CAN YOU TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS?

These sayings just represent what some people believe is true of most older people. As you'll learn, though, old dogs certainly can be taught new tricks. These sayings just represent what some people believe is true of most older people. As you'll learn, though, old dogs certainly can be taught new tricks. ... However, with patience and a motivated learner, older people and animals canindeed learn to do anything a youngster can do. 

There is no denying it~~adapting to new ways is more difficult for me now as I close in on my 70th year. Not only am I ageing but the many drugs taken in the past few years, including chemotherapy and more recently Ibrance, Faslodex and opioids along with other test drugs related to nerve pain, affect me physically, mentally and emotionally. Ibrance is an immunotherapy anti breast cancer medication which causes fatigue, Faslodex works with Ibrance on a hormonal level, opioids are for relief of the intense nerve pain this recent cancer has caused~~all of this has been an onslaught for me.  Almost a year ago I departed for Nepal with a bad knee, having thrown it out the night before. l was annoyed but having had a bum knee for years, it was not the end of the world and I always left for treks several days early both to acclimatize but also to make sure I was fit last minute. En route I developed lymphedema even while wearing my compression sleeve. My knee improved and the swelling in my hand went down and I had a job to do working with our team to provide a "trip of a lifetime"   Since showers are few and far ?, I honestly did not notice that the lymphedema in my arm had never resolved. A month later, once home in Vancouver the symptoms of lymphedema continued but the pain from tingling, burning and throbbing increased. The blog posts since then have described my treatment since then, treatment not really being for lymphedema, but in fact an aggressive cancer.

My last post was over two months ago and since then there has been a rapid deterioration in the use of my right hand. I am one who is considered to be dominantly right handed and with ageing and medications, it has been struggle to adapt even to activities of daily living using my left hand. I still have the use of my right thumb but the latest seems to be that I will lose that too just as I did my pointer finger a couple of weeks ago.

I was in NZ mid February to mid March and it was a wonderful 4 weeks with family in NZ and friends from Canada. I cannot say enough about how well I was taken care of while we had so much fun, mainly in the Northland and including some good sailing with friends for almost a week then 3 perfect days with just Dick as we made our way north from islands near Auckland to Whangarei. Dick's sister Claire and partner Pat know our friends from Canada (Claire and Pat trekked with mainly Canadian friends to Annapurna Base Camp in 2014 so there was a mini reunion too. My 69th birthday took place at Pat's 70th birthday and what a party it was!

It was 4 weeks away from medical appointments other than my Faslodex injections administered by an ICU RN who had not done an IM injection for 15 years. Life is an adventure and getting my IM drugs the day before my birthday was just part of it.

My return March 10th went well and I had a few more days with my sister Kathryn and her husband Wilf who house/cat sat while I was gone. We had a good time which was in addition to a week together before I left. Not sure the weather in Victoria was much better than NS where they live but they claim they enjoyed it. I do know our cats were spoiled but provided great companionship according to Kathryn and Wilf. My return also included the very sad but meaningful celebration of life for our friend with CJD. Hundreds of us gathered in Vancouver to mourn but celebrate his amazing life of strength, teaching, generosity and much more. He has inspired me in many ways and when I am down or whiny, his strength comes forth yet again to tell me to keep going no matter the hurdles.

I have hoped for a different scenario than the one I left in February but sadly it is not to be. Mid March I could still tie shoelaces and use my right thumb and pointer finger. Now only my thumb works. I suggest you try using only your non dominant hand to do everything for even a few minutes but preferably an hour or more. Add intense nerve pain (helped immeasurably by opioids) and you will find that it is quite a chore. But I am still pretty happy and despite the time filled with appointments with massage therapists (one for lymphedema and one for fascial release on my chest wall), monthly visits with my oncologist along with blood work just prior, GP appointments and more. I have seen two plastic surgeons in the past month, one for a post op checkup (surgery last June) and another Tuesday to see a team~~plastic surgeon and physiatrist who work with nerves. Sadly they had nothing to offer me and I could tell that they genuinely wanted to. I am to be referred to another specialist who does nerve blocks so there is another avenue of hope.

The most recent medication prescribed by my pain doctor at the cancer agency is Nortriptylene. Previously I tried Lyrica also called Pregabalin which works for 1/8. Poor odds and the new one is 1/2. That is not me and I am currently weaning off it. I did see a GP who specializes in Medical Marijuana and I have just started an oil twice a day, very low dose. I am impressed by the company who provides my oil and they have 24/7 phone help. I will gradually increase the dosage but for now I cannot feel any effect.

