I am at the halfway point of my treatment now and I also have an appointment with the surgeon today. Mel will come with me to meet up with the surgeon as I am not sure if I will remember everything that I need to say for that not all of the information that he tells me. If I am fatigued my memory is a bit shot. I am still losing weight slowly from the effects of this weekend I think. My appetite is recovering but it is not to the same level as previously, so I need to slowly work back up to that. I have realized though that when i go out of town to eat I am sensitive to the types of meals that I have. Healthier, nutritous meals sit much better than heavy things. Ottawa has a great food scene though so it should not be much of an issue. We will be there for quite a few days though since the team is going to be attending a Sens game. It is difficult to not draw parallels to the first time I went through this and I think that is having an impact on me. I get caught up in the cycle of not eating enough, resulting in fatigue and then not wanting to eat as I am tired. Eating first thing in the morning seems to be helping out a bit and as long as I do not eat to feeling full it is manageable. I am going to try and just snack all day on little things and see if that works. A constant flow of food might be the way to go. A handful of pretzels all day long through out the day.
I am grateful that I have people willing to drive me to my appointments. My sister offered to drive me in the morning. I leave the house at 6:50 in the morning and it is approximately an hour at the hospital. It would require her to get up at 6am and get ready to come get me. She gets up early so it is not that big of a deal for her. Mel is off work for the next two weeks so she said that she will take me. She is not a morning person so this is going to be a struggle. The key for her to get up is setting multiple alarms 1 minute apart for 15 minutes. It is lovely. I never understood why not set one alarm later and get up as opposed to several. I appreciate that my sister is willing to sacrifice her time every morning to drive me to my appointments. It is awesome that was her first thought when she learned that I may need rides. On Monday I tutored the son of a friend as well. He came a bit early to pick him up and when he arrived his first thought was give me a shovel so I can shovel the driveway. It was unnecessary but quite the nice gesture when people help out without being prompted. I have had a lot of people offer to drive me to and from appointments and to help out however they can.
I arrived at the appointment with my surgeon early and she thanked me for always coming early and never being late. My surgeon is always on time and never rushes appointments. We were talking with his secretary and she said the same thing and that he never has idle chatter. Chatting with him, Mel was a bit more prepared. In a twist that I am sure is shocking to everyone he told us that he believes that the cancer is diffuse within my abdomen even though the fluid seemed clear. The reason being that the omentum was stuck to the underside where the belly button was and presumed to be cancerous. He is expecting it to come back and said that we can deal with those things later. The probability for recurrence is high, but it is still just a probability and even if it does come back we can deal with it then. There is always new developments with cancer research and this morning I had read about research in Asia about a gut microbiome from a frog that eliminated cancer and prevented future relapse. It is only in trials with mice at the moment but it was promising. He stated the facts as he saw things and did not sugar coat anything. It is currently unknown what is happening and he mentioned that surgery and radiation is useful for targeted treatment but anything diffuse will require chemotherapy. If it comes back at this point it will be diffuse and we will deal with it when and if that happens. Mel mentioned that we do not know what the timeline is for that so not to worry too much. Since Mel got a promotion and a raise at work it makes I am not as worried about things if I can no longer work or am not around. Xavier is almost done hockey and he is almost done growing so his hockey expenses will dwindle.
The discrepancy for spending this Christmas between Xavier and Olivier is ridiculous. Not even comparable. The kids do not really care too much about money spent on each other. Mel and I were talking and I said we can get Olivier his own skiis and boots instead of renting. Xavier has said that there is a huge difference between the rental stuff and his own. I told Olivier that I would buy him his own stuff. His reply was, well I am not sure if I love it. I told him not to worry about the cost, I said we can sell them or get rid of them if he did not like it. He asked if we would make more money or break even. I told him it was ok. He was worried that if he got his own skiis and boots that would mean he is going more. I told him no, that it was for his comfort. I mentioned Mel and I only use our stuff a couple of times a year and it is ok if he only uses them a couple of times as they will be better than renting. I told him we are buying it for his comfort and so he has good equipment, not because he has to use them all of the time. He likes to ski, swim, bike at his own leisurely pace. When he takes group lessons you see people try and race down the hill. Olivier meanders down at his own pace.
Mel’s father has been coming over every night to help finish off the renovations now that school is out for the semester. He works his normal job and all semester he would go teach at Boreal, instead now what he does is come to our house and help out with renovations. Our range had 2 burners that were not working since we bought it and the technician came by today to fix it. There was a manufacturing defect with the size of the whole holding the knob. It was a bit large which resulted in too much play within the movement of the knob. He fixed it and was on his way quite quickly. If we need servicing for our range the closest is from Barrie. I told him hopefully we do not need to see him again, and he said that the Aga ranges are pretty good. He has mentioned that most of the induction coils are made by the same company and that they are sensitive to power fluctuations. He recommended buying an UPS battery powered wall to sit in-between to prevent voltage spikes. That is the story that we will all stick to in order to convince Mel that we need one. We could use one for the house for when we have power outages and we would not even notice then.
Things are starting to get finished within the house and I am starting to adjust to the new eating routine. I am hopeful that the rest of the treatment for the week goes well.
QHM