Yesterday morning a friend of mine sent me a photo and I made the front page of the printed Sudbury Star which I think is hilarious that they put it there. I guess that it is a feel good story and it is for a good cause. I did not really see a huge spike from that, but I have had friends who have just found out about this reach out and donate which is very nice of them. When I am on the GoFundMe page, for nearby fundraisers I am doing quite well compared to others. This makes me happy and sad at the same time. I am grateful for the amount of support that I have received from everyone and it is quite the testament to the strength of my network, but I am sad for others who are in far more desperate need and their inability to get more assistance. I am lucky that I am in a job that values my mental capacity as opposed to my physical abilities. Being in more of a leadership role or consulting what I bring to the table is strategic guidance and leadership as opposed to being out there doing physically demanding tasks. This has allowed me to continue working, the only downside is mental fatigue but I can get over that. Our steam shower is broken and we need to get it fixed as I can not tolerate being cold. Olivier loves it as well and it is something that I am going to look into in the next couple of weeks. Something that Mel has always been concerned with is with us having a GoFundMe and raising money, how are we spending things. She does not want the perception that we are using the money for other things. I assured her that the donations are in their own account and it has only been used very specifically to cover the costs associated with the treatment and trip and so far I do not even think we have touched the money that is in there. We had the money earmarked previously to go on this trip, so this one was paid for. The trickier part which will drain that rapidly are followups. We can afford 2 more trips now and it will also allow us more time if required for trip 3 when this is depleted. We just need to start putting money aside. I finished our taxes today and Mel asked where did all of our money go. I reminded her we did a massive renovation last year and we have paid off half of it, but we still have the remaining half to pay off. We could potentially pay it all now but at the cost of completely draining our savings, so it is best if we just be patient and pay it off slowly as we also need to save money for potentially more treatments. I have also decided that I am going to get an electric wheelchair and we are looking into all of that. We may have coverage through insurance so we will be pursuing that tomorrow as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yesterday I had some friends drop off some food for us. Lebanese manoushe. It is basically lebanese flatbread with cheese or zataar and things like that. I love it and so do the kids. I want to eat it so bad, but I need to wait until later this week to hopefully have it. So many people dropped off deliciousness this week that I will not be able to try. Mel tried it all and said it was delicious. A friend of mine from the hospital offered to drop off food for me and I said sure. She is not making it, but I think she is getting her mom or grandma to make a lasagna for me. Who says no to a homemade lasagna from an Italian. You would need to be daft. If a nonna wants to make you something, you appreciate it because it will be made with love. You do not say no to a Nonna when offered food. Do not break her heart. I have yet to eat something from a grandmother that was atrocious. As soon as you hit that grandmother status your cooking is elevated to another level because by that time you are retired and you can spend time perfecting food. Our neighbour came by for a visit as well and to chat. We normally have lengthy chats in our yard but he came over. He was supposed to come with his wife but they had a scheduled call with Summer McIntosh at the same time so she could not come over. We have the most awesome neighbours and I am glad of the friendship that we have developed over the years. It has been fantastic. What I have realized when I have friends and people drop by is that it energizes me. By nature I am quite introverted in the sense that I need alone time to recharge and being in public and groups a lot drains me. If I am in the public spotlight a lot during work when I come home I want to be alone. Mel feels this as I need to withdraw because I gave all of my energy away already and on the weekend I just want alone time. Both of my kids are similar in that the weekends they want some time to do whatever their pet passion is for the moment. This weekend we have had family from out of town visit and Xavier has been a social butterfly representing the family. Olivier has not been feeling well this weekend and I am kind of useless and can not do much on my own. I can handle a couple of hours, but anything more and I might struggle so Mel is keeping a watchful eye on me. My parents came for a visit to drop off food and my mom told me that I need to listen to Mel an whatever she says. She is most probaly right and I am not going to argue with my Mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have mouth sores now as the thrush is getting better, so eating is improving slightly. The amount of food that I can eat right now is ridiculously more compared to what I was doing early. I feel that the treatment in Spain has had a massive impact on that, because prior the increase was quite small and you could not really notice the difference as much, I was eating food 1\/4 cup at a time and I was full when I was done that. Now I can easily eat 1\/2 upwards to a full cup and I am feeling fine. I can easily eat every hour right now. Of course the caveat to that is most of the food that I am eating now is broth and not a ton of sustenance, but I can feel the improvement. Visually prior I could not drink so much at a time. When I am not eating, I am constantly drinking either some hydrolyte beverage, water or coconut water. Boost is too rich so I save that when I want a sweet treat or as my 3am snack. Interestingly the boost triggering bowel movement has subsided. Mel thinks that a lot of that had to do with all of the antibiotics that I was on from the hospital and residual impact afterwards. It seems that she is right, which is a good thing. I did not necessarily enjoy the frequency of my previous bowel movements. I am eager to get over the mouth sore issues and the thrush and eat solid food to see what the real limits of my eating are. My parents made me some soft tofu and they told me that I can have it either sweet with my ginger syrup or I can eat it savory with some hot oil poured over top and some Maggi seasoning. That sounds delicious to me so I am going to give that a try tomorrow as one of my meals. They brought over dinner for Mel and Olivier and if you look at the sheer amount of food it will last them for a while. It always amuses me the amount that they cook. I had asked for 1 salted egg to finish off my congee, so of course they brought me two. I told them I only had enough congee for 1 egg as I only eat half an egg with the congee. Dinner for me tonight was a bone broth egg drop soup. I drank approximately 1 cup of the soup with the egg whisked in and did not feel overly full after which is a good thing. Previously I would not have even been able to come close to that since I had put in a full egg. If I had a hard boiled egg I would be full previously. I am still tired with limited mobility and we are working on that. I am not sure why I still have so much fatigue, but hopefully that gets reduced more this week as things progress. My healthcare team in Spain is so wonderful that they still constantly checkup on me to make sure that my mouth sores and all of the issues that I had are being resolved. I love that team and even if treatment slows down I think we might just stay in touch because of the bond we have created. Showing kindness and genuine warmth to people does not cost a thing and is reflected back 10 fold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quoc Hao<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday morning a friend of mine sent me a photo and I made the front page of the printed Sudbury Star which I think is hilarious that they put it there. I guess that it is a feel good story and it is for a good cause. I did not really see a huge spike…<\/p>\n