Despite these trials and tribulations, life is good and friends/family far and near are close via phone calls, emails, Skype and FaceTime, not to mention good friends who have been immensely helpful right here in Victoria. Via a Facebook group called Oak Bay Local, I have hired a lovely young nursing student who has really improved my quality of life! She will also be helping me with some secretarial work and deck gardening. Spring is rumoured to be around the corner and I am slowly stating back walking. I believe the Nortriptylene made my balance worse. I had a fall Easter Monday and thankfully my neighbour was able to take me to ER for stitches. I still look like I lost the fight but it made me more careful and has been part of the reason  I am weaning off the drug.

Adding to my happiness is the fact that Dick, first mate Maurie (a buddy from engineering school) and our older son Steven and his lovely Australian girlfriend Heidi will soon set sail from Tahiti heading for Hawaii and ultimately Victoria. I will also be posting for him on his blog set up years ago my another good friend who sailed the Atlantic leg in 2013. The link for that blog is:

https://sailvankedisi.wordpress.com
On that blog there is a button you can press~~"follow" and you will receive an email any time there is a new post. I think there is also a link to my blog and another that shows you where Van Kedisi is.

One of the greatest blessings this past year is Edie, granddaughter of an old friend who I spent many hours with as she endured chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. Being flexible has meant that I have Edie sometimes once or twice a week then not for weeks. She will be here next week when Andy and Mary will also be visiting.

Now Friday, April 13th and I have added and labelled photos.

Love to you all!

My 69th birthday at Claire and Pat's in NZ.

Being presented to Queen Elizabeth on my birthday.

Dick and Suzanne in NZ

Dick, me, a friend, Suzanne and Sarah Roe (who provided awesome accommodation near Dargaville.

Sailing in NZ

Leighton family reunion on the Fleming farm~~2nd cousins of Dick.

Heidi, me and Steven

Shelley, Fred and Grady Galloway on a recent visit to Victoria

Yes, I am still fighting the battle against a Texas pipeline company!

Marian and Elaine on a lovely day last month in Vancouver.

Yet another G&T on VK~~Patti looks happy!

Van Kedisi Crew Maurie, Dick, Steven and Heidi

Beautiful NZ Kereru (pigeon)

Van Kedisi being loaded on a huge ship for transport to Tahiti.

Little Edie smelling the flowers and the Celebration of Life program for our dear friend who will continue to be an inspiration in my life.

Love to everyone 

CANCER COMMUNICATION AND CHANGES IN DAILY LIVING

My usual opus memorandum for blog posts is to think about what I want to say over a few days with the intention of actually writing about those thoughts. What usually then happens is that my brain is so full that I end up writing a stream of thoughts which does allows me to winnow out what I really want to say. The writing is important to me~~even though I keep a journal, writing these posts becomes a barometer of sorts on my cancer and its effects over time.

For years after my first breast cancer diagnosis, I felt there was a monkey on my back. This common term has several meanings but for me, once I knew I had recurred, I felt that the monkey had gone. Not so, as the truth of the matter is that that little guy will always be with me unless I come to terms with not knowing what is next~~next being growth of my tumour or metastases in other parts of my body or ultimately death directly caused by breast cancer.

The last week or so has been very difficult as I approach the six month mark since diagnosis.

I have still not accepted the fact that I have minimal use in my right hand. Finding a good knife has been on my list for ages (not for stabbing Walkers from "Walking Dead" though I think if I had full use of my hand I could easily kill a walker, having binge watched several seasons in recent months) thinking that it would make it way easier to cut things when cooking. I went to House of Knives on Sunday and the nice young man explained and showed me how it makes no difference what kind of knife it is~~you have to have fingers along with the thumb to cut properly. "Activities of daily living" are impacted  and I am lucky to be retired since it takes twice as long to do anything. I encourage you to spend some time using only your non dominant hand. Dressing, from pulling on socks to buttoning pants and shirts to using zippers~~each activity requires some fumbling to accomplish it. I have been unable to turn a key whether it be for a door or a car for months. Try flossing your teeth with one hand using your dominant thumb and bent forefinger to hold the floss. Cancer stares me in the face every day. With my first go with breast cancer, this was not the case and life went pretty much back to normal.

