Last night I almost forgot to post and remembered when I was about to go to bed. I had written the entry earlier in the day and it then slipped my mind to go back and post something. I got distracted with things yesterday and got caught up in things. We had people stop over for visits, I was baking bread and my sister had stopped by as well. I made the first batch of banh mi bread and I was not very happy with it, so I decided to make it again. The texture is like I wanted but I cooked it a bit longer than I wanted so it is darker with a thicker crust then I had intended. I now know how to get the interior texture that I do want though, so I know proper temperature now. I am going to basically just go with my own recipe and reduce the temperature so it all works out fine. I have been making bread for a while so I know what modifications I need to do for it to work out in my kitchen.
Yesterday we booked our flights and hotel for the trip to Spain. When we went to book it was actually cheaper to book business class compared to premium economy by $300 for some reason. We have been lucky when we have had to book flights and previously when we had booked our flight to Florida we were able to get lie-flat seats and the they were cheaper than flying economy using our points. This time for some reason the cost of points was ridiculous so we paid for the trip on the credit card and it was not too excessively priced all things considered. There are some things that I have purchased now for our trip that I did not consider buying before such as more European adapters as we will not be with the kids the whole time and I want them to be responsible for their own things. My sister will be joining us so she can do things with the kids and watch them while Mel is with me in the hospital. She will want to stay with me in the hospital instead of going back and forth so this is the for the best. We had to balance cost and proximity to the hotel and we chose a nice hotel close to the hospital, but one that was affordable. Mel had assumed that we would be able to get adjoining rooms as the hotel had it listed on the website. When communicating with them we were informed that it was not available, so two rooms will have king beds and the other will have 2 single beds. The kids will get their own room and at first Olivier was questioning it a bit and then remembered that Xavier has stayed in a hotel room by himself when he has gone away for school things so he was a bit more comfortable. Xavier also has a cell phone so we will figure something out so it is ok. Since I will be in the hotel for 2 nights, we are going to be paying for 2 nights where we are not potentially staying in it. We told them that they can have a shared key so that they can always come to our rooms as well. They will need to figure out what they want to do with my sister. The two of them like to do quite the different things. Xavier is super active and would love to be super active. If the goal was to walk 20km a day he would be all over it. Olivier likes to go find cafes and hidden gems. We told both of them to figure out what they want to do so my sister can help them out. Her coming along makes things a lot easier for us as we do not need to worry about them and the three of them interact well together. I would like to get them all of the homework so that if needed they can work on things. My sister can help them with their french homework.
I got up at 3am to watch the Chinese Grand Prix to find out that McLaren was not going to start either car because they had some electrical issues. It kind of sucked, I watched most of the race but then went to bed with I think 7 or 8 laps left as everything was pretty static and not all that exciting at that time and I did not really care who won at that point since my team was out completely. It was the first time in like 20 years since they have both cars not start. It was an abnormal situation. Was it worth it to disrupt my sleep? Of course, I enjoyed the race and I was going to get up to eay anyways so it was not too bad. My bowel movements are now more regular and so far today I have not vomited. It seems to build throughout the day and gets a bit worse as things go on. I think when I consistently drink throughout the day it helps a lot with eating and keeping food down. I spent most of today in my office working on things. Some of it personal since I slacked off a bit this week being at the hospital and some things for Mel’s work and helping out my sister start her business. I quickly created a sample graphic for her logo and will spend more time in Illustrator creating a nice one later on. It will be interesting to see what the impact from the second week of chemo brings and subsequent time. Hopefully I can adjust fairly well.
Yesterday I finally weighed myself as I could not shower for a couple of days because of all the new holes in my body and bandages that could not get wet. I lost quite a bit of weight and I am now currently 127.8 pounds. I was 144. They removed 17lbs worth of liquid from my abdomen coupled with probably a bit of weight loss due to me not eating properly while I was at the hospital. It is a bit insane to think about that. I will be able to monitor my weight and we will see how long it takes for the fluid to build up and then we can determine what the appropriate drainage schedule is. If things go well with the treatments the drainage should not need to occur as much. I will know what the new normal is and hopefully Spain goes well and we can then continue treatment in Detroit. It will save a considerable amount of money. I think right now we have estimated that this trip is going to cost us 50,000 CAD. Fortunately the payment is hitting our credit card over a 2 month period to help spread out the costs. We have enough to cover the costs for this round and we will figure out the other rounds when we come back from this. The out of country is not proceeding as quickly and easily as we like as the oncologist does not feel comfortable with the whole thing. We may switch to one of the other doctors that I am not friendly with if things do not proceed fast enough for Mel. It is almost time for my afternoon nap since we have no kids at home. I should take advantage of it.
Quoc Hao