Archive: July 2004

   Canada Day - no chemo

As of today, Home Care will switch to changing my dressing every other day instead of daily. That will be easier on my skin (tearing off tape every day is no picnic) and reduce the risk of infection. The downside is showers every other day.

The yellow daylilies are looking very nice today. I guess they are about midway in their bloom time.

Pretty tired today. It's warming up again outside, but the humidity is rising also. Blah... Time for a nap.

This evening I was standing outside, after playing with my neighbour's camera and all of a sudden the area around the stoma was very tender, almost painful. As soon as I sat down the pain was gone. Strange. Mindy you, my stool has been very loose since yesterday--chemo result?

3:15pm - chemo treatment cycle 1 of 4

No Home Care calling early, so I can sleep in. Got nine and a half hours of sleep in a row. Even after all the small naps yesterday.

Paul lent me a movie called "Amistad." Wow, what an emotional roller coaster about slave trading. Highly recommended, but keep the tissues handy.

Not feeling too bad today, but driving to the Cross by myself is not something I want to do every time. When I came home I could hardly remember the trip, and I was not on drugs, other than chemo...

Having rain and thundershowers this evening. I like the rain for the garden, but can do without the thunder (and power outages).

11:45am - last chemo treatment for cycle 1

Last chemo for this cycle. Now three weeks for my body to recover and then the next go around. I'm glad Ang drove today. I had taken a Tylenol-3 and was mixing words up while talking to the nurse at the Cross.

So far the side effects are not bad (see Patient Symptom Record) but next week is supposed to be harder as my blood counts are dropping.

Home Care is switching the packing from CalciCare to AquaCel.

I did not realize how much rain we had until I saw all the flooded road areas this morning to and from the Cross. If you remember the Dukes Of Hazard shows, think of the Hazard Car Wash and you'll get the picture.

Happy birthday, Hans.

Cool weather, no sun, not much energy, good day for movies in my housecoat. And of course the European final soccer match. Greece played Portugal at home and won the Euro2004 cup. There was something like 80 to 1 odds that Portugal would win... Well played match and Greece was the better team.

Quote from today's Hour Of Power, "Though we do not know WHAT the future holds, we do know WHO holds the future!" I noticed a few small brown spots on my forehead last night, but remembering Who is in control, keeps me from panicking. Could be a reaction to the chemo, or sun damage.

A bit more sun outside today, but I still don't have much energy. I was going for some birthday cake at work but just wasn't up for it. Second day in my housecoat.

Bad case of "active bowels" last night/this morning, so I woke up frequently checking the colostomy bag. Had to empty it three times, but fortunately no accidents.

Had a great time at the Klondike Days staff kick-off lunch. Good to see so many friends. As I was talking to Phil, he mentioned an article about "chemo brain", a condition I can relate to. And no wonder. My chemo dose (also 5FU) was 3,750mg for 7 days. Last week I got 850mg per 5-minute shot, that's 4,250mg in 5 days. That's a higher dose than before.

Rain and thunder later in the afternoon. I'm glad I harvested some lily pollen first.

Bowels continue to be very loose, even after taking Imodium. And now we're adding incontinence to the list of side effects. Not much fun...

Had Opal and Ed over for a visit later in the afternoon. Too bad it was too cold to sit outside.

Not a good day today. Diarrhea continues and for the first time since starting chemo, I feel nauseated. Bad enough that I got dressed and picked up some Gravol. On the bright side, it's only temporary...

Just received news that Anita's surgery was successful. Praise God!

Pretty much wiped today. Spent most of the day in bed. I guess the red blood cell count is dropping...

Martagon lily show at Devonian Botanic Gardens. Too bad I still don't feel well enough to go see it, nor visit the CZ "Weed 'n Feed" get-together at Shauna's.

Slept ten hours straight, right through the commotion of a theft of garbage containers across the road. A total of eight were stolen around the condo complex.

Diarrhea stopped, so I'm trying to get back on a normal diet. No nausea either, so perhaps the worst is over.

Most of the day was nice, but a thunder shower with hail made me take the orchid cacti inside. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice so they'll go outside again then.

A few weeks ago I bought some old Bonanza releases on DVD, which I'm now enjoying.

Appointment with the surgeon, Dr. Stewart. 10am. Again, the doctor was pleased with the healing progress. I see him again on August 5th.

Cruel joke by my bowels, diarrhea was back as of early this morning. Fortunately it did not last long.

Speaking of jokes, check this out: Ostomy Humour...

Thanks for the visit, Paul. As always, a good time. Especially at times when I'm not feeling great and tend to feel sorry for myself, it's nice to have you come over.

Beautiful day, 28°C. Had lunch with the department and Opal. Very nice to feel part of the "gang" even if only for an hour and a half.

Checked if there were any lilies I liked at Greenland and Salisbury. There were two, but I got to see if I'm buying unknowns again first. One is called "Yelloween" and is labelled as an oriental, but I suspect it's an OT. The other is called "LA Iceberg" but I can't find anything on the internet to validate that name. Perhaps it's not registered.

Another nice looking day, although a bit more cloudy, but that's OK. Had some more rain last night and today more lilies are open.

Went back to Salisbury to buy those two lilies, plus Citronella and a daylily called Ruffled Apricot. Now I have to hack out that dead rose so I can plant these guys...

Started to dig up that dead rose, but that thing has tough roots. I may need some dynamite...

I'm feeling much better, although the heat does not help my energy levels.

Got a PowerPoint slideshow with pictures of last Sunday's hail storm... Thanks, Deb.