Those with rheumatoid arthritis have the same difficulties and I empathize with them. I am adjusting and for the most part, feel good when I find an easier way to complete a task. What does worry me is that my tumour will eventually grow. There is that monkey again. Writing this helps me to put it in perspective and slowly work towards a way to prepare.

Also there is the morning pain which always takes time to move beyond once I have taken my long action Oxyneo. I am so blessed to have our cats Flobi and Jake with me. They often work better than my alarm clock (which I still set every night and hit snooze over and over in the morning) because their insistent meowing and purring my my ears does have an effect. They need me to get up and either feed them or let them out if I have locked their cat door. At night they always sleep with me, Jake at the bottom of Dick's side and Flobi usually curled up close beside me.

Most often I have come to think "glass half full" and even this past week when I realized that cooking is no longer easy and so not so much fun, that when Dick gets home from the sailing adventure in the summer, we can make it team work. Most of you know I have tended towards independence especially over the past years with Dick sailing across oceans and me meeting him here and there but mainly keeping up the home front. I was also planning and leading the Nepal treks with my good buddy Razzu. I had my chickens to care for, I loved quilting and was OK for longer periods of time. I really miss Dick though I am so happy that he and his crew of Maurie an engineering mate and Steven and his girlfriend are going to bring Van Kedisi home. Thankfully Dick has made the wise decision to ship VK to Tahiti so none of us have to worry about them sailing thousands of nautical miles in the roaring forties.

Before I end this post, I want to return to the concept of death. When I am thinking rationally the idea of death does not scare me. However this past while, when feeling ill and sad, I did think about the what ifs of it being sooner than later. I am blessed with my immediate family who love me and call me and listen to me when it is not always easy. When I felt I was falling apart a couple of days ago, my wise and wonderful daughter called and I was able to articulate through tears, some of my recent thoughts. Loving family and friends and being loved by them is the ultimate goal in life and when we are gone there will still be memories. I am not ready yet and that was my fear. I want to leave more positive memories in ways I am not sure about yet. We will all die some day and I can only hope that I can live up to a couple of things I thought about over the New Year. Kindness and compassion are things that we all desire in our lives and I fail often. No matter how long or short my time is, I now have the opportunity to try harder to be kind and caring every day.

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BREAST CANCER EH? YES AND FOREVER.

It is now one week into 2018 and this will be my first post of the year, a year that I look forward to. The days are already getting longer which is a bonus for me especially when what I call sleepathons reappear every month. Towards the end of each cycle of Ibrance, fatigue inevitably hits and I am thankful that I do not have to work or get up early in the morning. Setting my alarm wakes me up but only long to hit the snooze button and eventually turn the alarm off. The cats get me up, but only long enough to feed them and open their door. Nine hours of sleep becomes 10 11 or 12 as it was today. However by the end of this week I will have had time off the wonder drug Ibrance and the cycle will start again.

Over the New Year's holidays I spent five nights in Vancouver couch surfing, albeit with good friends.  I was there to spend time with friends we have known for decades but in recent years have grown closer to. Travelling and trekking together can do that to you~~ sleeping in tents in the high Himalaya, touring in Indian buses through Rajasthan, hiking in the rain in Haida Gwaii, this intimate time together can make or break friendships I think. However in this case our friendships have only grown stronger. Having metatastic cancer is no picnic but what our friends are going through pales in comparison. Our friend has been diagnosed with CJD, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and his wife is suffering along with him if not more. It is a rare degenerative and invariably fatal brain disorder that affects about one in a million world wide. Because it is so difficult to diagnose much time has been  taken to find out what has dramatically changed a strong, intelligent and caring man and I wanted to spend time with him and his family before the inevitable will happen. To me this is a tragedy and despite the support of family and friends it is indescribably sad.

It had not been I my intention to write about our friends in this post but something compelled me to do so. Being diagnosed with breast cancer twice in five years pales in comparison to what the disease CJD does. Friends and family rally around and we will continue to do so.

My intention is still to give an update and there will be some humour in it~~at least I hope so. I continue to mess around with pain management. I asked for and got a new pain doctor at the cancer agency because I felt that the previous doctor and I were not on the same page. Just before Christmas I saw the new doctor and she was receptive to what I have been considering. My tumour remains stable, at least it did at the last CT scan. The scan will be repeated in March. Meanwhile the the nerve pain continues predominately in my hand but when I have those sleepathons and miss the timing for my pain meds, I know that the pain is still in my arm and shoulder. Opioids will be in my arsenal for the foreseeable future but I hope to use medical marijuana as a co-analgesic. I am just at the beginning of the experimental phase of this. Apparently for nerve pain CBD's alone will not do the trick and some THC needs to be included. Ingesting pot via tinctures or sprays takes time to go through the system and I have found so far that it is inadequate.

