The amount of support that we have received over the weekend has been surreal. Mel does not think that we deserve all of the love that we have received and she has made comments about how we need to pay this forward to everyone. I reminded her that people have wanted to help us out for a while and this is more of a reflection of how we have lived our lives up to this point. I had some friends call and one of them reflected on when we had first met and some of the ridiculousness. It is something that he always remembered. He was friends with someone else and we had all gathered as a group at a pub and this was in the late 90’s. I had convinced him that I did not know what the internet was and was asking him all sorts of questions about it and was all incredulous about it. He believed me until he asked another friend who told him that I was messing with him. Another friend of mine relayed how we had met via some website and how I was able to obtain personal information about them via the website. They had super horrible security so it was a joke to actually get onto it. i have always done some ridiculous things. When I was talking with the social worker she told me of a patient she heard of that interviewed their friends and recorded memories to share with their loved ones afterwards. It is something that I thought was interesting and I think it is something that I want to do. I want to compile stories and capture these moments so that the kids in the future can understand that some of their ridiculousness is hereditary. Now there are occasions when they share a story and then Mel or myself have shared with them that I had done something similar when I was younger. Interactions like these have shaped who I am today and I am grateful to have such wonderful friends that have been involved in all of my shenanigans. Our neighbours kids were doing some fundraising and Mel and I are sure that their parents told them not to come to our house to try and get money. They had contributed to our fundraising so they had probably told them not to come. Their kids are wonderful and have interacted and played with our boys quite a lot over the years. They are friendly with each other and it was always so much easier with things when they all played together.
Mel has told me to make sure that I do everything that I need to this morning and tomorrow as I have Chemo this week and it makes me quite tired. I may not be able to do things afterwards. Since we leave on Saturday I need to make sure that we are ok with everything. Olivier mentioned to Mel that he wanted to bring the GoPro and take videos of everything. I told him we could, but she was not sure about whether it was a good idea or not. I think he should. What is the worst that could happen. He loses a GoPro and I then buy a couple more. I have different mounts but I think we will give him the stick as well as the neck mount. He will then have different options depending on what he is comfortable with. I am not sure how well he is going to like using this. I also got him a better microphone so he should be able to dictate everything as he walks. As he tends to not shut up I think it is going to be interesting to see what it looks like afterwards. I do not know exactly what he wants to capture, but he is pretty good at video editing so I will install some better software for him so he can make some edits on his own. So far he likes to make the edits on his tablet, but his laptop is a bit more powerful for it.
I have to go in this afternoon for some bloodwork and there have been some more additional tests that have been added onto it. The clinic in Spain had requested some other information, so they will add in some more to the work that they are doing today. I am lucky that my team is comprised of people I know. My nurses and doctors coordinate me at a personal level daily. Prescriptions are sent to my friend’s pharmacy and everything is communicated back to me immediately. The level of care that I have received is amazing.
Chatting with an old friend today and I had mentioned that Mel thought of support was crazy and she did not feel that we deserved all of this and we need to pay it forward. He said that karma is real. What you give to the others, you still get back in return. I made a post on LinkedIn discussing some of my philosophies on leadership and it is true. You may not remember all of the small interactions you had have with your leaders, but what you remember is how they made you feel. Were you supported or not. I think that the amount that we have raised in such a short time is a testament that people want to help us out however they can.
Tomorrow is my last round of chemo before we leave for Spain on Saturday. I am interested to see what side effects get worse. My weight has stopped increasing, so I have plateaued with my food intake and the fluid has not built up more. It is a good sign I think. I am now at a stable 136 lbs for 3 days now. It still amuses me that I went from the biggest in the family to now the smallest. My hands are getting worse for tolerance to cold, but it is not unbearable as of yet. I did a lot this weekend so fatigue is catching up. Treatment is tomorrow and I will have enough steroids to last me two weeks in the event that I need it. I will take them up to the days before surgery to allow me to go site seeing. I am forever grateful for all the kindness that everyone has shown me throughout this and know that together we can beat this.
Quoc Hao