March 30, 2019

And the word of the week is -

“grouchy”
/ˈɡrouCHē/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
irritable and bad-tempered; grumpy; complaining.
"the old man grew sulky and grouchy"
synonyms:    grumpy, cross, irritable, bad-tempered, crotchety, crabby, crabbed, cantankerous, curmudgeonly, moody, miserable, morose, sullen, surly, churlish;. (Google)

We had a really good visit with Adam, Bri and the girls this week. They arrived at our place on Saturday morning. After some Paw Patrol birthday 🎂 for the 3 year old they were off to Courtenay for the weekend.

They returned to Gabriola Monday afternoon. Monday evening, we called the ambulance for Ron's fever. After a few hours in the Nanaimo ER getting blood tests, X-rays, rehydration and etc. Ron and I were able to make the 11pm ferry home. His white blood cells are still slightly depressed from the Chemo, but otherwise everything looked OK.

Ellie and Kaili were able to have short visits with the Manitobans and Ron’s mum and stepdad were up this week too. Adam and his family stayed at the Whalebone B&B across the street from our place. The weather was really nice for our visitors.

Wednesday we celebrated Mum's birthday with shopping, a barbeque, and strawberry cheesecake.

By Thursday evening all of the visitors were headed to their respective homes.

Ron's exhausted and struggling with nausea, therefore he hasn't been doing as well with the nutrition and exercise end of things. He's down another few pounds again.☹️ He has also been really irritable (I understand, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with). . .

March 21, 2019

A new wrinkle popped up this week. On Monday while talking with the nurse at the Cancer center, Ron mentioned a cramp in his calf.  She decided to order an ultrasound even though it was probably nothing. After the ultrasound Ron was directed to the ER where he received some blood thinner shots. It was getting late, so we stayed at his sister Cory's place in Langford. Fortunately, our niece Meaghan, was on Gabriola for a visit and was able to take care of the dogs for us.

Tuesday morning we headed back to the cancer center and got a call about a new lab rec for us to pick up at the desk. After visiting 4 desks, we finally found the requisition and headed for the lab. Ron got his daily radiation dose and we checked if we needed to be there for anything else. We were told to just head home.

About an hour up the road (in Duncan) Ron gets a call from the CC asking where we are because he was supposed to get another shot and some teaching. Apparently, they had found a 9 cm blood clot and he will now need daily Dalteparin shots in his belly for the next 6 months.  Arrangements were then made to get the shot administered in Nanaimo ER. When we get him checked in there we are told it would be a 4 hour wait. After some explanation of the situation and not a little pleading it took about 45 minutes to accomplish the task.

While all this is going on, we get a call from the vet; our 4:30 appointment has been moved to 4:00. Now the girls who had arranged to be there for Patchyface's final farewell won't be able to get here until after the deed is done. WE may not even be able to get there in time because of the delay at Nanaimo ER.

At this point I am exhausted, Ron's exhausted, Ellie is distraught and unconsolable,  I couldn't find a parking place or a bathroom, I have to pee, I'm crying and about ready to throw up from the stress.

Finally, we make the ferry we need to get on with only 10 minutes to spare. We got patchy to the vet, the girls arrived at our place, we laid Patchy to rest (with a frozen deceased hamster named Mia) under an Azalea bush, had a quick visit with the girls and Meaghan, pack overnight bags, grab Ron's tube feeding stuff, the dogs and and their stuff, and head back to Langford for the night.

On the ferry back to Nanaimo we got to see several orcas swimming around the harbour. That was really cool! Fortunately, the drive back down-island was uneventful.

It's now Thursday morning and Ron finished his last Chemo yesterday. We have two more trips down and back for radiation. We are praying for some downtime before the next leg of this particular journey.

March 17, 2019

This week has been a long one. Ron is beyond exhausted (we call it busausted), though he did manage to maintain his weight again.

We made the tough decision to put our old girl Patchyface down on Tuesday. She's been with us 17 years and is not doing well. The girls came down for a farewell visit this weekend. The weather is really nice and they broke in the new hammock this afternoon.

March 10th

This week we passed the halfway point in Ron's chemo/radiation treatments. YAY! He also managed to maintain his weight this time, but his energy level is very low. I on the other hand, seem to be making up for his weight loss with the stress eating l am doing. I was concerned about eating in front of him, but his favorite pastimes remain watching cooking shows and reading his barbecue cookbook. He says he's getting ideas for when he can eat again.

Fortunately, Isis' ear infection has cleared up though she still has a bit of age related vertigo. She gets a gravol before car rides now. She and Aurora both race to the door if they think we're heading for the car now. I think they will be very happy once we can stay home and hang out with them again.

Ron's sister and brother in law came up for a couple of days, and Kaili came down for the weekend. This weekend was also our stake conference and we were blessed to be able to watch it from home. It will be nice when we can get to church in person again- not sure when that will be at this point.

March 2, 2019

We are approximately 1/3 of the way through the chemo/radiation part of this journey! We have been very fortunate with all of the support we receive from our family and friends. I believe the prayers on our behalf have made all the difference.  Ron is really feeling not too bad.  We are both tired from the travel, but we get to sleep in our home every night- the pets appreciate this fact as well.  He has been able to get a few Wendy's Frostys down his gullet this week. Good news- he only lost 1/10th of a lb this time.  It feels like a victory to finally be able hold his weight steady.  Maybe we can keep his weight stabilized for awhile.

Apparently Isis has been feeling left out, so she developed an ear infection complete with throwing up and vertigo last week.  She just finished a course of antibiotics and has been getting the occasional Gravol (Dramamine in the States). We will have to fit a follow up Vet visit around Ron's appointments next week.

One morning this week we got to see a new "quick response" oil recovery boat being delivered to Nanaimo Harbor. We spotted 4 of them at the dock on the way home yesterday, they are real pretty, but I hope they never need to be used.