During my time with the friends over New Year's I had discussion with one of the sons-in-law about smoking dope. He gave me a little bottle of homegrown and we discussed vaporizing versus smoking which I do not want to do. I bought a vaporizer a couple of days ago and unfortunately had no teachers here. I wish I had a video of me watching YouTube videos for my particular device. In most cases the presenter appeared to be stoned himself. I laughed out loud watching one reviewer completely panning my vaporizer with the second video later when he was not so stoned saying it was actually a good device. With the vaporizer I also bought 3.5 grams of Medi-Haze and probably wasted some while thinking there had to be some smoke. Once I figured out how to use it, I inhaled some of the vapor late in the evening the last two nights. Maybe it was because I was by myself, but I did not feel the anxiety that smoking dope has always created even when I was a hippie decades ago. I slept well both nights and to be honest I think that it did help with pain. Here is the link to the YouTube video I referred to. It did make me LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgrWd46DjV8&t=5s


The night I bought the vaporizer but before I had experimented with it, I got an email from the  dad of one of my kids friends, explaining that he had intractable pain and his daughter thought maybe I could help. Well, I just may be able to but he will have to go also for the first time go to a pot shop. Thankfully marijuana will be legal in July of this year in Canada. Unlike the United States this is a federal initiative. Sadly Jeff Sessions likens marijuana to heroin so those states that it is legal in are now having to rethink. I wonder if his boss has ever smoked marijuana.

On an even lighter note I have a criticism of the new low flow toilets. Those of us on drugs for breast cancer including chemotherapy IV or oral,  plus the pain meds many of us are on, find that they wreak havoc on our bowels. When you plug up the toilet in the middle of the night while coach surfing as I recently did and the plunger is stiff and your right had does not work, what are you to do? I shut the toilet lid, found a piece of paper and a pen and left a beware note. Luckily no one was home when I sneaked out the door the next morning.

That's it for my first post of the year. I hope to be more kind and compassionate this year and to listen more. This second go with cancer has me happier and I am not sure why. I will explore this before my next post.

Happy New Year

Love to you all,

Marian

I continue to oppose Kinder Morgan and was protesting pre-dawn last week. I have the orange parka on.

Christmas Day with Andy, Mary and my niece Reilly and my nephew Jordan

FATIGUE UPDATE PLUS

Learning to live with Ibrance and Faslodex, the big guns used to keep the cancer at bay has not been easy. When Oxycodone, Oxyneo and Lyrica for nerve pain are added to the mix, it is no wonder that some days I have trouble waking up.  Diagnosis was August 22 so it has not even been 4 months yet. The last post was written when I was so tired I had trouble dragging myself out of bed. I forgot to mention that I  had a surgical procedure only a few days before that post. Veins cannot be  accessed on my breast cancer side and those on my "good" side are so difficult to access for blood work and contrast dyes for CT scans that I had a "Power Port" inserted in my chest. This quarter sized device connects to a catheter placed inside a central vein leading to my heart.

Yesterday I had my first blood drawn through the port and all I can say is that I love my port!

Also fairly recently I have added some tinctures, teas and topicals made especially for me by my oldest friend whose expertise I value. Although there is no way to know for certain, I like to think that  these have made a significant difference.

As well, I joined the Compassion Society here in Victoria. It took awhile as I had to get a referral from my doctor but I have now had my interview and discussion re CBD's which was what I was after. Some of you may have read or heard about the value of CBD's, derivatives from marijuana but without the high of THC. Because of the illegality of marijuana in most parts of the US and Canada, there is little quantitative and qualitative documentation available. Parents of babies and toddlers with epilepsy have been fighting to allow there use of CBD's which seem to show real change in number and length of seizures.

 I was unable to get pure CBD's at the Compassion Society so with the advice of a friend, I searched the site she gave me online and  found a retail outlet in Victoria that sells it. Monday I joined a Victoria "pot shop" and found what I would consider a professional team who to seemed to understand my needs. So I now have medicinal pot in my arsenal but have yet to experiment with it.

Meanwhile, I am dropping Lyrica after being weaned off it for the past few weeks. Like opioids I am told, there has to be a gradual process in lowering dosages. I have also decreased the amount of Oxyneo I take twice daily and have rarely needed my breakthrough Oxycodone this past week.

