The dichotomy between Olivier and Xavier always amuses me. Xavier is a minimalist and likes to keep things tidy and organized. He normally has all of his things well organized and he has a spot for all of his goalie equipment in his bag. When he unpacks everything to dry, it all has its own place as well. He has a neat desk and for the most part his room is almost always neat clean and tidy. Olivier on the other hand is a hoarder and his room is a complete mess. He probably goes through a box of tissue paper every couple of weeks and he likes to keep his discarded tissue covering his floor so you can not see it. He also has all sorts of paraphernalia to make things scattered everywhere and things are difficult to find. While Xavier always makes sure his electronics are in a usable state and properly charged, Olivier often has things die because he forgot to charge his device. Xavier is more like Mel, while I am not as messy as Olivier, I do not care to clean things up as much as Mel or Xavier do. When asking for help they are both super helpful if it is just me, but they tend to be less useful if Mel asks and is home. For example, yesterday Mel aske Olivier to bring upstairs two attachments from the basement upstairs. Olivier decided that the best way to carry up two large attachments is to drag it behind his back. Surprisingly he struggled to carry it up using this method. I called him out on it and he asked how was he supposed to. I suggested in front of him so it is not dragging him backwards. Xavier was suppose to vacuum, but we had to go grocery shopping first. Mel said if we had time when we arrived home he could vacuum before hockey. We skipped the groceries and as soon as we got home, he “remembered” that he had a homework assignment due the next day so he could not help out with chores. Not suspicious at all.
Today things have returned more to normal, as I feel much better today. The trend holds true and I will slowly start to feel better as we approach the next round of chemotreatment. Hopefully I can figure things out a bit better and it will not be a rough. Mel and I are going to go apple tree shopping on Saturday so we can add to our fruit backyard. So far we have 2 types of grapes, a cherry tree that is tiny, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, kiwiberries, haskap berries and we will be adding 2 dwarf apple trees. The animals steal most of the food we get so we do not really get to experience much of it. We have a lot of birds in the area that eat all of the grapes and the squirrles and chipmunks get all of the low stuff. That is ok though as hopefully if we get a lot we can share it all with the animals and we will get some for ourselves. The neuropathy in the hands has started to decrease and it is not as bad today as it was previously. I can touch things but it is a bit painful, just not as bad. I need to eat more, but it seems that my food choice is what limits me. I recently had some sweet and sour soup made with tamarind, pineapples, tomato, bean sprouts, and okra and I was able to have a rather full bowl, while at lunch I could only eat a quarter of a sandwich. Fatigue is much more manageable now and energy wise things have returned to normal. The key is to limit my steps and try and keep them below 2000. If I get 1000 steps in a short amount of time, within a couple of hours it results in quicker onset of fatigue which is more difficult for me to get rid of.
Mel and I ran some errands for 3 hours and I managed to go through multiple stores and I was fine. We will be hosting my parents, Tim, Thanh and her parents for my father’s birthday at our place on Thursday and I will make a meal for him. Hopefully he enjoys it, but it is really hit and miss with him whether he likes what I make or not. Sometimes they love it and sometimes they critique the hell out of me. They might be nicer this time as my current conition is not as awesome as it was in the past. I still think that they will critique it. Being out all evening did not have a huge impact on me as I drove everywhere and went to pick up Xavier while Mel put away all of the groceries. We will see what the progression is for the rest of the week now as I am through the difficult part of the chemo treatment period.
Q