the store to purchase things for me or go for fast food run and bring it to me. Both for my siblings are quite reliable. I know that there is a 50/50 shot of him responding to me, but he will always respond to the kids. I know my sister will look at me in disgust for not following her rules on where to place my things when we visit. And they are both always there for me when I need them even if it inconveniences them. It is not optional. We are family and we always have each other’s back.
Tomorrow I need to make sure that I eat properly and that i take my pills, but we have a bit more time between games. There are a couple of stops that we need to make. One is to Uncle Tetsu for Japanese cheesecake and another is to Ikea so we can replenish some dishes that we broke. We may try and do this between games as we now have a team dinner after the second game. At our games today I saw parents from our previous teams and it is always nice to see the concern that they have for me. The parents on our team check in on me and ask me if I need any assistance as well and everyone has been accommodating with driving Xavier to practices or games. I think that recovery is going better than I expected. My other oncologist called me today to see how I was doing. I told him things were going well and I did not need him for anything. I informed him of my cousin so that concerned him a bit as it seems unlikely that two males would both be diagnosed with it. He is going to schedule an appointment with me in a month to check on with me and schedule another scan around then. We will then be in check every 3 or 4 months phase again.
QHM