Yesterday Andy came with me as official note-taker to my monthly oncologist visit. My blood work was great and Saturday I start round 5 of Ibrance and Faslodex! I am a believer in the high tech cancer drugs but also in the meds made by my friend. In the previous month my neutrophils were so low that I had to take a few days break from Ibrance. My energy is higher and I knew even before the blood results yesterday, that they would be acceptable. My oncologist also emphasized yet again that despite what he considers permanent nerve damage, that I can expect to be around for years to come.

Apart from the drug front, there is more to announce but that is for the next post. Suffice it to say that I  am working with a physio, a hand clinic, Inspire Health (a British Columbia non profit with the goal of improving life for those with cancer), yoga and more. I have moments when I find tears unexpectedly falling down my cheeks  but it is not necessarily because of my own cancer but also because I have friends who are facing more imminent and difficult times in their lives right now. There is much fragility in life and perhaps because I am a "senior" as are many of my friends and we find ourselves facing situations none of us would have thought of a decade ago.

This newest adventure in my life comes with the knowledge that it has actually opened my eyes to opportunities to interact with others in a more positive way just by the way I live my daily life. The ongoing climate change and often disappointing political decisions are with us and I am still planning to battle Kinder Morgan. My motto of "over my dead body" can now be taken with with some dark humour. I will be in front of the bulldozers should that need arise though I can only hope that we who oppose the pipeline will prevail.

Love to you all. If you want to be reminded of my posts as they cone, press the "follow" button on the top right of your screen.

Marian

FATIGUE AND ITS SIDE EFFECTS (on me)

Waking today from yet another marathon sleep of 12+ hours was not a happy moment. For some who are exhausted from legitimate work, exercise or lack of sleep to number a few causes, sleeping "away the day" could be a good thing. For me, it was not a good feeling. Having my first shower since Wednesday AM (reason for this further along) made me feel good temporarily but it was brief. I fed the cats and filled the bird feeders and took my pills meant for 0800 instead or 1300 and then contemplated the day. Looking around, I swore I would file the endless medical reports, change my sheets, return the many library books that have spirited their way home but remain unread or go for a long walk since it is not raining and maybe even think of something exciting to cook for dinner. Breakfast and lunch has been peanut butter and toast along with a big glass of milk plus a Nespresso. This seemed a healthy start to what can only be a short day. I have now reheated my coffee more than once while going through a myriad of emotions and as I type, sadness overflows into tears that do not often spill. So what is causing this fatigue that I may have to learn to live with? 

Definition of fatigue:

extreme tiredness, typically resulting from mental or physical exertion or illness.

"he was nearly dead with fatigue"

tiredness, weariness, sleepiness, drowsiness, exhaustion, enervation, languor, lethargy, torpor, prostration; war-weariness "his body was slumped from fatigue" Darkness has now fallen and the only thing accomplished was a walk to the beach just before sunset. I had not forgotten this blog post but the walk was much needed. I am an extrovert by nature but I also feel the need to retreat at times when retreat is really not healthy. Of course the fact that the sun was shining and people were also out appreciating a break in the rain seemed to allow for friendly conversation here and there.  Back to fatigue which has lad me today also to ponder the meaning of fatigues, naturally coming from the word fatigue and it occurs to me that this word "fatigue" originally  comes from war and the terrible exhaustion of battle. In the 1770's, fatigues meant "extra duties of a soldier," from fatigue, or tiredness. It came to also mean "military clothing" in the mid-1880's I wonder if it can from the French word "fatige." how does one type an acute "e?" Then the Turkish word for tired came to mind~~for some reason that word which is "yorgun" was also dredged up. It must be that I  used yorgun often when we spent our summers in Turkey. It was maybe because our kids were little and at night when Turkish kids were still full of life, ours were "cok yorgunlar." While checking out the correctness (mine is not) I found this. More fun ahead.  A Turkish Folktale: The Art of Behet Mahir https://books.google.ca/books?isbn=131777728X Warren S. Walker, ‎Carl Lindahl - 2014 - ‎Literary Criticism That shout was both a battle cry and an expression of Hamzai's great fatigue. After seventeen years of pursuit, he was so tired that his mother's milk ran out of his nose.146. If I were to tell you about all of the difficulties he had encountered during those seventeen years, this story could not be completed in less than a year.  Tomorrow's post will actually be what I think is causing fatigue. Cancer can be fun. Learning how to blog and figure out how to change fonts etc.~~less so. If I work it out I will fix it in this post but now before fatigue gets me again~~time for dinner. Please note that if I have not bored to sleep as opposed to fatigue then there is a way to read my blog posts as they occur.  There is a FOLLOW button just below the followers. Sadly you do have to have a Google account (i.e. gmail) to follow me or make comments good or bad. Namaste, Marian

