I went on a trip and it was fun!

Hello readers of my blog and other people who don't read it (but mostly the former). You might have heard (read?) that my lovely wife and I headed out west for a bit of a vacation/honeymoon/trip. The factual statements & rumours are true. We both headed off for British Columbia on a train, or "via train" as I like to say. This turns it into a horrible pun as it was a "Via" rail train... ha ha ha ha ha). The train was a good time. It was full of hippies and no one on it liked Mike Harris. Also, everyone on a train has their own (extreme) political opinions. More on that later. Nicole's Mom & Dad (the always awesome Steve & Pat) joined us for part of our trip and we had a great time with them. So when we got off the train in Vancouver they were waiting for us there (having taken a plane out to YVR) the Saturday morning we arrived.

Side note: For those of you who don't know I had another "medical adventure" prior to our planned trip. Regular readers (followers/stalkers) know I'm on 28 day cycles for my chemo meds etc. For a lark, do a google search for "28 day cycle" and see what else comes up (I don't have any problems with that thankfully). Anywho, I always start my chemo meds on a Wednesday meaning I finish the 5th chemo day on a Sunday. I then continue to take my Accutane/Isotretinoin/Clarus for the first 21 days of my cycle. To repeat once again, the Chemo meds can be rough but sometimes don't cause me much trouble at all. The Accutane makes my skin dry and irritated by doesn't do much else but make me prone to sunburns. The "regulars/others" I take every single day, but don't seem to cause me any side effects other than possibly a dry sarcastic wit, but Nicole says I had that condition prior to taking any of these meds.

Middle note (which is really just a continuation of the above side note): Nicole and I had worked with our medical team to make sure that taking a trip was even a possibility given everything I am going through. Some concerns included: "What happens if I have a seizure while on the trip?", "Are there any concerns with taking an airplane or going through security in terms of radiation exposure?", and of course "What happens in general if I wind up in a B.C. hospital?". I was given the all clear to head out on the trip stocked up with some extra meds and all seemed well. I was asked to come in for one last blood test prior to leaving to ensure all of my levels were on track. It was discussed that if my white blood cell counts were low I should not begin my next round of chemo (scheduled to begin on July 20th). I assumed (falsely as it turned out) that if there was a problem with my results that they would contact me ASAP. I did receive a call on Wednesday the 13th around noon (the week before we were set to leave, aka: "day 1 of chemo"). A little note about my chemo days. On a chemo day I have to take two anti-nausea pills 30 minutes prior to taking my actual chemo meds, which I must take 30 minutes prior to eating. This means if I want to eat breakfast at 10am I have to wake up at 9am, immediately take the anti-nausea pills, set a 30-minute timer, take my chemo pills, restart the 30 minute timer, take more pills & eat. I would have assumed that the hospital, knowing I start chemo on the Wednesday, would have called me PRIOR to Wednesday (like say Tuesday?) to say "Hey, don't take those chemo pills eh?" Instead I got a call around noon on Wednesday (several hours after downing the chemo pills) from my oncologist's head nurse (who is very kind and helpful with everything) informing me that my white blood cell count was low and asked if I had started my chemo pills. I said I had, to which she said something along the lines of "Oh, that's not good. Taking the chemo pills will lower your white blood cell counts further. We were supposed to talk about your blood cell counts before you took your chemo pills remember?" Which I found odd, given that I had not felt it was my job to call in to get my results prior to taking the chemo meds myself. To keep this already long rambling story short(ish), I did not take my chemo meds the next day and was told to come in for another blood test the next week (the week we were set to leave). I was told on Wednesday the 20th of July the results came back "all good". This meant I could resume my chemo meds the next day (Thursday the 21st of July, which though a week later, managed to fall on a Thursday as per usual... which helped keep my brain on track). This was a good thing, as all of our accommodations and transportation for our trip had been booked. Had the news been "NO TRIP FOR YOU!" (À la Soup Nazi) we would have lost a few pennies in the process. Oh, hey did I mention my whole 2nd seizure / being in a coma / Victoria Hospital visit thing? I might have hinted at it, but it deserves a whole post one day before the London Olympics get started.

Confused yet? I am so I think this makes a good time to take a pause. It being only 13 days after I started writing this post I can't even remember all the many directions I intended to take this post. As a reminder to myself (and "sneak peek" for all of you) I still plan to write about the following:

1) The Prayer Vigil
2) You're in-laws joined you for your trip with your wife... WTF?
3) So I was in a medically induced coma for a day and don't remember much about it
4) THE TRIP: adventures on a train & train people scare me
5) THE TRIP: Vancouver island is cool! In Nanaimo most things don't taste like their eponym
6) THE TRIP: I went shopping with Nicole and bought more than she did (AKA: Seattle is cool)
7) THE TRIP: Don't book downtown condos from just anyone.
7b) THE TRIP: Vancouver is scary just like the people on crack that chase busses while shirtless in the city.
8) THE TRIP: I go on a suspension bridge. There were no bees, so I only conquored one of my fears.
9) THE TRIP: We come home on a plane with two working engines / Jen is an arrival time psychic
10) Seriously? 10 chapters?

I also plan to write about the current economic crisis taking place across the world. That last sentence is a joke.

Why am I still writing? It's 12:30 am and I'm tired. Ok. I sleep now. More to come but first I must procrastinate. It is what I do best. CHEERS to my PEERS! (I chose that over "CHEEPS to my PEEPS!"). You can decide if I made the correct choice on that one.
--
Tom

PS: I'm trying to focus on researching the friend I have living in my head who goest by the street name GBM these days, so my Facebook presence will be much less than its usual over-the-top like/comment/status update crazy norm. Time for another CHEERS!!!! :)