Visited a few people at Northlands as I was picking up some gate passes. Man, is my office a mess. Just kidding, Ed... No worse than when I was living there.

This evening I finally managed to get that rose root out. Used a saw, which was a lot less work than trying to chop it out with the spade. Cleared the soil, put in some compost and planted the Ruffled Apricot daylily. Enough for today.

Finished planting Yelloween, Iceberg, and Citronella this morning before the sun got out. Hot day, 31°C...

Too pooped to do much else.

My first out-of-home Home Care visit. As of today I go to the clinic for dressing changes, so I won't see the ladies at home anymore, unless I have a major setback and can't drive to the clinic. That's OK, it's only another month and the wound should be closed.

Went to the ARLS lily show at Bonnie Doon mall around 12:30 and met Jodi, Marilyn and Janet. Also met Ted Willoughby, Fred Tarlton, and Bill Mackay the vice-president of ARLS.

Another scorcher with impressive thunderstorms late evening.

Way too warm to do much of anything. Even beer did not taste good. Need to water some flowers, but tomorrow morning will have to do.

The mosquitoes are getting pretty hungry. Don't need that West Nile virus.

It rained much of the day, so I had time to check out a friend's computer. Expecting a virus, all it was was a dead keyboard.

Had abdominal cramps since about 8pm last night, lasting 12 hours. Very painful, so I did not get much sleep. Wonder what that was all about...

Lilies are coming along very nicely, but the mosquitoes make life miserable outside.

Good day today. Went shopping for a new orchid cactus at the forget-me-not greenhouse, west of Stony Plain. Found a yellow and a white one I just needed to take home.

In the evening Cecile and I attended the opening ceremonies of Klondike Days. I actually spent more time than I thought I would, but it was so nice to meet with staff and former staff.

Got some more plants to make new planters. It'll be two weeks before they look nice but that's ok.

Spent the afternoon visiting Parkland Perennials with three lovely ladies: Janet, Jodi, and Marilyn. I'm glad we went today. Tomorrow and Sunday is the official open house, but the temperatures are forecasted to be over 30°C.

After supper, I braved the wildlife outside (mosquitoes) and did some lily hybridizing. The garden looks real nice with all those lilies blooming, and now is the time to see if I can come up with something special.

Man, I'm stiff today. Not used to all that walking anymore. At least I slept like a baby for five hours.

Spent mostly inside as it's over 30°C outside. The bum wound hurts, probably because of the heat.

Yikes, I've seen 34°C at 3pm but spikes up to 37°C. Did some lily pollination with pollen saved from last year.

Otherwise, inside was better than outside with mosquitoes just going crazy.

9:00am - blood test - hemoglobin still low, but higher than 4 weeks ago

10:00am - exam - Dr. Pedersen lowered the dose of 5FU in light of the nausea and diarrhea during the previous cycle; he also did not think the brown spots on my forehead were something to worry about; the incontinence problem was a puzzle for him--will need to take that up with Dr. Stewart.

When talking to Dr. Pedersen, I found out he used to treat TB here in Edmonton. He grew up in Denmark and vaccination against TB was mandatory there. I asked him what would happen when the treatments are over, and there is just a CT scan checkup three months later, and then the family doctor will take over with period blood tests.

12:30pm - chemo treatment cycle 2 of 4

Feeling tired. Got up at 5am, then the morning at the CCI.

No mosquitoes today due to strong winds. Too much wind to pollinate any lilies...

12:00pm - chemo treatment cycle 2 of 4

Slept 9 hours last night. When I came home from chemo, slept another 2 hours.

2:30pm - chemo treatment cycle 2 of 4

Dr. Holmes, my family doctor, figures my back aches and incontinence may be caused by an inflamed prostate, so now I'm on antibiotics...

This morning was a perfect example of "chemo-brain". I had a Home Care appointment at 10am at the clinic, which is 15 minutes driving away. So I time it that when I get out of the shower, I can just leave for the clinic. As I'm heading out the door, I notice it's only 9:15. Duh... So I go back inside, muck around a bit and leave again at 9:35. After about a minute I realize that I had forgotten my bag of supplies (they give you cream, liners, etc, which you bring with you each visit) so I had to go back to get it. The chemo-brain part is that I was looking at that bag on my way out, but did not recognize it for what it was, and as a result it stayed at home...

2:30pm - chemo treatment cycle 2 of 4

Quite the thunderstorm and pounding rain at 1am. Power was out for quite a while. Fortunately no hail!

1:30pm - chemo treatment cycle 2 of 4.

Last chemo--now to recover for three weeks and then we do it all again. So far the side effects have been fatigue, and a very sensitive tongue with a weird taste staying in my mouth. I guess this is how some people get mouth sores.

My granddaughter Alicia slept over last night so she could join us at Northlands' staff Klondike Days breakfast. She had lots of fun. She had her face painted with a butterfly on one cheek and a fancy sun on the other. Two balloon butterflies, ice-cream, being on stage with Klondike Kate in addition to the breakfast. Afterward I went home for a nap, but Cecile took Alicia to Bonanza Park for a train ride and some gold panning.

During the afternoon the bowels decided to move all the contents out, at first really solid but getter looser as time went on. Took an Imodium at 11:30pm. What a cheerful note to end the month of July...

All things considered, July was not a bad month. Enjoyed the lilies although bug spray was often need the last few weeks. I just keep focusing on the enjoyable things in life so the not-so-pleasant don't seem so bad.