MBC~~METATASTIC BREAST CANCER

I have joined a new club and it is yet another that I have no interest in. i noticed that I got tenses wrong in one of the last posts. My first tendency was to "edit" but chose not to because I saw that they were past tenses and perhaps I needed to write it like that. But I am clearly in the present with MBC. The last couple of months have been so busy with countless appointments that it is hard to go through even an hour without remembering that I have cancer and this time it is not going away.

But life goes on and it is good with lots to look forward to as well.  Dick left for NZ almost two weeks ago and is working on VK while staying with Claire and Pat. I already have my ticket and will spend 4 weeks in NZ mid Feb. to mid March along with good friends who go at the same time. More sailing fun ahead! I talked to BCSA security yesterday about bringing pre loaded syringes and ice packs through security at YVR and it seems straight forward.

I love Victoria and our home and the ever changing views though it is not all sunshine and roses. My drug regime makes one of our kitchen counters look like a small pharmacy. The big gun immunotherapy drug Ibrance that I am on 3 weeks out of 4 is hard on my immune system. Last week my white blood cells and neutrophils were so low that my oncologist called to say I had to stop taking the drug for the last few days of my cycle. I still had several appointments in the days prior to the weekend including a CT scan with contrast Friday afternoon. The hospital was so busy that it took much longer than it should have and by the time it was done so was I. I slept 15 hours Friday night.

Tomorrow I see my medical oncologist for the results of the scan and will find out if the palliative radiation and the Ibrance and Faslodex have shrunk my tumour or the blob as I call it. It is actually the blob and its tentacles that are wrapping around the neurovascular bundle in the brachial plexus.

There has been some release of my scapula and the excruciating pain each morning is virtually gone and this occurred 3 days after the radiation ended. Unfortunately my arm and hand have not been so fortunate and I still have very limited use of my right hand. It feels cold all the time and this is due to the blood system along with the nerves not signalling normally. I also have severe lymphedema but in the past week have been treated by a physiotherapist who puts a large sleeve over my arm and hand and for two hours a pump tries to get the lymphatic fluid moving. I have an appointment with a hand clinic next Monday to see what can be done to keep my thumb and fingers from further damage.

Enough for tonight but I did want to get an update out.

Love Marian

Good news~~still metastasized breast cancer but looks like long term treatable.

Although my treatment began immediately after my diagnosis, I did not see my new medical oncologist (MO) until today.  Prior to our move and up to the diagnosis, my team was in Vancouver. Treatment began immediately in Victoria and now my team is here.

Dick and I met with him this afternoon for almost an hour. Dick took notes while the doctor and I went over treatment plans, staging and prognosis. The last one is iffy at best because no one can say for certain but it seems that my cancer is treatable with no imminent death in the cards but rather I have years ahead. Good news for Dick too as the doctor felt there was no reason for him not to go to NZ as planned in November to begin the process of getting a new engine installed in Van Kedisi along with other work needed. He will plan to leave NZ in March to sail home via Tahiti and Hawaii. He was not too happy about the other option of getting VK home by ship at a possible cost of US$50,000! I can go to NZ in February for 3 weeks or so in between drug injections which will be every 28 days. The other drug is oral and is taken 21 days in a row with 7 days off. Maybe I can even meet him in Tahiti in May.

I will be monitored closely but for now we can relax a bit and enjoy our planned trip for a mini Aramco reunion next week. We will spend Thanksgiving north of Terrace with Andy and Mary and we will have time on the Nagata Family Homestead where Dick may even be assigned a project. For anyone who knows Dick, he loves a good project.

The not so good news is that the nerve damage I already have may not disappear. But on the other hand, it should stabilize and not worsen at least for the short term. I am on opioids for the pain it has created so I do hope for some changes. We visited the pain clinic last Friday at BCCA to go over my pain management and for now we do have a plan that is working. Though I did know that opioids work by going to the pain receptors rather than making me high it was good to hear it from  a professional.

We celebrated the good news by going to the Oak Bay Beach Hotel for happy hour. Today also I got to the half way mark for my 8 sessions of palliative radiation.