Mel and I are watching Amazing Race Canada and one of the teams is a pair of Asian twins. What they have been doing is keeping a mistake log so they do not make the same mistake again. Typical Asians focusing on mistakes and not achievements. I thought that it was rather amusing that they did that. I think that Mel and Xavier would have fun doing something like this together, and I think that the both of them would get along well enough. This evening before Mel and I started watching the two boys were play fighting with each other. Olivier told Xavier that at first he could not use his arms and only his legs. It then turned into Xavier not being able to use either his arms and legs. Mel called Xavier a potato and Olivier thought it was amusing. He still lost though as Xavier just sit on him and pinned him down like that. I started laughing at them and Xavier said that I would not do better. I said it was not a fair comparison as I would lose to my nephew who is entering grade 1 this year. I am pretty damn weak and would not be able to handle a punch. I can barely lift 10lbs, though I am capable of getting my wheelchair in and out of the vehicle. My wheelchair weighs 33lbs and I think that it is the limit of what I can lift. Watching some of the teams on Amazing Race, the teams are made up of friends, siblings, couples and some of them are so positively sweet and encouraging to each other that I told Mel that if she said that stuff to me it would annoy the hell out of me. If she was there yelling at me and pointing out what I was doing wrong I would be more comfortable with that, but on TV it would probably come across as her being mean.
Today I have spent the day listening to punk songs, and since I started with a random song I have let it just play whatever came up, which is how I came up with the title for today. Listening to the songs that have played though have brought back reminders of growing up and all of the different things that my friends and I did. There are so many innocuous things that stick in your head. One such thing is when we were driving down to Toronto attend the Warped tour where one of our favorite bands was playing. One of my friends mothers was driving us down and we stayed at her sisters place by Ontario Place. I do not remember anything about the apartment that we slept in, but a memory I do have is on the way down my friends mother passed a car in the passing lane and was speeding and a cop drove by the opposite direction and she was worried that she was going to get a ticket. She did not, but that is a memory that stuck in my head. In the vehicle was my friend who had called my friend’s mother Mrs. by her previous married name after they got divorced. She told him not to call her that and to address her by her first name. Little things like this stick in your head when in the grand scheme of things it does not matter. Years down the road I am sure that our family will remember the day that the potato beat up Olivier. The kids still remember my chicken with the most awesome super powers.
This morning when I was at the hospital for my pre-assessment and bloodwork I ran across one of my oncologist friends who I taught labs when she was in school at Laurentian. It was great to see her and we chatted for a bit. She told me that I had a lot of support at the hospital and that if I ever needed anything to text her and she would help me out. She is probably one of the best doctors there, though she works far far too much because she cares so much for her patients. When we were talking she had mentioned some weeks where she worked 120 hours. That comes out to 17 hours a day for 7 days. It is insane to do that. Prior to Mel and I having kids we would work super long days as well, so I get it. I have taught so many students and she was one of the only ones where when in 1st year she said I am going to med school and will be a doctor I believed her. She had the intelligence and the work ethic to accomplish it. A story that she told me is that her mother had experienced several bouts of cancer prior to her starting school and it helped drive her to pursue a career in medicine. Arriving at the cancer center registration I do like it when I know the clerk and I am not required to pull out my health card to show them. They pull up my information right away and it goes fairly quick. Today I went for bloodwork and then at the pre-assessment the nurse was reviewing my file and said that I should also get a urine protein sample for the protocol that I am on. I have never had to get one before, so I asked about it. She went and had the clerk in the Cancer Center put it in and I went back to the lab for the urine sample. When I got back to the lab the technician who I had seen earlier asked me if I was just there, and I replied no, it was my twin brother. She did not believe me, but she did not want to stick me with another needle. Apparently it happens with patients where they get bloodwork and then need to come back for another needle. I know that in the past I have had to do it and I did not enjoy it. I told her I was just there to provide urine and she laughed and gave me the bottle and told me where to put it afterwards. Tomorrow I get to go take my lengthy naps. My treatment is in the afternoon this time though so we will see how this all works out. The kids have a haircut tomorrow, so Mel is going to go drive them there and then come back to see me. My parents will pick up the kids and bring them home. I will probably end up not eating as I will want to sleep as soon as I get home from my appointment. I am not going to sleep at night anyway once I am on all my steroids. The neuropathy seems to be much better, so we will see what it is like after this round of treatment. I am still amused that it has been 344 days that I have journaled my cancer treatment and it is approaching the 1 year mark where I received the call from my friend that the cancer is back. Maybe he will call me back this year and tell me was joking and that him and all of the oncologists were just running an experiment. September 9th is National Teddy Bear day. I always tell Olivier he is my favorite teddy bear so I can squish him. I am going to find a new teddy bear to order on that day to tell him that I am replacing him. Whenever I tell him that he is my 35th favorite teddy bear he always feigns disappointment and asks why he is no longer the favorite. The dumb reminders are sometimes the best ones.
Q