My sister read my post about the dentist yesterday and she told me that she was not aware that is why we stopped going to the dentist. She was younger than I was and she was not at the dentist at the time either, so it is understandable that she did not know. I am not sure if she remembered out family doctor either. He was Asian and he had some kids around my age and older, but they lived in the south end and once in awhile we did some things with them. I remember that they provided us some hand me downs as well. What really stood out for me though is whenever we needed an appointment we would just show up at the doctor’s office and go in right away to see the doctor. I had some friends who saw him as well and they told me that he was awful and they had to wait super long to be seen or that he did not seem to care. It is interesting the contrast in experience that we had. At the time there were not a lot of minorities within Sudbury so having a Chinese doctor that we could speak to in Chinese was awesome. I think once his youngest got a bit older the whole family ended up moving down to Toronto and then we went a while without having a family doctor. I did not have a family doctor until Mel and I got married and her doctor took us in. Her husband was someone that I had played hockey with when I was younger and he remembered that I had a really good glove hand. Playing hockey I kind of cheated a lot and kept that side more open so I could come sliding across in the splits to make dramatic saves. Luckily, Xavier does not play like me and has a more sound foundation. She died a couple of years ago after a lengthy battle with cancer. I remember seeing her at the cancer center at times. I was lucky that when she unexpectedly died we were able to get a new family doctor almost immediately. Two kids that I had coached in high school for track and field took us. My family doctor is now the son of the deacon who married us and who baptized our kids. I coached track and field with him for about 15 years. His wife’s father happened to be the principal of the school when we first arrived in Canada. The other doctor was one of my favorites in track as well, as she was one of the nicest, most polite kids who always had a smile on her face. She took on Mel and the kids. I have been lucky rather lucky with the doctors that I have had and appreciate how well connected I am with my doctors now. My current supportive care doctor who was friends with my sister is a big foodie and we have mutual friends. We are going to go to Fisherman Lobster Clubhouse this summer so we can order the tower of seafood. You need a lot of people so you can devour the whole thing, and if all 3 or 4 of our families go we will have between 13 and 17 people attend. My sister will come along because I love her and she can eat far more than I can. If there is leftover she will finish it.
I am oblivous to things at times and I had thought that my chemo appointment was at 10am tomorrow. I had a bunch of times moved and today while I was in for bloodwork I had a call from the cancer center for a pre-screen. She then said see you at 8am, and I asked are you sure? She said yeah and I said is it not at 10am. She checked and she was right and I was wrong. I would have shown up late to the appointment. It would not have been too crazy, because I am sure that I would have received a phone call prior to my appointment. A lot of the registration clerks know me, so it is so convenient and quick at times to go through registration when I get to see a friendly face. We chat a bit and then I get to move on. Today my taste buds seem to be great so I am curious to see how they will be tomorrow. Xavier is struggling a bit with his braces as he says that eating a lot of things hurt. Mel having never gone through eating problems like this does not understand what it is like. She bought some clam chowder and told Xavier to use the Ninja and liquify it. He did and was not really fond of the lack of texture and weird taste of it. He also told Mel that he does not really like soup. Earlier I had made him thinly sliced potatoes with roasted garlic and butter baked in the oven called Pommes Anna made by one of my favorite French chefs, Adolphe Dugléré. I have modeled my life after him, refraining from drinking or smoking. He was known for using the highest quality ingredients and abhored drunkenness and smoking. He has notebooks that he left in the National Library in Paris. I wanted to go read them but realized that I do not read French and at the time translations were not as easy as they are now. This is why I got kicked out of France. I had always wanted a career as a barfly. It is a bit difficult as I lack enzymes to break down alcohol so I can not drink. I also treat my body as a temple so I do not smoke, I just took a lot of painkillers instead.
I have felt great today, even though it was a long day of meetings all day long and then I went to watch a friend coach soccer. The wind was crazy and it looked like the field was tilted it was so bad. I have also never seen such poor reffing at a game. It is bad when both sides think that the ref is terrible. He kept on calling things that did not make a lot of sense. My friend’s team won even though I sat with the opposing team as I did not want to walk all of the way to the other side where his team was. I had my money invested in Sun Life because that is where Vale put our money and I was too lazy to move it. The Sun Life advisor had called me when I was busy and I told him to call me back in two weeks and gave him a time. I marked it in my calendar and he never called me back. Today I switched to someone who is much better and I have complete faith in, he is also a friend so we had lunch together. Everything was going great and then all of a sudden I did not feel all that awsome and I ended up rushing to the washroom to vomit. It seems that every once in a while it still happens. There is no food in it, and it is just mucous so I am not sure exactly what the cause or trigger of this is. It does not happen right after I eat but a while afterwards. Something interesting was when I walked in I thought the receptionist looked familiar but I did not know why. On the way out she asked me if I was Tim’s brother and I said yes. She is the wife of one of my brother’s best friends. We chatted briefly and I mentioned a couple of stories. I had a hard time relaying it because I was laughing so hard thinking of the memory. When my brother and his friends were younger they would play monopoly sometimes, and I would come home and see them playing. As the older brother I would join in but force them to tithe me per turn and pay me. Protection fees as the game was already half way through. They would agree to it and I would inevitably win because of the unfair conditions of the game and me threatening them. The protection fees did not help them out much it seems. I would gaslight them or trick them into unfair trades. They would always let me join in their games though and you would think they would learn their lesson.
Tomorrow is treatment and I need to make sure that I pack enough food accordingly, I am not sure what food we have in the house and what I am going to eat tomorrow. I normally eat 3 meals in the morning and right now I am not sure what I am in the mood for. What I would normally be in the mood for is not something that I can easily make or have while I am there. I may make a sandwich to bring and a bunch of liquids. I can have Mel grab other snacks for me from Tim Hortons, or the cafeteria. I have been in the mood for an Ice Cap so I will see if we can grab one. Last time the Tim Horton in the cancer center did not have any. Or I will make an affogato to bring with me, but most likely I should wait for that until i get home in the afternoon. I am curious to see what this round of treatment brings with the adjusted dosages and wonder what the scans will look like next. In a couple of weeks when we speak with the doctor we will discuss what the biopsy from Spain indicated and figure out whether that changes the treatment or not. They are treating things systemically now so I do not think it will impact what they are doing. We will see what tomorrow brings.
Quoc Hao son of Xu